The world often directs its resentment and murderous violence along lines of religion, through which cultures identifies and applies the meaning of life. Historically, the most vivid hatred has been directed at the Jews, whose distinctive revelation from God on Mount Sinai has since ancient times discontented worldly powers.
Baptized Christians often forsake the righteousness that comes from Christ and in its place seek an earthly vindication. Caught up the pursuit of worldly victory, they help to propagate hatred of Jews and to inflict violence on them.
Police identify Robert Bowers as the murderer of eleven people at Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. His public record suggests he’s a wicked man of limited sanity. But in Girard’s philosophy, the wicked foolishness of one man can also be understood as a manifestation of wicked foolishness in the wider society:
the loss of good purposes for life;
a blindness to the truth;
the failure of family, friendship, and neighborhood to correct or mitigate our wickedness;
the spirits of competition, hatred, and vengeance so widely at work in our public conversation.
Let no Catholic Christian imitate Robert Bowers in word or action. Let no one even partially justify what he has said or done. Instead, consider the heroism of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a kind of anti-Robert-Bowers. Saint Maximilian, a Polish priest, was interred in a Nazi concentration camp alongside Jews and other Poles. One day in 1941, while looking for prisoners to execute, a camp commander selected a Jewish man, Franciszek Gajowniczek. When Gajowniczek cried out in grief for his wife and children, Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take his place, and was ultimately executed.
Our purpose as followers of Jesus is to give our lives to God and neighbor, whether in a momentary act of loving sacrifice, as did Saint Maximilian, or through long years of loving service, as most of us are called to do. Let no one fail, and let everyone help his brothers and sisters to win this true victory.
—Fr. Dave
