Another day, yet another terrorist attack, this time in Israel, where a Palestinian, an ‘ISIS sympathizer’, drove a truck through a squad of Israeli soldiers, backing over his victims, before being shot to death by Israeli soldiers and a ‘tour guide’. Hmm. Even the tour guides are armed in lsrael, which is always on edge. But how does one guard against an enemy within one’s midst, where every vehicle is a weapon of mass destruction? Ideological and cultural borders will be the wave of the future, as they were the past. But our ancestors knew what they were about, as our modern generation does not. People generally act upon their beliefs, and if they believe in jihad, that the ‘infidel’ have no rights, in dhimmitude and forced conversion, well…
And speaking of conversion, today is the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which normally falls on a Sunday, being the first Sunday in Ordinary Time. This year, with Advent being as long as it could be, the feast was on a Monday. It would be good, as we proceed into the ferial days which will eventually bring us into Lent, on the effects and purpose of our own Baptism, what it means for us. The common profession of faith is what binds us together as Catholics, a store of beliefs that guides and shapes our conduct, our thoughts, our culture and civilization. We should have great gratitude that we are given the truth, gratis, freely, as an inheritance of our birth into a Catholic family, a truth that we are bound to share with others, when and how we can.
So onward Christian soldier, in the true ‘warfare’ for all that is true, good and beautiful, not with guns and bombs, but with humility, charity and goodwill, along with a healthy and supernatural dose of courage, humour and resolve, willing to die for our faith, rejoicing our way into heaven. In that light, to paraphrase Saint Paul, all our travails, struggles and sufferings will seem as naught.