WAR AND PEACE There is a war on. And while most of us will not experience the real horror of it at first hand, it does have -- and will have -- deep effects in our lives here. It is a deeply divisive issue for a large segment of our society. It tears at its fabric, and it tears at many human ties of friendship and family. So it's none too soon to face it, limit the hurt, and make the eventual healing easier. Now, I'm not talking about compromising with the yahoos for whom the war is another arcade game or sports event or a chance to act out the war movies of yesteryear or to prove one's mas- culinity by "kicking ass." Or by making statements like, "First we cut it off and then we kill it..." -- to quote the military mind at its grossest. That is just obscene when talking about the extinguishing of thousands of human lives, each and every one of them infinitely precious. That is where plain evil shows its naked face. Nothing but exorcism and the grace of God can help that kind of corruption of the most basic humanity. They are people who, living by the sword in fact or in fantasy, have already died as human beings by that very sword. If hell is the separation from God, they are in hell already. Lord have mercy upon them; Christ have mercy upon them; Lord have mercy upon them. -- And Lord have mercy upon us if we follow them into their hell to which they beckon us. No, I shall not talk about them, but about the rest of us in whom decency has not been killed yet and who are searching for a ground of understanding of what is going on and how we are called to respond to it. We will respond differently. We will come to different initial conclusions that may even be diametrically opposed. But that need not divide us if our thoughts and actions spring from what is the deepest and truest in us, the Christ in us -- and not from "the lord of this world" and his realpolitik. There are two basic perspectives, in fact. One we could call the "tragic view of life," and it has been pointed out to me often enough that I share that view to a very large extent. That "tragic view" is that we live in a fallen world in which we are presented with choices between evils, between bad and not so bad -- where the difference is frequently unclear and the choice inescapable. Sinners we are by nature; therefore, sin we must and sin we will. Augustine shared that view, and so did Luther when he said, "Sin bravely and repent mightily." It is in light of this view that the rules for a "just" war were formulated; therefore, if the tragic perspective is where we are coming from, we should take those rules extremely seriously, for their purpose is to help us discriminate between shades of darkness and light. And since we are already predisposed to accept the shades of darkness, we should be particularly careful to keep our eye on the light unless, step by easy step, we slip into outer darkness. It is a penitential view of life. We act since act we must. But we do so with the deepest sense of the wrongfulness of our acting -- not in gung-ho exultation, but in sorrow and humil- ity -- not in glorification of violence, but in prayer for forgiveness -- not in seeking our own good, but in constantly searching for God's will for us. And if we do, then perhaps the way grows a little lighter, the distinctions a little less confusing, and the question of how to represent Christ in this fallen world less anguishing because we are no longer entirely focused on the "fallen world" part of the equation. It is also a "pastoral" view, for to the extent we are able to face the penitential aspect we are able to accept grace and forgiveness. I said there were two perspectives on life, of which the "tragic" view was one. The other could be called a "salvation" view. It takes seriously the faith statement that the Kingdom of God is not only coming but is also already in us and among us. That is what the Christ's death on the Cross was all about, and that is what we are to hold up unconditionally. We are already children of light, and therefore we have to walk in the light and not give in to any shade of darkness. We are called to be "in the world" but not of the world. We are called to be peacemak- ers, and we are called blessed when that gets us into trouble. We are called to non-violence, not qualified by any if's or but's. We are called to love our enemies. We are called to be our neighbor's neighbor and our brother's brother and our sist- er's sister not their judge or policeman or jailer. We are called to return good for evil. We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. For us the challenge of the Gospel, absurd and scandalous though it be in our "real" world, is to be taken with utmost seriousness and calls for a commit- ment. It is also a "prophetic" view in the tradition of Isaiah and Gandhi and Martin Luther King. We remembered his birthday recently, and note the bitter irony of the sad fact that it was on that day that the current unprecedented violence has been unleashed on the world. Whatever our primary mode, we have to be sure it is not merely a self-centered ego trip which in one case leads down the slippery slope of cutting a deal with the devil and in the other to a sanctimonious self-righteousness. And that is why it is good that we all are different. For we keep one another on the path toward the true light. It may be painful and difficult at times, but left to ourselves and left to the company of those who always and totally agree with us, we are in danger of going astray. Yes, we are human and in this world. In either case, prayer is what we need constantly. Someone sent me the following a couple of days ago (and I will have copies once our copier is fixed next week): PRAYERS FOR PEACE in the Middle East Save us from weak resignation to violence, Teach us that restraint is the highest expression of power, that thoughtfulness and tenderness are the mark of the strong... Help us love our enemies, not by countenancing their sins, but by remembering our own... (from a prayer by a Christian) Grant us the ability to find joy and strength not in the strident call to arms, but in stretching out our arms to grasp our fellow creatures in the striving for justice and truth... (from a prayer by a Jew) Save us, our compassionate Lord, from our folly by your wisdom, from our arrogance by your forgiving love, from our greed by your infinite bounty, and from our insecurity by your healing power. (from a prayer by a Muslim) To which we can only say, Amen. (These excerpts from Prayers for Peace in the Middle East are from U.S. INTERRELIGIOUS COMMITTEE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST Greene and Westview, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119.)