“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert.” “He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached” Jesus to forsake his peacemaking mission from the Spirit. Jesus refused, including the last to rule the world, “the devil… showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world… “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself before me.” Jesus rejected rule and the devil, “Get away, Satan.”
We might think only a few madmen succumb to the devil’s third and penultimate temptation, rule of the world. But rule of the world describes your average warmaker and their empires, such as the U.S. The U.S. Empire is thus its own devil successfully tempting its citizens to rule the world, ‘prostate yourself before me.’ As a devil, this Empire deceives U.S. citizens into the goodness of rule by lying about spreading democracy. In truth, the U.S. Empire is spreading a devil’s rule and an ethic of death. Life-givers, like peacemakers, therefore have lies told about them. Lies are told that peacemakers disrespect warmakers, soldiers. But that is projection as it is warmakers who disrespect soldiers training them to disrespect enemies and kill them and be killed. Lies are told that peacemakers are naïve about evil and collude with the devils of history. But that too is projection as it is warmakers who are naïve about evil and they who collude with the devils of history. Warmakers assert that if not for the U.S. military, we would not have been saved from devils like Adolph Hitler through to Osama bin Laden. But it is warmakers, soldiers who cause devils like Adolph Hitler through to Osama bin Laden. Every time a warmaker claims to save us from a devil, we can know warmakers caused that devil. For example, the devil Hitler had at least a conciliatory relationship with U.S. citizens and institutions, for example, the military, Congress, churches, the press, businesses including The New York Times, celebrity pilot Charles Lindberg, the Bush Family, Fr. Charles Coughlin. Hitler was also on good terms with Nazi sympathizers Alfred Sloan for General Motors, Thomas Watson for IBM, and Henry Ford for the Ford Motor Company. The U.S. Empire, its military, and its corporations invited Nazi officials to tour U.S. military bases during the 1930s and worked to enhance Hitler’s rule and ethic of death. All were helpful in mobilizing the Third Reich with GM, IBM, and Ford deciding, for the sake of plunder, to remain operating in Germany after the war broke out. The same help was provided by the U.S. military to the devil Osama bin Laden who was later responsible for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. From 1979 onward, bin Laden and other Islamic War Lords were helped in their rule and ethic of death. They received tactical and funding help, mostly through morphine/heroin sales, from the CIA and U.S. Armed Forces. These War Lords, armed with U.S. Raytheon weaponry, formed the Mujahadin, the origins of the Al Qaida and Isis networks. The U.S. continues to provide tactical and funding assistance to violent terrorist organizations such as Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Israel’s Mossad. Whatever the name warmakers insert in their question to peacemakers, “But what would you have done about the devil Hitler, bin Laden, Bush, Cheney?” the same ignored reality of Militarism producing such devils deceptively operates behind the question. Our world is ruled by Militarism’s intertwined political, financial, and religious system of devils who spread an ethic of death yet successfully tempt us, “prostrate yourself before me.” What do we do about the devil Militarism that produces devils who want to rule the world with an ethic of death? We dissolve it in the Spirit of peacemaking.
“The primary intention of the consistent ethic of life…is to raise consciousness about the sanctity and reverence of all human life from conception to natural death. The… consistent ethic of life… ought to be understood not primarily as an ethic of principles but as an ethic of practices… it becomes clear that the consistent ethic of life emerges out of the Christian commitment to peacemaking… To attend to these social issues, these social “evils,” is a way of continuing Christ’s mission in the world… Our Communion is why all prejudice, all racism, all sexism, all deference to wealth… must be banished from… our homes, and our lives. This Communion is why we will not commit the world’s resources to an escalating arms race while the poor die… Peacemaking does not mean simply reaching some general agreement that peace is a good thing (or) a vague hope that peace might come some day. This recipe, instead, calls for concrete, practical peacemaking.” (Joseph Bernardin, M. Therese Lysaught)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, lead us in a mission for Life.
Question: How am I tempted to reject a consistent ethic of life?
February 26, 2023 Gospel Matthew 4:1-11 First Sunday of Lent