Franz Hunolt [1889]: The Evil Scourge of War

[Stone]

The Evil Scourge of War
by Franz Hunolt, 1889

And so it is, my dear brethren; the most terrible of all public calamities is war. Pestilence and contagious diseases are a severe punishment, and so is famine and hunger; but if war once breaks out in a country, you have all those other plagues with it; for, as experience teaches, they follow in its train, as matters of necessity. All trials and contradictions, no matter what their name may be, are, indeed, punishments, but they are salutary punishments, which serve to bring men to a sense of the wickedness of their ways, and to lead them to God; but, as the old song has it, "there is no good in war;" instead of amending abuses, it only increases them; instead of hindering, it only encourages injustice, theft, rapine, adultery and all kinds of impurity, murder, despair, and other vices. Alas, that we should have such bitter experience of the truth of this! And consequently war is not merely a temporal punishment, as far as our mortal bodies are concerned, but it also brings with it, as a general rule, the perversion and damnation of our immortal souls. Well didst thou choose, O holy David, when God left it free to thee to select war, famine, or pestilence as a punishment! That wise king did not take long to consider, my dear brethren. If I and my people have to be chastised, he said, it is better for me to fall into the hands of God, and to choose pestilence, than to fall into the hands of men by bringing the evils of war on the land. And therefore, when the Catholic Church prays in the Litanies to be delivered from temporal evils, she mentions war last of all, as the summary of every calamity; "from pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us O Lord."

Renounce what is displeasing to Him! And if your hearts are captivated by the attachment to some sin, which has hitherto kept you from doing penance, ah! then, let the lamentable destruction of so many, who have lost either their lives or their property in war, influence you to give it up for God's sake what has been the obstacle to your making peace with Him. We beseech you for the sake of the whole Christian world, "be reconciled to God!" Make peace with Him! Without this peace, that other, for which we long and sigh, cannot be obtained; for who is it that sends us the scourge of reconciled war? Is it not the all-ruling God, without whose decree nothing can happen in the world? And why does He afflict us in that with way? Is it not on account of the sins and vices of the people which arouse His anger and compel Him to take the sword of vengeance in His hand? There Christians, is the only reason why we are now scourged by war; and as long as we are at enmity with God there is no hope of peace, or of being relieved from the burden that oppresses us. Therefore, if you wish to be at peace with men, first be reconciled to God by true penance.

What arms are we to use, besides prayer, in order to obtain this much desired peace? The very same arms that we must use to preserve our souls in peace with God and to keep them from sin ; for it is a well-known axiom of the holy Fathers, that public calamities are never inflicted by God on a country, unless on account of the sins of the people; so that, if sin is taken away, all other evils disappear with it; if we are safe from sin, we can be sure that we shall be able to keep our possessions in peace. Fasting and abstinence, are the chief, the most suitable, and the most convenient arms for this purpose, for all classes of men, as St. Bernard, with many others, teaches us. "Fasting," he says, "not only blots out past sins, but also preserves us from future sins."

With child-like confidence, O Lord and Author of peace, we address to Thee the prayer of the Church: grant us the help of Thy grace, that, attending as we ought to fasting and prayer, we may be freed from our enemies of soul and body; through the intercession of Thy Mother Mary and of the angels of peace. Amen.


From pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us O Lord.

Practical Considerations on St. Leo the Great
by Fr. Fracis Xavier Weninger, 1877

St. Leo informs the Romans, without hesitation, that the pillage of the city was caused by nothing else than their ingratitude, the licentiousness of their conduct, and their contempt for the word of. God. The same may justly be said of every calamity that comes over a city or country--such as famine, war, pestilence or other plagues. Men only owe it to themselves. God punishes their sins by such means. "It is certain," says St. Jerome, "that to our sin we owe famine, war, pestilence and whatever else we suffer." Holy writ presents so many examples of this that no one can possibly doubt its truth. Whenever God menaced His chosen people, the Jews, with a general calamity, He invariably made known to them that the visitation would come'upon them on account of their sins. They themselves recognized it, and many times freely acknowledged it. "For we have not obeyed Thy commandments," says the pious Tobias, "and therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity and death, and are made a fable and a reproach to all nations amongst which Thou hast scattered us" (Tobias iii.)

The surest means to prevent such punishments and avert them from the land, is to do true penance; because true penance reconciles God to His offending creatures, as we are taught by numerous examples in Holy Writ. It may be noticed specially of the Jews, that as often as they returned with their whole heart to God, did penance, prayed and fasted, so often did He remit the threatened punishment; or if they were already bowed down under its infliction, He turned it from them. "Let us be penitent," said the pious Judith to the people of Bethulia, "and with many tears let us beg pardon " (Judith viii.). Should we at any time be visited by unexpected sorrow or adversity, it will be well that we examine ourselves and see whether sin or impenitence is not perhaps the cause of it.

The only care of St. Leo, when he entered the papal functions, was faithfully to fulfil the onerous duties its proper administration imposed upon him. All his time, all his knowledge, all his faculties were given to it; he thought of no recreation but only of discharging his duty. In whatever station of life you may be, you have some peculiar duties and obligations. Strive to comply with them. Woe to you if you spend more time in idleness or empty enjoyments than in the work which your station requires, and which you, by reason of your position, are bound to perform. How will you stand when it is said to you, "Give an account of thy stewardship?" (St. Luke xvi.). This means, as interpreted by Cornelius a Lapide, "Give an account of thy life, thy station, the work entrusted to thee, thy time, thy abilities and other gifts which God gave thee, that thou mightst use them to His honor, and to thine own and other men's salvation."