Jesus has a gift for words and is a highly sought-after teacher. His words, which he gives away freely, attract great crowds as in this Sunday’s Gospel. He is never shown letting the people’s attention spoil him. Nor does he express feelings of entitlement. He never expects others to please him or serve him because of who he is or what he can do. He does not seek privilege. He does not life off others and what he can get from them. Jesus is not spoiled.
Being spoiled is often associated with children whose parents do not discipline/teach them well. It tends to refer to a child who has an expectation of entitlement, being pleased, served. It means a person is living a more privileged life off someone else’s lack of entitlement, lack of pleasure, because they are likely working in service to the privileged person. Nothing about it is kid’s stuff. To spoil comes from the military – the ‘spoils’ of war. It means to “strip an enemy.” It is derived from the practice of soldiers who take, control, and allocate the resources of others whom they have dehumanized as an enemy. If the enemy is dead, they are stripped of all their valuables- the spoils of war. If the enemy is alive, they themselves also become spoils of war – a thing stripped of value; a slave. If a male slave – they are enslaved to the warrior’s field, farm field or battle field. If a female slave and if desired – they are enslaved to the warrior’s bed, prostitution’s origins. Militarism’s warfare model continues to spoil. It propagandizes the rank of the few who are to be entitled, pleased, and served, living a more privileged life off the rest of us – who are dehumanized as spoil. Militarism is a model that extends beyond the military. It is operative in all Militarism’s spheres. Politics, finances, and ethics are operated by warriors types who wage war on the rest of us. It explains the current unlivable wage. It explains the spoiled financial warriors currently on display at capitalism’s annual Davos meeting. Attendees include the heads of philanthropic foundations and millionaire presidential aspirants. They are Captains of Capitalism and they are spoiled by the financial warfare they wage against common people. At Davos, as in their home nations, Captains of Capitalism make declarations of reform. But there is no reforming Militarism, nor its capitalist financial model. It is spoiled, rotten.
In the Gospel, when Jesus leaves the attention of the crowd, he joins his fishermen friends who have worked hard all night but caught no fish. He tells them to keep at it and “they caught a great number of fish so their nets were tearing. They called others to help them.” When the fish are sold for profit the disciples do not become capitalists. Capitalists have spoiled the word profit. Profit means pro-forward – to accomplish, to do good – and it has nothing to do with capitalism. Capitalism is all about plunder – the spoils of warmaking. Capitalism consists of a separate warmaking class that controls and allocates resources, labor, and surplus and decisions about them. Doing so enables the capitalist to live a more privileged life off the rest of us. All of which spoils them and results in slavish inequality for the common people. Those people fishing in the Gospel are a union of tradesmen. There is not war between soldiers taking spoils but collaboration among fishermen sharing profits. Workers do not spoil food or other needs as Captains of Capitalism spoil it and so much else. Capitalists spoil food by controlling and allocating farmland for food products that cannot be consumed by humans; GMO laced crops, hormone infected livestock, and fuel. Captains of Capitalism also spoil politicians with money. They spoil the legal system from which they have purchased the designation of ‘Person” for their businesses. They spoil our economy forecasting its health from stock prices rather than quality jobs held at a living wage. They spoil our conscience prioritizing property rights over human rights. It is the capitalist owner class that is spoiled; spoiled brats. We needn’t be their parents enabling them, just teachers helping to guide them.
Prayer: Spirit, open us to sharing.
Question: In what ways is capitalism spoiling me?
February 10, 2019 Gospel Luke 5:1-11 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time