Fr Matthew Reese

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: *
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls *
and quietness within your towers.”
—Psalm 122:6-7

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, *
for we have had more than enough of contempt, 
Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, *
and of the derision of the proud.
—Psalm 123:4-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

Like so many others around the world, I watched in horror at the brutality, the depravity, of the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, now exactly two years ago. And like so many others around the world, I have watched in horror since at the violent aftermath, the flattening of Gaza, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the endless intractability of war in the Holy Land. And in the midst of this wanton destruction, I have heard the Psalmist’s call,

“Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, *
for we have had more than enough of contempt.”

I think of the people of that land, Jews, Christians, Muslims, caught in the crosshairs of a conflict so much larger than themselves; a conflict in which they are so often powerless; a conflict passed down the generations, with seemingly no end in sight.

Ordinary people, people like you and me, people who love the land they call home, and yet have watched it decimated by violence and sectarianism. How dearly is that land loved. How dearly has it been paid for.

I have no easy answers to this conflict, vast in its geopolitical dimensions, vast in its historical arc, vast in its human toll. No one does. And our individual powerlessness against the global mechanisms of violence and hate can, at times, lead us to despair. 

But we must not. 

Many have—rightly—critiqued our glib American pabulums of “thoughts and prayers.” But it strikes me that when most people say this, really, they intend neither to think nor to pray.

So, on this anniversary of such unspeakable violence, in the midst of such unspeakable violence, let us not turn away. Let us look the forces of darkness squarely in the eye. Let us reckon honestly with what hath been wrought. And let us pray. Not passingly, not feebly, but fervidly, with every fiber of our being. For the dead, for the living, for those yet to be born in the Holy Land.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: *
“May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls *
and quietness within your towers.”

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew