When churches are bombed
Credit to Author: FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO| Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 17:59:24 +0000
SALADIN would have had every reason to go on a rampage. He had fought a drawn-out battle to reconquer Jerusalem.
Earlier, Muslims and Jews alike fell to the swords wielded by crazed Crusaders driven either by holy zeal or plain (it is never plain!)
bloodlust. And when at last Saladin had breached the Holy City’s defenses, its Christian inhabitants feared the worst: Saladin would have had every reason to avenge the death of Muslims. But he did not. He was not only chivalrous. He exhibited the most exalted characteristics of a man of faith: seeing to the protection of women, allowing his erstwhile enemies to make their way to the sea, guaranteed safe conduct, and safeguarded the sacred shrines and holy places of the Christians.
While international humanitarian law makes the wanton destruction of churches and places of worship a war crime, the fact is that sacred sites are a prime target in armed conflict, particularly those that resonate with conflicting religious professions. Within a church, a temple or a mosque, the believer assumes a posture of complete surrender and submission to the will of God. Within sacred precincts, the believer knows that “the ground on which he treads is holy.” In these sites he is prepared for a privileged encounter with God — as many before him in the same places stood in the presence of the All-Holy, the res tremendum et fascinans…that which both attracts and holds at bay!
Precisely because of this, the church is the center of the community, its spiritual and cultural heart. Bajo de la campana was not a Hispanic colonial idiosyncrasy; people had to live within earshot of the pealing bells, because life was regulated by the hours of prayer and the days of worship. Basilica originally had to do with courts of law and the conduct of business, not with religion. But it became the accepted term for large churches of venerable origin because it is where large numbers of faithful assemble. Churches and mosques, for this reason, have been citadels of strength for those who have surrendered themselves to the embrace of God in faith and obedience. It should be evident then that an enemy, either of the people or the faith, would consider churches premium strategic objectives! Destroying a church is nothing short of an assault on the heart of a people and on the well-spring of its strength.
It is bad enough to insult a person because of some personal failing; it is worse to smear the memory of loved ones already gone on ahead. But it is worse of all and cuts most deeply when one attacks the most cherished beliefs and the deepest convictions of a person by which he orientates his existence, organizes his world and sets his life’s goals. Religion, especially in institutional churches, lends a person a tremendous sense of “ontological security.” The narratives, rites, rules and hierarchy are the guarantee that no matter the senselessness and anomy without, there is tranquility and stability within! Lobbing grenades into the sanctuary of a church (or a mosque, or a temple) is nothing short of attempting to shatter this ontological security — an attempt at pulling the rug from under the feet of those who believe.
As we mature in the realization that God has many names and is worshipped in a thousand places, and that his grace is not denied even those who deny him, with a denial born out of honest belief and the dictates of an unsullied conscience — a most important point that Vatican 2 teaches — then it is nothing short of reprehensible to assault others because of beliefs that differ from ours. One has every right to be firm and unyielding in his beliefs, but he has the duty to accord to others the very same right. No one can claim as an intrinsic right that which he denies of others!
But the contumely attains particularly execrable levels when the destruction of sacred places has political ends. Then religion is surely denigrated. Once more birthright is traded for lowly pottage. While, without a doubt, politics and religion do many times go hand in hand, faith offers the believer the ultimate level of justification and stratum of comprehension that no political affiliation or ideology can, of itself, attain. And that is what makes the bombing of a church because of political rancor particularly obnoxious and despicable—because so much is traded for what does not and will never measure up to it!
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@outlook.com
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