Christian Responses to Conflict
Ordinary Sunday 25, 23th September, 2001
Fr Neville Connell
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Almost thirty years ago, I left Australia to spend two years in Vietnam, as
a civilian chaplain to the Anglican Community in Saigon, and a chaplain
to the Australian Army Assistance Group there. I also looked after a United
States Air Force congregation for six months.
I had many discussions with American people there civilian (including CIA
members) and military, British and Australians and others, about the Vietnam
war. The sort of sentiments ranged from similar to that attributed to Cardinal
Spellman, "We're fighting God's war in Vietnam", to constructively loyal
criticism.
My job, as I saw it, was to reflect in my sermons, on the role of
Christians involved in the conflict, simply by being there. A very precious
privilege, when I consider who were listening to me – Ambassadors,
Generals, policy makers, as well as less exalted people.
These debates were being conducted in a country at war, yet, they were being
conducted "at home", as it were; we were bringing the debate raging in the
USA and Australia into the residences of citizens of those countries then
in Vietnam.
Now the USA faces a grave challenge from international terrorism. Despite
the way in which the people have closed ranks behind their President,
discussions, arguments, will go on as to how to proceed. Let us thank God
that President Bush has obviously resisted the temptation to act precipitately.
Christians, from Mr Bush down, have their special responsibilities in this
situation, because their, our, loyalty is always firstly to God, before
nation, despite Cardinal Spellman. Our Second Reading today says, "For there
is only one God, and only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a
man, Christ Jesus, who sacrificed himelf as a ransom for all." We are
here today to worship the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus has given us a way of life, based on dying and rising, on sacrifice,
on love for God and our neighbour, especially the poor. Our conduct must
reflect what we say in the Creed, and read in our Scriptures, especially
the Gospels. From early in its history, the Church has had to
contend with the challenge of living and behaving in a Christian manner in a
pluralistic society. The temptation was to accommodate to surrounding
attitudes, so as to have a peaceful environment in which to try to live
the Christian life.
The Letters to Timothy reflect this challenge; hence the need for prayers
for the civil rulers. "My advice is that first of all, there should be
prayers offered for everyone: petitions, intercessions, and thanksgiving
– and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may
be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet."
But not just to have a quiet life. There is still the obligation to mission:
"To do this is right, and will please God our Saviour; he wants everyone to
be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth."
All this would sound familiar to us today, for we are in the same position
– in the USA, Britain, Europe and our own country. We are struggling to
be faithful to Jesus and his mission; he wants everyone to be saved and
reach full knowledge of the truth in a pluralistic society. And not only
in single countries. We are struggling to be faithful to Jesus in a
pluralistic world. Which means that our approach to our joys, and especially
our tragedies must be Christian. Professor Raymond Gaita (an academic from
the Australian Catholic University, Canberra), interviewed on ABC Radio,
stressed that we who want to defend civilisation must do it in a civilised
way; for Christians, in a Christian way.
What then of the "engaging rascal" of our Gospel Reading for today
(Lk 16;1-13)? Caught out in his management practices, he was too soft to
dig, too proud to beg, yet praised by his master for the shrewd way in which
he extricated himself from his problems.
Certainly he seems a model for self-interested compromise to produce a
satisfactory result. He was resourceful. So Jesus would seem to be urging
us to be resourceful in our response to daily life. But our resource is
Jesus himself, "who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all", and his
teaching. Never let us forget that Jesus went meekly to the Cross.
As President Bush is discovering,there is no easy or immediate answer to
international terrorism. We can point out fault on all sides, so repentance
would be in order to begin with, just as we begin our Mass with confession
and forgiveness. Then what follows must be based on love, the love of Jesus
on the Cross, through whom we are forgiven.
Just as Jesus was taken, broken, crucified and restored to us again on Easter
Day, so in the Mass, the bread, symbol of our daily lives, that is, we, are
taken, broken and restored to life, remade, renewed.
This is the model for our response as Christians to our present dilemmas.
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Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
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