Fr. Gilles' Website

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

History of the Middle East - Timelines

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.

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History of the Middle East

c. 4000-2000 BC	-	Kingdoms in Egypt, Sumer, and Babylonia
New Kingdom in Egypt, Kingdoms in Phoenicia and Assyria. The first thoughts on monotheism emerge.	-	c. 1000 BC
500-400 BC	-	The Persian empire (Iran) conquers the Middle East.
Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeats the Persians and claims the Middle East.	-	334 BC
c. 200-300 BC	-	The Romans gain control over all of the Middle East except for Persia.
Life of Mohammed - founds the religion of Islam, and leads the beginning of an Arab-Islamic empire that will soon hold sway over the entire Middle East.	-	570-632 AD
661-750	-	Umayyad Dynasty gains control over Arab-Islamic empire and greatly expands its territories. The empire spreads westward throughout North Africa, north into Spain, and eastward to the borders of India and China.
The Abassid Dynasty, the second major one of the Arab-Islamic empire, gains control and moves the capital to Baghdad. Middle East enjoys a prosperous period of advances in science and technology.	-	759-1258
10th Century	-	decline in control of Abassids empire allows the Seljuks, a Turkish people, to gain control over much of Asia Minor and the Persian Empire to break free.
Tales of Middle East riches and desire to reclaim Holy Land for Christianity inspire European kingdoms to proclaim series of crusades against Muslim empires of the Middle East. Though crusades were to have some success in holding Holy Land territory, longest lasting effects - in Europe people exposed to many new ideas.	-	11-13th century
13th centuries	-	Mongol invasions in the Middle East devastate Iraq and Iran and end remains of the Arab-Islamic Empire.
Ottoman empire gains control over Constantinople renames Istanbul. Earlier Turkish success grew into Ottoman Empire which will continue to expand until it controls nearly all Middle East except for Iran.	-	1453
19th century	-	MEast Muslim empires decline. The Ottoman Empire loses territory & influence to Russia & Austria
Muhammed Ali westernizes Egypt, asserting some independence from the Ottoman Empire.	-	1805-1848
1914-1918	-	The Ottoman Empire sides with Germany during World War I. The resulting loss causes the empire to be broken up. Much of its territory is devided between France and Britain, but modern day Turkey successfully defends itself against Greek invasion.
The Sykes-Picot agreement between France and Britain secretly promises to divide Ottoman holdings in the Middle East between the nations.	-	1916
July 1915-March 1916	-	The McMahon Correspondences between Sir Hanry McMahon, British High Commisioner of Cairo, and the Sherif Hussein of Mecca apparently promise Arab independence in large portions of the Middle East, including Palestine, which is today Israel.
Balfour Declaration by the British clearly expresses support for a Jewish state in Palestine, clearly at odds with the earlier McMahon Correspondences.	-	November 2, 1917
Febuary 8, 1922	-	Egypt gains its independence.
Turkey gains its independence.	-	October 29, 1923
1929	-	White Paper, released by British, placed severe limits on Jewish immigration into Palestine and stated the British government did not plan Palestine to become a Jewish state. This proclamation was obviously in contradiction with the Balfour Declaration.
Iraq gains its independence.	-	1932
1932	-	Saudi Arabia gains its independence.
The Peel Commission from Britain reports that great tension exists between Jews and Muslims and suggests a plan of partition for the region.	-	1937
November 26, 1941	-	Lebanon gains its independence.
Jordan gains its independence.	-	1946
1947	-	With the British mandate, a right to administer over the region of Palestine soon expiring, the UN proposes a plan of partition for the region, which would create both a Jewish state and an Arab state when the British mandate runs out.
State of Israel declares its independence immediately following the end of the British mandate. Immediately after, the surrounding Arab nations invaded the new State of Israel. After the war the Arab League placed an embargo, or prohibition against trading, on Israel.	-	May 14, 1948
1948-1949	-	Following Israel's declaration of independence, forces from surrounding Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, launched all out, but uncoordinated attack on vastly outnumbered Israel. However, Israel managed to avoid being driven into the sea and expanded their territory over the original UN partition plan before an armistice was signed.
After breakdowns in talks with Arab nations, Egypt closing Suez Canal and Strait of Tiran, Israel's Red Sea access, to Israeli shipping, Israel invaded Egypt, quickly took control of Gaza & Sinai Peninsula, and was aided by the French and the British angry with Egyptian President Abdel Nasser's handling of the Suez Canal. UN, backed by United States and Soviet Union, ended the war and forced the invading nations to leave Egypt, but Israel only abandoned Gaza when the US promised to help keep the Strait of Tiran open.	-	November-October 1956
September 29, 1961	-	Syria gains its independence.
Kuwait gains its independence.	-	1961
June 5-10, 1967	-	Six-Day War between Israel & alliance Egypt, Syria, and Jordan militarily began when Israel launched a pre-emptive air strike that decimated the air forces of opposing nations, but truly began weeks earlier when Egypt began declaring military superiority over Israel and its desire to destroy the nation. Egypt again closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships and ships carrying supplies for Israel = constituting legal grounds to go to war under international law. In the fierce fighting that followed Israel's air strike, the Arab armies were devastated, Israel gaining control of Sinai peninsula from Egypt, West Bank of Jordan River from Jordan, and the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. This short war clearly demonstrated that Isreal was preeminent military power in the Middle East and gained the nation much international attention. It also, however, further entrenched Arab hatred for the State of Israel.
UN Resolution 242 is passed by the United Nations Security Council, and calls for a return of the territory seized by Israel, recognition of Israel by Arab states, a reaffirmation of the principle of free navigation, and for future peace and stability in the region.	-	1967
September 1, 1969	-	Libya gains its independence.
Qatar and United Arab Emirates gain independence.	-	1971
August 14, 1971	-	Bahrain gains its independence.
Many Middle Eastern states placed an oil embargo on nations they saw as favoring Israel in their policies, including the United States. The embargo ended early 1974 and while it did not bring about great changes, it was detrimental to the economies of the nations it was placed upon and harmful to their citizens.	-	1973-1974
October 6, 1973	-	On Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, a day when large portions of the army were on leave to be with their families, the combined armies of Egypt and Syria entered Israel relatively unopposed. Within a week, Israel mobilized its reserve forces and drove the Arab armies back, but not before 2,700 Israeli soldiers were killed, four times the number that had died during the Yom Kippur war.
UN Resolutions 338 and 339 called for an immediate end to the Yom Kippur War, the enforcement of the articles of Resolution 242, and the dispatch of UN observers to oversee the cease fire.	-	October 22-23, 1972
September 17, 1978	-	Convinced by the 1973 Yom Kippur War that Egypt could never defeat Israel in a war, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sought peace with Israel, the first Arab nation to do so. Sadat met with US President Jimmy Carter & Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin at Camp David. They drew up the Camp David accords which called for peace between Egypt and Israel.
In the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel drawn up to finalize the actions at Camp David, the nations established normal relations with Israel completely withdrawing from the Sinai.	-	March 26, 1979
1979	-	Iran forms a new government under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
June 1982	-	Operation Peace in the Galilee, an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, was Israel's longest and most controversial war. After Israeli ambassador to England wounded in terrorist attack in London, Israel began bombing bases of Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) in southern Lebanon. PLO had long shelled north Israel and been responsible for various terrorist actions; also primarily based in Lebanon, having been forced out of Jordan in 1970. The PLO increased their shelling in response to the bombing, and Israel invaded Lebanon with hope of destroying the PLO and forming normal relations with the government of Lebanon. After long periods of fighting and the Israeli capture of Beirut, the PLO did leave Lebanon. The operation was not a success though, as the Lebanese president was assassinated, and, in rage, his followers massacred thousands of Palestinian refugees. Israel was held responsible for these massacres and withdrew from much of Lebanon, allowing the PLO to eventually return.
Following the upheaval in Iran, Iraq demanded a renegotiation of the treaty between them, demanding more access to the Persian Gulf and autonomy for the Arab minorities in Iran, a Persian, not Arab, nation. When talks broke down, Iraq invaded Iran making large gains. In 1981 Iran took the offensive and regained most of its territory. The war then continued for seven years as a stalemate with both sides ocurring horrible casualties and attacking neutral shiping in the Persian Gulf. When the war was finally ended by UN Resolution 598, there were an estimated 1 million dead and 1.7 million wounded.	-	1980-July 20, 1987
A popular uprising of Palestinian refugees living in Israel, known as the Intifada caused much distress for Israel. Intifada had no leaders that could be tracked down or bases that could be bombed, for it was made up primarily by young boys and their most common activity was throwing rocks. Intifada was a symbol of the plight of the Palestinian refugees in Israel.	-	1987-1989
May 23, 1990	-	A unified Yemen is formed.
After Iraq revived a dispute with Kuwait and declared that Kuwaiti overproduction of oil was damaging Iraq's economy, Iraq invaded and quickly took over Kuwait. There was international outcry, and the UN demanded that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991.	-	August 2, 1990
1991	-	After Iraq refused to comply with UN demands, a multi-national force of some 500,000 men from Arab and Western nations launched major air offensive against Iraq. The Persian Gulf War went badly for Iraq, and they were soon forced from Kuwait and lost large portions of their army. Following the war, Iraq's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were destroyed, UN observers were placed in the nation, and it was put under economic sanction.
After a long history of distrust and hatred between Israel and the PLO, the two groups finally made a breakthrough after nearly two years of negotiations when Yasser Arafat of the PLO sent his Declaration of Principles to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The declaration acknowledged the right of Israel to exist, accepted UN Resolution 242 and 338, renounced the use of terrorism, and promised to remove from the Palestinian National Covenant the clauses calling for the destruction of Israel.	-	September 13, 1993
May 4, 1994	-	The Gaza-Jericho Agreement signed between Israel and the PLO, followed up on the Declaration of Principles with a concrete agreement that would establish a Palestinian Authority and Police force with partial authority over Gaza and Jericho, and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from that region. The powers of the Authority were further spelled out in the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities in August 29, 1994.
Washington Declaration was produced out of the first public meeting of Prime Minister Rabin of Israel and King Hussein of Jordan. This ended the state of hostility between them, affirmed a peace based upon UN Resolutions 242 and 338, and established more open borders between the two nations.	-	July 25, 1994
October 26, 1994	-	A Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty is signed following the Washington Declaration, making Jordan only the second Arab nation to sign a treaty with Israel.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, is assasinated by a Jew who is opposed to his liberal policies on the peace process. Rabin is succeeded by Shimon Peres who promises to continue the work that Rabin had pioneered.	-	*November 5, 1995*
*May 21, 1996*	-	The UN agrees to allow Iraq to sell some oil, despite the embargo, so long as all of the profits go towards humanitarian purposes and to relieve the suffering that the economic strangulation has placed upon Iraq. Iraq opposed the clause in the resolution that required UN monitoring of the sales, but eventually submitted.
Benyamin Netanyahu is elected Prime Minister of Israel by a slim margin over Shimon Peres. Netanyahu promises a hard line towards future peace negotiations, and is less anxious to give up land than Peres and Rabin were. This promises to stall negotiations with Syria, who refuses to accept anything but the full return of the Golan, and the Palestinians who feel threatened by a return to Israeli settlement in the West Bank.	-	*May 31, 1996*

http://library.thinkquest.org/3526/facts/timeline.html

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Timeline for the History of Judaism
(Follow instructions to expand each section.)

History: Timeline for the History of Judaism

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-for-the-history-of-judaism

Dawn of History (3800-2001 BCE)

Ancient Israelite Religion (2000-587 BCE)

After the Babylonian Exile (538 BCE-70 CE)

Rule of Rome (230 BCE-400 CE)

Rabbinic Period of Talmud Development (70 BCE-500 CE)

Consolidation & Dominance of Christianity (325-590 CE)

Medieval Period in the West (600-1500 CE)

Development of Muhammad's Islamic Message (570-1258 CE)

The Crusades (1095-1258 CE)

Transition & Rebuilding of Political Islam (1258-1500 CE)

Mamluk Rule (1291-1516 CE)

Christian Reformation Period (1517-1569 CE)

Dominance of Ottoman Muslim Empire (1500-1920 CE)

Jewish Contemporary Period (1700-1917 CE)

Unrest & Realignment in the Middle East (1914-1918 CE)

British Rule in Palestine (1918-1947 CE)

Modern Israel & the Diaspora (1948-Present)

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Middle East Timeline - Oxford Art Online

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Timeline of Middle Eastern history - Wikipedia

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Friday, January 10, 2014

English rendering of a letter written by the Prophet Muhammad (sa) to all Christians. Original in Istanbul Library - Jan. 10, 2014

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Original in Istanbul Library

Jan. 10, 2014

https://newsrescue.com/letter-to-all-christians-from-prophet-muhammad-sa/#ixzz3EjSMNmZ0

How should Muslims treat Christians? With violence? Anger? Hatred? The answer is none of the above. Below is the English rendering of a letter written by the Prophet Muhammad (sa) to all Christians.

In a time when tensions between Islam and Christianity seem to be at an all time high, we remind our Christian friends that a true Muslim cannot hurt a Christian in any way, neither by his hand, nor by his tongue.

The below letter requires no explanation. We hope it provides credence and comfort that Prophet Muhammad (sa) truly celebrated his Christian friends. (The original letter is now in the Topkapi Museum in Instanbul)

“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”

English translation from ‘Muslim History: 570 – 1950 C.E.’ by Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq, ZMD Corporation. P.O. Box 8231 – Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8231 – Copyright Akram Zahoor 2000. P. 167

This document is the Achtiname of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or (Holy) Testament (Testamentum) of the Prophet Muhammad, a document or ahdname which is a charter or writ ratified by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad’s hand. -wikipedia

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English Translation of the Ashtiname by Richard Peacocke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achtiname_of_Muhammad

Muhammad the son of ‘Abd Allah, the Messenger of Allah, and careful guardian of the whole world; has wrote the present instrument to all those who are in his national people, and of his own religion, as a secure and positive promise to be accomplished to the Christian nation, and relations of the Nazarene, whosoever they may be, whether they be the noble or the vulgar, the honorable or otherwise, saying thus.I. Whosoever of my nation shall presume to break my promise and oath, which is contained in this present agreement, destroys the promise of God, acts contrary to the oath, and will be a resister of the faith, (which God forbid) for he becomes worthy of the curse, whether he be the King himself, or a poor man, or whatever person he may be.
That whenever any of the monks in his travels shall happen to settle upon any mountain, hill, village, or other habitable place, on the sea, or in deserts, or in any convent, church, or house of prayer, I shall be in the midst of them, as the preserver and protector of them, their goods and effects, with my soul, aid, and protection, jointly with all my national people; because they are a part of my own people, and an honor to me.
Moreover, I command all officers not to require any poll-tax on them, or any other tribute, because they shall not be forced or compelled to anything of this kind.
None shall presume to change their judges or governors, but they shall remain in their office, without being deported.
No one shall molest them when they are travelling on the road.
Whatever churches they are possessed of, no one is to deprive them of them.
Whosoever shall annul any of one of these my decrees, let him know positively that he annuls the ordinance of God.
Moreover, neither their judges, governors, monks, servants, disciples, or any others depending on them, shall pay any poll-tax, or be molested on that account, because I am their protector, wherever they shall be, either by land or sea, east or west, north or south; because both they and all that belong to them are included in this my promissory oath and patent.
And of those that live quietly and solitary upon the mountains, they shall exact neither poll-tax nor tithes from their incomes, neither shall any Muslim partake of what they have; for they labor only to maintain themselves.
Whenever the crop of the earth shall be plentiful in its due time, the inhabitants shall be obliged out of every bushel to give them a certain measure.
Neither in time of war shall they take them out of their habitations, nor compel them to go to the wars, nor even then shall they require of them any poll-tax.
In these eleven chapters is to be found whatever relates to the monks, as to the remaining seven chapters, they direct what relates to every Christian.
Those Christians who are inhabitants, and with their riches and traffic are able to pay the poll-tax, shall pay no more than twelve drachms.
Excepting this, nothing shall be required of them, according to the express order of God, that says, ‘Do not molest those that have a veneration for the books that are sent from God, but rather in a kind manner give of your good things to them, and converse with them, and hinder everyone from molesting them’ [29:46].
If a Christian woman shall happen to marry a Muslim man, the Muslim shall not cross the inclination of his wife, to keep her from her church and prayers, and the practice of her religion.
That no person hinder them from repairing their churches.
Whosoever acts contrary to my grant, or gives credit to anything contrary to it, becomes truly an apostate to God, and to his divine apostle, because this protection I have granted to them according to this promise.
No one shall bear arms against them, but, on the contrary, the Muslims shall wage war for them.
And by this I ordain, that none of my nation shall presume to do or act contrary to this my promise, until the end of the world.

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English Translation of the Achtiname by Anton F. Haddad:

This is a letter which was issued by Mohammed, Ibn Abdullah, the Messenger, the Prophet, the Faithful, who is sent to all the people as a trust on the part of God to all His creatures, that they may have no plea against God hereafter. Verily God is the Mighty, the Wise. This letter is directed to the embracers of Islam, as a covenant given to the followers of Nazarene in the East and West, the far and near, the Arabs and foreigners, the known and the unknown.

This letter contains the oath given unto them, and he who disobeys that which is therein will be considered a disobeyer and a transgressor to that whereunto he is commanded. He will be regarded as one who has corrupted the oath of God, disbelieved His Testament, rejected His Authority, despised His Religion, and made himself deserving of His Curse, whether he is a Sultan or any other believer of Islam. Whenever monks, devotees and pilgrims gather together, whether in a mountain or valley, or den, or frequented place, or plain, or church, or in houses of worship, verily we are [at the] back of them and shall protect them, and their properties and their morals, by Myself, by My Friends and by My Assistants, for they are of My Subjects and under My Protection.

I shall exempt them from that which may disturb them; of the burdens which are paid by others as an oath of allegiance. They must not give anything of their income but that which pleases them—they must not be offended, or disturbed, or coerced or compelled. Their judges should not be changed or prevented from accomplishing their offices, nor the monks disturbed in exercising their religious order, or the people of seclusion be stopped from dwelling in their cells.

No one is allowed to plunder the pilgrims, or destroy or spoil any of their churches, or houses of worship, or take any of the things contained within these houses and bring it to the houses of Islam. And he who takes away anything therefrom, will be one who has corrupted the oath of God, and, in truth, disobeyed His Messenger.

Poll-taxes should not be put upon their judges, monks, and those whose occupation is the worship of God; nor is any other thing to be taken from them, whether it be a fine, a tax or any unjust right. Verily I shall keep their compact, wherever they may be, in the sea or on the land, in the East or West, in the North or South, for they are under My Protection and the testament of My Safety, against all things which they abhor.

No taxes or tithes should be received from those who devote themselves to the worship of God in the mountains, or from those who cultivate the Holy Lands. No one has the right to interfere with their affairs, or bring any action against them. Verily this is for aught else and not for them; rather, in the seasons of crops, they should be given a Kadah for each Ardab of wheat (about five bushels and a half) as provision for them, and no one has the right to say to them this is too much, or ask them to pay any tax.

As to those who possess properties, the wealthy and merchants, the poll-tax to be taken from them must not exceed twelve Dirhams a head per year (i.e. about 45 cents).

They shall not be imposed upon by anyone to undertake a journey, or to be forced to go to wars or to carry arms; for the Muslims have to fight for them. Do no dispute or argue with them, but deal according to the verse recorded in the Koran, to wit: ‘Do not dispute or argue with the People of the Book but in that which is best’ [29:46]. Thus they will live favored and protected from everything which may offend them by the Callers to religion (Islam), wherever they may be and in any place they may dwell.

Should any Christian woman be married to a Musulman, such marriage must not take place except after her consent, and she must not be prevented from going to her church for prayer. Their churches must be honored and they must not be withheld from building churches or repairing convents.

They must not be forced to carry arms or stones; but the Muslims must protect them and defend them against others. It is positively incumbent upon every one of the Islam nation not to contradict or disobey this oath until the Day of Resurrection and the end of the world.

[Haddad, Anton F., trans. The Oath of the Prophet Mohammed to the Followers of the Nazarene. New York: Board of Counsel, 1902; H-Bahai: Lansing, MI: 2004]

https://newsrescue.com/letter-to-all-christians-from-prophet-muhammad-sa/#ixzz3EjSMNmZ0

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Friday, October 7, 2011

EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE: WHY NOT? QUICK ANSWERS TO COMMON ARGUMENTS - Catholic Organization for Life and the Family

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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Christian Remembrance of Yom HaShoah, by Rabbi Leigh Lerner - St. Luc’s Church, Dollard des Ormeaux, May 1, 2011

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The Christian community has celebrated Easter, and you are now on the way to Pentecost. We Jews have celebrated Pesach, Passover, and we are on the way to celebrate another day, Shavuot. The two festivals have much in common.

Pentecost means "fiftieth.” Fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit came into the world. Your Christian commemoration of Pentecost is based on our Jewish practice. In the Jewish tradition, we count a week of weeks, 7 times 7 days, from the second day of Passover, Pesach. If we had counted from the first day of Pesach, naturally it would be 50 days. Then we come to Shavuot (the feast of 7 weeks), which celebrates the gift of the Torah at Mount Sinai. At Shavuot, the word of God comes into the world by this great revelation. So your celebration of the Holy Spirit is directly related to our Shavuot.

The reading for Pentecost, drawn from the Acts of the Apostles, indicates how the Holy Spirit filled the first disciples of Jesus, giving them the ability to speak other languages and hear wonderful things about God in their own language. This, too, reflects an old rabbinical teaching which tells that when the Torah was given, God did not only give in Hebrew. The legend says that at Mt. Sinai, God gave the Torah in 70 languages, and we always interpret "70 languages" to mean, "every language of the earth". The Ten Commandments, the Torah, and the Bible belong to everyone, and each person can hear their message.

How does Acts describes the advent of the Holy Spirit? As a violent wind which filled the whole House where they were standing. This wind brought good news, but the Bible also mentions another violent wind, a vortex of destruction. Speaking of the Jewish community in exile, Isaiah (54: 11) said: "unfortunate, storm-battered, and unconsolable!" Similarly, after poor Job was almost completely destroyed, God speaks to him out of a whirlwind, symbol of the chaos of his life (Job 38.1).

And what is the word that describes the destruction Job has seen? Shoah. Today we remember that good news is not the only news to arrive on the wings of the wind. The winds of history also blew with a destructive force, the Shoah, the Holocaust. 6 million Jews were destroyed by the Nazis and those who cooperated with them.

How can I help you better understand the figure, six million people murdered? The population of Quebec is 7,800,000 people. The population of the island of Montreal? It is 1,800,000 people. So imagine. You live here on the island of Montreal, and one day you decide to drive to Quebec City. On the South Shore? Not a soul. In central Québec? No one. Mauricie? Not one human being. Quebec City? Empty. You drive farther, looking for another human being. The Beauce? No one. Lac St. Jean? Not a soul. Eastern Townships, Montérégie, Gatineau, Laurentians, Laval. No one, no one, no one. The buildings still stand, but the original occupants are not there.

You return to Montréal, happy to see each of its 1,800,000 people, glad to find humanity.

When the few who survived returned to their cities and villages, with very few exceptions, they returned to Jewish communities utterly destroyed, their houses often occupied by local residents who took them for themselves. The remaining Jews were refugees on a continent where they had lived for 2000 years, but which was suddenly judenrein, the Jewish community murderously expunged from existence. The Jews of the former Soviet Union and England survived, and as for the rest - so few survivors.

Six million. Even now we breathe the dust of their ashes. To stop this destruction, too few voices were raised in the seventy languages of the world. And many have refused to hear the cries of those who were swept away by the devastating force of the Shoah. At that time, Canada's policy on Jewish refugees was simple: none is too many. Yes, it is true. I saw myself the government document which said so.

John tells us that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit with his breath, much quieter and softer than the violent wind in the book of Acts. Similarly, if Moses heard God in thunder, Elijah the Prophet found God not in thunder and in the earthquake, but in a still, small voice. On this day, while we are commemorating the 6 million, let the still small voice of God speak to the conscience of every human being. Let us say, never again a Shoah, never again a genocide. We did not hear this voice in Nazi Europe, nor in Cambodia nor in Bosnia nor in Rwanda. It now calls to us from the Darfur region in Sudan: are we still also deaf? Kol demama daka - that still small voice can be heard in each of our languages, and let our memory of the Shoah remind us that the difference between life and death for entire peoples may depend on the ability of each person to hear the still, small voice of God. Amen.

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Where the hell is God? By Richard Leonard SJ

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Where the hell is God?

Posted on: 21st March 2011 |

Author: Richard Leonard SJ

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20110321_1.htm

Category: Spirituality and Catholic Life

Tags: problem of evil, suffering, Richard Leonard SJ

Photo by nanda_uforians at flickr.com

In a new book due to be launched tomorrow in London, Australian Jesuit, Richard Leonard looks at how we understand the presence of God in our lives when we are faced with suffering. Using his own experience of a family tragedy, Fr Richard speaks about his personal response when he is tempted to ask: ‘Where the hell is God?’

Most explorations of where or how God can be found in human suffering tend to be fairly academic. I have found them to be immensely important, even when I have disagreed with their arguments or conclusions. I have even found the intellectual distance they establish to be somehow helpful in dissecting an anything but distant enquiry.

My passion for some answers in this area started from a different base. It was not, primarily, an academic question, though I hope my thoughts are intelligent. My interest started from experience, from my grappling with a family tragedy which forced me to confront how I can hold on to my belief in a loving God in the face of suffering.

On 23 October 1988 my sister, Tracey, was involved in a freakish car accident: she dislocated the 5th cervical vertebra and fractured the 6th and 7th vertebrae. For the last 23 years she has been a quadriplegic. Tracey is one of the finest people I know, and even at the time of the accident, at 28 years of age, she had already lived in Calcutta for three years and nursed the poorest of the poor at Mother Teresa’s House of the Dying. She had returned to Australia and got a job working with the Sisters of Our Lady of Sacred Heart, running a health centre for Aboriginal people at Port Keats. It was near there that the car accident happened.

Within twelve hours of my mother finding out about Tracey’s accident, she was standing in a hospital room in Darwin asking, ‘Where the hell is God?’

In the months that followed I received some of the most appalling and frightening letters from some of the best Christians I knew. A few wrote, ‘Tracey must have done something to deeply offend God so she had to be punished here on earth.’ They actually believe that God is out to get us. I have discovered since 1988 that this theology is far more common than I would have ever imagined. I have met people with cancer, couples with fertility problems and parents who have lost a child – all of whom have asked me what they ever did to deserve the curse under which they think God has placed them.

Others wrote, ‘Tracey’s suffering is sending up glorious building blocks to heaven for her mansion there when she dies.’ This is what is usually called ‘pie in the sky when you die theology’. I did not know that in heaven, in the many rooms of the Father’s house, there are first, business and economy class suites. There were scores of letters and cards which said, ‘Your family is really very blessed, because God only sends the biggest crosses to those who can bear them.’ I always found it strange that some people, who are not receiving that particular blessing, can see it so clearly in other people’s suffering. But let us think about this line a little more. We hear it often. If it is true, then we should all be on our knees morning, noon and night with only one prayer: ‘I am a wimp. I am a wimp. I am a wimp, O God. Do not consider me strong.’

Added to these responses were those of good people who were trying to be comforting, and so gave out the usual trio of replies in the face of bad news: ‘It’s all a mystery’; invoking Isaiah 55 with, ‘My ways are not your ways’; and ‘Only in heaven will find out God’s plan.’ There is a truth in each of these statements, but I thought that one of the points of the Incarnation is precisely that God wants to reveal his ways and thoughts, wants to be known, especially in the moments when we are sometimes given to the greatest despair. We do not believe and love an aloof being who revels in mystery and goes AWOL when the action turns tough in our lives. The Incarnation surely shows us that God is committed to being a participant in the human adventure in all its complexity and pain.

23 years later I am very grateful to the correspondents who wrote to me after my sister’s accident. They have alerted me to how often we hear some terrible theology, which does not draw people to God, in the worst moments of our lives. It alienates us. It alienated me for a while from believing in a God who wants us to have an intelligent discussion about the complexities of where and how the Divine presence fits into our fragile and human world. So here are my steps to spiritual sanity when we are tempted, and we give into the temptation, to ask, ‘Where the hell is God?’

In offering anything on this topic we are squarely in the domain of speculative theology. Greater minds than mine over the centuries have applied themselves to these questions and have come to different conclusions about them. I am happy for that. The problem is that when I most needed their insights, I found their answers inadequate. I am not blaming them. The vast majority of them did not have the benefit of contemporary biblical studies, theology, science, and psychology to lend a hand.

The Church knows, too, that it cannot be definitive about these matters, because on this side of the grave we just do not know where or how God fits with regard to the suffering of the world. Therefore I make no greater claim for my ideas than that they have helped me hold on to faith in a loving God as I walked through the ‘valley of tears’ and in the ‘shadow of death’.

God does not directly send pain, suffering and disease. God does not punish us, at least not in this life. I hold this confidently because in 1John 1:5 we are told that, ‘God is light, in him there is no darkness’ – so deadly and destructive things cannot be in the nature of and actions of God. Secondly, whatever we make of the varied images of God in the Old Testament, in Jesus God is revealed as being about life not death, construction not destruction, forgiveness not retribution, healing not pain. There is a huge difference between God permitting evil and God perpetrating such acts on us. We need to stare down those who promote and support a theology that portrays God as a tyrant.

God does not send accidents to teach us things, though we can learn from them. We do not need to blame God directly for causing our suffering in order for us to turn it around and harness it for good. The human search for meaning is a powerful instinct but I think spiritual sanity rests in seeing that in every moment of every day, God does what he did on Good Friday: not allowing evil, death and destruction to have the last word, but ennobling humanity with an extraordinary resilience and, through the power of amazing grace, enabling us to make the most of even the worst situations and let light and life have the last word. Easter Sunday is God’s response to Good Friday: life out of death.

God does not will earthquakes, floods, droughts or other natural disasters: can we stop praying for rain please? If God is directly in charge of the climate, he seems to be a very poor meteorologist indeed. When people ask, ‘why did the earthquake and tsunami happen?’, I think it best if we just tell them the simple geophysical truth: ‘Because the earth shelf moved, setting off a big wave.’ Behind the meteorologist-in-the-sky idea is not the God and Father of Jesus Christ, but Zeus, and I think we have to be careful what we think petitionary prayer does. It cannot change our unchanging God (James 1), so it asks our unchanging God to change us to change the world.

God’s will is more in the big picture than in the small. I believe passionately in the will of God. It is just that I believe it is discovered on the larger canvass rather than in the details. I think God wants me to live out the theological virtues of faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13). Through the blessing of time and place, the gifts of nature and grace, I work with God to realise my potential in the greatest way possible, even if that involves having to do things that are difficult, demanding and sacrificial. This response is not out of fear and compulsion, but comes from love and desire. I think we should be very careful in talking about God’s will using lines like, ‘But for the grace of God, go I’. What about the poor person who was not so blessed? Did God not care about them?

God did not need the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not just come ‘to die’ but God used his death to announce the end to death. This is the domain of ‘offer it up’ theology: it was good enough for Jesus to suffer; it is good enough for you. While I am aware of St Paul in Romans, St Clement of Alexandria, St Anselm of Canterbury and later John Calvin’s work on atonement theory and satisfaction theology, I cannot baldly accept that the perfect God of love set up for a fall in the Fall, then got so angry with us that only the grisly death of his perfect son was going to repair the breach between us. This is not the only way into the mystery of Holy Week. For most of Christian history the question that has vexed many believers seems to be, ‘Why did Jesus die?’ I think it is the wrong question. The right one is ‘Why was Jesus killed?’ And that puts the last days of Jesus’ suffering and death in an entirely new perspective. Jesus did not simply and only come to die. Rather, Jesus came to live. As a result of the courageous and radical way he lived his life, and the saving love he embodied for all humanity, he threatened the political, social and religious authorities of his day so much that they executed him. But God had the last word on Good Friday: Easter Sunday.

God has created a world which is less than perfect, else it would be heaven, and in which suffering, disease and pain are realities. Some of these we now create for ourselves and blame God. I have lost count of the number of people who have said to me, ‘I cannot believe in a God who allows famines to happen.’ I think God wonders why we let famine happen. God is responsible for allowing a world to evolve within which the effects of moral and physical evil can create injustices. But God is not responsible because we refuse to make the hard choices that would see our world transformed into a more just and equal place for everyone. In the face of this obstinacy, it is not surprising that we find a divine scapegoat to carry the guilt for our lack of political will and social solidarity.

God does not kill us off. As Catholics, thank God, at least since the 1960s, we do not officially take the scriptures literally until we go near texts about God knowing the ‘hairs on our head’ and the ‘span of our days’ (Jer 1:5; Gal 1:15-16; Prov 16:33; and Matt 10:30). Then we become completely fundamentalist. When I go near a nursing home I am regularly asked, ‘Father, why won’t God take Grandma? To which I reply ‘Because Grandma won’t stop breathing yet.’ I do not actually say this. I have more pastoral sense than that, but I want to. The verb ‘take’ is so revealing of what we think is going on here. Why would God’s desire ‘to take’ a two year old to heaven be more than God’s desire ‘to leave’ this child in the arms of loving parents? In contrast to this, I think it is entirely appropriate to believe that life, from the womb to the nursing home, is not allotted a span, as such, by God, but that our body will live until it can no longer function, for whatever natural or accidental reason. God is not an active player in this process, but, again, has to take responsibility for making us mortal. Then, when our body dies, our soul or spirit begins its final journey home.

Some might think that the theology outlined here presents God as remote or aloof. I do not need to think that God has to be the direct cause of everything in my life to have a strong and lively belief in a personal God. Indeed, I am passionate about God’s personal love and presence. Thinking that God is removed from the intricate detail of how things develop does not remove God from the drama of our living, our suffering and dying. God waits patiently for an invitation to enter our lives at whatever level we want. Christ meets us where we are, embraces us and holds us close when the going gets tough, and helps us find the way forward, even and most especially, on that last day when we find the way home.

Rev Dr Richard Leonard is a Jesuit of the Australian Province and author of Where the hell is God? (Paulist Press, 2010). He will be giving a public lecture on the book at its UK launch at 6pm on Tuesday 22 March 2011 at St Paul’s Bookstore, Morpeth Terrace, London SW1.

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20110321_1.htm

Thinking Faith reviews Where the Hell is God? by Richard Leonard SJ

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