Jesus’ Golden Rule from today’s Gospel, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” is compared with Buddhism’s “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find harmful.” It is also compared with Judaism’s “What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow man.” There is another ‘rule’ from Jesus in today’s Gospel. It is not compared to other wisdom traditions or to religion, “Love your enemy.” It is revolutionary.
Jesus’ witness, to “love your enemy,” is revolutionary because it actually revolves, or, turns humanity. We turn away from the murderous religion of Militarism based on hating our enemy. We turn inward toward our own heart and outward toward the hearts of others, lovingly so. Soldiers, specifically those who call themselves Christian/Christ-like, do not live by Jesus’ revolution of love. They live by Militarism’s rule to target enemies. It is why soldiers targeted Jesus 2,000 years ago. They gathered as troops with their weapons and then arrested and scourged an unarmed man. Can we consider this as the link between soldiers and cowardice? The word coward derives from ‘tail’ and signifies one who turns tail. In other words, a person turns their back on a difficulty rather than facing it from the front. Facing it from the front is facing it in love, from the heart – in French ‘cor.’ It is the meaning of courage – to stand in love, heart to heart. A soldier, defined as one who fights for pay, is trained in fear of living from the heart, from love. Soldiers are trained to tuck tail to a master whom they are coerced to obey. The soldier’s master trains them in hostility. The soldier is trained to cover the heart – with a weapon. Be it the weapon of prejudice, hatred, or guns. The soldier is thus lacking in courage. We who are courageous take risks of vulnerable love, heart to heart encounters. In the courage of love we adjust, we make amends, we change, we vow to never hurt again. Soldiers are trained to hurt and to keep hurting; themselves and others. Soldiers are trained to kill. Their masters have convinced soldiers, and most of the rest of us, they kill for us. But that is a lie. Soldiers kill for the plunder to be gained by their masters. Thus, to paraphrase General George S. Patton, ‘No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by killing some other dumb bastard and making him die for his country.’ Soldiers and their masters make love into an enemy. Love is a thing to be killed within themselves and others. Thus, they keep on killing – brothers and sisters in Vietnam and Somalia and Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen and Syria – brothers and sisters in schools and churches and synagogues and movie theaters and nightclubs and outdoor concerts and workplaces (West Aurora, Illinois, 02/15/19), and on and on and on. Soldiers just keep killing, because they do not have the courage to face life from the heart; to love and thus to adjust and make amends and change and vow to never hurt again, as lovers do.
“(Y)ou have hurt us. Deeply. Just as you intended: you and those who sent you. You do know by now that you do not send yourself? I imagine your Designers sitting back in the shadows … They planned and nurtured your hatred and fear and focused the kill shot. Then watched you try to explain your innocence on TV. You and the weeping mothers have more in common than you might think: the mothers know this. They have known you far longer than you have known them. … If you could find your true courage you might risk everything to sit within a circle, surrounded by these women. Their eyes red from weeping, their throats raw. … Their sons are dead and it was you who did the deed. Scary enough. But within that enclosure Naked to their grief Is where you must center If you are ever To be freed.” (To The Po’lice – Alice Walker)
Prayer: Spirit, fill me with love for those I call enemy.
Question: How does Militarism manipulate me about heroism?
February 24, 2019 Gospel Luke 6:27-38 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time