Blessing of soldiers and weapons of war

[twallace]

Hi

Recently this question was put to me by a JW: why do priest bless soldiers and their weapons before they go to war? what is the basis in scripture for this?

tom

 

[armywife]

I just went through the Book of Blessings index (from 1987) and there was no blessing listed for weapons or soldiers specifically. A priest could say a prayer over the soldier to keep him safe, but I don’t think they’d give their weapon a blessing. Although that’s not to say it couldn’t happen.

 

[estesbob]

Hi

Recently this question was put to me by a JW: why do priest bless soldiers and their weapons before they go to war? what is the basis in scripture for this?

tom

I have never heard not kind I find any reference to the Church blessing weapons. I think you heard some more JW misinformation.

 

[Dan_Michael]

You have an inquisitive JW.
Having been a soldier, the priest does bless the soldier (person), and even gives general absolution on the battle field. The way I saw it then, is that most of us were (Patriotic) doing our countries bidding… even the enemy we were fighting. ((They were just like us)) Even as a soldier in physical battle, there are spiritual scars left after the fight subsides. These are Moral. Like, is the fight Just? To who? What is one fighting for? What is one really fighting? (the enemy, or the other government) Why does it get to the personal level?
But, after it all… there is a peace. (relatively speaking) Perhaps not! Maybe one has revenge to get (the looser), or another try at it, next time to win. But is it a win? At what loss? Is it motivated by Love? Or Self-Interest? Pride, or loss of it?
You see why it is nice to be blessed as a soldier… war is a fact-of-life, not created by the ones called to fight it.
Domestic (personal) life mimics Societal life and Country life… or is it the other way around? But the Good Lord did have a blessing for the ‘Peacemakers’ (both the police officer and the soldier), perhaps more for the after-effect then the actual action.

There are a lot of questions here that only you can answer when/if you are put in that situation… and for many years after it…

 

[LaLucia]

Hi Dan, it is so true that our soldiers are in a war of not of their own making but by leaders who have chosen to create wars.

God is very forgiving of soldiers who have been in wars because they are put in a situation where they have to obey orders to kill.
They either choose to kill or be killed. Most soldiers choose to live because of their strong will to live. Some choose to commit suicide because they can’t handle the evilness of war. I have read in the newspapers that many of our military in the present war are chosing to commit suicide rather than to kill the evilness around them. They just can’t take it anymore.

Padre Pio from Italy used to go into the battlefields in spirit to rescue some of the soldiers. He didn’t care what country they were from because he would even hear the soldiers confessions from all countries of war.
If I had a son in the military presently. I would pray to Padre Pio to take care of my loved one.

There is a favorite song of mind that says that says that war is not the answer.
I see nothing wrong to bless a soldier. But weapons were created to kill and they are just objects that don’t need to be blessed.

 

[rwoehmke]

It may have been something done in the crusades, but in more recent times I have never heard of such a thing, as blessing weapons, in any war America has been involved in. Praying for and blessing soldiers in either army sure. One assumes that the cause is just and everyone needs God’s protection in war.

 

[Dan_Michael]

LaLucia,

You understand more then you let on about what happens during the battle. In the case of what you call ‘suicide’ tho, some call Post Traumatic Stress, of which hit’s hard on the Morals, once the so called murder is done, how can it be ‘reconciled’? Is it suicide or spiritually dead? Doesn’t this go with what is said: in trying to save one’s life, it will be lost… and in loosing one’s life, it will be found? The problem comes in the middle of those two phrases… to get to the second one.

PTS is 95% Moral and 5% psychological… yet it is treated as if it was 100% psychological. No wonder the lack of “effective” treatment.

And YES! The Priest’s Blessing on the battlefield was a very good feeling. As well as talking with various Priest’s after returning… as well as many others.

 

[rtconstant]

I was told by an Orthodox once that in some areas their priests will bless weapons and tanks and such. This probably would be because the Eastern Church tends to identify with its parent nation strongly. I don’t know any of this for a fact but if so there might be some confusion on the JW’s part.

As for soldiers, its a blessing for their safety not a curse against their enemies. The young boys in the field are usually fighting a war over something they didn’t start. The Church wants them to come home safely. The Church wants those on the opposite side to go home safely too. God loves the soldier just the same as He does any other person. Policies of nations do not stop that.

 

[mdgspencer]

Why not bless them?
This is only wrong if war is never just. However, that differs from the Catholic tradition.

 

[LaLucia]

I believe that our military soldiers are tramatized so much by seeing so much death and evil in this war that they prefer to die than to keep on living a life of evilness everyday during war. They end up becoming mentally ill and decide to kill themselves rather than to keep on killing in a war that they didn’t create.

God knows what our soldiers are going through and understands that when a soldier becomes so mentally ill they are not thinking straight with a clear mind. God allows these soldiers to go to heaven so they can heal their mental illness.

Some soldiers who live to come home safe end up with some mental illness and need medical help. They come home with Post Tramatic Stress and with the guilt of the things they had to do in order to survive. Some of them feel so guilty with the bad things they did during war that they are afraid of what the priests will say to them during confession. I know a man who was in the military for many years and he is truly afraid of going to confession and confess the bad things he did during the time he spent in the Military. He said to me one day, “I think I will wait until I am on my death bed before I do my confession to a priest.”
I didn’t get a chance to tell him, “What if you die all of a sudden in an accident”. He attends church every Sunday for many years but he can’t seem to go to confession eventhough he knows he needs to do that to release his guilty feelings.

One of my friend’s son who was in the Army recently… came home possed by demons. He had to have an exorcism done to get rid of the demons.

Yes, Dan, I know more than I let on. I could write a book on how much I really know. I try to be low key on this message board.

 

[Dan_Michael]

LaLucia, the Priest that helped me most was a Chaplain in the same war I was in; he knew the situation and we could relate to each other very well… he had a view from the ‘inside’ out. The other Priest’s had view’s from the ‘outside’ in. Both are needed due to where one is at the time (lost in the middle). Loving family/friends can see it, but have no idea how to help, and sometimes that help actually makes it worse. I was single then, but can imagine what the spouses see happening to their mates, and what to do about it.
And for me personally, confession did not help. There is no way to ‘reconcile’ the action done… bring back to life the others loved ones. (I believe abortion does the same to those having it done). Some form of punishment, whether gov’t imposed or self imposed (suicide), or loss of what life one had back here, or some physical loss, is the only reconciliation that one can do. In fact, one Priest I kept bugging about it, said I should write a book (no Our Father’s or Hail Mary’s). I have not, but I have frequented the VA and chat with many in that boat. Altho most suffer in silence… till some news making event hits the paper about what they did.
Being ‘low-key’ is safe. I too prefer that route. But this is a major Church issue, that should be addressed as fervently as the coming election. It is the Churches ‘Saving-Graces’ that are needed to get these ‘lost-sheep’ back into the flock, since it IS a Moral condition. Once the moral side is corrected, the psychological condition vanishes.

Wonder what Saul (Paul) felt like after the blinding light…

 

[mdgspencer]

I wonder how those who believe that war is always wrong look at the fact that God sometimes commanded Israel to go to war, as the Old Testament shows repeatedly?
It is true that war produces evils, death, and some of the other things people have mentioned here. But not going to war can be worse, as in the Old Testment when it would mean disobeying God.
Sometimes doing the right thing can lead to unfortunate results. I sometimes think of those who are sent to prison so that their families are left without fathers and smetimes left in poverty without a source of income. This does not mean that such sentencing should be abolished.

 

[Dan_Michael]

I wonder how those who believe that war is always wrong look at the fact that God sometimes commanded Israel to go to war, as the Old Testament shows repeatedly?
It is true that war produces evils, death, and some of the other things people have mentioned here. But not going to war can be worse, as in the Old Testment when it would mean disobeying God.
Sometimes doing the right thing can lead to unfortunate results. I sometimes think of those who are sent to prison so that their families are left without fathers and smetimes left in poverty without a source of income. This does not mean that such sentencing should be abolished.

Agreed!

You have brought up the ‘dilemma’ on the ‘personal’ scene… for the good of ‘society’. Implying a personal sacrifice for the many.
And just knowing (not logic or reason) that God can bring ‘good’ out of ‘evil’ (as He did with Saul (Paul)) can ease into a solution… or the ‘paradox’. And the Church is very instrumental in this ‘road back’ to a useful life… after the fact.
Blessing a soldier up front, as was done with me… then, follow-up on the back is how I am where I am today. But, I had to ‘ask’… ‘seek’… ‘KNOCK’… for that help. It did not come to me on the back side. I was one of the ‘flock’ before… and an ‘outcast’ after. Christ came for sinners (ones He could help)… isn’t that being a Christian (Catholic)? He went after the lost sheep (it could not come to Him). I did not find this happening. How many “saints-to-be” has the Church put out to pasture? For the good of the parishioners? In spite of this, I found those ‘saving-graces’ needed to move on in life, both within and outside of the Church. All I will say is “God loves Orphans”.