Grief & Bewilderment – Paris, Syria and the Refugee Crisis, Part 1

Following the recent terror attacks in cities around the world, I have taken the last two weeks to carefully and prayerfully reflect on these events as best I can. Please read these posts and continue to work and pray with me for peace in this and every land.

We were sitting atop a comfortable restaurant balcony not far from the Roman Forum, when a curious looking news notification came across the television screens indoors. Our parish organ scholar, Julia translated the headline to me and to the visiting Irish couple we had just recently befriended. Something had happened in Paris. Looking down at her phone, “Eight friends have been marked Safe in the attacks in Paris” read the surprisingly swift Facebook alert. “What terrorist attack??” I exclaimed, looking down at my own iPhone to see my own Parisian acquaintances marked safe as well.

As much as I am gratified that one can immediately declare oneself safe following a terrorist strike before most people even know that such a strike has happened, I am horrified to live in a world where such a tool is even necessary.

In the ensuing several days, almost a dozen people called or sent messages to me, wondering how I was doing amid the shocking trauma that seemed to grip Europe and the world in an instant. Beckoning me to please be safe, most seemed more keenly aware than before that in this modern world, anything can happen to anyone at any time.

Many of you know that I was in Paris exactly one month prior to the brutal tragedies that ensued there for the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. You may also know that I was in Istanbul, Turkey briefly (overnight for a layover en route from Washington DC back to Rome) only three weeks before a veritable security crisis ensued in Turkey that has affected dozens of other countries. These experiences have reminded me dearly of just how fickle and fleeting our sense of security can be.

I grieve, I cry, I mourn and weep for the people for all those victims and perpetrators of violent crimes in every state and nation. From the terrorism known as gun violence in Baltimore, Chicago and cities across our nation, to the random shootings in places like Newtown, Connecticut and Colorado Springs, Colorado to the attention capturing calamities that have taken place in places like Bamako, Mali and Paris, France – God’s words to Cain ring truer every day:

 “What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!” – Genesis 4:10

I urge you to read these wise statements from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Bishop Pierre Whalon of the Convocation in Europe, and especially Dean Lucinda Laird of the American Cathedral in Paris. Dean Laird’s letter, written just hours after the bloodshed so close to her own home, ends with the wisest words I’ve heard in the last few weeks:

I only mean that our prayers must lead us to action.  Here in France I suspect there will be very, very strong anti-Muslim sentiment, and one thing we must do is stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters, and foster conversation and understanding.  I think we also need to work harder to care for the flood of refugees fleeing terror in their own countries – work for immediate care and for political solutions.  You will need to find your own mission in the US, but I know that it must involve continued dedication and commitment to making justice and making peace, and being a light in the darkness. – The Very Rev. Lucinda Laird, Published in Episcopal Café, 14 Nov. 2015, (http://www.episcopalcafe.com/letter-from-dean-of-american-cathedral-in-paris/ )