What Would Jesus Do in Gaza? The Tears of Pope Francis Point the Way [View all]

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/27/what-would-jesus-do-in-gaza-the-tears-of-pope-francis-point-the-way.html



Christopher Dickey

WORLD NEWS 07.27.14

The pontiff makes a heartfelt appeal for peace in Gaza, Iraq, Syria ... but is anyone listening?

PARIS — As the slaughter continues in Gaza, as bodies rain from the sky over Ukraine, as barbaric jihadists conquer swathes of Syria and Iraq, butchering their enemies and erasing the history of the Bible and of humankind, it seems empathy, sympathy, diplomacy and prayer are utterly unable to meet the demands of common humanity.

At such times, even those who are not especially religious might be moved to ask, in all seriousness, or perhaps in bitter irony, “What would Jesus do?” And as Pope Francis spoke to the multitude on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, he came as close to answering that question as he or anyone else is likely to come.

Francis wept.

He did not wipe away the tears, but the long lenses of the television cameras showed him blinking them back behind his glasses. As Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has said, Francis is “a man who speaks in gestures.” And this was an important one. Francis wept, and it is fair to say that Jesus, too, would be weeping today.

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