Osama Bin Laden! How Much Do You Love Your Enemies?
Posted: 04 May 2011 08:21 AM PDT
This will make many people upset. It is a homily from Fr. Timothy Henderson. Very wise words for us to contemplate following the death of Osama Bin Laden. He answers some of the following questions.
How does our reaction to Osama Bin Laden’s death stack up against the teachings of Christ?
Why was he killed?
Are you angry at this man?
Can we curse Him?
Can we want him to be in hell?
Have you forgiven him?
Have you or will you pray for him?
Do you want justice against this man’s crimes?
Emphasis added.
_____________________
The Death of Osama Bin Laden and the Christian Response
Padre Pio once said, ‘without the Grace of God, all I know how to do is to sin and sin again.’ The Epistle of St. Jude tells us, ‘The archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said, “May the Lord rebuke you”.’ Jesus personally has told us, ‘”You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.’
How do your emotions and my emotions concerning the death of Osama Bin Laden stack up against the teachings of this Christ who we claim to be our leader and savior?
I do not speak of the question of whether or not he should be killed; by any standard of Just War Theory, his death saved lives. The question of the morality of his killing is not – repeat NOT – what I am talking about. He was killed to save lives, and I have every confidence his death achieved that.
Are you angry at this man? You have every right to be angry. There is such a thing as just anger. Do you believe he deserved justice? He deserved justice.
But now that he is dead, how does our reaction to this man’s death stack up against the teachings of this Christ who we claim to be our leader and savior? His actions were evil – there is no question about this. But are not the words of Padre Pio not also true? ‘Without the Grace of God, all I know how to do is to sin and sin again.’ There but the grace of God go you and I. His actions make us angry – and rightfully so, but as the Epistle of Jude tells us, the very holy St. Michael feared to curse out Satan – Satan who is more evil even the actions of this man bin Laden.
St. Michael feared to pronounce a reviling judgment on Satan. And if there was ever a human in our lifetime whom would fit my category of enemy, it is this man who ordered 19 other men to slam planes into buildings. But the words of Jesus tell us, ‘I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.’
I am sure most of us are not going lose too much sleep over the death of a man who was the cause of so much trouble – I know I will not. Yet at the same time, how does our reaction to this man’s death stack up against our Christian calling? Can we even say a quick prayer asking God for mercy or a last second conversion? Remember what I said yesterday, the call of being a Christian is absolutely incomprehensible to the world.
You know, one of the first homilies I ever preached here was on forgiveness, and I never ever received so much angry mail and e-mail in my life – no other homily has compared… and the anger was on forgiveness. I know I choose an extreme example, but Jesus’ example included the extremes. The level of anger I saw tells me I need to keep preaching about anger and forgiveness and how we treat our enemies until we all get it. This is a core teaching of our Faith.
Do you have a just anger at bin Laden? You should. Did you want justice against this man’s crimes? That is okay. Justice and mercy are – repeat are – compatible.
Jesus said, ‘I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.’ How does your reaction and my reaction towards this criminal stand up against the call of our Christianity? And I do not ask this question only for the sake of Osama Bin Laden; if you and I have non-Christian attitudes towards him, might we have them to a greater or lesser degree towards our neighbor?
_________________
No comments:
Post a Comment