Prayer service for peace in Ukraine
The below remarks are a homily delivered by T. Michael McNulty, SJ at a prayer service for peace held at the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 8, 2022.
In J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Two Towers, King Theoden of Rohan, facing a superior orc army, laments: “So much death: What can one do against such reckless hate?”
As we watch and listen from a distance to the reports coming in from Ukraine, of civilian evacuations of cities, of cease-fires adopted and quickly violated, of heroic Ukrainian defenders, of refugees crossing into Poland and Hungary and Moldovia, of stalled Russian attacks, of morale and logistical problems, we come to grips with our powerlessness, our inability to stop the violence and bind up the wounds. But there is also the temptation to “cheer for the underdog,” to take pleasure in the problems and failures of the Russian army, to treat the whole thing as being about winning and losing.
Let us be clear: Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an evil act of aggression, “a war that sows death, destruction and misery.” [Pope Francis] And both the Russian and Ukrainian peoples are victims. The refugee family subject to Russian artillery bombardment and the unwilling Russian conscript killed by Ukrainian defenders both cry out to heaven.
Outrage is a natural response to the Russian invasion. And outrage is appropriate, but we are also subject to darker movements: the desire to see the Russian invaders suffer, to see them defeated, crushed, humiliated. Our temptation is to hatred and the desire to punish the aggressor (or rather, to have someone else punish them, since we have neither the means nor the heart to do it ourselves). But that is not what Jesus calls us to.
So what is our response to be? There have been reports of Ukrainians engaging in non-violent resistance, confronting and engaging the invader. But we have not the moral right to admonish the Ukrainian defenders from our position of safety and comfort to be non-violent, as much as that appeals to us in the abstract.
What then does this moment demand of us? What does our commitment to Jesus demand of us?
In Albert Camus’ The Plague, Dr. Tarrou says, “That’s why I decided to take, in every predicament, the victims’ side, so as to reduce the damage done.” Aragorn answers Theoden’s plaint with “Ride out with me.” Theoden responds “For death and glory,” but Aragorn corrects him: “For your people.” What Jesus calls us to is solidarity, the commitment of all our efforts to end this tragedy, to support the suffering, to pursue reconciliation, to build a world where actions such as Mr. Putin’s will be unimaginable. What Jesus calls us to is hope.
And Pope Francis [in his 2020 World Day of Peace Message] calls us to action:
The world does not need empty words but convinced witnesses, peacemakers who are open to a dialogue that rejects exclusion or manipulation. In fact, we cannot truly achieve peace without a convinced dialogue between men and women who seek the truth beyond ideologies and differing opinions. Peace “must be built up continually”; it is a journey made together in constant pursuit of the common good, truthfulness and respect for law. Listening to one another can lead to mutual understanding and esteem, and even to seeing in an enemy the face of a brother or sister. The peace process thus requires enduring commitment. It is a patient effort to seek truth and justice, to honour the memory of victims and to open the way, step by step, to a shared hope stronger than the desire for vengeance.
Peace will not be obtained unless it is hoped for…[T]his means believing in the possibility of peace, believing that others need peace just as much as we do. Here we can find inspiration in the love that God has for each of us: a love that is liberating, limitless, gratuitous and tireless.
Let me end these remarks with a prayer to the Creator from Fratelli Tutti:
God, creator of our human family,
you created all human beings equal in dignity:
pour forth into our hearts a spirit of kinship
and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter,
dialogue, justice and peace.
Move us to create healthier societies
and a more dignified world,
a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.
May our hearts be open
to all the peoples and nations of the earth.
May we recognize the goodness and beauty
that you have sown in each of us,
and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects,
and shared dreams. Amen.
