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Study this war some more

19 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Christ brings peace and achieves reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles, the Letter to the Ephesians proclaims. But Israelis and Palestinians aren't there yet, as evidenced by last winter's Gaza War. Now, Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza have testified that their army used excessive force during the three-week offensive, according to a report released Wednesday. Soldiers say the military used Palestinians as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorous shells over civilian areas, and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction, echoing claims already leveled by Palestinian and human rights groups. The Israeli military disputed the report, saying the accounts were anonymous and impossible to verify. The accounts of 26 war veterans were collected by "Breaking the Silence," an organization of Israeli army reservists critical of their country's treatment of Palestinians. They described demolishing buildings, vandalizing homes, and using more than essential firepower, given the relatively light resistance they encountered. "There were no clear red lines," one soldier told the group. "If you're not sure, kill. Fire power was insane," said another. Military officers have acknowledged that rules of engagement were relaxed to minimize army casualties but insisted civilians were never targeted. Wednesday's report was sure to fuel a debate that still rages six months after the offensive over whether Israel violated the rules of war. International rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have said the degree of force and the heavy civilian death toll constituted war crimes, and the U.N. has launched a probe, headed by a respected war crimes prosecutor, into the actions of Israel and Hamas. Human rights groups also say Hamas committed war crimes by firing rockets at civilian areas in Israel. Source: An article by Steve Weizman for Associated Press

war hamas israel palestinians gaza rules of engagement human rights watch amnesty international civilians

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Pope offers three words of wisdom to engaged couples

23 Feb 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist praises the Lord for being “slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” Pope Francis encouraged engaged couples to adopt a similar attitude when he recently told thousands of couples that the recipe for success lies in three simple words: “please, thanks, and sorry.”Francis told fiancés gathered in St. Peter's Square on Valentine’s Day for a special papal meeting that expressions of courtesy, gratitude, and contrition go a long way toward conserving and enhancing love over time."Never finish the day without making peace!" he counseled. "Because if you end the day without making peace, what you have inside becomes hard and cold and it becomes harder to make peace the following day."Francis has on several occasions met with young couples to give them advice before embarking on marriage. The need for such church counseling, both before and after the wedding, is a theme he's expected to elaborate on at a major Vatican meeting on the family in October.Francis has often lamented how many marriages end in divorce and has blamed such failed relationships on today's prevailing "provisional culture" that makes people unwilling to make lifelong commitments.Originally the audience was due to be held inside a Vatican auditorium, but the response from soon-to-wed couples to Francis' invitation for a Valentine's Day date was so great—Vatican officials said 25,000 people from 30 countries showed up—that the event was held in the piazza on a perfect, sunny afternoon after weeks of rain.Homily hint: Loving marriages are hard enough under the best of circumstances, but ever more so today. Encourage couples you know who may be struggling to do all they can to work through differences, keeping in mind Francis' advice. Source: An article by Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press

Marriage Pope Francis engaged couples

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Homily stories

01 Mar 2009 - First Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

My newest hero is my neighbor across the hall: a public high-school teacher thought of as funny, sensitive, but not all that deep. Brian was on the verge of getting engaged to a beautiful woman, a social worker with a genuine concern for the people she helped. But when they began talking about marriage and children, she was clear about her expectations. He would, of course, have to pursue a different career because they could never raise a family on a teacher’s salary. “How ‘bout law school?” she threw out as a possibility. Brian was taken aback, but he too was very clear: He wanted to be a high school teacher. It was his dream job, his “vocation,” to use his words. He watched his dad die early in a high-powered job that kept his family at a distance, and he didn’t want that for his kids. He also wanted to be there to help other kids. Wow, who knew? We all read him wrong, including his girlfriend. Since she couldn’t get past the money, the relationship ended. But for me, it was the beginning of an even more beautiful friendship. Here was a friend who could teach me about resisting temptation and staying on course—just like Jesus.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

teacher engage expectations Vocation friendship Temptation

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Exploring the word

04 Nov 2018 - Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

There seems to be some contemporary confusion about the meaning of the love command. A television series identified “big love” as a plural marriage: one husband, a bevy of wives. The title suggested that a man with several wives must have more love to give than the usual variety of husband. The reality is that he’s just spreading the same love more thinly across several relationships in the hallowed tradition of philandering. No, big love has nothing to do with numbers. Nor is the size of our love measured by the extravagance of romantic gestures performed, money spent, or poetic words multiplied. Big love is about total commitment, the kind you make with your words and your checkbook, your heart and your deeds. Such love doesn’t ask for your “quality time,” but for your lifetime. Needless to say, we see far less of this kind of love than is regularly and often exuberantly professed. Take these words to heart The nation gathered around Moses had survived generations of slavery in Egypt. They had known deprivation, degradation, and despair. Now Moses wanted to teach them something that maybe they didn’t know: how to live as the people of God. In order to take on this new identity, they had to stop fearing their fellow mortals and start fearing God alone. They had to cease looking to their taskmasters for food, orders, and mercy, and to accept and expect the sustenance, governance, and compassion of their saving Lord. They had to lift up their hearts and practice a bold new attitude: hope. People who still thought like slaves could not receive the freedom of the children of God. Above all, Moses declared, the people of God had to learn to love the Lord without reservation. Moses defined this total dedication as engaging the heart, soul, and strength. Later rabbis would ponder these aspects of love with close attention. The Shema’ (Hebrew for “hear,” the first word of the passage) would become the great prayer of the Second Temple Period, used in synagogue worship as well as in private piety. It remains significant for the Jewish believer in both communal and personal prayer today. For Jews, the Shema’ is a legally binding oath. In each recitation, the believer reenacts the covenant as the people once did before Moses. That is “taking these words to heart” most seriously. In the rabbinic thought of later centuries, the three obligations of love in the Shema’ were neatly distinguished. The “heart” was defined as the seat of loyalty owed to God and neighbor. The pledge of the “soul” implied a willingness to give one’s life for God. By comparison, “might” or “strength” was defined rather prosaically: It meant one’s wealth and property were at God’s disposal. Committing this “big love” to God was not a matter of emotion or affection at all, then. The people of God dedicated their allegiance, their lives, and their resources to God in a communally binding oath. Stirring up the passions It would take a more romantic age to attempt to turn the obligations of the Shema’ into passionate feelings about God. Consider for a moment the emotionally evocative prayers of a generation ago that routinely filled most devotions and novenas. The emphasis seemed to be directed toward wringing tears from the supplicant, arousing lively feelings of sorrow about the pain Jesus suffered or God’s disappointment in us sinners. We used words like adore and devotion liberally, beating our breasts as if trying to force the passion out. I don’t think it’s an improvement that today’s prayers have become almost tepid, a recitation of doctrine and intellectual assent that almost force the heart to wander distractedly. A place between passion and doctrine exists: the realm of dedicated engagement. This was the place Jesus urged true disciples to strive for when he addressed the scribe looking for guidance. He did not invent a new teaching, but confirmed the obligations of the Shema’ and the injunction to love the neighbor. (He added the love of the “mind” to the traditional list, which scholars have helpfully defined as a surrender of the will.) Those who take this oath daily with a depth of sincerity will find themselves at the threshold of the kingdom. Others, we might presume, will more likely be facing the eye of the needle. What are the implications of this teaching? Should we add the praying of the Shema’ and its Christian corollary to the Mass? That’s a matter for ICEL and Vox Clara, not for the average pastor (although many a presider adds his favorite prayers, ditties, and rituals to the liturgy and few are indelibly harmed by the practice). What may be more practical is to consider our sincerity in the profession of faith we already undertake each Sunday. If we challenged our assemblies to consider the profession of faith as legally binding, as an oath we are declaring before God and one another to uphold and to live out the ramifications of these beliefs, how many would stand each week to profess this faith? Not far from the Kingdom It could be a worthwhile meditation to take each line of our creed and consider its implications for Christian discipleship. What does it mean to our daily lives that “We believe in one God?” That we believe means it’s a joint venture of faith. That we believe means it’s not a fact obvious to everyone but a discernment we each choose for ourselves. That we believe in one God means that our God is a unity, not a hierarchy with special branches like the three branches of government. That we believe in one God means we profess our faith in an ultimate authority, supreme Being, last court of appeal, and eternity’s only superpower. If we put our trust in God, we have no need of other defenses, connections, or resources. If we live even one phrase of what we profess, we will find ourselves remarkably near the reign of God. Related scripture links Gospel parallel: Matt. 22:34-40 Love your neighbor: Lev. 19:18; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8 Other words on love: John 3:16; 13:34-35; Rom. 13:10; 1 Cor. 13:1-13

Authors Alice Camille

big love total commitment shema dedicated engagement profession of faith

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