19150214 08:26:47

19150214 08:26:47

CF-N-7600

William Humeski sat attentively in the church pew and listened to the reading of Isaiah, chapter 59. He was glad that he didn't have to attend the Ukranian language service and could actually comprehend the words being spoken. What resonated the strongest in him was the language used towards the end of the reading, where the Lord himself was depicted as becoming a figure of righteousness who would physically bear armor and claim justice. The imagery of the all mighty spirit becoming something of an ancient warrior ignited his imagination. Father Kalovsky then used this reading to tie into his homily, to address the new movie which had been released in the States - The Birth of a Nation.
"And so we see how an article of entertainment aims to surpass and surmount what power which we have just seen the almighty Father alone may claim and invoke. We in this city know the truth about what pains our brothers have endured and from what kind of bondage we have fled, but these blasphemous cowards will now resort to using the novel motion picture as a means to attempt to retroactively change the past as well as substantiate their basis for battles today and tomorrow. They will show these men who don white sheets and commit criminal acts of terror and assault and justify it in the name of righteousness - that it is their right to commit these heinous deeds and continue to subjugate what they deem to be an inferior race. We see the power of this speech reach the highest positions of their government now - we know that Wilson has received the picture. What does this tell you? If I may answer on your behalf, it should tell you that those people all still accept and yearn for an entire society where that history is accepted as the truth and that kind of action is justified. The battlefield may have been laid to rest fifty years ago, but with this kind of action, we see that the war still rages on. You all shall know that none but the Lord may wield power in the name of righteousness. The more this vile picture spreads across that nation and you see criminal acts occur in reaction to its reception, you will know those actions to be that of sinful cowardice."
The speech went on, but William retreated inside his own mind from this point. He contemplated what it truly meant to "wield power in the name of righteousness", and wondered how specific that definition became. From what the Father just read, the Lord made himself a soldier. What then of the actual soldiers who have found against each other in the present day? In thinking of the aforementioned battlefield, didn't both sides of the States' War invoke such power in the name of their cause? Or perhaps to consider something which he has seen and knows of first hand, isn't the duty of a police officer a similar kind of use of power? He felt his eyelids blink as his mind became blank in search of answers to these questions. Rather than come to a determination, he then asked himself - what would it take for him to wield power in the name of righteousness, as those men have done?
The service continued as normal throughout the rest of the hour, and William reflexively followed the customary responses and motions, but still kept that terminal question in his mind the entire time. He couldn't let it go.