Pope calls for day of prayer & penance for situation in the Middle East.

The Vatican on Thurs issued the following communique' calling for a day of prayer & penance for the ongoing war in the Middle East:

"The Holy Father is following with great concern the destinies of all the peoples involved and has proclaimed this Sunday, July 23, as a special day of prayer and penance, inviting the pastors and faithful of all the particular Churches, and all believers of the world, to implore from God the precious gift of peace.

In particular, the Supreme Pontiff hopes that prayers will be raised to the Lord for an immediate cease-fire between the sides, for humanitarian corridors to be opened in order to bring help to the suffering peoples, and for reasonable and responsible negotiations to begin to put an end to objective situations of injustice that exist in that region, as already indicated by Pope Benedict XVI at the Angelus last Sunday, July 16.

In reality, the Lebanese have the right to see the integrity and sovereignty of their country respected, the Israelis, the right to live in peace in their state, and the Palestinians have the right to have their own free and sovereign homeland.

At this sorrowful moment, His Holiness also makes an appeal to charitable organizations to help all the people struck by this pitiless conflict."

Papa Benedetto has it right, as I have said before, we need to pray to God to bring about true peace in the Middle East. But peace is not the mere absence of war. It is much more. & the Pope pointed it out. Justice must be done. Justice demands that the Israelis be treated with respect & allowed to live safely in their own country. & the same is true for the Lebanese & Palestinians. Lebanon's leaders have a duty to stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel. If they had acted before now, Israel would never have felt the need to strike at them in Lebanon. So, they share in the responsiblity for any harm done to innocent civilians & children. Could Israel found a better way?, I don't know. Part of me wishes they could have, part of me sees Hezbollah as leaving them no other choice. I wish there was a simple answer to all this. Hamas in Palestine needs to renounce its desire to wipe out Israel. Syria & Iran need to quite supporting Hamas & Hezbollah's attacks. Israel needs to treat all its people with fairness, Jew, Arab & Christian.

People on the left who are calling for a cease fire & negotiations without acknowledging what is at the heart of the Pope's call & ignoring the truth about Hezbollah & Hamas' desire to wipe out Israel are calling for a disaster. There will be continued attempts to wipe out Israel. Those on the right who acknowledge the truth about Hezbollah & Hamas but only see the Church's call for a cease fire & take it out of the context of the full call of the Pope are missing it just as much. Yes, they are right about the left's view. But, they ignore the real message found in the call for prayer. The Pope is not niave. He knows that without Jesus at the center, true peace cannot exist. & neither side seems to be seeing the heart of the Pope's message. Turn to Jesus!

War is not pretty. Innocent people always get hurt. A full scale war can still be avoided. We need to pray for the hearts to be changed that need to be changed. I want peace, I want the war to end. We need to pray for God to intervene so that true peace can be allowed to flourish. God alone can change the hearts that hate & turn them to peace. Trusting in God to intervene is not simplistic, it is realistic. The battles have been going on there for over 4000 yrs. Only by letting God's Spirit work in the hearts of all can the changes be brought about to see true peace take root.