In today’s Old Testament reading the Warlord Yahweh calls the Warlord Jacob to, “Exult at the head of the nations.” The New Testament reading says “every high priest” is “called by God” to offer blood “sacrifices for sins.” In the Gospel, a blind man, Bartimaeus, calls Jesus to heal him. “Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent,” but Bartimaeus “kept calling out all the more.” “Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called the blind man, ‘Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.’” Jesus heals him, saying, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed him on The Way.”
It is the call of the master class to have people follow in their rut of deadliness; exultation and blood sacrifice. It is the call to be a soldier. Soldiers are called to be hirelings to their Warlord masters in Russia, China, and the U.S., Chevron, Halliburton, and Titan, Jerusalem, Mecca, and the Vatican. The Vatican, for example, calls soldier priests to sanctify exultations and blood sacrifices across the world’s nations and corporations. In the U.S., the soldier priest who is a master at such sanctifying is Timothy Broglio. Broglio is Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Military Services. Recently, this Catholic Warlord advised the other Catholic soldiers he masters to not get vaccinated. No soldier “should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience.” Soldier priest Broglio has walked so very long in the Warlord’s rut that he proves himself blind to his own ignorance and incompetence, in fact, he is insane / mentally deficient and evil / adversarial, in his attempts to comment on conscience. Broglio reflects the blindness of soldiers. Soldiers will see and follow the Warlord’s rut of compliance to rank but find it difficult to see and follow Jesus’ Way of communion with all. They will see and follow the Warlord’s rut of cruelties against other tribes but find it difficult to see and follow Jesus’ Way of loving your enemy. They will see and follow the Warlord’s rut of killing but find it difficult to see and follow Jesus’ Way of healing. Walking in the Warlord’s rut of compliance and cruelty and killing, means soldiers will exult over the blood sacrifice of 10 Afghan bodies, 7 of them children. If they do not exult, they will at least remain silent, as Warlord Broglio has remained silent. Broglio has said nothing about conscience in this matter of dead children. For him, it is a matter of routine compliance and cruelty and killing. Reports surface routinely of soldiers killing civilians, for it happens routinely and will continue to happen routinely. But the soldiers in suits, some of whom wear a collar, who see and follow the Warlord’s rut, will stay blind to it all. They will keep us blind. They will tell us to blindly ‘exult’ the soldiers’ and to blindly let them ‘offer blood sacrifices.’ And we will keep our blind faith in Warlords, believing their killing ‘has saved us.’ Broglio is a Judas. He betrays Christ. He wants us to be a Judas like him. Broglio wants us to remain blind and he wants us to remain silent. Warlords, some of whom wear a collar, like Broglio, will not want us to be like Bartimaeus who calls out to Jesus, the healer, “to see.” They will not want us to ‘Take courage, get up, a peacemaker is calling you to follow him on The Way.’ It is the Way that transforms the Old rut. We can walk away from the War Lords, all of them. We can put down our weapons and walk away.
“If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud… but you get up, amazed, watch bad blood run upwards from the slime into its wounds; see lines and lines of… boys rewind back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home – mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers, not entering the story now to die and die and die… You walk away. You walk away; drop your gun like all your mates do too… (And walk away) (Last Post – Carol Ann Duffy)
Prayer: Spirit, we walk on the Way of peace.
Question: How can I walk less in War Lords’ rut and more on peaceful Ways?
October 24, 2021 Gospel Mark 10:46-52 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time