“In the face of horror, there are no responses more important than prayer. Man silently turns his gaze toward God, who allows himself without fail to be moved by tears. The human struggle is necessary in order to combat the powers of evil. But silence is the mysteriously effective hidden instrument.” (#319)

Cardinal Robert Sarah’s words may be echoing in each of our hearts this week as we struggle to make sense of the violence and death in Las Vegas this past week. It has been constantly in my prayers as we look to the news, the commentary and the hope for healing from this senseless act of evil. Many commentators and politicians have loudly and vociferously called out in the last few days that prayer and good intentions are not enough but we must take action of one sort or the other to prevent this type of violence from ever occurring again.

How are we called to respond? First and foremost, we must be proactive in our relationships of encounter and love. It is always necessary to enter into the moment of suffering and tragedy with Christ’s grace and healing but we must necessarily be always moving in the community in and through Jesus’ example of service. Cardinal Sarah shares with us the danger of the knee-jerk reactions in times of violent tragedy, “Today the danger lies in the unbridled activism of the modern world. We are always called to fight, to comb the countryside, to overthrow our adversaries, and to destroy them. Indeed, man is driven to compound one evil with another, whereas he out to let the weeds grow with the wheat. Silence will give us the patience to wait for the moment when the useless plants will fall by themselves. Thanks to silence we will know how to bide our time and to wait for God’s hour with perseverance so as to forge an alliance with him and to work under his guidance.” (#298)

The peacefulness with which are called to engage the sins of violence are the practice of engaging in the peacefulness of God’s love. On October 4th as Catholics we celebrated the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi and remembering his path of seeking God’s peace we may be reminded of the great prayer that bears his name. It is a prayer not of passivity but one of direct action, to become an instrument of God’s peace, mercy and forgiveness and not of the violent and intrusive acts of the world.

If, as Christians, we truly believe our first response (not our only response) should be in turning to God in prayer, inviting silence, then we must seek the conversation of peace through God remembering our encounter with Jesus, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (Jn 14:27) We need to be unafraid to name the sin and know that our response must be through the peace of Jesus Christ. The words we hear Jesus speak to us are words he speaks in preparing for his passion and death, words of life that ultimately lead to resurrection and hope.

When we are able to understand our own need of salvation then our response to violent sin is founded on the rock of peace and hopefulness. Fr. John Crossin writes, “We carry around in us both signs of hope and of despair. Violence is not just outside us but in us. We have angry and vengeful thoughts that manifest themselves in rude behaviors, verbal abuse, aggressive driving and in other individual ways. But we also feel compassion and engage in caring for other. We yearn to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to connect with something that gives meaning and purpose to our existence. While we may be able to do little to change the world, we can change ourselves—and that may lead, in time, to change in our local environments.” (p 16)

Ultimately, prayer is enough because it leads to an active relationship with our God who calls us into a community of love. This is where the true “response” comes from, the heart of the Most Holy Trinity moving us beyond our ego and selfishness and into the humility of love where we respond as a “channel of (God’s) peace” that “where there is hatred let me bring love.”
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Quotes from:

“The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” by Robert Cardinal Sarah

“Friendship: The Key to Spiritual Growth” by Fr. John W. Crossin O.S.F.S.