UNEASY TIMES

 A REFLECTION FOR QUADRAGESIMA SUNDAY

The evening news these days is not good.  We’re bombarded every day with the most sickening images and accounts of barbarism not seen in Europe since the days of Adolf Hitler.  As Catholics, our chief interest lies not in the why’s and wherefore’s of the conflict in the Ukraine, nor even in the inevitable mayhem that results from it.  Our main concern must be one of compassion for the innocent people being dragged through a torment none of them expected and which has torn their daily lives literally to shreds.

Compassion should be seen not merely as an emotion.  We shouldn’t just feel compassion.  Our feelings are merely the sentiment which encourages us to action. But what kind of action? “What can we possibly do,” you may ask, “to help these poor people?  We’re just ordinary citizens.  We can’t send them food, we can’t offer them medicine, weapons, housing.  We have no communication with them.  We can’t even offer them the warmth of our sympathy.”  All this is true, and yet we all know the power of prayer.  It is through the frequent and heartfelt and compassionate prayers that we can help our neighbors in the Ukraine, and it is not an option in these terrible dark times in that country for us to neglect our Christian duty and offer up those supplications to God.

I heard one poor Ukrainian mother the other day crying out in desperation that prayers were no longer enough.  But I beg to differ with her assessment of the efficacy of prayer, a conclusion brought about the sheer terror she faces for herself and her family.  Sure, it is the duty of those in power to do what they can to bring an end to the suffering.  Prayers should be accompanied by action, and if you see an opportunity to help in some practical way, by all means seize it and do your part.  But if not, as in all times when we can’t be of practical help to our neighbor, we must storm heaven with our pleas to alleviate his trials and tribulations.  In spite of our weariness at all the clichés, all the worldly platitudes that “our thoughts and prayers are with you,” we should never underestimate the power of prayer!

As we begin our journey through this penitential season of Lent, it’s a good time to offer up our penances to God for his mercy on the suffering people of Eastern Europe.  Prayer and penance have averted disaster in the past and stand the best chance of doing so now.  We encourage our faithful to pray their Rosaries for this intention and to increase their daily supplications in this time of desperate need.  We have also introduced on our Guild website a most powerful devotion which our Lord requested, that of his Most Holy Face.  In the darkest hours of the Crucifixion, as Jesus carried his cross to the summit of Calvary, he met a holy woman named Veronica who wiped his face with her own veil.  As a reward for her courageous act of compassion, he left the image of his Countenance on her veil where it remains to this day.  When we venerate this holy image, we are participating in Veronica’s act of comforting the suffering Saviour, and if we offer up these prayers for those in most need today, surely our most merciful God will show pity on them and comfort them in their suffering.

You can find this Devotion to the Holy Face at gspav.org/Veronicas-Veil/vv-home.htm.