The Siege of Vienna

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

The year was 1683. The situation was dire. Turkish invaders from the Ottoman Empire were about to overrun Western Europe. On July 14, some 200,000 Muslim combatants, the largest Islamic army ever to invade European territories, an immense force, came and surrounded Vienna, the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. They had decided that Vienna, as the head of the infidel empire, needed to be laid low, so that as they said, all the Christians would obey the Ottoman God. Ottoman Turks, the leader of the Muslim expedition, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa was fanatically anti-Christian. And one example, after capturing a Polish town in 1674 he ordered all the Christian prisoners to be skinned alive, and they’re stuffed hide sent as trophies. The Ottoman Sultan, Mohammed the fourth. So, when this immense army arrived at Vienna, he told the Viennese they had to either surrender and submit to him or be conquered. And when Viennese refused to submit, the next day Mustafa unleashed all hell against the city’s walls. And for two months, they were holdup and vastly outnumbered. Viennese suffered plague, dysentery, starvation, and many casualties, including women and children, in the name of jihad. And this moment came to my mind as I was reading the first reading we had today, because this situation of being in a besieged city, has happened many times, and many times we see it in the Bible. And it happened, for instance, it happened more than one time to Jerusalem. And so, we have here the prophet Habakkuk, him crying out, him lamenting, “how long Oh, Lord, how long?” “How long Oh, Lord. I cry for help, but you do not listen.” Have you ever felt that way? “I cry for help. And you do not listen. I cry out to you ‘Violence’, but you do not intervene? Why do you let me see ruin? Why must I look at misery, destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and clamorous discord.” That’s in the passage that we heard today. And he goes on to say, “so the law is slacked, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous.” So, justice goes forth perverted.  So these words, say of Habakkuk with this cry, I think how often people can sense that in different situations, not just when a person is in a physically besieged city, but in so many ways when we’re being attacked by the evil one. “How long Oh, Lord, I cry for help, and you don’t listen. I cry out to violence, but you don’t intervene. Why do you let me see ruin? Why must I look at misery?” And so then, Habakkuk, and again, that what we have today in the passage from Habakkuk is that there’s a whole passage, there’s a whole part in the middle, which is omitted. But then it goes on, so after this cry from Habakkuk, there is a mysterious response from the Lord.  The Lord’s response is often mysterious, beyond our understanding, but I think it has a lot of significance for us today. He says, “Then the Lord answered me and said,” so this is a good example of what we’ve talked about so often, of the Lord speaking, speaking through prophets, “the Lord answered me and said, ‘write down the vision clearly, upon the tablets so that one can read it readily.” write down the vision, clearly, for the vision still has its time, it presses on to fulfillment, it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come. It will not be late.” So, the Lord is asking His Prophet to make the act of writing it down. And that’s hard to do. I mean, it’s even harder to do than when it’s harder to write things. But it takes an act of faith and obedience from the prophet in a such a difficult situation to believe the Lord speaking to him and write down a mysterious vision. And it seems like that he and maybe others are sensing, that this vision seems delayed. And that’s why the Lord says,  it still has its time, it presses on to fulfillment, even though it seems delayed to you. It has actually, God’s plans are actually moving even as pressing on the fulfillment. If delays , wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. He doesn’t say it won’t seem to be late, it already seems like it seems to be at least as if it delays. So, it probably already seems late. But he says it will not be late, that is, it will not be late in God’s providence, God knows the right time for it. But it might seem late for the people, then there’s the passage and this then says the rash has no integrity. And then this is the passage which is quoted numerous times, and in the New Testament, “but the just one, because of his faith shall live.” So in this terrible trial, that the just one is finding himself where he’s besieged. And he feels his life is about to be destroyed. That the core of this message is the just one went by his faith, by holding on to faith in God, that’s how he shall live. So I think that this is very helpful for understanding what it means to wait on the Lord. I mean, waiting, is not our favorite activity, right? If you were to list your top 10 activities, I don’t think you’d have waiting on there as one of them. I mean, the idea of a waiting room is not a very positive image. So, but so much of Scripture, actually though, in the Old Testament and New Testament and if you’re wondering how I know that it’s because I’ve had a lot of experience on waiting on the Lord.  I’m much more experienced, I would have liked to have had. But so much of Scripture is about waiting on the Lord. So, what does that mean to wait on the Lord? Does that mean just to do nothing? Is wait on the Lord mean just to do nothing in the meantime? And that’s why I think that this example of a besieged city is a good example. Because waiting on the Lord means persevering in faith, and hope. And that’s not easy. In some situations, it’s not easy to persevere in faith and hope. And so, it’s like these people that the Habakkuk is talking to, or I think like the Viennese, and the example I gave you waiting on the Lord often means holding the fort. That is not giving up, not surrendering, not joining the other side. So that’s already a lot in some situations that can be courageous, just to not give up, to not surrender, to not join the other side. And it also means to not commit suicide. And there’s situations in which that would seem like the most attractive option. It means continuing to fight. Even if it doesn’t seem like we’re gaining anything, even when hope is fading. So, think of a difference when Jesus was crucified, of so many of His disciples who thought it’s over. And Mary, who continued to hope, waiting on the Lord. And so, I think this is important for us today, to learn to wait on the Lord, to hold on to faith and hope, to persevere. Remember what Jesus says in the Gospel, this is what He says to Martha after her brother Lazarus had died, He says, “If you believe, if you believe, you will see the glory of God.”  Its faith is calling her for heroic faith. And that’s after her brother, after a long painful illness has already died. And Jesus says, “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” So, I wanted to read some more about what happened at that moment when Vienna was under siege. So, a lot of people were praying. The King of Poland, John the third Sobieski. courageous man with also was a great a Catholic and a great devotion to Our Blessed Mother. And so, he, in response to the situation, in response also to the pleas of those that they realized that it was not just Vienna, but it was all of Europe, which was all of Christian Europe, which was in danger. Sobieski marched his army toward Vienna for the decisive showdown. And they said, “it is not a city alone that we have to save, but the whole of Christianity, of which the city of Vienna is the bore. On the way under a banner of Our Lady,”so led by a banner of Our Lady, “he and his troops prayed for her assistance at the shrine and Czestochowa’ Poland, the famous shrine to Our Lady, early on the morning of September 12. Sobieski worshiped at Mass, so they had Mass first. So, think about how important that was that they’re going to have this huge battle, and so how much, how much do you have to do the very day of this huge battle, how much there is to do, but the Mass was so important to them, that they had Mass first. “Then he confidently told his army, which was smaller and outnumbered, he said, “Let us march with confidence, under the protection of heaven, and with the aid of the Most Holy Virgin.” And so, the Viennese that morning, looked out above the gate, and saw him leading this force of 65,000 heavily armored Poles, the winged Husaria, the famous Polish Calvary, I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that correctly. But Poles, Austrians and Germans, Sobieski led a thunderous Calvary charge, the largest in history against the much larger Ottoman forces. And after a very difficult battle it ends up that they totally routed the Muslim besiegers. And Sobieski quoted the famous phrase of Julius Caesar, the great Roman conqueror who said, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” but Sobieski said, “I came, I saw, God conquered.” God conquered, recognizing that it was God, God, who was the one behind this victory. And the pope extended the celebration of the feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the universal Church. So, this is the feast that we celebrate, precisely on September 12, the anniversary of that battle, and I don’t know if the feast was before the battle or is added afterwards.  But this feast of the Holy Name of Mary is linked to this great victory. It’s funny title little incident that I when I was preparing this homily a couple of weeks ago, and I came to this homily and I was going through this, to prepare this, prepare this, from some years early, I was combing through it. And I realized that the very day I was, because I was kind of wondering, is this a good holiday to give it and I realized that the very day that it was, September 12, that day, I was preparing this homily. And so that seems to be a confirmation. So, September 12, this feast of the Holy Name of Mary and St. John Paul, reinstituted this feast for the whole Church in 2002. Reminded us of what is the whole call of our little Mission of Divine Mercy, faith so that God can act.  And that’s what the Lord was asking the prophet Habakkuk. And that’s what John Sobieski was recognizing that faith which permits God himself to act in sometimes in extraordinary ways. “Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, for the vision still has its time. It presses on to fulfillment, and it will not disappoint. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. For just because of his faith, shall live.” And so, recognizing the holy name of Mary, our Blessed Mother, with her, let us ask for the grace in the attacks that we are experiencing, not just human but spiritual attacks, attacks of evil spirits, that we’re experiencing right now, individually, personally, as families, as our country, as the Church as the whole world. Ask for this grace to be strong, and holding on, holding the fort, waiting on the Lord. Faith so that God can act.  Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
Sobieski
Feast of the Holy Name of Mary