Operation Strength of a Lamb

Seeing how Jesus perfects us as his Bride

06/17/2025

Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

I don’t know about you, but every morning recently when I wake up I say my first prayers – Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be – and then immediately check my phone to see if the world has blown up. That is, I wonder what the next step in the Israel-Iran war is going to be.

One of our parishioners, Philip Stevens, a major in the Air Guard, texted me last Thursday at 8 p.m. to tell me Israel had started an operation known as “Strength of a Lion” to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapon capability and to kill its top military officers. I texted him back writing: “This is not going to end well.”

And then I added: “By the way, I am sitting in my office writing the last couple of homilies on Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.” Now, focusing on some abstract, esoteric theology might seem like a waste of time while the world is blowing up. But I believe that is exactly the best use of our time. Why?

Well, we might say while Israel is conducting its military Operation Strength of a Lion, Jesus is conducting his marriage Operation Strength of a Lamb. That is, one way to interpret world is history is in terms of wars, natural disasters, and geo-political events. But that lens is not the only way – or even the best way – to read the signs of the times.

Besides natural, world history, there is also supernatural, salvation history that sort of runs along beside it like on two parallel tracks. Or better yet, salvation history absorbs world history into its own superior matrix. Think of how a human being consumes plants or animals for food – a salad and a cheeseburger for lunch.

Those lower creatures are then digested and subsumed into our higher, human dimension of life. And in a sense, they share our destiny by being part of us. Perhaps that is how Betsy the cow will one day be saved, because I will be saved and Betsy will be part of me after lunch.

So, instead of waking up every morning and being filled with fear over Operation Strength of a Lion, we should wake up every morning filled with faith over Operation Strength of a Lamb. That is, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, is slowly preparing and perfecting his Bride, the Church for her wedding day to him.

That paradigm of preparation and perfection is the larger matrix of salvation history into which the smaller events of world history must be absorbed and understood. And this larger perspective of Operation Strength of a Lamb is how we should interpret Jesus’ teachings in his Sermon on the Mount today.

He contrasts what he presently expects of his disciples from what was required of them in the past. “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” It will be precisely through the Strength of the Lamb – his glorious grace – that we will be “perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

Being perfect is a tall order when you rely solely on self-centered and stupid human beings like me and you. But not when you rely on grace, the divine strength of the Lamb. I got a glimpse of how the Lamb’s grace is slowly preparing and perfecting his bride, the Church.

The Carmelite nuns sent me their quarterly bulletin and shared what has been going on lately in their monastery nestled in the heart of Little Rock. They have two young ladies preparing to take their vows, and one young lady spent a week discerning her vocation. This year they will celebrate their 75th anniversary of their foundation in Little Rock.

And they talked about how a couple of large trees fell in their wooded property, and they prayed for those whose trees fell on homes. That made me wonder: if a tree falls in the forest, does a Carmelite nun hear it? Yes she does, because in the deep silence of contemplation, she hears everything. In other words, even though you and I are far from perfect, there is nonetheless, a limb of the Body of Christ that is close to perfection, even though the humble nuns would vehemently deny it.

Thus, Jesus through Operation Strength of a Lamb patiently carries on his perfecting work upon his Bride, the Church. That invisible work of grace remains hidden from the eyes that only see wars, natural catastrophes, and geo-political upheavals. But that inexorable work of grace is a brilliant and beautiful reality for all who look at the world through the eyes of faith, even seeing how cows can be saved.

Praised be Jesus Christ!