War, weapons and right

The world we live in right now and the leaders who govern it (or is govern the right word???) call to mind a bit of wisdom that is understood by few and scarcely dreamt of by most.

A perfect paradigm for teaching this wisdom lies in the current initiative by President Obama to eliminate all nuclear weapons, in the name of consistency, good will and a wholly Christian sense of peacemaking.

I applaud the sentiment, for it indeed seems just, as none can possibly deny a) the hypocrisy of denying other nations access to them; b) the absolute horror that nuclear weapons embody; and c) that we ought, as Christians, to promote peace and good will among all the nations. Blessed are the peacemakers and all that.

The conundrum, however, is this: as a single person, one ought rightly to observe one’s conscience and the teachings of the church in dealing with others. Likewise, a group of people retain a collective conscience, which is ideally a homogenous patchwork of morality and right. But when that group is expanded to the size of a nation, the proportion between the constituents and those governing it becomes tenuous, and—unless buttressed by the pillars of strength that are faith and morality—the ability of the whole organism to maintain that collective conscience erodes.

Moreover, in accepting the governance of a group of such size, one is bound to no longer rely solely on his own conscience in matters of right and wrong—he must, in matters of importance to the state, regularly submit to the collective conscience, whether it is voiced by ballots or by royal council. This voice demands both safety and justice. Therefore he must, at times, employ such means as necessary to achieve these ends, or risk both the stability of his country as well as his reign. Unlike our only true Father, for whom both means and ends are one, the earthly ruler is often bedeviled by these details…for if Christians lived and died wholly by Christ’s teachings, we would surely be extinct.

Though a ruler be just and good, though he be upright in all things, yet when the devil knocks, he must choose between his country…and his soul…

My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus when questioned by Pilate. As his death approached, he proclaimed: Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (Jn 12:31)

If Christ is not the prince of this world, then we must understand who the prince of this world is, and we must understand that to be a ruler means to serve under this prince. This is why Christ exhorted us:

And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ. (Mt 23:9-10)

Pray, then, for our leaders, and for the people that they govern, that we may not suffer the end of those who have not faith:

Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me: Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. (Jn 8:42-44)

Pilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice.

Pilate saith to him: What is truth? (Jn 18:37-38)

By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. (Mt 7:16-19)

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So hard to remember, so easy to forget...

When bad things happen, what do you do?

Even the most prayerful among us cannot help but react in more or less the same way when troubles set in: we seek to avoid them, we fret over them, and we bemoan our fate. Many wonder why, if God is so great, does He allow terrible things to happen? Doesn’t He care? Is it possible that He cannot control these things?

The most common explanation for these questions has to do with free will, and Adam’s fall, and the introduction of pain and suffering as a consequence. This is a valid and important component in understanding human suffering; however, there is another equally important component that is often overlooked, because it is much more difficult to comprehend. It involves a radical re-thinking of our understanding of pain and suffering.

Our God…is a God of exquisite suffering.

OK, that’s a rather shocking suggestion, in part because it smacks of accusing God of being a sadist. Our minds naturally rebel against the mere suggestion that suffering could be good, much less the suggestion that suffering plays a part in the nature of our God. The idea is so far contrary to common sense that we never even consider such a thing. Yet if we allow ourselves to explore this idea, we find that it is nearly impossible to deny.

…He will reign on David's throne…(2 Sam 7:16)

Christ was the long-awaited Messiah: many had expected that He would deliver them--not just spiritually, but physically--from the yoke of the pagan Romans. Like his forefather David, he would be a great warrior who would establish a new and glorious kingdom.

Yet how could Our Lord employ violence? How is it possible that God himself could commit sin, whether by lying, stealing or killing? Though he clothed himself in a mantle of weakness by becoming human, it is inconceivable that he could accomplish the salvation of all people by the sword.

…for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done? (Matthew 26:52-54)

Instead, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and made to suffer insult, injury and ignominious death. So then if suffering were truly evil, how could Christ have submitted to such a thing?

Moreover, of all the might at His disposal, why should our Lord choose such submission as the means of our salvation? Surely He would have preferred an easier way! Rather, Christ desired this path of redemption precisely because suffering is the natural consequence of all the things that Christ himself instructed us to do:

But I say to you that hear: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you. And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every one that asketh thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.

And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner. And if you love them that love you, what thanks are to you? for sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are to you? for sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? for sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much. But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest; for he is kind to the unthankful, and to the evil.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.

Luke 6:27-38

Could anyone hope to follow such instructions without being made both pauper and laughingstock? Yet all of these things Christ himself did, and He exhorted all who would listen to do the same, time and again.

…Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

Matthew 5: 11-12

The entire New Testament teems with examples of Christ’s teachings on the subject. Surely Christ regarded suffering as a necessary “evil” for the salvation of our souls! Surely no one of passing familiarity with scripture would argue otherwise. The early Christian martyrs, the desert hermits, the Church Fathers, the monastics—all of these understood this perfectly.

Yet all of us, when we attempt to put Christ’s words into practice, fail again and again, because our common sense continues to be unable to take insult after insult, to forgive “70 times 7 times”, to give until it hurts. Surely we must take some self-preservation into account!

Here we are forced to realize that though all these things seem bad to us because of our human condition, these things are not evil in the eyes of God, nor do they truly cause suffering to those who no longer are imprisoned by the flesh.

But this still does not necessarily mean that the nature of God Himself is one of suffering—only that it is necessary for us as humans to suffer if we wish to gain eternal life. How can we interpolate further? To truly understand this concept would require a library and a lifetime…so any hopes of fully explaining it in a mere blog post are beyond impossible. I will briefly touch on the subject, but if you are interested in more on the subject, you’ll need that library…

The people that walked in Darkness…

The best way I can possibly describe this concept in brief is…light. We are not strangers to the concept of light as a symbol of the divine, from “Let there be light” to “the light of the world” to the tongues of flame that came to rest on the disciples’ heads at Pentecost. Nearly every religion associates light with divinity, and for good reason. Without light, there would be no life, no warmth, no energy…it is that without which nothing else could be.

But light has another very interesting property: it is opposite, but not equal to, darkness. By this I mean that, though you can shine a light into a dark room, you can not shine a dark into a light room. Light has a positive nature. The only way to escape from the sunlight is to block it with something, from a parasol to a planet. Darkness is merely the lack of light. (To say that it has a negative nature would make it sound equal and opposite, as in math…so rather than giving it that name, we might call it imperfect. Aristotle called the positive actual and the imperfect potential…) It is easy to see how we can draw parallels between this sort of positive nature and divinity.

There are many other things on this earth which share this sort of nature…heat, energy…even life itself will persist unless stopped. It is even possible to loosely claim that goodness and evil are like light and dark; however, the nuances that exist within both words are very tricky, and do not always work out as we would expect. Suffering happens to be one of those things, as it is normally—and naturally—lumped in with evil. But if we look at suffering, we find that perhaps it is not so.

For example, we said that escaping from the sun required some sort of blockage. At first glance, we might naturally assume that suffering is due to a blockage of health or well-being. But which one actually does something? And which one has something done to it? The light dispels the darkness, not the other way ‘round…heat travels from warm areas to cool areas…and illness, pain, heartache…they disrupt the equilibrium of health and well being and contentment. Like force upon a body at rest, it is suffering that acts upon our frail humanity.

Yes, I didn’t believe it at first either, but the more I questioned it, the more certain I became: Suffering, like light, is positive in nature…and like all things positive in nature, has its true source in the Divine.

The antithesis of Pandora

Think about our example of the sun again: its light is so intense that it has the ability to blind us. Likewise, the heat and energy it produces can be punishing. Even though they are essentially good and necessary, our bodies are often unable to tolerate those things of positive nature in too great intensity. It is exactly so with suffering.

However, when our souls leave our bodies, light and heat and suffering shall not cease to exist for us—but because we are not encountering them with our bodies, our experience of them will not be the same. We shall then be able to see clearly how every instance of suffering opens for us an avenue of spiritual growth, healing and redemption.

We are now like those who, accustomed to a dark room, squint and curse at the bright sunlight. The nature of our sinfulness—of our bondage to Satan—makes us recoil at the helping hand that suffering brings. When our all-too-human desire for comfort causes us to recoil at suffering, we are unknowingly recoiling from God’s grace.

For yes, suffering is pure unadulterated grace.

Only when we manage to put our instinct for self-preservation aside do we succeed in turning the other cheek. Only when we continually put ourselves last—without complaining—do we succeed in continually putting others first. Only when we give everything we have do we succeed in taking up our cross as Christ commanded. And only when we welcome suffering do we receive this enormously healing grace, not merely for ourselves, but for all. Impossible, you say? Well, naturally!

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God…To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus…And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.

(Luke 1: 26-38)

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

With these words, Mary brought into this world God’s own son. If this was possible, then even our own tiny little ‘fiats’ can bring untold grace into the darkness of this world. When we get the sniffles, we can say ‘fiat’-- Thy will be done, Lord. When we are bedridden with double pneumonia, it is quite a bit harder to say, but the harder it is, the more grace there is waiting. When our lives are crashing down on all sides…when we face anger, guilt, despair…when our loved ones don’t treat us as they should…when we are reviled and persecuted and slandered…we must learn to see the hand of God--not punishing us, but reaching out to us. Mary didn’t have to say ‘fiat’, and neither do we. But by doing so, she became Queen of Heaven, mother and mediatrix to the human race. And in a small way, we too participate in God’s plan for our salvation by accepting our crosses…with a kiss.

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Some light reading for you...

OK, for those who will only use the Douay-Rheims Bible, this may not be in your book, but I understand it can be found in the vulgate as 4 Esdras? The following quotes are from the Revised Standard Version, which was the only version I could find. Link here. In this version, the following excerpts are listed as 2 Esdras chapter 15 and 16. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, but here are some particularly interesting quotes:

“…Do not fear the plots against you, and do not be troubled by the unbelief of those who oppose you. For every unbeliever shall die in his unbelief."
"Behold," says the Lord, "I bring evils upon the world, the sword and famine and death and destruction. For iniquity has spread throughout every land, and their harmful deeds have reached their limit. (2 Esdras 15:3-6)

Let the farmers that till the ground mourn, because their seed shall fail and their trees shall be ruined by blight and hail and by a terrible tempest.
Alas for the world and for those who live in it!
For the sword and misery draw near them, and nation shall rise up to fight against nation, with swords in their hands.
For there shall be unrest among men; growing strong against one another, they shall in their might have no respect for their king or the chief of their leaders.
For a man will desire to go into a city, and shall not be able.
For because of their pride the cities shall be in confusion, the houses shall be destroyed, and people shall be afraid.
A man shall have no pity upon his neighbors, but shall make an assault upon their houses with the sword, and plunder their goods, because of hunger for bread and because of great tribulation. (2 Esdras 15:13-19)

The nations of the dragons of Arabia shall come out with many chariots, and from the day that they set out, their hissing shall spread over the earth, so that all who hear them fear and tremble.
Also the Carmonians**, raging in wrath, shall go forth like wild boars of the forest, and with great power they shall come, and engage them in battle, and shall devastate a portion of the land of the Assyrians with their teeth.
And then the dragons, remembering their origin, shall become still stronger; and if they combine in great power and turn to pursue them, then these shall be disorganized and silenced by their power, and shall turn and flee.
And from the land of the Assyrians an enemy in ambush shall beset them and destroy one of them, and fear and trembling shall come upon their army, and indecision upon their kings.
Behold, clouds from the east, and from the north to the south; and their appearance is very threatening, full of wrath and storm.
They shall dash against one another and shall pour out a heavy tempest upon the earth, and their own tempest; and there shall be blood from the sword as high as a horse's belly and a man's thigh and a camel's hock.
And there shall be fear and great trembling upon the earth; and those who see that wrath shall be horror-stricken, and they shall be seized with trembling. (2 Esdras 15:29-37)

Behold, provision will be so cheap upon earth that men will imagine that peace is assured for them, and then the calamities shall spring up on the earth -- the sword, famine, and great confusion.
For many of those who live on the earth shall perish by famine; and those who survive the famine shall die by the sword.
And the dead shall be cast out like dung, and there shall be no one to console them; for the earth shall be left desolate, and its cities shall be demolished.
No one shall be left to cultivate the earth or to sow it.
The trees shall bear fruit, and who will gather it?
The grapes shall ripen, and who will tread them? For in all places there shall be great solitude; one man will long to see another, or even to hear his voice.
For out of a city, ten shall be left; and out of the field, two who have hidden themselves in thick groves and clefts in the rocks.
As in an olive orchard three or four olives may be left on every tree, or as when a vineyard is gathered some clusters may be left by those who search carefully through the vineyard, so in those days three or four shall be left by those who search their houses with the sword. (2 Esdras 16: 21-31)

As Holy Week approaches, we should be mindful that our Lord says, “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance.” (Apocalypse 3:19) Then let us remind ourselves to rejoice in all circumstances, as our Lord chastises us for love’s sake.

**Carmania was located in what is now Iran. Assyria at its height covered everything from Iraq westward to the Mediterranean sea and part of Egypt, Arabia and Turkey.