"Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
We were in Victoria New Year's Day and at the cathedral there, the bishop used this verse to reflect on the meaning of the World Day of Peace. Mary pondered these things at the crib and at the cross. As Ron Rolheiser points out in his book The Holy Longing, this pondering requires bearing the stress of not knowing, of trusting, being steadfast in the face of fear, of being open to the uncertain and unlikely.
How dearly we want to be certain and secure! The Pope's message on the World Day of Peace spoke of how both nihilists and religious fundamentalists rise from the same distortion, which I would call a refusal to ponder, to bear the strain. Pope Benedict goes on to quote John Paul II, "To try to impose on others by violent means what we consider to be the
truth is an offense against the dignity of the human being, and
ultimately an offense against God in whose image he is made."
Did you catch the news that our bishops as of today have sent an 8 page document to the White House calling for withdrawal from Iraq? (It seems the bishops only make news when the news is about sex.) I thought the document was: a stellar example of how it is possible for a church to speak with one voice, despite differences. We can bear the stress of pondering, we can hold this tension together with love and speak the truth. The bishops do it at the national level; we need to do it at the local level. Here. Now.
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