We received today at National Catholic Reporter where I write a weekly column, the communiqué I’ve quoted from below. There are many things to say about Hamas and Israel and the Palestinians, but there are also untold stories about many good people in the Gaza region. This is only one such story:
There are Catholic churches in Gaza. Gaza is a far more patchwork of peoples than media traditionally explains.
Catholic Masses for resolution and peace are being held round the clock in Gaza and handfuls of brave parishioners venture out to attend them. The points of view expressed by various parishioners (and commenters to the NCR communique,) cover the spectrum…. from condemnation of one side or another, one group or another, one historical time-sequence or another, one incursion, invasion or another, making points, pointing out various facts, and finger-pointing as well.
But, there are also the RainMakers, and they often carry a far less one-sided viewpoint.
The Rainmaker of Eld
My father’s family, old country immigrants and refugees, used to speak about ‘the RainMaker’ who was a holy kind of person who lived outside the village in the forest. The RainMaker was not caught in the daily contretemps of the village proper. The old people of the family would say, “If you want to know the truth and what is right to do next, don’t go to the fighters. Go find the RainMaker.”
A Possible Modern RainMaker
In Gaza yesterday, at one of the Masses at St. Stephen’s, I believe there was present, a RainMaker.
He is retired Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem. And this is what he said:
“…the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip means death for both sides.
“What is happening now is death for Palestinians as well as Israelis,” Patriarch Sabbah said at the Mass. “What is happening in Gaza has made us all come to pray and join in a prayer that says stop the massacre. We are calling to God to look at Gaza and see what is happening there and to all of us.”
“Peace only can come through justice, not war,” he said.
“We are looking at ourselves and we are not doing our best. Israel should stop this and will stop, but then after this destruction there will be more destruction,” he said.
He called on Palestinians to realize that the only way to regain their freedom and independence is through nonviolent means.
Another RainMaker
At St. Catherine Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, Christians attended a special Mass and at that Mass was, I believe, a RainMaker by the name of Victor Zoughbi. This is what he said… and the difficulty of being a RainMaker during any heated battle is made clear in his last sentence:
He told Catholic News Service after Mass he was praying “not just for the people in Gaza but also for those in Tel Aviv. Every (Israeli) soldier going into Gaza now has a mother who is sitting glued to the television with her heart in her throat. He who truly has God in his heart loves everybody.”
Zoughbi said he did not understand the purpose of Hamas’ rockets, given their inaccuracy, and he emphasized the fact that there is only one Palestinian government headed by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. In June 2007, Hamas split with Abbas’ Fatah movement and took control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas’ government still controls the West Bank.
“What are we fighting over — for a piece of land? Take the land. In the end the land will swallow us all,” he said, noting that, given the situation, he was not able to speak so freely with many of his friends and acquaintances lest his loyalty be called into question.
I feel so inept to comment on the issues in the MidEast, easily sensing I do not know enough, not anywhere near enough, to offer brick-solid solutions. But, I feel certain it will be the rainmakers, not the same ol’ same ol’ avenging sides, who will carry not only solutions forward at last, but attitudes that will work effectively.
I hope for a hoard, a squadron, a legion of rainmakers, not just one here and there drowned out by the bellowing of the well-armed, trivialized by media, or else silenced by media not reporting incessantly on what reasoned RainMakers have to say.
Rancor can rarely see clearly. RainMakers often can.
I know my prayer is small and not big enough to cover all matters in the MidEast, nor to overcome all cynicism and tiredness over it all…
but sometimes a small prayer might also be strong medicine for someone, somewhere, somehow. I don’t think I am naive. To cast bread on the waters without knowing where it may go and whom it might feed, is one of the evidences of Ruach in praying small mind into huge Mind… asking that it all be carried to where it may help bring new idea or ease old ones which no longer work. This is the prayer I’m praying right now:
Bring forth the RainMakers as soon as possible.
We will know them by their insistent mercy and compassion,
by the pathways they offer to help make whole all who want to be made whole
without annihilating the wholeness of others.