Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli
Somalia. Kashmir. Darfur. Myanmar. South Sudan. Syria. Afghanistan. Iraq. The list of wars and conflicts can go on and on. At the present moment, there are about 40 active conflicts around the world. At any one moment, there are people in 15 different places fighting. Some for their independence and freedom. Others for the right to their own resources. Willing to take up arms and die, they are fighting for their ideals and beliefs.
According to a recent unclassified White House report sent to Congress, the United States is now officially fighting wars in seven countries. In fact, ever since the Revolutionary War, America has been engaged in one war after another with less than 25 years of peace. In effect, since its birth as a nation, America has spent 93 percent of its life engaged in war. And, that’s not counting the ceaseless political wars about the right to life, immigration, weapons control, the environment, trade, gender identity and same sex unions.
The wars fought on blood-drenched battlefields and in angry political arenas ultimately arise from the evil within our own hearts. Every human person is involved in the struggle between good and evil. And, not everyone makes the right choices. Hence, the conflicts.
In The Gulag Archipelago, Orthodox Christian author and Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.”
Because we are human, subject to sin yet striving for goodness, each of us must face reality. Life will always be a battle. As Pope Francis reminds us, “It is difficult to fight against evil, to escape from its deceptions, to regain strength after a tiring struggle, but we must know that all of Christian life is a battle” (Pope Francis, Wednesday Audience, April 25, 2018). In this battle, we are not alone. The Risen Lord is with us. He strengthens us with the Holy Spirit in every struggle. Therefore, we need not despair when we see the evil around us. We need not lose hope when we recognize the evil within us. We can say with St. Paul, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
Not a single one of us is exempt from the battle of life. Either we struggle against the evil within us and against the evil around us or we become enslaved to the tyranny of evil. We cannot build our own individual lives or our society on lies, dishonesty, selfishness, greed or envy. But, we can advance Christ’s victory of good over evil by our charitable deeds, kind words, and strong defense of justice, truth and life, even when such deeds set others against us.
The 1995 epic war film Braveheart contains one of the most inspiring speeches in movie history. In the movie, the 13th century Scottish warrior William Wallace, an iconic hero of Scotland, is leading his rag-tag army in a war of independence against King Edward I of England. About to enter the battle, he stirs up the courage of his men with these words, “We all end up dead. It’s just a question of how and why. Every man dies, not every man really lives….I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men… and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?”
Not everyone is called to go to war. But life itself is a war against evil and we are called to enter that battle and to overcome the evil in our lives, in our own homes and work. The question is not whether or not we can win. We can advance the kingdom of God in this world. By God’s grace, we can. The question is ultimately the same that Wallace posed to his men. In the struggle against the tyranny of evil, “Will you fight?”