Letter #42, 2015: Mortality

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Letter #42, 2015: Mortality

[2015-10-07]

[Engleză]

October 7, 2015, Wednesday — Mortality

"Every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes." —Pope Francis, on Thursday, September 24, in his address to the U.S. Congress during his visit to America; he called for the "global abolition" of the death penalty

"For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." —U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in an address on June 10, 1963 at American University in Washington D.C., in which he spoke of the danger of nuclear war and argued in favor of a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union in order to build the basis for a lasting peace in the world, "not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war," and "not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave," but "genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children." Kennedy feared war with the Soviet Union. "All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours," he said. Therefore, he said, "both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race." It was in this context that he said "so let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct our attention to our common interests, and to the means by which those differences can be resolved," and then uttered the words which are cited above. Kennedy found in our "breathing of the same air," in our "cherishing of our children's future," and in "our common mortality," reasons for us to seek ways to make and keep peace. His own mortality was soon made evident to the world. Just five months later, on November 22, 1963, he was shot to death — a moment of sorrow which struck me deeply in my own childhood. Kennedy's reflection on our common human mortality as something that, if we keep it in mind, may cause us to feel a certain "commonality" even among enemies, a certain compassion toward all men, and even toward our very selves, for we know that our time in this world in brief, and our departure sure. Thus, while we are here, we should, perhaps, strive to "redeem the time"...

====================

The Synod and the Pope

In Rome, the Synod has begun. In fact, today it begins it's third day of deliberations. It is scheduled to continue until October 25.

Pope Francis gave an eloquent homily on Sunday, October 4, to open the proceedings, emphasizing the complementarity of male and female in the marital union, man and wife, source of new human life, as it was in the beginning. (link)

Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary -- with whom I have just done a long interview book, published a few days ago by the Vatican Press, so far only in Italian (I am trying to translate it into English in these days); it will also come out in Hungarian -- on Monday delivered a magisterial summary of the issues the Synod will discuss. (link) John Allen wrote a thought commentary on Erdo's lengthy talk (link). And some -- like Father Nicholas Grigoris -- see remarks of the Pope yesterday as a type of response to Erdo, or, as a guideline to the Synod in light of Erdo's remarks. (link)

However, as I suggested in an earlier letter (Letter #39, Further Thoughts -- in which I argued that the Kim Davis encounter with Pope Francis, which was a brief private meeting, not in a public line of two dozen guests, as some have suggested, was "not the only story in the world" last week, and not the most important), the Synod is not the only story in the world today, not even in the Catholic world.

I would venture to say that every Eucharist celebrated, every vow professed, every child conceived and born, every soul departing this world in death, is as precious in the sight of God as many of the disquisitions of this Synod, which is, after all, merely advisory. In the end, it will the Pope who decides.

In that previous letter, simply by way of example, I mentioned, as events and dramas which deserved our attention, three things:

(1) the bombing sorties of Russia in Syria;

(2) the laying off of tens of thousands of workers in China, each of whom would have to tell their families that they had lost their means of livelihood; and

(3) the case of a condemned prisoner on death row in Oklahoma, who was scheduled to die last week by lethal injection, and for whom Pope Francis prayed, and on whose behalf sent a letter to the Governor of Oklahoma, pleading that the prisoner be spared the death penalty.

1. Russia in Syria: A Christian power in the Middle East

The "Russia in Syria" story is of far different importance -- I will not say of greater or lesser importance, only of different importance -- than the Pope's meetings in America, or the unfolding of this present Synod. What is happening in Syria deserves our attention -- even if we cannot understand what it really means or where it will lead. The Russians, in a way puzzling to me (and, I think, to many), have simply waltzed (or, perhaps better, flown) into the country, with little fanfare (how did they do it?) and now, in a series of dozens of evidently quite accurate bombing sorties based, it seems, on quite good satellite intelligence, now seem likely to sharply curtail the activity and power of the monstrous, head-decapitating ISIS movement, perhaps as soon as in the next few weeks -- though the US efforts to do something similar over the past 18 months have yielded only... meager results.

This raises many important geopolitical, geostrategic questions, too many to address here. But three may be mentioned. First, the plight of the Christians in the Middle East may suddenly be less dire, if a powerful, self-declared Christian nation is now entering the scene militarily. Second, OPEC could be split, with consequences for the price of oil, for the global economy, and for the dependence of Europe on Russian as opposed to Saudi Arabian (and neighbors) oil and gas. Third, the flood of immigrants into Europe might begin to crest, and then to subside, meaning, that a solution to the immigration crisis may have been found in this unexpected Russian intervention.

Of course, strategists in the US are watching all of this with various levels of interest, surprise, and alarm. Some think the Russians will get bogged down. Some think they have stolen a march and are now in a powerful position. Some think they will stay. Some think they will leave in a few weeks.

But what seems clear is that "something" has stirred the Russian bear into activity in a new way, in a new sphere, and the world is different in October than it was in August, for this reason.

2. China: Confucian Past, Communist Present, What Future?

With regard to the layoffs in China, they are simply a sign, or a signal, that China's astonishing "economic miracle" of super growth, above 10 percent annually for a number of years, may not today still be as much of a miracle as many thought. This, too, has consequences. Many consequences. But, at the very least, we may mention one.

Ancient China had a profound reverence for "the ancestors." This was essential to the Confucian worldview -- piety toward the ancestors.

It is not hard to understand, and many of us share this feeling, on a human level.

The emergence of Communism in China less than a century ago was the emergence of a foreign ideology, a Western idelogy, and the decisions of that foreign ideology -- especially in the time of the cultural revolution in the 1960s, but not only -- were essentially antagonistic to the deepest cultural convictions of the Chinese, which were to preserve the past, and reverence that past, not smash it to pieces, as so many priceless Ming vases were, and trample it underfoot.

So the task China now faces, after modernizing within the framework of an essentially foreign ideology, and after finding that the marvels of modernity have their somber side (the pollution in Beijing, for example, which is appalling), is to build a truly Chinese future, one which draws on ancient wisdom and also on the most advanced modern science.

As China undertakes this great cultural task, it could be that the words of someone like Pope Francis, who teaches respect for the past, and respect for the environment, respect for "our common home," and also for human rights, family rights, individual rights of conscience, could intersect precisely with the need China may feel to embrace what is best in its past while continuing to "modernize."

I foresee in the not too distant future a papal trip to China, with startling results both for China, and for the Christian faith.

If some small percentage of the Chinese (speaking almost in science fiction terms), if some percentage of Chinese -- as has happened to some of us in the West, and in the Middle East, and in so many other places -- were to become attracted by the face of Christ, and were to be drawn toward the Christian vision of man as a being in the image and likeness of God, with rights that are inborn, and were to seek instruction, and were to desire to enter into communion with this great "Western/Middle Eastern" tradition -- if, say, 20% of all Chinese were to become interested in these things -- then that number would approach 300 million people, and the geography of the Church would in that instant be transformed, and the Chinese would become the largest single national group in the Catholic Church.

East would then truly meet West, in an unprecedented way.

3. The Case of Richard Glossip, Condemned to Die

And then there is the case of the condemned prisoner in Oklahoma, Richard Glossip.

Last week, I said Richard Glossip was about to be executed.

He was not executed.

A few minutes before he was supposed to receive a lethal injection, at the very last minute, the governor of Oklahoma ordered a stay of execution for several more weeks, because of doubts about the substance being used in the lethal injection.

On this case, I received a letter from a woman named Wilma. Wilma wrote:

"Dr. Moynihan,

On your previous Letter, you mentioned a convicted convict in the Oklahoma prison system who was denied clemency. You mentioned that he had received prayers from Pope Francis and not sure what was to become of the man.

I believe God is answering your prayers and those of the Pope. His execution has been delayed for an undetermined period of time due to the vehicle of execution by lethal injection.

I do not know this man but I believe that when this unexpected turn of events happened it was directly after prayers were offered on his behalf. Please keep him in your prayers, even though I know you have many others who need them. His last name is Glossip and all life is worth resisting death for.

Thank you for your wonderful letters and I so enjoy reading them."

I appreciated Wilma's letter, and without knowing much about Glossip's case -- or, indeed, about most of the very many other cases of condemned prisoners who face execution in the near future -- I reflected for a moment on the fact that all of us, as President Kennedy said, are, indeed, "mortal."

All of us must die.

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)

And this strange, inescapable and certain knowledge, with which we live from the time we are five, or six, or seven (when we reach "the age of reason") and with which no animal or tree -- so far as I understand the nature of consciousness -- has to live with, gives each of us in this world a certain lonely eminence, a certain grandeur.

So, knowing we must die, perhaps we can be less proud, less arrogant, and become fellow pilgrims on a journey which must inevitably have its cross, or crosses, for ourselves, and for those traveling with us.

The Pope said is America that "we know things can change."

We know we can stand up for an ideal, or a belief, for a friend, or a brother... and sometimes even for an enemy, even for a criminal, even for a murderer, though that is harder. Even for a sinner -- this too, perhaps.

We can work together to build peace, and the fact that we must die makes our efforts all the more luminous, all the more noble -- though this luminosity, this nobility, is only a shadow of the grandeur of Christ, who went before us, and showed us the way, from his time to our own...

(to be continued)

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Here is a story I found helpful in attempting to understand the Richard Glossip case. The story was written in the summer, before these latest events. It is found here with pictures, with the text also below. Room 102 is the hotel room where the hotel owner was murdered. Glossip was never accused of murdering the man himself, only of sending the murderer, who has confessed, to commit the crime. Glossip maintains he is innocent of the charge. Here is the story.

WHAT HAPPENED IN ROOM 102

Oklahoma Prepares to Execute Richard Glossip

By Liliana Segura, Jordan Smith

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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