Prayer and Responsibility

Well, school shooting season is open. I hate how numb I am to it. I hate that we recite the same words, the same accusations, the same prayers over and over. It’s only different for the new community that has to deal with the loss and trauma. We grieve for them, knowing how easily it could be us.

I can’t imagine the terror of seeing that alert from my children’s school, or of hiding under office furniture texting last messages, or of rushing to a gathering point praying for good news, knowing someone is getting bad.

Those of us removed from the incident offer our prayers, because what else can we do? The problem comes when no one does anything except offers prayers.

Offering thoughts, prayers, consolation is good. Empathy is good. However, those who have power also have a responsibility to respond. The police investigate the crime scene. The medics and hospitals care for the injured. The funeral homes arrange funerals. Because it has to be done, and that’s their job. But when we look to politicians to react with policy changes, we’re told to not make it political, to just pray. But their job isn’t to pray; it’s to set policy, to create laws to make the community safe.

St. Hilarion

St. Hilarion, also called Thavata of Gaza, was born in Palestine in 291 to pagan parents. He grew up speaking both Greek and Aramaic. He was sent to Alexandria for school, where he learned of the hermit St. Anthony of Egypt. Hilarion converted to Christianity and went out and studied asceticism under Anthony. Hilarion found Anthony’s popularity too much to bear, as visitors came to him often, seeking healing. Hilarion moved to the wilderness of Palestine to live as a hermit.

He did go to Jerusalem on one occasion to venerate the holy sites; he spent most of his life in the Gazan wilderness. In 308 he built a hermitage where he lived in solitude for 22 years. He reported to have struggled with lustful desires and fought the temptation by mortification, fasting, and labor. Around 330, a woman sought him out for healing. After that, his popularity as a hermit healer grew. He is said to have healed, drove out demons, prophesied, and performed miracles.

As there were no monasteries in the region at the time, Hilarion gained followers who sought him out for spiritual instruction. One follower, Epiphanius, went on to establish monasticism in Cyprus. At some point between 337 and 356, Hilarion established a monastery in Gaza. After the death of St. Anthony of Egypt, Hilarion went out to his place in Egypt in order to escape the crowds that had gathered around him (much like they had with Anthony years earlier).

When the pagan Julian became emperor, Hilarion, because of his popularity, faced imprisonment. He fled to Sicily then Cyprus, where he was taken in by Epiphanius. He died in 371. His feast day is Oct. 21.

Remembering Palestinian Christians

When the bombing of Gaza began almost two years ago, some 700 of the small Christian community in Gaza sought shelter in Holy Family Church in Gaza City. The Christian population of Gaza has been reduced to just about 1,700, of which a couple hundred are Catholic (most are Orthodox). Christians have lived in Palestine since the beginning of Christianity. Holy Family Church is named such because it is located where tradition says the Holy Family rested on their way to and return from Egypt.

Travel to Bethlehem or Jerusalem for holy days is out of the question. Catholic Relief Services has been working to get resources to the church. Pope Francis used to call the pastor every night, closely following the safety and morale of the occupants staying within the church walls.

While the church has been able to offer shelter, some supplies, and community, safety is not guaranteed. On Dec. 16, 2023, a residence in the church compound which houses individuals with disabilities was hit by tank fire; the building’s generator, solar panels, and water tanks were damaged. Two women in the courtyard were fatally shot; seven more were injured. On July 17 this year, the compound was hit again, with three dying and 12 injured from the attack. The Christian population in Gaza has roughly halved since the beginning of the war.

It is terrible seeing any groups suffering in such a way, especially such a small minority that has persisted there for centuries, through various empires and cultural changes. They have not forgotten their faith.

Pope Leo XIV called for a day of prayer and fasting on Aug. 22, the feast of the Queenship of Mary, for peace and justice, especially in the Holy Land and Ukraine. As wars rage on, we who are safe tend to normalize it, let it fade into the background. But people continue to struggle, living in daily danger, facing starvation and violence. We cannot forget them.

Monday Motivation: Things Jesus Didn't Say

 

In Their Distress They Cry Out

Several detainees at the detention camp in the Everglades have gone on hunger strike. There are allegations of medical neglect, verbal abuse, and substandard food conditions in the camp. Now entering its third week, the hunger strike is protesting the conditions of the camp. DHS denies that a hunger strike is underway. Since lawyers and oversight groups are not allowed in, it is difficult to confirm or deny for sure.

Hunger strikes as a form of nonviolent protest goes back to pre-Christian Ireland. A protester would fast, sitting by the doorstep of the offender. This often shamed the offender and led them to reconciliation. A similar practice happened in India (if this was brought over from British imperialism, I’m not sure). It seems to have been prevalent enough that the British banned the practice in India in 1861.

Hunger strikes have taken place as political protests for various causes as well. Suffragists in the early 20th century in the UK and US went on hunger strikes while imprisoned. Many suffered from brutal force-feedings. Gandhi and other members of the Indian independence movement engaged in several hunger strikes protesting British occupation in India. Irish republican prisoners went on hunger strikes throughout the 20th century, protesting the British occupation in Ireland/Northern Ireland. Several men died while striking, going without food for more than 60 days. Probably the most famous of these was Bobby Sands, who died after 66 days during the 1981 hunger strike, in which paramilitary prisoners were protesting to be classified as political prisoners. In the later half of the 20th century, several Cuban dissidents engaged in hunger strikes to protest censorship and oppression in Cuba.

Like a Snow-capped Summer

Today is the commemoration of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or St. Mary Major. Ever since I first learned about it about nine years ago, I have wanted to see it, and on my recent pilgrimage to Rome, I finally did. It is one of four papal basilicas in Rome.

Santa Maria Maggiore is regarded as the first Marian sanctuary in the Western world. Its location on one of the seven hills of Rome, as well as its dedication date and its nickname of “Our Lady of the Snows,” is tied to a legend of its founding.

According to legend, there was a wealthy, pious couple in the fifth century who were childless. In 352, they decided they would give their wealth to St. Mary; they prayed to her, asking for a sign of how to do so. In the peak of the Italian summer, on the morning of Aug. 5, snow fell on Esquiline Hill. Both the couple and the pope were woken by visions that night to go to the hill, where they discovered the unusual snowfall. Taking it as their sign, the couple declared they would fund a church dedicated to Mary on that spot. The pope outlined the basilica in the snow. It was officially dedicated on Aug. 5, 431, shortly following the Council of Ephesus, at which proclaimed Mary as the Mother of God.