War is Hell

Trying to see the war through eyes of faith

03/10/2022

Mt 7:7-12 Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

The famous phrase “War is hell” is attributed to the Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War. That phrase became a self-fulfilling prophecy as General Sherman pursued a “scorched earth policy” through the South, not only defeating the Confederacy but also demoralizing it. He destroyed cotton plants, burned plantation homes, roads and bridges. Sherman made war hell.

We are also witnessing a scorched earth policy by Russia in Ukraine as they turn their guns from aiming at soldiers to aiming at civilians. On Wednesday, a Russian missile hit a maternity ward in Mariupol, killing at least three people, one of whom was a child. Over 1.3 million Ukrainians have become refugees in nearby Poland, not counting the hundreds of thousands in other neighboring nations. On the Russian side the death toll stands between 5,000 and 6,000 soldiers. War is indeed, hell, for all parties involved.

But war is hell in another sense, too. Not only because it makes us question our faith in human beings, but also because it makes us question our faith in God. Many people all over the world are wondering why a good, loving, wise and powerful God could let all this needless suffering and death happen. There is an old adage that states: “There are no atheists in foxholes.” But that is not always true. Why not? Because sometimes war makes us doubt a good God could exists who allows such atrocities to take place. “Where is God?” we all rightly ask. Foxholes sometimes produce atheists.

And Jesus’ words in the gospel today do not help the Christian cause one bit. He says: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” But we may well object: haven’t the people of Ukraine asked for the fighting to end? Haven’t they sought peace through negotiations? Haven’t they battered the doors of heaven with prayers for protection, for at least the women and children, even pregnant mothers? But those prayers seem to have gone unheard, and by all observable standards, they remain unanswered. In that sense, war is hell because it makes us doubt heaven exists. During a war, it seems hell is all there is.

War can indeed shake our faith, but war can also solicit a deeper faith. It is often said that “seeing is believing.” And, to be sure, it is much easier to believe in God when we see the beauty of his creation, the love of human beings who help each other, the peace and joy of family life, the miracle of new life, and so on. But that is easy faith, indeed, an immature faith. Real faith, mature faith, comes when we believe without seeing. Real faith is blind faith.

I will never forget what Pope St. John Paul II said when someone tried to assassinate him on May 13, 1981. Because May 13 is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the Polish pope said Mother Mary had moved the path of the bullet to miss his vital organs. A cynical reporter replied, “Why didn’t Mother Mary move the bullet so it would not hit the pope at all?” The pope demonstrated an almost blind faith in God’s love and saw all things in its light. He could believe without seeing. The reporter, on the other hand, needed proof. He might believe, but first he needed to see. War is hell, and wartime demands a deeper faith: believing without seeing.

Let me also say a word about prayer, since that was Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel. Our Lord is explaining one kind of prayer: the prayer of petition, where we ask for something, like for the war in Ukraine to end and the protection of civilians. But that is not the only kind of prayer, nor is it the highest kind of prayer. There is also the prayer of thanksgiving, which is what the Mass is essentially. The prayer of contrition or seeking forgiveness and mercy.

And finally, the prayer of adoration and praise, where we see all things in God’s hands, guided by his providence, and redounding to his glory and our salvation. This highest and holiest form of prayer is practiced in contemplation. St. Paul captured the core of this prayer in Rm 8:28, where he said: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.” In other words, there is more going on in Ukraine than what meets the eye, but it takes a deep faith and a persistent prayer life to begin to see it. To the naked human eye, on the other hand, all we will see is that “war is hell.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!