February 21, 2019
DePaul University
Robert Emmet Meagher, PhD, gave this fourth talk in CWCIT's Spiritual Works of Mercy Series. He addressed the work of mercy known as "praying for the living and the dead" from a unique perspective, as it relates to the spiritual wounds of war in veterans, their families, and their communities. Drawing on Jesus' words to his friend, Lazarus, in the Gospel of John, Meagher says:
Hearing that Lazarus was dead, Jesus wept and prayed. In an age of endless war, we too, in tears, must "pray always." It is one thing to go dark in death, and another to go dark in life. Among the casualites of war are those killed from the inside out: visibly unscathed, invisibly haunted. Any nation sending its daughters and sons into the valley of death must learn to call them back, body and soul, to the land of the living.
Robert Emmet Meagher is professor of humanities at Hampshire College (Amherst, MA) and the author of numerous books, including "Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War." Recently, he has engaged in programs aimed at healing the spiritual wounds of war in veterans, their families, and their communities.
