Spirit And Conscience

November 2001

Responding to Terrorism:
Church of St. Joan of Arc

Sermon by Fr. George Wertin

Last Sunday after the 11:00 Mass I felt great! I had been so inspired by Larry Long's wonderful homily and music about the power of love and the miracles it can create. Then I got in my car to go home and I heard the new that we were pounding Afghanistan with bombs. I felt a blow to my gut. I thought to myself what a tragic misunderstanding. I thought to myself that we are simply responsing to violence by generating more violence.
What is the point? This is not a territorial war. After all, terrorists and terrorism know no boundaries. I thought of the Afghan widows and orphans from previous wars. They are the first victims of a new war.
I thought about the cycle of violence. We are only going to inspire new terrorists to retaliate against our retaliation. And I thought of the old adage about the early Christians: "The blood of martyrs waters the seeds of faith" and I realized that it applies not only to Christians, but to terrorists as well. And I reaffirmed my commitment that more violence and war are not the answer.
We are Americans. We have defined ourselves by violence. Our history is the history of succession of war from the foundation of our country. Like I said a few weeks ago when I talked about peacemaking, it is as though we are hardwired to consider violence as the first and only response in conflict. Our instinctive response is to retaliate, bomb and overpower the enemy.
Even as Christians we are a violent people. We are selective in following the mandate to be peacemakers as well as peacelovers. We talk the rhetoric of loving our enemies and being compassionate like our God, but our spontaneous response in times of crisis is that this time is an exception.
There are two possible responses to attack and violence. The one operates from FEAR. It elicits name-calling and responsive violence as a measure of self-protection. It says to us, "do unto others as they did unto you"—not exactly a Gospel response. The other response operates from LOVE. It calls us to step outside the circle of violence. It does not seek to place the blame, but to determine the cause of the violence inflicted.
There are options beyond violence in responding to violence. But our spontaneous reaction is to retaliate out of fear. What we have is a failure to discern alternative responses. We have a failure of imagination. And I share that fault.
Earlier this week I received an article from parishioner Ray Tanis entitled "The Challenge of Terror" written by John Paul Lederach. He is Professor of Conflict Studies and Resolution at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia.
He says that we view the enemy as burrowed like animals in their holes who must be smoked out, and when they run and are visible, destroyed. He says that is a wrong metaphor and does not correspond with the current reality. He says we are much better off to use the image of a virus that has entered the system and moves unperceived and harms the organism from within. The appropriate response is to strengthen "the capacity of the system to prevent the virus and strengthen its immunity." We must change the ability of the virus to attack the system. It is not just in Afghanistan.
To put it in more direct terms, the way to break out of the cycle of violence is to step outside it. We must change their perceptions of who we are. And we must understand the terrorists as a people who feel humiliated, who feel a sustained sense of being excluded, who feel threatened to the point that they have nothing to lose.
With the help of Lederach, I propose a few appropriate responses—and only in skeletal form:
1. We must negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian truce. The Palestinians must have land so they can live in conditions better than containment camps and the Israelis can live with a sustained sense of peace.
2. We must also change our posture on Iraq and recognize that it is the people of Iraq and not Saddam Hussein who are under attack.
3. We could spend on world development what we are willing to spend on war. The United Nations estimates that it would take:
• $9 billion to provide water and sanitation for all the people of the world
• $12 billion to provide reproductive health for all women
• $13 billion to give every person on earth basic health and nutrition
• $6 billion to afford basic education for all

That adds up to $40 billion. Last year the sum of all the money spent on military operations by all nations was approximately $780! Where is our moral and ethical will?
We know that underdeveloped peoples are fertile ground for terrorists. By underwriting a dramatic new type of Marshall plan, we could be great humanitarians and provide for our own security. We would diffuse terrorism by giving people dignity, acceptance and respect.
The Dalai Lama says it very eloquently: "What you wish to experience, provide for another." As Christians we translate that into the Golden Rule that is so easily brushed aside as unrealistic. But it is not impossible.

4. We must build partnerships with other nations, not just to exploit them, or in times of crisis. We can reach out respectfully—and for mutual benefit. We could recognize that what we want, they want too. We could enter into interfaith dialogues that could penetrate to the common roots of all great spiritual traditions.
5. Finally, we can pray. We can pray—not just for our own securty. But we can pray "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"—and mean it. We can pray the simple mantra, "We are all one. We are all your children. We are sisters and brothers called to walk on this beautiful earth hand in hand."
Our friend Karen Armstrong who wrote "The History of God" about the great monotheistic religions was interviewed on the radio after Sept. 11. She said that the terrorist attacks are a moment of revelation that we will not understand for awhile. But she said, remember that revelation means that the veil is pulled back clearly so that we can see clearly.
Paul II says it simply and directly: "I add my voice to all the voices raised in these hours to express indignant condemnation, and I strongly reiterate that the ways of violence will never lead to genuine solutions to humanity's problems."
A great ship does not turn easily or quickly, but we must begin the change.
In conclusion, we must act out of love, not out of fear. These times demand creative solutions that move beyond perpetuating the cycle of violence. We must act out of the compassion that is rooted in our heritage of faith—and all great traditions.
Again, I pray that we will act out of love, not out of fear.

Carry peace with you ...

How to treat a ghost

by Elaine Klaassen

My friend Monica told me about a culture–she thought it was a pre-Columbus indigenous tribe in Florida-- that mourned birth and celebrated death. They believed that the earthly part of human existence was the worst part. The best part came after death–and possibly before birth, as well. Where we Westerners live, culturally, there are many people who believe that life on earth really is terrible but it isn’t the worst part–or the best part-- because it’s the only part. It’s all there is. At the same time, the idea that life is continuous, eternal, and that life on earth, for better or for worse, is just one small part of a longer trajectory is shared by many people.

Irish literature, for example, is full of references to life as a "dream" and to death as "waking up from the dream." Most Christians, of course, believe that when the body dies, the soul enters a new existence. Or, as my friend Lucie describes the continuation of life after death:, "If we are walking with God on earth, why would we stop doing that when we die?"

To psychics, the spirit world is totally normal–we all have a spiritual existence before we are born that continues after we die. I talked with psychic/trans-medium Kathleen Kalil who believes that life on earth and life after death are equal, in a way. In other words, life after death is not "blissful," but rather just another form of existence in which souls continue learning and evolving. When people die and their souls get stuck and are unable to cross over and move on, she helps them so they can continue on their journey. The key is to approach them with love.

Once, she was called to do some ghostbusting at a home occupied by a disruptive spirit. It didn’t take her long to find the spirit. He had died a violent death and was an unhappy, angry and bitter soul. "I felt his pain, I was aware of his life and wanted to help him connect with his oversoul, the bigger part of his self, the accumulation of the knowledge and learning of his lifetimes." The term "oversoul" was new to me and after Kalil’s explanations, I understood it to mean one’s own individual eternal spirit.

Kalil continued the story. "I connected with him from a place of caring and instructed him: ‘Tell me a time when you were with someone who loved you.’"

The spirit went through the process of turning over the stones of his memory for a long time before he finally remembered that he had a sister when he was two-years-old who really loved him. When he "was able to open his heart and touch a place of life," then spirits and guides came to help him.

Kalil explained that a ghost is a trapped spirit who, at death, has not been able to connect with its oversoul. "It’s probably not a choice." Generally people have windows when they can die where preparation has been done and guides are ready to help them cross over. To die "outside of one’s timing,"-- when the preparation hasn’t been made, as in a surprise or violent death--can cause a being to get stuck.

For that reason, Kalil and 20 other psychics from the Twin Cities went to New York City in September to help souls move on. Starting in the Twin Cities on Sept. 11, the psychics connected with the prayer energy from the whole world. Then they spent three full days in New York where they walked the perimeter of ground zero before moving to other locations in the city to do their work. The most difficult part was "not taking on the despair of their stories, their deaths. You can’t merge. You have to create a doorway to help them go through."

"It was a good, good thing we did. It fills my heart," Kalil said.

Besides helping souls go home, psychics can help clear spaces of bad energy. About six or seven years ago, Kalil attended a potluck at my friend Sally C.’s house. Sally told her about a room off the kitchen in their 90-year-old house which they had set up as an office but felt they couldn’t use. She and her husband couldn’t put their finger on it but no one wanted to spend time there. They kenneled their dog in that room and the dog didn’t seem to mind. But plants always died, and not in a normal way; they would just turn black.

When Kalil went into the room she started crying. "This is horrible," she said. As a trans-medium she is always open to extra-material information but to work with etheric energies she had to channel, that is, enter into an altered state of awareness. Upon channeling, she received the information that someone had been kept in the room against their will and treated very badly. She thought perhaps it was a daughter. She then channeled healing energy from the earth through her body to clear the space. Her intention was to send the negative energy back to its source in a caring way. Then everyone at the potluck entered the room trying to give it good life energy.

It took about six months before the room was cleansed. At Kalil’s suggestion to use music as a life force in the room, Sally began playing Ella Fitzgerald CDs. Pretty soon the plants were doing well. One evening Sally’s husband decided to work in there and wanted some music. Not knowing that Sally had also chosen Ella, he went out of his way to get an Ella Fitzgerald. CD. "She likes Ella," he said.

A year later they reminisced about the cleansing to a friend who had house-sat for them. He said, "Wow, I thought I was crazy because I was always afraid to go in that room. Whenever I had to get something out of there, I would run in and grab what I wanted really fast."

People often get scared and feel that they’re losing it when they have ghosts, bad energy or hauntings in their homes. My friend Ellen has learned what to do about the ghosts in her house. She used to think, "It’s the devil!" when a 7-foot-tall, black cloud with spiky hair stood looking in the bathroom mirror and a disembodied voice sang in the heat ducts and something kept her awake at night singing in her face and a short, nasty, wiry biker with black curly hair snarled "Kill, kill." She also assumed she had picked up some of the spirits at bars when she was young or she might be flipping out from drugs she had used in her youth. But now, ever since a year ago when a psychic came to her house to clear the spirits out of a room, she has learned that neither her guilt, nor her anger at these invasive beings is helpful.

The psychic told her she needed to help them–"You must do this in love."

Ellen says she now understands that "Ghosts are pretty powerless. They’re not smarter or more powerful than you. They are trapped because they are befuddled and they need your help."

She talked with the mean guy. He said, "You can’t kill me, bitch. You’ll never get rid of me."

She replied, "You can’t be healed here. You can be surrounded by love but you have to go on." He finally left.

Another spirit appeared, "an older man full of incredible kindness. . .like the father you’d love to have." Ellen told him, "You’re confused. It’s OK. You’re dead. You’re going to a better place. Go to the light. You’ll have love and healing."

She said she’d rather not have ghosts, and prays a prayer by Sylvia Brown, whom Ellen calls a talented psychic, several times a day: "Dear God, surround me in the pure white light of your love." Then she adds on her own, "Please heal our bodies, Please keep evil away from us. God, I feel these spirits. You know what to do."

Ellen believes ultimately that God can do anything and everything at any time so why not turn the ghosts over to the expert. "God is better at passing spirits on than I am."

She is so glad that the notion of acting in a loving way to the spirits, taking compassion on their stuckness, was presented to her. "[It would have] never occurred to me in a million years to help spirits!"