I am reminded today of my brothers and sisters around the world who over the ages have been enlisted by their governments into acts of both aggression and of defense, and of the terrible bloodshed and cost of war on all sides. The scope and scale of war even now in the early 21st Century is still staggering, even after the two World Wars when national leaders swore that armed conflict was no longer seen as a viable, let alone morally justifiable means of guaranteeing freedom, land, rights...
Knowing so many remarkable men and women who have answered a call to the service and defense of their countries, and appreciative of their courage and commitment to their nations, I at the same time pray for an end to war, an end to the arms race and the military industrial complex that drives us into aggression for the sake of its own profits.
In the Gospel for the day today, Jesus shares foreboding words of prophecy regarding the impeding doom of Jerusalem, which was overtaken by Rome at the end of the First Century A.D. Jesus is not condemning Jerusalem so much as commenting on the blindness and collective egotism that leads to war. His question is just as salient to us today: Do we know what makes for peace?
Lk 19:41-44
As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it, saying,
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace–
but now it is hidden from your eyes.
For the days are coming upon you
when your enemies will raise a palisade against you;
they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.
They will smash you to the ground and your children within you,
and they will not leave one stone upon another within you
because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
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How it must hurt the One Who Created Us to see us take the life that He created away from each other. The passage means to me something more personal than a city destroyed, it means man failing to recognize and heed God's 5th commandment (or the 6th depending upon one's religious beliefs). Not recognizing that we were visited by God with the answer, but fail to follow his directives, even now after thousands of years. I appreciate and respect what soldiers have done for us to save us from a worse fate. There is no greater love.... If only their leaders, the ones who made the decision to start a war.. had to do the actual fighting......
ReplyDeleteThoughtful blog David, thank you.