PONDERING the Mass Gospel reading for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, which falls on Aug. 9 this year, then-pope Francis said in 2023 about Saint Matthew’s account of Jesus walking over the stormy sea as waves buffeted his disciples’ creaky boat (Mt 14:22–33):
“By walking on the water, He wants to say, ‘Do not be afraid. I put your enemies under my feet’ — a beautiful message — I put your enemies under my feet — not people — not that type of enemy, but death, sin, the devil. These are the enemies of the people, our enemies. And Jesus tramples on these enemies for us.”
Does he? That’s a query many readers, even devout Catholics, may ask, considering how war has worsened since the late Holy Father reflected on Matthew’s verses about Christ’s sea-strolling.
Since three Augusts ago, three more conflicts have erupted: Hamas Palestinians against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza; the same IDF battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon; and Israel, backed by the United States, attacking Iran for 12 days in June 2025 and since Feb. 28 this year.
Worse war after peace prayers
And all that after Francis, joined by thousands of fellow bishops and their flocks across the globe, consecrated Russia, Ukraine, the Church and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 2022, the Solemnity of the Annunciation. That’s the closest the hierarchy got to fulfilling God’s command, conveyed by Mary in apparitions in Portugal and Spain over a century ago, to obtain world peace.
And hostilities could spread further — and go nuclear. With Western missiles and drone technology and targeting, Ukraine has attacked deep into Russia, prompting Moscow to again threaten retaliation against European nations like the United Kingdom and France, enabling Ukrainian long-range ordnance.
That could then trigger direct conflict between Russia and the United States-led, nuclear-armed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has provided arms, aid, intelligence and secret troops to Ukraine throughout the war. Thankfully, Moscow has desisted from carrying out its threat, probably fearful of how US President Donald Trump may react.
In the Middle East, Trump’s vain attempts to end his failed war on Iran while claiming victory have dangerously escalated the conflict, not only to squelch vital exports of petroleum, fertilizer, helium and other critical products from the Gulf.
More intense bombing could trigger attacks on petroleum, power and water infrastructure across the region, rendering Arab states uninhabitable, crushing Middle East petroleum output for years — and possibly pushing Israel to use nuclear arms, which could then prompt atomic retaliation by Iran’s allies.
How God may be making peace
So, is God failing to deliver after the Marian consecration He mandated for global peace?
Two points: The Fatima instruction required two actions: consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the pope with instructions for other bishops to join and promotion of the Five First Saturdays devotion: praying the Rosary, meditating on its mysteries for 15 minutes, confession and communion on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months in reparation for offenses against the Virgin Mary. Maybe more of the latter devotion needs to be done by the Catholic faithful.
Second point: Maybe peace is, in fact, being advanced through the very wars undertaken by warmongering powers. God has countless times brought good out of evil, and our Lord’s redeeming Passion, Death and Resurrection is the paramount example of the divine will of salvation being achieved through what are clearly demonic events.
Also showing how God has His way while allowing ungodly powers do as they please is the story of Israel moving to Egypt, then falling into and fleeing from bondage in the Book of Exodus. Jacob or Israel’s son Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, and that’s how the clan found succor from famine in Egypt.
Then, after a new pharaoh turned against the Israelites, his refusal to grant God’s demand for their liberation not only showed divine chastisement forcing Egypt’s hand. The pharaoh also led his army to destruction precisely by sending it in pursuit of the fleeing tribe even if God was clearly protecting Israel. And that proud aggression may well be how heaven is now humbling our earthly superpower and making peace today.
Since the 1991 collapse of Soviet communism, the West’s ideological rival after World War II ended in 1945, America and its NATO allies have sought global hegemony, confident that no power can challenge them. The US bloc waged war in Europe, Afghanistan and the Middle East and expanded closer and closer to Russia, despite warnings from both Western foreign affairs experts and Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin.
In the Ukraine and Middle East wars, however, the West has reached the limits of its military might, not only failing to defeat Russia and Iran but also almost running out of precision-guided munitions, the staple of modern warfare. And building up NATO forces and arsenals would take years while adversaries are able to stock up in weeks or months.
Thus, letting the US-led bloc undertake hostilities has made peace possible by exhausting weapons stockpiles and demonstrating the West’s losing position — something that would not have happened if NATO did not prod Ukraine to reject peace and keep fighting with Western arms, aid, technology and secret troops. And if America did not follow Israel’s lead in waging war on Iran.
So, will peace now triumph? Not so fast.
America and its allies have seen that they can no longer bomb rivals into submission. Now, will they move toward working out differences with rivals in our emerging multipolar world with no supreme superpower?
Or will the US bloc stay on the warpath, as some European nations seem bent on doing despite how their proxy war has devastated Ukraine. And how President Trump has vacillated between negotiations and bombardment despite America and Israel’s clear defeat against Iran and the mammoth cost to the global economy.
We pray the West does not follow the pharaoh’s arrogant charge into the Red Sea.