On The Road To Damascus

There is a story about Saul of Tarsus who, on the road to Damascus to round up the followers of Christ for persecution, was himself being hunted down by the same people whom he served before his conversion. [1]  I pray that those on both sides of the conflict who are on the road to Damascus to kill would see the light of Christ and be healed of their collective blindness.

On this road, Saul heard Christ ask,"'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'" [2]  But Christ was not simply asking this question of Saul of Tarsus, He was asking all the Sauls of the world the same question.  And when Christ referred to the persecuted as Himself, He was in the eternal present and referring to all who are persecuted, for He is the Savior of all, not just a few, and not only Christians.  In a separate passage, Christ said, "'Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom from heaven belongs to people like these.'" [3]  These were children of all peoples; Christ did not discriminate one against another.  He saw them as one, in the same way He sees all of us, as one, for we all were children once and are still children of God. [4]

When the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said, "'What is happening to the children of Syria is sickening. Thousands of innocent young boys and girls have lost their lives in horrific circumstances, including in recent attacks near Damascus. And now one million Syrian children are struggling to survive as refugees in heart-breaking conditions. Each one of these child refugees is an innocent victim of a senseless conflict. These vulnerable children need shelter, food and assistance. But above all, they need security. The international community must not look away from Syria, they must renew the search for peace with urgency and determination,'" I am certain that she would make a similar statement whether the children of war are from Syria or anywhere else in the world.  She continued to say, "'I appeal to the world leaders - please, set aside your differences, unite to end the violence, and make diplomacy succeed.'" [5]  Let us hope that if my words on this blog urging supplication would fall on blind eyes, that Angelina Jolie's call for sensibilities would not fall on deaf ears, and that peace would be achieved through diplomacy, in the entire Mideast and everywhere else.


[1] See http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/9/ and http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/a/Conversion-Of-Paul.htm
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-14.htm
[4] The righteous, acting as lawmaker, fact finder, judge, jury and executioner, would argue that some of these "children" are truly evil, killing "innocents" with any and all means necessary, including the use of chemical and biological weapons, not to mention torture of all kinds imaginable, and therefore these evil "children" of God must be punished.  On the issue of judging and of innocence, Christ answered with His Divine authority, respectively, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged" and "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." See http://biblehub.com/matthew/7-1.htm and http://biblehub.com/john/8-7.htm, respectively.
The next question that would be asked is whether one ought to stand by and watch the "innocents" suffer and die?  My answer is no.  What is needed is humanitarian aid on the one hand and a peaceful settlement on the other, even if the arm that is attached to the hand of settlement on all sides had been lost from bombing each other.  How far should the humanitarian aid go?  If one is capable of killing, then one is capable of opening the door of one's home to welcome and serve those in need. 
[5] http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/08/23/angelina-jolie-tragedy-in-syria-is-sickening/2694023/