2004
Advent PastoralDearly Beloved in Christ"
We need to storm heaven for peace! Our world has never needed almighty God's intervention in the peace process more than it does right now. At home, we have just completed the bitterest election in our history, and the "diehards" seem to want to lengthen the bitterness even more. We need to get on to the business of good government for all of our citizens. Now!
In the Arab world the horrors of war continue, with little attempt on any side to bring justice and, yes, even mercy and compromise to the turmoil and agony of hundreds of thousands of human beings who have been at war since our Blessed Lord left this earth. The never ending struggle for power among petty princes and other heads of state wearies the entire world, in which nearly every country has a stake in the efforts of both war and peace. The slaughter of innocent victims of man's "inhumanity to man" shows its ugly head each day. Unspeakable atrocities that most civilized peoples had though vanished with Attila the Hun or the wives of Henry VIII persist throughout the Near East. The pretenders to decency and respectability in Europe, having their own agenda, turn their heads from either side.
The Holy Land remains another hotbed where the Semitic peoples war against each other as they have since our Blessed Lord tried to teach them a law of love—to no avail!
Here at home., our continuing struggles with moral issues have taken on epidemic proportions. Those identifying themselves as "Catholics" actually speak in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and they close their eyes to the God-lessness of abortion. Catholics indeed! Often enough we have no real idea of what the so called established religions are teaching their flocks—certainly not the word of Christ, all too often! Christianity—at almost every level of "influence"—continues to dilute the very moral fiber of Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Our courts continue to write new laws based on a legendary interpretation of the supreme law of the land that would make Washington, Jefferson and Franklin do cartwheels in their graves, rather than properly interpret adequate existing legislation. Tycoons get even greedier, if that is possible, and bilk the people of decency as well as their pocketbooks. "Legal eagles" fight with medicine men, and the clients and patients remain the victims of both sides. And alas! The almighty media continue to pit their philosophical position against the other.
And where is the peace? It exists virtually nowhere. We have drummed our God out, not only from our schools and other public properties, but all too often out of our own homes and, yes, even out of our churches! The churches have become the "Bare ruined choirs" that William Wordsworth once wrote about, but they are still standing and seemingly are still in use.
We need to storm heaven for peace—every day, every week, every month. We need genuine prayer and genuine devotion. And we need to have prayer and devotion accompanied by the deeds that will make true peace a reality among all people everywhere. It must begin with me and it must be spread to each one of us. Most of us need to learn listening skills and compromise. We need patience and we need love and compassion for all peoples everywhere—is that not what Christianity is all about? I beg you, as your spiritual leader, to do all you can to bring peace into your own life and to all you meet.
With every good wish and prayerful blessing. I am devotedly yours in Christ.
+ John J. Humphreys
The Most Reverend John J. Humphreys, Archbishop
