PhotoCardinal O'Connor's Homily




Sunday Homily

Memory of those who fought for right; reminder of 'our nature to live in harmony'

This is the text of Cardinal O'Connor's homily at Sunday Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral May 30, the feast of the Holy Trinity and the eve of Memorial Day.

Since the first bombing in Kosovo, I have been making repeated announcements that we must reflect upon the morality of what is happening. I have myself come to believe in accordance with Church teaching, as I understand it, that it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to justify the way in which this war is being waged from a moral prospective. It is not a question of whether or not we have to do something very drastic about the horrors of ethnic cleansing, the tortures and brutalizing of so many individuals. Of course that has to be addressed. But the question of how it is being addressed, that itself is a serious moral question. I have not been able to see how it is justified morally in accordance with the principles of just war. I am not going to preach about it today. This is the day on which we honor the military during Fleet Week, so justifiably for all that they have done through so many years. My remarks would not be directed to the military, so I shall write about it in Catholic New York this week.

Our Holy Father, addressing European parliamentarians, criticized the escalation of the Kosovo conflict in these words: "In response to violence, another violence is never a prospective way out of crisis. Therefore it is proper to silence the weapons and end the acts of vengeance in order to enter into negotiations."

Cardinal Sodano, our Holy Father's secretary of state, said, "One cannot talk about peace and negotiations while the nightmare of bombs and massacres is going on. We all need to contribute to this peace-keeping effort so that the weapons are quieted and all sides return to dialogue." In no way is this a justification of Mr. Milosevic and his associates. Nor is it a condemnation of our own armed forces. It is a reminder that we must not be indifferent, most particularly to the way in which the conflict is being waged.

We read in the Book of Isaiah, "In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea." [Is. 17:1]. Leviathan is spoken of in the Old Testament and the Jewish Scriptures as the Rules of the Seas, the monster filled with hatred, breathing fury, slaughter against all.

In the 16th to 17th century, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote a book called "The Leviathan." It was his most important political work. In this book he justifies, indeed he calls for, the concept of an absolute monarchy--ultimately, free will therefore must fall by the wayside, individual rights must be crushed for the so-called good of society. Thomas Hobbes, it should go without saying, was bitterly anti-Christian.

Later in the 19th century Friedrich Nietzsche wrote brilliantly but viciously in condemnation of Christianity because it concerns itself with the weak and the defective of the world. One of his major works was "The Will to Power." It was Nietzsche who in modern times developed a concept of the superman, another form of absolute monarchy, dictatorship, totalitarianism. Hitler took great advantage of this in the development of Nazism. All the weak and the defective, which included all Jews and a very large number of Christians, these would be used, abused, tortured and ultimately put to death in one of the most frightening acts of ethnic cleansing in the history of the world. Hitler used the philosophy of Nietzsche for this. He screamed out, for example, "A people must learn to hate, hate and once again, hate." He considered the morality of Christianity totally infantile, weak, decayed. It had to be replaced by the morality that he shaped.

Why am I speaking of Thomas Hobbes and one of his descendants, Friedrich Nietzsche?

Clearly because this is Fleet Week and this is the eve of Memorial Day when we honor all of those who from the day of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War and through even the Civil War, World War I, World War II and, yes, Korea and Vietnam--defended and supported our country. Through this period our country believed that it was waging war for righteousness: World War I, for example, to make the world safe for democracy; World War II to drive back first Hitler and then the Japanese, Korea and Vietnam because of communism. These wars may have been corrupted. Some may have wanted war for their own end, their own greed, their own will to power. But this has certainly never been the case with the American people at large. I can say after 27 years in uniform that I never saw this to be the case of a single private or seaman, of a single general or admiral who lived often in the most primitive conditions risking their lives, losing their lives. At least they thought they were doing the right thing. If in combat, for example, in Vietnam, and they questioned what was happening, they believed at least it was their responsibility to carry out the orders of a commander in chief, duly elected President of the United States by the people of the United States.

On the eve of Memorial Day we must honor every one of those who fought, who suffered, who died and those men today who sacrificed believing they were doing the right thing. It can be tremendously lonely to be thousands of miles from home and loved ones. It can be terribly difficult to live in the hold of a ship at sea, to live in a hole in the mud in a place like Vietnam. We very, very easily forget, as it is easy for us to forget those now who may be called for a ground war in Kosovo. However outrageous some may feel this might be from the moral perspective, this is not the fault of those who will be called upon to do what they have to do. They must sincerely believe that this is their duty. We can not but thank them and be thankful for them.

There is another major reason for talking about the will to power and all of the hatred born through Nazism, through fascism, through communism in pursuit of that kind of power espoused by a Thomas Hobbes or Friedrich Nietzsche. In Thomas Hobbes' words, "Every human being is a wolf to every other being." Of our very natures we hate other people, we prey on other people, according to Hobbes. Therefore we need an absolute monarch to keep us from destroying one another. How different the teaching of Christianity about the sacredness of every human person from the unborn child in its mother's womb to the very elderly, dying, at risk perhaps of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.

Why is Christianity so unconditionally opposed to abortion? It is the killing of innocent human beings. Why is Christianity so unconditionally opposed to physician-assisted suicide? None of us has a right over his or her own life. This is what we once believed in its totality in this country of ours. Not too many remain except the Church to teach these same teachings today and some of our Jewish brethren and some of our brethren of other religious persuasions and some of our Muslim brothers and sisters. Overwhelmingly we have created, as our Holy Father has called it, "a culture of death." The only thing that justifies going to war in the final analysis is that we war against those who are not innocent of crime. When we war against an unborn baby we are warring against those totally, completely innocent.

What has this to do with the feast of the Holy Trinity? The Holy Trinity is the ultimate model for all society. We speak in mysterious terms in trying to describe an impenetrable mystery. We speak of one God in Three Divine Persons. But we are monotheists. There is only one God, but these three persons, inseparable from one another, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, within form perfect harmony.

St. Paul says in the letter to the people of Corinth, "The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit," and St. Matthew says, using the words of our Lord, "Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." These are not simply words that we do not fully understand. They are given to us as a pattern, a model. We have been fashioned, created in the image and likeness of God which means we are created as social beings. It is not of our nature to hate one another. It is of our nature to love one another. It is not of our nature to live in constant conflict. It is of our nature to live in constant harmony with one another.

This is not a utopia, a useless dream. This is what God intended society to be. This is why he fashioned us after his own image and likeness. The Irish picked up on this early, people like St. Patrick who tried to explain in very primitive terms by using a shamrock--one shamrock but three leaves on one stem. This is not a very good example because you can pull these leaves apart. You can not separate any of the persons of the Trinity from the Trinity itself. But the Irish prayed, "For my shield this day I call a mighty power, the Holy Trinity, the Sacred Three to save, to shield, to surround the heart, the house, the household this evening, this night and every night."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith." Sometimes we do not like to talk about this, much less think about this. It is too difficult. What's the difference whether there is one person in God, three persons in God, 77 persons in God? This is asking does it make any difference whether we know God or whether we do not know God. Could God be a thing? Could God be a mighty power? Could God be a Leviathan, the beast of the waters? It is our obligation to try to explore the One who has made us in his own image and likeness. The Catechism says, "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is a central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them."

One can not stress the importance of this teaching of the Church too much. It is absolutely, categorically a monotheistic religion, which is what makes us so close to our Jewish and our Muslim brethren. But it is a very, very special tradition, a very special religion for the belief in Three Persons in one God. Christ was a person of the Blessed Trinity. Dante, in his "Divine Comedy," speaks of a universe whose source is "tri-personal God and whose goal is the bringing forth of persons in relation to one another."

"No man is an island," we are told. No person is an island. We are inevitably linked to one another by our very nature, not simply by our laws, not simply because we are all Americans, or all Germans, or all French, or all Irish, but because we are all made in the image of God within us.

We are reminded, "Because God is Trinity, creation is not necessary, but a free gift, an open invitation. Because God is Trinity, creation is not arbitrary, but purposeful: creation is made for covenant and communion." We have a covenant with one another and with God, but it is a natural covenant buttressed by human laws, thank God, here in the United States, reminding ourselves that our Declaration of Independence says that we are all created equal, that we do believe in God and that we do all things out of honor and justice because of our belief in God. "Christianity announces and enacts another tale, according to which in the beginning, and in the end, is peace, pure donated peacefulness which, in the times between, makes its appearance in the endless uphill harbor of transfigurative harmony."

Christ, we are told, was transfigured during his life on earth so that his face shone as the sun, his garments were as white as snow. The ordinary-looking Christ that his Apostles saw every day they now saw as something totally different. This is what we are supposed to do in regard to one another, whatever our religious persuasion, whatever our national, racial, ethnic backgrounds. We are supposed to see that Christ glowing, shining in one another. Our faith should be able to transfigure everyone and to help us to see that kind of perfect communication, that perfect harmony, that perfect social unity which in Christianity we call the Most Holy Trinity.

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