Prayers for Kabul, as deadly as Nice, with much less coverage

Today was marked by funerals and burials in Kabul, Afghanistan, as families laid to rest the more than 80 victims of ISIS’ latest horror.

The victims of the suicide-bombing were mostly of the Shiite Hazara minority; they had gathered to protest the construction of a power line through their province. It is troubling that there is so little talk about it in the news, or on social media. It’s as though people think, “oh, that always happens ‘over there’.” Will we soon become so complacent about these atrocities as they become more frequent in the West? Will we, as John Kerry predicted in 2004, come to simply see random terrorism as a “nuisance” in life?

Meanwhile, we hear that the gunman in Munich’s tragedy was almost a child … only 18, and afflicted by mental illness. Seven of the nine he killed were teenagers as well.

The Pope brought both of these fresh tragedies to prayer today after leading the midday Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

He said that as difficulties seem to get worse, and the prospects for peace seem darker, our prayer, simply, must get more insistent.

Speaking on the Gospel reading, he said we must pray with “audacity and insistence,” because this is our way of participating in God’s work of salvation.

God knows what we need. He knows our world is reeling in violence that dishonors his name. But in prayer, the Pope said, our faith and our patience will be strengthened, and we will join together with God, stand beside him, in fighting for what is truly necessary and important.

We heard today this invitation to pray with insistence from Luke’s Gospel: “I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”

We pray, with insistence, in every Mass, as we did today. Let us continue with the persistence that Jesus counseled in the Gospel, asking God to stop this horror, to inspire, as the Pope said today, “goodness and fraternity in all.”

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, please, grant us peace.

Saint Charbel, who we remember today, pray for the people of Kabul, and for us.