Jesus Loves Osama
Last month a church in Australia put up a sign outside that read, “Jesus Loves Osama”. This initiated displeasure among some and confusion among others. How should a Catholic react to such claims?
We should acknowledge that God made all of us, including Osama bin Laden, Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc. God makes all of us beautiful. However, the nurturing that we receive at home, school, church or work, develop us into people who want to do good to others or bad.
Despite our rejection of God’s truth either willingly or unintentionally, God loves us. This is pure Catholic doctrine, as we can read from Jesus telling the Pharisees that He came to save the lost. Those who are well do not need a doctor. Christ died on the cross with our sins - all sins of all people who ever lived and will ever live.
So Jesus does love Osama. Even till death, Jesus didn’t request His Father to send down an army of angels to destroy the Roman soldiers, or Jewish priests or the crowd that was tormenting Him. He actually asked the Father to forgive them as they didn’t know what the do. God is known in Catholic belief as the ultimate lover who doesn’t give up despite our numerous rejections. In fact He woos us till death. God is the only jilted lover known to mankind who doesn’t abandon His love.
Maybe the more important question some of us would like to ask is if Osama will go to heaven, as he himself predicts, by performing a warped form of jihad. For us Catholics, the answer is simple - we don’t know. In fact it’s also none of our business. This is God’s domain. This is what Jesus meant when He said that we should not judge. However, we should judge if what Osama and other people do is evil or good and point it out to them. We should then tell the other person not to continue in his wrong ways and if needed, stop the person physically from hurting others. St. Gabriel Possenti comes to mind.
My belief is that on our respective Judgment Days, God will decide if we deserve to go to heaven simply based on our relationship with Him. The greater question ought to be if we love Him, or in case of this article, does Osama love God? The criteria that will be used will be whether we fed the hungry, clothed the naked or visited those in prison.
Has Osama done this to deserve Heaven or Hell. I don’t know and don’t care. But I do know his Guardian Angel is every moment trying to change his way of live to conform to God’s will. Will I go to Heaven? Well I will have to go through my checklist and leave the decision to the Father.
