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Day: October 11, 2006

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Christian Witness, Perspective, Saints and Martyrs

True then… true now

From today’s Office of Readings:

Be deaf therefore when anyone preaches to you without mentioning Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was truly born of Mary, who truly ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who was also truly raised from the dead, when his Father raised him up —” just as his Father will raise us up, believers in Christ Jesus without whom we have no true life.

from St Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Trallians

Homilies

Memorial – St. Canice, Abbot

Consistency in prayer —“ and its natural outcome, a consistent and holy way of life, is vitally important.

In today’s first reading St. Paul takes St. Peter to task for being a hypocrite.

I opposed him to his face because he clearly was wrong.
For, until some people came from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles;
but when they came, he began to draw back and separated himself,
because he was afraid of the circumcised.

Peter freely welcomed the Gentiles. After all, he was called early to minister to Cornelius, a Gentile, and after God poured out the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his family in front of Peter, Peter could not refuse them baptism. Upon entering the house of Cornelius:

Peter proceeded to speak and said, “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.”

Peter ate with and prayed alongside the Gentiles, until his friends from Jerusalem showed up. Then he was on the spot. St. Peter had a knack for placing himself in uncomfortable positions antithetical to the faith he knew. Paul called him on it.

Paul was saying, live like you pray, in unity with your faith. Otherwise you are a hypocrite.

Peter should have, and we should remember that Jesus thoroughly condemned hypocrites. Jesus told people that they mustn’t pray or give alms for show —“ but in truth, and from the heart. Jesus demands that we live fully in Him.

When the disciples asked, Jesus gave them the perfect prayer. That prayer is to be the model for our lives. A prayer opposed to hypocrisy.

By that prayer —“ the Our Father, we join ourselves to the will of God, placing Him as the object of our devotion and love, and relying upon Him for all that is good. We conform ourselves to God in our prayer, in our faith, and in every aspect of our lives.

St. Canice, whom we honor today, was the son of a popular bard from county Derry in Ireland. He felt God’s call to a life of holiness. A call that is not foreign to us. He was ordained a priest and traveled a missionary route through Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, founding many monasteries. While an essentially lonely figure, he copied the scriptures and wrote a treatise on them. He preached the Gospel with missionary zeal, even converting his own brother.

Let us imitate St. Canice. Let us be cautious of hypocrisy in the practice of our faith —“ for our faith is our life. Let us pray with zeal, being consistent in prayer, and conforming our lives to our prayer. Like St. Canice, let us spread the Gospel by our zeal and by our example.

Current Events

Killing via chaos

We’ve killed approximately 654,000 Iraqis since our invasion of Iraq.

Who says you need nuclear weapons to be effective? The U.S. killed approx. 340,000 people with our atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see the Manhattan Project —“ An Interactive History). We’ve doubled that through the ‘effective’ use of chaos…

An excerpt from the Lancet: Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey (PDF document) by Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, and Les Roberts.

Summary

Background An excess mortality of nearly 100,000 deaths was reported in Iraq for the period March, 2003—“September, 2004, attributed to the invasion of Iraq. Our aim was to update this estimate.

Methods Between May and July, 2006, we did a national cross-sectional cluster sample survey of mortality in Iraq. 50 clusters were randomly selected from 16 Governorates, with every cluster consisting of 40 households. Information on deaths from these households was gathered.

Findings Three misattributed clusters were excluded from the final analysis; data from 1849 households that contained 12,801 individuals in 47 clusters was gathered. 1474 births and 629 deaths were reported during the observation period. Pre-invasion mortality rates were 5.5 per 1000 people per year (95% CI 4.3—“7.1), compared with 13.3 per 1000 people per year (10.9—“16.1) in the 40 months post-invasion. We estimate that as of July, 2006, there have been 654,965 (392,979—“942,636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2.5% of the population in the study area. Of post-invasion deaths, 601,027 (426,369—“793,663) were due to violence, the most common cause being gunfire.

Interpretation The number of people dying in Iraq has continued to escalate. The proportion of deaths ascribed to coalition forces has diminished in 2006, although the actual numbers have increased every year. Gunfire remains the most common cause of death, although deaths from car bombing have increased.

…but let’s stay the course. We’ll hit 1,000,000 dead by the end of the Bush administration.

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