Peace in Our Time?

What is our world coming to? Last Friday, on November 13th, the city of Paris suffered her worst attack since the Second World War. 129 people died. Several hundred were injured. Why? This was the work of truly depraved men, men who believed that they were fighting for the sake of religion. "Allah Ackbar," they cried as they stole innocent lives and covered the streets of the City of Lights with blood. These are not men of God. These are men of hate. These are not holy warriors fighting for their faith. These are cowards who target civilians and blow themselves up. These are not martyrs. These are murderers. In a recent address, His Holiness Pope Francis called these monsters and all who kill in the name of religion "blasphemers." Islamic terrorists like the ones who perpetrated the attacks in Paris make a mockery of the name of God by using it as their final words as they kill innocents. That is not what God is. That is not the truth. That is a lie.

The taking of innocent lives is never justified by religion. It is never justified by anything. We must always remember that a single life, a single soul, is so precious that Jesus Christ would have died on the Cross for them alone.

That is the problem with Islam. The Bible does not say "kill the unbelievers" seven times. The Quran does. The Bible does not sentence basically all woman to damnation. The Quran does. Jesus did not reclaim his holy city by massacring Jews. Muhammad did.

The heresy of these Islamic terrorists is that they think that God is pleased by acts of violence, by their killing of the unbelievers. They believe that they can appease him with the shedding of innocent blood. What damned nonsense.

They are dying for a lie. They are killing for a lie. They are truly monsters. Their violence and blasphemy is not limited to Paris, not by any means. Our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East are callously murdered by the same lie that murdered 129 in France. Every single day, the Islamic State and others like them blow themselves up, behead, rape, and murder all for the sake of their "religion," their lie.

What should we do? What can we do? Is there anything that we can do in the face of such utter violence and depravity?

Have faith in the justice of God. His righteousness is so much greater than our own. His justice comes in His own time. Make no mistake, these monsters that call themselves holy warriors, mock the name of God, and murder His true believers will have their day before the Throne. They will not be able to escape the judgement of God for their depravity.

What we should do is pray. Pray for those who lost their lives in France, in the Middle East, and around the world because of the lies of hate and blasphemy. And though it might be hard, pray for those souls that have somehow become so consumed with hate that they think that it is acceptable to take a life. And pray for better times. Pray that we might have peace in our age, as impossible as it seems, for nothing is impossible with God. This age of hate and apostasy should make us yearn all the more strongly for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Just as the Israelites prayed for deliverance during their years of captivity and oppression, so too should we Christians pray for the love of God to blot out the hate of our world.

The only thing in this world stronger than this hate is love. We have no shortage of examples of radical love in the face of hate. Do not be afraid of these terrorists. Have hope. They are not the first to promise the destruction of Christianity and all we hold dear. We have two millennia of true and holy martyrs to prove this. The Romans could not extinguish the love of Christ, regardless of the numbers of Christians sacrificed to the beasts or burned alive or tortured to death. The Church survives. She has survived fire and blood, schism and hate. The Church is well and alive!

This attack on Paris was the act of cowards, but they are doomed cowards. They have taken on a futile task because the Church of God will never fall. We are established on a rock, not on bloodied sand as they are. Await God's judgement eagerly, for He will bring peace in our time. He alone will bring peace in our time.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, patroness of Paris, pray for us.

Deus Volt!