“Through his holy prophets he promised of oldThat he would save us from our enemies,From the hands of all who hate us.”Luke 1:70-71
I read these words every day as part of the Morning Liturgy of the Hours. They have become a familiar part of my prayer time and they have always put me in mind of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ve always thought of these words in strictly spiritual terms, in terms of our Lord coming to save us from our greatest enemy, namely our sinful nature. I say this because it is our sinful nature that has the greatest potential to keep us away from our Lord. Jesus alone can bridge the gap between humankind and God.
I must also say I thought of this passage in strictly spiritual terms because I don’t perceive myself to have any enemies. There are people I don’t trust, people I don’t particularly like, but I don’t think of them as enemies. I don’t live in a country where I am persecuted for my beliefs or anything else for that matter. My life is pretty good, so where are the enemies that I need to be delivered from?
I never thought of these words in a literal sense…at least not until Sunday when I heard that Osama Bin Ladin had been killed by U.S. Navy Seals. When I watched the news on TV, the words “…He will deliver us from the hands of those who hate us” were the first words that popped into my mind. I was perplexed to say the very least.
I was puzzled because I had never thought of the war against terrorism as a spiritual war. I have to confess that I just did not “get” it. I dare say many Americans did not “get” that either. Most of us have grown up against a background of war. Sadly, we have become used to it, inured to its reality. I was born shortly after the end of WWII, grew up with the Korean War, protested the Vietnam War, have prayed for the troops during the Gulf War and prayed for the brave men and women fighting in the war we are presently engaged in. I’ve thought of war as a fact of life. I’ve seen it as a struggle for territory, wealth, ideologies and political power. I’ve never seen it as an outgrowth of the ongoing battle between the spiritual principalities that fight eternally for men’s souls. While it galls me to give Al-Qaeda credit for anything, I must say that is the one thing that they did “get”. They were the ones who declared “jihad”.
While they understood that this war is spiritual, it was anything but holy on their part. They made it clear that they were our enemies and that they hated us. Thru Bin Ladin and Al-Qaeda, evil has shown its monstrous face in a way that few people alive have ever seen. Very few recognized it as such. Yet it is those few who responded in the only way that we can respond to evil…that is to fight, to battle, to go to war.
I believe it was God himself who gave our leaders the discernment to see the evil posed by Al-Qaeda and it was God who inspired them to act in the only way we could. Could God have wiped Bin Ladin and his forces out with a few well placed lightning bolts? Of course, but He chose not to do that. Instead He worked His will out in the same way He has been working His will for millennia and that is thru efforts of mankind. He has inspired and strengthened those who believe in Him to fight for good and all that is truly holy. It took nine very long years. It took the sacrifice of thousands of men and women who cared enough to give their very lives to prevent evil from succeeding. And it was thru the efforts of those who dared to do the right thing that God’s will prevailed.
On Sunday, the Lord showed us that He has kept His age old promise and has indeed “saved us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us.” His strength was revealed in all of this because it was on a Sunday, a day holy to all Christians, and on the same Sunday that a holy man of God, Blessed John Paul II was beatified, that Osama Bin Ladin was shot and killed and unceremoniously dumped into the ocean. No man alive could have planned it to happen like that. Glory be to God!
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