Like all of you, I have been horrified by the news coming out of the Middle East and the responses we have seen around the world.
Hamas’s savage terrorist attack on the people of Israel is nothing less than a violation of all the rules of war and human justice. And to see them supported by radicals in the West is disturbing.
At the same time, Israel’s response is creating a humanitarian disaster. More worrying, Israel looks to have walked into a traditional trap set by radicals – make the authorities overreact so you can present yourself as the victim and influence elites around the world.
Communist protesters used to wrap their well-protected arms in barbed wire and then cover them up with fluffy jackets. Riot police would grab them by the arm and then start striking at them, shocked by the harm of the barbed wire that they had gripped.
Hamas is using a similar modus operandi. It keeps its people interspersed among the civilian population, intending for there to be as many civilian casualties as possible. They want Israel to overreact so they can claim their victim status and inflame the Arab world.
Apart from my horror at the events themselves, my other feeling is one of sorrow that there is little I can do about this. What can Aussies do about conflict in the Middle East?
Fragile Gift
Furthermore, headlines have recently been full of apparently random tragedies: light-aircraft crashes, hotel diners struck by a runaway car, hit-and-runs, accidents at sea and the like.
In my household, we have been reflecting on the fragility of life itself. We appreciate our parents who taught us to say a prayer every morning – pray before driving anywhere, pray before meals, pray before going to sleep. Why? Because it reminds us that life is a precious gift, we need God’s help and mercy and this day just might be our last.
On the “plus” side of the ledger, in Brisbane last week, the Thomas More Centre hosted News Weekly contributor Gary Furnell, who presented on “Jacques Maritain and the spirit of creativity” in the church hall at Annerley.
It was a most stimulating overview of how the French Thomist philosopher understood the interaction of the human mind and soul and our spiritual nature, and its, often unconscious, creative activity.
As you pass by Mary Immaculate Catholic Church at Annerley, there is a sign at the front that says: “We are dust and to dust we shall return.” A grim reminder; and an illustration of a skull really drives it home.
Understanding the fragility, gift and shortness of life helps us in The Movement to be more generous, more courageous and focused. This is summed up in the traditional closing prayer used by The Movement for decades.
It says:
“Teach us to be generous, to serve you as you deserve to be served; to give, and not to count the cost; to fight, and not to heed the wounds; to work, and not to seek for rest; to spend ourselves and not to seek reward, save the knowledge that we do your Holy Will.”
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