Our Lady of the Rosary
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. Often when priests preach about this memorial the focus is on the Rosary as a prayer, but not the history of why this memorial was created. Those that do might mention that it celebrates the naval victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, but do they explain what that battle was all about, who was fighting who?
The Battle of Lepanto was a battle between the Christian, European forces (yes, Virginia, there was a time when Europe was Christian) and Muslim forces. Muslims fighting Christians? Have you ever heard of that before?
Now, history is rarely simple. You really cannot say that one side of a conflict was all wrong and the other side was all good. It is a sad part of Christian history that we too have tried to spread the Gospel by the sword (not really what I think the God of Love would want). However, Muslims cannot say that they have not historically tried to spread their faith by the sword.
If you follow this link http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52338 you can read a nice little summary of events leading up to the Battle of Lepanto. Basically for the previous 1000 years the Muslim forces, mostly Turks, had been invading and conquering Christian lands. While the Christians had fought back, it was not very organized (a lot of “well that’s not my problem”). I am sure there were plenty of brutalities on all sides. We know that the one Muslim leader had a Christian leader skinned alive, and then enslaved 12,000 Christians as galley slaves in the war ships. The Holy League was formed because the European leaders finally realized that, to quote John Hancock of the US Revolution, “if we do not hang together, we will surely hang separately.” In the end, the smaller Christian allied navy destroyed the Muslim navy, and Don Juan freed the 12,000 enslaved Christians. It was the one of the largest naval battles in history, and the last one involved oared ships. However, it was a short lived victory, for the Muslims rebuilt their navy and went back to harassing the Christian trade routes.
My point here is not some type of triumphalism. It is to point out that there has been a long history of conflict between Christian civilization and Muslim civilization. We believe in a God who loves us so much that He sent His only Begotten Son into the world, to become a man like us in all things but sin, not to condemn the world but to save it. Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Mary, perfectly reveal God the Father (yes, I am dissenting from the Archbishop of Canterbury who recently issued a letter to the “clergy” of the Church of England that told them to stop referring God as Father and Lord because those terms may lead to domestic violence). Jesus also perfectly revealed Man (male and female) to himself, and his relationship with God. Jesus then sacrificed Himself to atone for our sins, but in rising from the dead He destroyed sin and death. Jesus then promised to remain with us for eternity. Christianity is a civilization of love and reason (again, sadly, too often we have not acted civilized). Islam considers it a sacrilege to think that God would enter into human history in such a personal way.
However, there is common ground. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in his book The World’s First Love, noted that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the means for the conversion of Muslims. In Islam, Mary the mother of Jesus, is held in very high esteem. Infact she is given higher honor than even Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad. Isn’t it interesting that Our Lady appeared in a town named in honor of Muhammad’s daughter? Mary is the way. Hers is not a way of violence, but a way of prayer and peace; a way of ever drawing close to Jesus and seeking only to do the will of God. Let us, particularly today, pray for peace for all the world, especially between Christians and Muslims.
