Charlie Johnston.

I learn something new every day. Thank you!

Foward in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!

 

If the "all killing is wrong" trope is an accurate interpretation of Christian revelation, why did Jesus, in the 22nd Chapter of Luke, tell His disciples that now that He would soon be gone, any who did not have a sword must get one - and that they should sell their cloaks if necessary to get arms?

This idea that Jesus was the unrelenting pacifist has only gained serious currency in the last two centuries - and is an innovation from older Protestant theology, I might add.

I tell you this: if you attack someone you could have given effective witness to, you will be held to account. You may choose to allow yourself to be victimized rather than fight back without fault. But if you stand idly, wringing your hands, and do nothing when other innocents are attacked that you could have reasonably defended with force, including deadly force, you will be held to account. The Blood of Christ is not a thin, watery broth.

 

And the parents of those kids killed by Israel will now seek justice and so the spirl downward continues. I guess it all comes down to did God really give all that land to the Jews as stated in the old testament and if true does that give them the right to oppress the Palistinians, control the entire area, bulldoze their house etc. etc. We know the Jews are in error in not accepting Jesus as Saviour and will be converted in the end. So to will the remaining people of the earth from all other religions.

I don't understand that sword wording since it appears contradictory to most everything else Jesus spoke. He also told Peter to put away his sword. It certainly could have meant the sword of faith, or rightiousness etc. and not been literal. Turn the other cheek, if they take you tunic offer your cloak aswell, pray for those that persecute you and so many others.

Charlie you had a recent writing on trust. I've followed and supported Mark Mallett for years and the Divine Mercy message, Jesus I Trust In You! is the dominant message happening which you so amazingly preached in your blog just a day or 2 ago. This trust message is opposite to the sword comment in my opinion. Anyway, a loose tie in but like in the middle east when things get terribly bad here will I grab a "sword" to defend my family and belongings or simple trust in Jesus and Mary. If God is really in control and trusting in God is the ultimate in true faith no sword will be required. As heated as the world gets and as interesting as it is debating who is right or wrong I'll try to go back to leaving world events to others and stop focusing too much on them. God will judge them and I better take your advise and trust and prepare my own soul and guide my family and be of service to others.

Sorry to start us down this path in the first place, i don't find it nescessarily fruitful.

Also just as an fyi, my wife is Egyptian but born in Canada. Her parents we both raised in the middle east luckily as Christians. My mother-in-laws family are mostly all still in Egypt. In fact my wife and son were in a plane to Egypt as the revolution started and ended up trapped in Cairo there under curfew the whole time. It was a worrisome time. I do have first hand accounts of the Muslim and Christian situation over there. I have no sypathy for the error filled Islamic religion. I know what you say is true. But it's a flawed belief they ALL want to kill Jews and Christians. Many of them are no different then us. They just want peace and are good hearted, peace loving people. You can't paint all people with the same brush. I'm certain God doesn't. So bombing hospitals and raining phosphorus bombs on innocent women and children doesn't fly with me using any excuse imaginable.

 

Amen, brother. We are called to stand up to and fight back against evil

 

You know Charlie , while not a pacifist (and I know the teachings of our Church is not pacifist) I must say I have struggled and prayed over the use of violence for most of my life.

I fought myself here in Ireland for a period of eight years. My grand uncles fought in the IRA as well in the Irish War of Independence in the 1920's my father was involved and so were most of mt six brothers. I have seen some terrible violence up close and at first hand.

I have to say I and I suspect any thinking , prayerful person who has come close to a lot of spilt blood at close hand can only have severe reservations about it all. If I had my life to do over again I have to say I would never ever want to get involved in war ever again. I would much rather simply pray for my enemies and do good for them. Just as Jesus taught.

Of course I can never say, 'Never' , who knows what the future will bring. But please God I will never hold a gun again. I would rather just hold unto my rosary beads.

As for Israel and Palestine. I don't want to get sidetracked. As MMM mentioned I am not sure how fruitful it would be to get involved too much in politics in a Spiritual Forum such as this, but I can't help making one or two remarks, having visited the Holy Land myself.

As you may know Irish troops as members of the United Nations have served in the Holy Land for some quite considerable number of years now.



We did so as a neutral small power. I remember with joyful surprise when I called down to the Sea of Galillee meeting Irish troops there and a very large Irish Flag being flown.

I have to say invariably Irish troops going out there tend to support the Israeli's influenced by the media. However when ever they come home having actually seen what is going out there at first time very, very much pro Arab/ Palestinian. What causes them to change is ,I suspect very grave human rights abuses and injustices.

I am not siding with one side or the other. They are all my sisters and brothers and I love them all. and I am not going to go into a political rant.

But there are rights and wrongs on both sides and I love both the Palestinians and Israeli's. But I cannot believe that God's blessings is on Israel for the way she is behaving , especially at the moment. Nor Having walked the streets of Jerusalem and witnessed what is going on , I do not think anyone with an open mind or heart could think any differently.

I recall I used to go to the Carmelite Church at Notre Dame every day and there we were addressed by the Papal Representative in the region ,an Archbishop who highlighted these very concerns. The Church herself is naturally concerned as 10 per cent of Palestinians are our Catholic sisters and brothers.

I don't want to get into a big discussion on the subject but in justice and truth I just felt I had to write this.

I would also say that Irish people, at least in this part of the world anyway who have experienced massive Human Rights abuses themselves tend to be very concerned as to how Palestinains are being treated out there.

It is not at all a matter of being anti Jewish , I know many, many Jewish people are even more concerned than myself , including Israeli's, about what is going on.

 

Can anyone tell me the difference between murdering a child in the womb and murdering a child with a laser guided missile, anyone who promotes any of these is not from God he might be from a Jewish God, he is not a god i know. We are Roman Catholics of the Church of Jesus Christ, our God is in all the peoples of the world, he talks of love not hate even to the Samaritans.

 

I note, as one French writer wrote, 'There is no more political statement than to say you have no interest in politics'.

I am going to be highly political and write that I find I have less and less interest in politics , nor trust in politicians.

I also have found as far as the Forum is concerned we prosper best when we avoid politics.

So I do not wish to get bogged down in this contentious and divisive issue too much.

 

Dear Charlie: I read this on your website:
charliej373 says:
July 15, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Yes, Bob, that was last Christmas. I was very grateful for it. Christmas has always been my favorite (and I mean since I was tiny). It was kind of a goodbye to the old order. What we will have over the next few I don’t exactly know. The faithful had Christmas even in the old Communist and Fascist regimes – but it certainly wasn’t a culturally shared celebration. How joyful it will be when it bursts through with joyful, new intensity at Christmas of 2017 or 2018.

Reply

• Stephen Maresch says:
  July 16, 2014 at 2:26 pm
  Charlie,
  
  What does that mean new intensity at Christmas of 2017 or 2018 are you saying it will be over by then or just beginning?
  
  
  
• charliej373 says:
  July 16, 2014 at 5:52 pm
  Yes Steve, we will have passed through the Storm by then.
  

• 
  And I can only say that while I DO trust in Jesus and Mary, it is getting VERY hard to trust even in our hierarchy. We know the corruption in our civil government but there is also corruption in our Church as well. So much confusion and suggestions from high prelates that Church teaching will change (it cannot). Millions of souls hang in the balance and some prelates just focus on worldly things or wink at intrinsic evils. It is a sad bad time.

 

Hi Charlie. I asked a question on page one and wondering if you might have missed it. ?

 

Eamonn, I will take a stab at your question. In the first place, abortion is always an intrinsic evil (never justified in the eye's of God). In reference to a lazer guided missle, if it will deliberately aimed at killing inncocence it too would be an intrinsic evil. However, if its target was a building that the militiant Islamists were firing missles from, whom they also lined with human shieldsields at the same time, it would not be an instrinsic evil for another country to defend itself. This is exactly what is happening between Islamic radicals and Israel. It is very Catholic to support the right to defend oneself.

 

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jewish people are our older brothers and sisters in faith. One glorious day we will all be one.

 

A review of the Old Testament may be in order if you need a refresher course on who's God chosen people are, including aiding them in battle.

Modern day as well, I'm sure you've heard testimonies of the Israeli and Egyptian pilots on what occurred during the 6 Day War, overview of the battle here
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2007/June/Israels-1967-Miracle/

 

I
fought in a long war

I have to ask others

Did you


ever fight

yourself

 

You are writing,

far


far


far

to casually

of war

War is terible

 

I have never served in the military and have thankfully never killed anyone. I have on several occasions dealt with immediate seriously threatening situations and twice, rushed into serious danger to help people. Once, I stopped an attempted bank robbery in progress in central Illinois where a teller and a young woman vice-president were being held (Perhaps I'll tell the narrative sometime, but not now) and once, in Kentucky, rescued a young family from a car whose gas tank burst into flames near a McDonalds and got everyone inside safely covered. I thank God I have not had to kill anyone as some here have had to deal with.

I deeply appreciate the serious, sober way people here are trying to deal with the matter at hand. I do not regret sparking such discussion, because we all NEED to think about it - and think carefully, with clarity and with honesty. The reason being, when all goes to chaos, there is no place of safety. The time will come when you have to choose - and choose between very bad alternatives. It is very good to choose peace - and to pray to God that He intervene to grant it. If you killed someone in defense of another, it would eat at you for a very long time. But if you saw someone being tortured or in the process of being killed, could stop it with deadly force, and let the innocent die because you prayed that God take care of it, that would eat at you, too. We are the instruments through whom God normally accomplishes His will.

James 2:14-17 speaks very bluntly about the banality of offering people prayer without action. I can't say for anyone what their action should be in the brutally difficult situations you will be confronted with, but you will soon be confronted with terribly difficult things that will require your whole mind, body and spirit to answer well. There is no easy formula there. When I say that God is always startling, fresh and new, it is a double-edged sword. Whatever you do, you will be held to account - and a complacent, formulaic approach won't be of use. Again, I am impressed at how seriously and soberly people here are approaching this. I am going to go quiet on it for a while. I will have something to say in the next week at The Next Right Step.

God bless you all and thank you for your faith and fidelity.

 

Hi, Little Me. I am getting inundated with questions the last few days - from here and more than a handful of other sites. Your question was serious and I want to give it the serious answer it deserves. I am slower to respond to some things than others because...1) some questions require more prayer and contemplation than others; 2) I do not want to play at being the 'prophetic answer man.' I don't have all the answers and I do not want to fall prey to pretending I do; 3) I am heartened at how serious and sincere people are and I want to speak in a way that helps build up authentic faith.

During my pilgrimage, everything was secondary to human interaction. I figured everyone I met was sent by God for us to chat and so did not want to miss either giving or receiving the witness He intended for me with people. Early last week, as I was finally showing signs of recuperating from my health struggles, I committed to the Lord that I would do my best to respond to all who needed hope from me - to relive that ethos from my pilgrimage. Well, with Mark Mallett's "convergence in the clearing" post last weekend, an already-growing readership has simply exploded...and I am trying to manage both making new posts, covering the things I need to cover - and responding to all who interact with me. It is consonant with God's sense of humor: I say I am going to re-dedicate myself to my inbox and He says, "Great...let me just multiply by 10 or 20 the number of things coming in there each day." So have patience with me. I did not miss your question - and it is one I set aside as requiring an especially thoughtful response. Thanks.

 

Are you really trying to tell me it is sometimes right to kill children for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I cant believe as a Catholic any one would accept that. What would Jesus reply to your question be ? yes it is ok to kill children sometimes, OR NEVER. People really should really think about there answer to this question because he will ask you again and as we know he loves all his children very much.

 

I will probably get browbeat for this but... there WERE children in Sodom and Gomorrah and also those that died in the flood. These children were removed (killed if you will) from their evil surroundings by God out of MERCY. Had they grown up in those surroundings they would have more than likely become great sinners like their parents who did not receive salvation. We do not worship a NICE god! I'm sick and tired of this "be nice and tolerant" crap!

 

Emmonn, please read my answer more carefully. It is not okay to kill any innocent person intentionally. Incase you have not been paying attention to what the Islamic terrorists have been doing the past many years, they fire rocket bombs from a schools, hospitals or residential house area etc.. with the intention to kill as many innocent civilians as possible. Then they put their own countrymen civilians in arms way when the country being bombed retailiates by taking out the bombers position of attack. Then the terrorists go on TV and say the armies are bombing civilians so they look like the aggressors. All war is ugly and the result of sin. Innocents have always died in war, but lets make sure we understand what terrorists will do in war. The terrorists initiate the bombing of innocent civilians (such as the Israelies) and then put their own civilians (Palistinians) in arms way to play the sensationalism card to the world for sympathy for what they themselves have dealt. They are brutal murderors.

 

Intolerance is a is a sin especially for little children, and are you saying because God levelled Sodom & Gomorrah it is ok if we do the same,? (with laser guided missiles) it really breaks my heart to have to listen to people say certain types of murder are ok because its not, you need to pull the planks from both your eyes if you believe this. All murder is evil even the one's committed by our friends , many innocent children have always been kill in war does this make it right. God will have his revenge for the killing of innocents thats why Hell is full of well meaning murders.