Massacre in France is a Piecemeal Third World War, and Jesus is the Path to Peace

We find this path to peace when we recognize the time of our own visitation. God is not absent in the midst of all of this. He weeps over what is occurring.

Do we recognize the time of our own visitation? God is present in our world today. He wants to  speak, to lead, to serve, to heal and to save. He is not to blame for the mess we are in. We are!  Those who purport to be representing their "God"  as they commit unspeakable evils such as what occurred in Paris are, in fact, diabolical. One of the leading exorcists appointed by the Vatican, made it very clear recently when he said "ISIS is Satan". Every morning Pope Francis preaches a homily at daily mass. On Thursday, he broke open this gospel text for those gathered in the Church of Saint Martha. He told them: "Jesus also weeps today, because we have preferred the path of war, the path of hatred, the path of enmity. Christmas is approaching: there will be lights, there will be celebrations, lighted trees and manger scenes . all bedecked: as the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the things that make for peace."

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Everywhere you turn, there is violence, bloodshed and carnage. From the downing of a Russian passenger plane, which is now the subject of boasting  by evil jihadists, to the horrific, inhuman attacks in Paris, the face of evil is being revealed. People are understandably afraid. Pope Francis referred to the recent Paris attacks as part of a "piecemeal Third World War".

The Gospel passage appointed for Mass on Thursday, November 19, 2015, was short in the number of words but huge in its relevance. It offers to each of us a treasure which all men and women long for, a path to peace. We find this path to peace when we recognize the time of our own visitation. God is not absent in the midst of all of this. He weeps over what is occurring.

He also invites all of us, indeed the whole world, into an ongoing relationship with the source of real, true and lasting peace, Jesus Christ, the Savior. In the Gospel of Luke we encounter Jesus in as He begins His journey toward Jerusalem. There He voluntarily offered Himself on the Second Tree of the Cross, where the sin occasioned by the tree in the garden of Eden would be undone. On the cross of Calvary He dealt death a fatal blow and crushed the evil one whose lies had unleashed its awful effect, separation from God, on the whole world. 

The Cross, an instrument of torture reserved for the worst of criminals in ancient Rome, is now both the sign and the means to true peace,  for those who will humble themselves, repent, and take refuge under its shadow. The loving assistance of God is available for all who will receive the One who stretches out His arms to embrace the whole world as Savior and Lord. 

On the cross, Jesus dealt definitively with the real enemy of peace, the sin in each one of our lives. There He also offers the antidote to its devastating effects in a world which is dying, precisely because it has turned away from God's loving plan. It is sin and evil which is the root of the wars of this age - and every age - not God! We need a Savior, and the Father has sent one.

With tenderness, Jesus looked out from the Mount of Olives and saw the Holy City of Jerusalem. How he loved - and still loves - that special City. Then, Jesus wept. The Word Incarnate, made a man like us in all things but sin, cried. He knew that the City of Jerusalem would soon be overtaken and destroyed by the armies of Titus. He wept the tears of Love - and revealed the compassion of His Sacred Heart:

"If this day you only knew what makes for peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." (Luke19:41-44)

He especially loved Jerusalem. He spent three years walking her dusty streets and encountering her inhabitants, welcoming them all to find peace by encountering God, fully revealed in Him. He  taught in the temples and engaged the learned with the wisdom of heaven itself.

He healed the sick, multiplied bread for the hungry - and even raised the dead. However, they failed to recognize the time of their visitation. Their eyes were closed to the One who held within Him the path to peace. They did not recognize the presence of God in their midst.

Do we recognize the time of our own visitation? God is present in our world today. He wants to  speak, to lead, to serve, to heal and to save. He is not to blame for the mess we are in. We are!  Those who purport to be representing their "God"  as they commit unspeakable evils such as what occurred in Paris are, in fact, diabolical. One of the leading exorcists appointed by the Vatican, made it very clear recently when he said "ISIS is Satan".

Every morning Pope Francis preaches a homily at daily mass. On Thursday, he broke open this gospel text for those gathered in the Church of Saint Martha. He told them: "Jesus also weeps today, because we have preferred the path of war, the path of hatred, the path of enmity. Christmas is approaching: there will be lights, there will be celebrations, lighted trees and manger scenes . all bedecked: as the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the things that make for peace."

He told the faithful who gathered at morning Mass - and the message applies to each of us - "It will do us well to ask the for the grace of tears, for this world that does not recognize the path of peace, this world that lives for war, and cynically says not to make it. Let us pray for conversion of heart". We  need such a conversion of the heart right now - as individuals, families, communities and nations.

Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, continues to visit us today. He is walking in our lives - right now.He can be seen by those who have living faith. He speaks to us through His Word and communes with us in prayer. He makes Himself available to us on every altar throughout the whole world - if we choose to accept his invitation.

He comes to take up His residence within us. He mediates His divine life, whiich is called grace, through the Sacraments administered through His Body, the Church. He is found, to those who look with love and compassion, in the eyes of the poor, in all of their manifestations.

His love and mercy are revealed in the events of our everyday life, if we have a living relationship with Him. It is in encountering Him that we find the path to true peace. In a world spiraling out of control, we who bear the name Christian are called to live in this true peace.

We are now being called to bring others to this true peace, by helping them to encounter Jesus Christ, the Savior. Peace is not the absence of conflict. Rather, it is the presence of God. It grows and transforms us when we learn to live in that presence. When we do, we become its very instrument.

At the Last Supper, right before he walked the Way of the Cross for each one of us, Jesus spoke these words to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid". (John 14:27) We need to hear these words today, deep inside, in that place the Scripture refers to as the heart. The path to true peace passes through prayer, encounter and communion.

Jesus set forth the relational framework within which we can live in peace in the form prayer we call the Our Father. In the Gospel of St. Luke, after teaching the disciples that prayer he tells them a parable concerning persevering prayer for needs. (Luke 11:1-13) The Our Father is more than a paryer to be recited, it is a lifestyle to be lived.

His entire time with the disciples is an instruction in Prayer and communion with His Father. It is a demonstration of living in real peace; one which we can imitate and enter into. That is if we continue to say yes to His call to live in a dynamic relationship with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

He showed the disciples who walked with Him during His earthly ministry - and He shows the disciples who walk with Him in His Body, the Church, today - the way to live in continual communion with the Father. He invited them - and He invites each one of us - into the very communion of love He has with the Father. That is actually possible for all of us, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

He shines His light into our increasingly dark world in order to illuminate the path to peace. We discern that path and walk its way when we begin to recognize the time of our own visitation. The Christian vocation is a call into a new way of living, a life of ongoing communion with God - a life of peace - even in a world at war.

Through His Incarnation - His saving Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension- Jesus has removed the impediment to our entering into true peace and communion with the Father. He has saved us. He bridged the separation which had been opened between us and the God who loves us, as a result of sin. We have been saved from sin and death and saved for an entirely new way of life.

Jesus makes it possible for us to live in communion with God, beginning right now, by grace. He  is not dead, He is alive! He has been raised from the dead and He is present in our midst. He walks in our streets in His Body, the Church, of which we are members through Baptism.

Jesus has opened up eternity, beginning now, for those who receive Him, recognize Him and open themselves up to life in the Holy Spirit.We can have our eyes opened and actually recognize His visitation - all of His visitations - in our day and age. That is if we offer our continual yes to His invitations of grace and choose a life of discipleship.

Jesus is the path to peace, even in a world at war.

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Deacon Keith A. Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children and seven grandchildren, He is a constitutional lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen nineties. He has long been active at the intersection of faith, values and culture.He currently serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel.

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