Requiescant in pace.
That was my first thought, especially since I heard the news immediately following the 10pm Dorm Liturgy for Divine Mercy Sunday.
Osama is dead and he will have to, as will all of us when we die, before the Throne of the Almighty God for each and ever one of our sins.
This makes me recall perhaps my favorite sequence, the Dies Irae:
solvet saeclum in favilla:
teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando judex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulcra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
judicanti responsura.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus judicetur.
Judex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vix justus sit securus?
Rex tremendae majestatis,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
salva me fons pietatis.
Recordare, Jesu pie,
quod sum causa tuae viae:
ne me perdas illa die.
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus:
redemisti Crucem passus:
tantus labor non sit cassus.
Juste judex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.
Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce, Deus.
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
et latronem exaudisti,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.
Preces meae non sunt dignae:
sed tu bonus fac benigne,
ne perenni cremer igne.
Inter oves locum praesta,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
statuens in parte dextra.
Confutatis maledictis,
flammis acribus addictis:
voca me cum benedictis.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
gere curam mei finis.
Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
pie Jesu Domine,
dona eis requiem. Amen.
Beautiful!
My next thought was that we were wrong, that we killed the wrong person, a clone, a fake, something. Then I immediately thought, oh boy, they are going to retaliate...and hard. If you look weak, you have to make yourself look strong (that will probably explain all the fighter jets we saw flying around during the Eucharistic Procession Picnic on Sunday afternoon).
My first thought was never to rejoice...I was relieved that he was dead. Not happy he was dead. I pray that God's Divine Mercy extends to him for no Christian should never ever will somebody to hell. Christ wills the salvation of every single soul, if we choose it, and we ought to will the same thing... I pray he repented at the end. We share a common human dignity, rooted in our imago Dei that we share, not in our lack of virtue that pulls us from God. This shared and common dignity never is fully corrupt, never in-salvageable. I personally have to believe as I prepare for seminary studies and the priesthood...no matter what one has done (and boy has Osama done it), there is room for salvation. Anywho, I would never rejoice at the death of a man.
I will however rejoice at the death of this particular man. Why? not because he is dead as such, but because justice has been served. It seems to me that, reading the newspaper and facebook, there have been two radically extreme responses. On the one hand, you have the over-the-top celebrations by college students and what not...this pseudo american patriotism that stems only because we have been bred to hate that man as an American. Most know me to have a love/hate relationship with this nation. It royally ticks me off but at the same time, I wouldn't rather live anywhere else. I am a citizen and I will defend the country. I believe it to be a just government with just powers including the right, above all, to protect our borders and our citizens (give the other rights back to the states) But I think we mis-interpret what we should be rejoicing about. To me, it all seemed like an abstract and empty form of celebration of America or death which make no sense to me.
Justice has been served and for the sake of justice, we celebrate. We as Christians of course are called to pray for the repose of his soul. But I don't think we need to fall into the other extreme of the uber passive Christian who feels he is so incapable at rejoicing at death that he cannot be happy at the death of Osama. It was a military death. I don't think we should rejoice simply because, we hope, less people will die as a result (kill one, save many). Human dignity and life is so priceless that we can't actually compare one life to many...but in the gaze of justice and peace, he deserved to die. For the sake of the US protecting its citizens from terrorism, he deserved to die.
Now is probably a good time to quote the vatican statement everyone has probably already seen. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi says “Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end. In the face of a man’s death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred”
Now of course we must acknowledge that the Vatican also has to walk on pins and needles with regards to this due to the radical islamism that surrounds Al-Qaida (Muslims are fine with me...the ones I know are nice...this is regarding the radicals that waged the war against the US). Now yes, we do not rejoice at the death of a man. But I do think that we can rejoice at justice.
The Jews, for example, all throughout the old Testament would give praises to God Most High when he would aid in their vanquishing of their foes. So I saw of lot of this getting quoted around..." When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad, and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice." -Proverbs 24:17
Yet, in the same book, we read "When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation." -- Proverbs 11:10.
Now I will not engage in some Protestant abstract quoting of random Bible verses...I will say however that the Jews turn around and give praise to the God of Justice. The were suffering and were saved. They were the chosen people whom God made a convenant with and he defends and protects them. Then a friend mentioned to me that Christ changed all that...Justice became Mercy. Sort of true but not really. The Jews, we could say, failed to see the Mercy of God at work but Christ never changes the Word of God...His Message was packed in the Old Testament and brought to fulfillment and reality in the New Testament. the Psalmist speaks of the right arm of justice being slowed by the arm of mercy...they all exist fully in God. He is all merciful but he is also all justice.
So what is the appropriate reaction... I am saying we can both pray for his soul and rejoice at the workings of justice...not to ever imply that the US is some sort of Divine Hand that implements God Justice on the world. The true justice of this is a separate issue. Tied with it comes a whole plethora of issues and I think this is why so many people disagree on the 'appropriate Christian response.' Do you support the death penalty in certain cases. It is a known fact that I do in fact think it is a just punishment for some and if its not appropriate for Osama, who would it be appropriate for. It also differs with regards to war. Just war? Augustine and Aquinas don't really address this since what they are talking about is one's ability to wage a war...we had a war waged against us. We didn't take it seriously. They attacked us, on our soil, and killed thousands. We were at war. Do you kill in war? Is it just killings.
Aquinas does recognize the occasional necessity to execute certain individuals to protect the common good of society, but he reserves the right of such execution for the government: "one who exercises public authority may lawfully put to death an evil-doer" (ST II-II, Q. 64, Art. 5). In war, I think it becomes even more justified, especially with someone who had no intentions of peace...we went in there to kill and I think there was honestly no possibility of peace after a decade long game of hide and seek.
Some may say we should have detained him and locked him away for life in some deep dark whole...perhaps, but for some that is just not good enough. A lot of colleagues like to claim that our prison systems are so great that we have no need for the death penalty...I do not think that is true (mind you, he is not a citizen, i am just rambling now). Prison gangs are real and some of these horribly evil people are able to order murders from within the prison walls...at that point, for the sake of the common good which is intimately tied to justice, though it is not ideal, we ought to execute them.
I think one of the big questions that comes up is the legitimacy of the idea of world/international peace. Does such an idea exist. Do we as Americans, have the right to influence other nations for the sake of promoting our sense of justice there (and I say our sense because any government must have the consent of the governed, else it is a tyranny and this is the system of justice and laws that we have set up according to our own particular understanding of natural law in this country). I think it is a good ideal but I honestly do not know if it exists.
Anywho, my point is this. We should pray for his soul that God have mercy on him. We should forgive him and not bottle up a hatred for another man, no matter his lack of virtue, due to, if nothing else, our shared human dignity that is never fully tarnished and corrupt. We should 'celebrate' for the sake that, ideally, justice will be the result of his murder and the common good furthered (if there is such as a thing as international common good...though I tend to think that there really isn't a common good the nation of of our size can honestly strive for). We do not need to go out on the streets rejoicing. If nothing else, that immortalizes the man. It is also not befitting of a nation that claims such greatness to gloat and rejoice in such an obscene fashion at the death of one individual...it is actually not befitting of a great entity. In a sense be glad he is dead for the sake of peace, not for the sake of a dead person...his death was just necessary for promoting our own safety and the common good (if that is really case...Al Qaida is not a monarchial system, it is a network and though his death will undoubtedly harm said network, it could be the case that they continue on as strong as ever...who knows). But if one believes that our enemies have truly taken a strong blow, then be glad. But make the distinction between his death as such and his death as promoting justice and peace and the common good...
oh yeah, and please please please don't rejoice and offer praise to God for his death...I really don't view the US as the right hand of God's Divine Justice...God didn't vanquish him, the US did (sure sure, all is done through the grace of God) but yeah, I think you know what I mean... I also don't think this is a miracle that should be associated with the Beatification of JPII...that sounds absurd to me.
I am tired. As always, sorry if this is confusing...I just rambled off a bunch of thoughts between papers here and hope this can provide some fruitful discussion points if nothing else
