Seeking the face of God

The recent violence in Israel represents a new eruption of the venom of rivalry and distrust that has been injected into relationships between Jews and Palestinians, festering for decades.

Bishop Scharfenberger

More than once during my most recent mission trip among the poor in Mexico City (Oct. 5-10, cf. hopeofthepoor.org), I was approached by total strangers in a surprisingly congenial way. Like most priests, I have been cursed and sneered at while wearing a Roman collar. I totally understand that, but I have never been mistaken for anyone but a Catholic priest. In each case, the person addressed me with great respect as “padre,” or “father,” unaware of (or not particularly needful of) my bishop’s pectoral cross. They approached just to “meet and greet,” it seemed, or to ask for a blessing, personally or for some religious articles they had purchased, perhaps for others. In one instance, a young woman, accompanied apparently by her mother or godmother, asked me to be photographed with her in front of one of the images of Mary at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, not far from the convent of sisters at which we pilgrims were lodging. 

None of this would have happened, most probably, had I not been dressed in clergy attire. I am not going to make the case that all priests should walk around in collars or cassocks all the time they are in public. Many professionals, however, such as nurses, police, firefighters and airline crews, do have distinctive attire, which helps inspire a relationship of mutual trust and confidence, in addition to reminding those in uniform of the dignity of their office and the accountability to which they are held by those they serve.

Evangelization is the prime goal of every disciple. As ordained clergy, we are commissioned to be evangelizers of the evangelizers! It makes sense to ask ourselves how we can do this if our presence is not somehow visible. God’s desire to be present to us led to the Incarnation, our faith reveals to us. Nevertheless, “clothes do not make the man,” as I was often reminded in my youth, and “actions speak louder than words.” That is why the “almsgiving” of time and presence is so much more important than homilies we preach or all the liturgical trimmings that accompany our office. 

One seminarian with me during many of these encounters observed that people are looking for a spiritual connection. They are seeking the face of God. I found that very insightful. In fact, that is exactly what had drawn me and so many of the pilgrims to this mission in the slums: a desire to encounter Christ in the poor. 

Recognizing the presence of God’s love and mercy in our own brokenness and the poverty in us and around us serves to reinforce our need for a Savior, to be evangelized ourselves. So many of the people with whom we spent considerable time — the mission is focused on evangelization, exchange of goods and services being important but incidental or expressive of the gift of personal presence — reiterated a common theme of amazement and gratitude that “people like us” would even be spending time with them. Their humility and spiritual richness in the midst of great material poverty were quite moving, such that it was we who felt blessed and evangelized, touched by a divine presence in them.

Nothing more emboldens the Evil One and its minions than the debasement of humanity. These persons have been serially abased, abused and stripped of so many indicia of human dignity. As I have written before, working on the city dump (as part of the journey our mission brought us to), the stench would even invade the pores of their skin, thus stigmatizing them every time they boarded a bus: you are from the dump! 

Human debasement is not limited to those branded by their abject poverty. The recent violence in Israel represents a new eruption of the venom of rivalry and distrust that has been injected into relationships between Jews and Palestinians, festering for decades. It is iconic of the fall of humanity from grace. The patterns of envy and hatred are as ancient as the book of Genesis where the narrative exposes the Evil One’s scheming craftiness in alienating humanity from God, and friends and family members from each other. 

Instead of recognizing how many things they share in common — a history of oppression, persecution, being marginalized and driven out as refugees, sometimes under the misguided and exploitative designs of those to whom they looked for leadership, both Palestinians and Jews are now tempted further to contribute to their own human debasement, so pitiable and horrifying to watch as it threatens to spiral down further into an incarnation of hell. 

Some on both sides, each professedly seeking the face of God in accord with their religious beliefs, have disfigured — or allowed to be disfigured — that image reflected within each person, descending into a rage unleashed by tyrannical ideologues. This is an old story the world has witnessed in the pogroms of the czars, the myriad iterations of ethnic cleansing and in the Nazi and Stalinist death camps. In short, the systematic annihilation of persons simply because they are deemed one of a “class” or “race” by which their oppressors brand them. In the case of Hamas and its supporters around the world — even on college campuses in the West — Jews are vilified and targeted for execution just for being Jews. Even babies are not spared. This butchery is an attack on all humanity, just as an in-kind retaliation against all Palestinians would be, if the goal is, as Hamas has proffered, the total extinction of the hated class of people. There can be no justification for terrorism, no moral foundation for such brutal attacks on innocent civilians and it must be universally condemned. 

I do not know how one surgically removes the head of such a venomous serpent that hides itself among civilians without doing violence to so many innocent lives. I pray that the victims and survivors may not be swallowed up by the darkness in which their attackers have been spawned. My heart goes out, above all, to the bereaved families and the families of the missing, friends and communities, all suffering from violence and the threat of more violence in Israel.

May we turn to our Father in heaven, as Jesus taught his disciples, offering prayer, fasting and sacrifice as we prepare for our Eucharistic Revival this weekend. Our Mass intentions will continue to include those seared and broken by the violence. If ever there was evidence of humanity’s need for a divine Savior, that time is now.

The way to peace is always through justice. No justice, no peace. Neither can there be justice where mercy is absent. There is no mercy where the dignity and sacredness of every human life is not respected and protected. Ironically, we celebrate October as “Respect Life Month” and the month of the Rosary. Mary always brings peace so it would be a good practice to implore her intercession for a resolution of this seemingly intractable situation.

We pray for the release of the hostages, the children and all civilians, and the swift establishment of humanitarian corridors. May God free the hearts of all seeking to de-escalate the vicious cycle of violence of any impulse to clamor for pure vengeance before considering the consequence of becoming the evil that one seeks to fight and to overcome. In the face of such inhumanity, nothing less than a respect for the rights and dignity of all, Jew and Palestinian, must become a goal — the only goal — that will lead to peace. Peace is only found in seeking the face of God in every human being. We have a Savior indeed who died for us all.

 @AlbanyDiocese