The family Maccabees refuses to obey a foreign War Lord, a god of the dead, King Antiochus IV. Antiochus was outlawing Jewish religious traditions and forcing the family to obey Greek ones, for example, the deadly just war tradition. Thus the king “slaughtered” many; “in the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost.” But the Maccabees’ Jewish religious traditions also included the deadly just war tradition. Thus, the family’s refusal to obey Antiochus is over a rather inconsequential religious tradition, “the king forced them to eat pork in violation of God’s law.” “We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” The Pharisees in the Gospel reflect similar values; a concern for death over life, while otherwise stressing the inconsequential. They pose an inconsequential question about marital property after death to Jesus who refuses to obey their religion’s traditions. The religion is Militarism, a deadly religion. Militarism is the one same religion practiced by Antiochus, the Maccabees, and the Pharisees alike. It is a religion that prioritizes death while it perplexes people with inconsequentials. Jesus answers the Militarist’s question by prioritizing life, God is not the “God of the dead, but of the living, for to God all are alive.”
The religion of Militarism worships a God of the dead, War Lords, who among their other horrors slaughter people in war; thousands, millions, billions. While it does so it concentrates adherents on inconsequential matters. These misplaced priorities are evident in Militarism’s manifestation within Catholicism. Its fundamentalist rulers and adherents obey precepts of the just war tradition that perpetuates horror, while they question women not covering their heads, using vernacular not Latin during Mass, and how long the priest holds up the ‘Blessed Sacrament’ in Mass and how his fingers are positioned when doing so. Keepers of the inconsequential include Catholics at Eternal Word Television Network, EWTN. It is a basic cable network. It promotes these inconsequential traditions while it also promotes Militarism’s deadly religious tradition of war that slaughters thousands, millions, billions. Promoters include EWTN’s news director and lead anchor, Raymond Arroyo. Arroyo is a FOX News contributor who happily interviewed Trump, agrees with his caging “illegal alien children” at the border, and indicates opposition to his impeachment. Perhaps Arroyo thinks the impeachment would be for inconsequential matters. But every impeachment is, in a sense, for inconsequential matters. Because never are presidents impeached for the consequential matter of warmaking. Every president is a War Lord in the religion of Militarism. They are all guilty of horrific war crimes, for which we will likely never impeach them and usually laud them. So it is that EWTN and Arroyo regularly interview and laud just war traditionalists. This includes Cardinal Raymond Burke who glorifies the Crusades, supports U.S. wars, and is “opposed to…large-scale Muslim immigration (as)…the responsible exercise of one’s patriotism.” Also, Fr. Robert Sirico, who supports warfare and torture, “What I think would be very helpful, is if we took and adapted some principles of the just war theory and applied it to aggressive interrogation techniques.” Also, George Wiegel who laments that many people think “the just-war tradition ‘begins with a presumption against violence.” He offers the grisly assurance, “It does not.” He is therefore, like the others, notable for obeying the god of the dead in the religion of Militarism. Weigel is, like the others, notable for refusing to obey the living Christ.
“Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. … Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! … Act,—act in the living Present!…We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints, that perhaps another … Seeing, shall take heart again Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing.” (Psalm of Life – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Prayer: Spirit, energize us for life.
Question: How do I explain people who call themselves Christian not following the peaceful living Christ, and instead, following deadly War Lords?
November 10, 2019 Gospel Luke 20:27-38 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time