There is some evidence the U.S. Empire is like, or perhaps worse than, the man in Sunday’s Gospel. The man, out of fear, puts the gifts he has been given to no good use; he “went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried” the gifts. So too, the U.S. receiving the gifts of people, resources, time, and money are, out of fear, putting these gifts to no good use – in the military. The gifts are used for war plans, wars, and for weapons. The U.S. Empire, out of fear, and out for money, then puts these weapons to use here and abroad. For example U.S. weapons have been put into use by El Salvadoran death squads, by the Mujahedeen led by Osama bin Laden; by the Iraqi Republican Guard and Saddam Hussein. Each one put the weapons to no good use in turn; using them against people and the earth. More recently, out of fear and for plunder, the U.S. put weapons in the hands of ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels now known as ISIS who are also putting them to no good use in turn.
Consider, more beneficially, the gifts of people, resources, time, and money which, out of love, are put to very good use by practitioners of the Gift Economy. The Gift Economy is a world-wide network of people opening themselves to an abundant life-giving world. It is a world filled with gifts freely given and freely shared. One loving expression of the Gift Economy is sprouting up from gardeners and farmers across the world. Gardening aficionados are roaming cities and towns in search of blighted areas and bringing them back to life. Organic farmers are doing the same for valleys and pasturelands, especially any destroyed by those weapons of war put to no good use.
The time is long past to set down weapons of war that breed only death and take up tools for nurturing the gifts of the earth that always give life. The poet and naturalist Wendell Berry once put such giving in nationalist terms: By “this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life.”
Prayer: Spirit of Creativity, inspire us to share our gifts and satisfy the world’s hunger for living.
Question: What are some of the ways I can stay in touch with the earth’s gifts of life?
November 16, 2014 Gospel Matthew 25:14-30 Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Day of remembrance for martyrs of El Salvador.