Living in a World of Chaos

I'm going to a funeral Mass this afternoon. It's for a mom of eight. She was only fifty and most of the children are still at home, the youngest only seven. Death wasn't sudden for her. She's been battling cancer for several years and her last months were a marathon of suffering, both physical and emotional, not only for her but for her immediate and large extended family. They suffered with dignity, faith, cheerfulness, and confidence in the Lord. At the wake last night the viewing line extended to the back of the church for almost an hour as friends and family gathered and waited to pray and pay their respects.

Rescue workers assist toddler caught in sarin gas attack.

It's in that context that we came home from to listen to the news about the sarin gas attack and our bombing of the airfield in Syria, and, of course, to see the terrible pictures of the innocent little ones dead and dying. 

And now the Facebook wars have begun with all the armchair analysts taking sides. Assad did it! No, it was the rebels creating a false flag to get U.S. power behind them. It was an act of war. No it was a tactical event against terrorism. It was the right thing to do in the face of an atrocity. There were no U.S. interests involved, we should have stayed out of it.

My head is spinning!

Was our bombing justified and right? Or was it meddling and wrong? Was it smart? Was it stupid? Are we escalating the cold war? Will this make the world safer? Will it make the world more dangerous? Will all the saber rattling get us into more quicksand in the Middle East? Has our interference there ever improved things? What is our obligation as a nominally Christian country toward our international neighbors? 

Do I have any answers? Does it sound like it?

I'm reading Matthew 24, which doesn't offer much consolation: 

You will hear of wars and rumors of war. Do not be alarmed. Such things are bound to happen, but that is not yet the end. Nation will rise against nation, one kingdom against another. There will be famine and pestilence and earthquakes in many places. These are the early stages of the birth pangs. They will hand you over to torture and kill you. Indeed, you will be hated by all nations on my account. Many will falter then, betraying and hating one another....Because of the increase of evil, the love of most will grow cold....Immediately after the stress of that period, "the sun will be darkened, the moon will not shed her light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the hosts of heaven will be shaken loose."...As for the exact day or hour no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father only....Stay awake, therefore! You cannot know the day your Lord is coming.

There is only one answer to a world in chaos. We must become saints dedicated to the will of God and evangelizing as the apostles did, keeping our lamps lit as we wait for the Lord. Give us strength, courage, and perseverance, O Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of Peace that we might be a light to a world lost in darkness.