As the United States weighs whether or not to sanction military action against Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad,Trappist nuns in Syria call on President Obama to opt for peace: "Will the Nobel Peace Prize winner drop his sentence of war onto us? Despite all justice, all common sense, all mercy, all humility, all wisdom?"
and asks world leaders to reject the way of war.
In his commentary on the Book of Genesis, biblical scholar Walter Bruggemann writes that a primary message of the Genesis story is the way in which "God speaks his powerful word directly into a situation of barrenness. . . It is a word about the future spoken to a [community] without any hope of a future." Listening to this word is risky: it calls for a "dangerous departure from the presumed world of norms." But "such departure. . . is the only way out of barrenness."
Let us learn from the Genesis story. As the people of Syria endure their own sorrows in the midst of death and barrenness, as they face a time when their futures seem devoid of hope, let us join with Pope Francis in praying that our world leaders will have the courage to take the risk of departing from the normative cycle of escalating violence and war. Let us pray that the life-giving Spirit of God who "makes all things new" will inspire us with creative ways to respond to death and despair. President Obama's remarks on Syria make it seem as though our choice is either military intervention or turning a blind eye to the atrocities in Syria: "If we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we must acknowledge the costs of doing nothing," he says. But as Christians we cannot believe that those are our only options. We must try to find a better way.
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