A Letter from Fr. Tim

Dear Friends,
 
The war in the Middle East has been on our minds since it began on October 7^th. The videos and photographs of people being killed, terrorized, and carried off as hostages have now blended into images of buildings being demolished from missile attacks and innocent civilians losing their lives each day. We view this from half a world away and wonder what led up to this moment? News channels, social media, periodicals, and the like are all too eager to report on all that is going on each day.
 
The war in the Middle East reminds us of what it was like when Russia attacked Ukraine on February 14, 2022, and our concerned and prayerful response at that time. Since then, thousands upon thousands have lost their lives in Ukraine as the war there wages on, with no sign of letting up. 
 
Other parts of the world are in the midst of their own conflicts… largely under the radar of the rest of the world’s media. The call for peace is great, and prayers are so needed during this time. As always, the Catholic Church has much to say about peace. I discovered what follows just recently and offer it as a helpful perspective as we struggle with the conflicts which are killing and wounding and changing the lives of people forever.
 
From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, n. 78)

Peace is not the mere absence of war or the simple maintenance of a balance of power between forces, nor can it be imposed at the dictate of absolute power. It is called, rightly and properly, a work of justice. It is the product of order, the order implanted in human society by its divine founder, to be realized in practice as men hunger and thirst for ever more perfect justice.

The common good of the human race is subject to the eternal law as its primary principle, but its requirements in practice keep changing with the passage of time. The result is that peace is never established finally and for ever; the building up of peace has to go on all the time. Again, the human will is weak and wounded by sin; the search for peace therefore demands from each individual constant control of the passions, and from legitimate authority untiring vigilance.

Even this is not enough. Peace here on earth cannot be maintained unless the good of the human person is safeguarded, and men are willing to trust each other and share their riches of spirit and talent. If peace is to be established it is absolutely necessary to have a firm determination to respect other persons and peoples and their dignity, and to be zealous in the practice of brotherhood.

Peace is therefore the fruit also of love; love goes beyond what justice can achieve. Peace on earth, born of love for one’s neighbor, is the sign and the effect of the peace of Christ that flows from God the Father. In his own person the incarnate Son, the Prince of Peace, reconciled all men to God through his death on the cross. In his human nature he destroyed hatred and restored unity to all mankind in one people and one body. Raised on high by the resurrection, he sent the Spirit of love into the hearts of men.

All Christians are thus urgently summoned to live the truth in love, and to join all true peacemakers in prayer and work for peace. Moved by the same spirit, we cannot but praise those who renounce violence in defense of rights, and have recourse to means of defense otherwise available to the less powerful as well, provided that this can be done without injury to the rights and obligations of others or of the community.
 
Please continue your prayers for peace and may God bless you all.
 
       Fr. Tim Fairman