THINKING AND TALKING  

ABOUT  WAR

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 18^th  Wednesday   in Ordinary Time is, “Thinking and Talking About War.”

Today’s first reading talks about war.  Should it lead listeners to talk and think about war?  Or do we just ignore it - like we do with many of our first readings?

I remember I was at a wedding and a Rabbi was there and we got talking. It was after September 11^th. 

He asked me if I read the Koran. I said, “No….” 

He said,  “I ought to read it.”

So I bought a copy and I’ve read it one and a half times. The  thing that stood out was the violence - especially the call to burn, burn, burn.

Somewhere in the time I was reading the Koran, I began to notice that our scriptures - including the New Testament - could also be violent and talk about war.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from Numbers has Moses sending men to check out Canaan.   The reason: invasion. 

There’s a key reason for war - a key cause of war - wanting land.

They scope and spy out the land for 40 days and report how difficult a  war it would be to get that land. The people who live there are fierce. They are strong. They are giants and we are grasshoppers in comparison to them.

I think of a poem by Carl Sandburg entitled, “Private Property”.  It’s from his book, The People Yes, 1936.  It goes like this. A man  steps onto another person’s property.  The owner says to the stranger,

“Get off this estate.”
“What for?”
“Because it’s mine.”
“Where did you get it?”
“From my father.”
“Where did he get it?”
“From his father.”
“And where did he get it?”
“He fought for it.”
“Well, I’ll fight you for it.”

There it is - the same story: the fight for land.  

It’s key to understanding the history of our world.

I think about the recent killings in El Paso and Dayton.

There is a lot of uproar and worry as a result.

I think of a poem by Bertold Brecht from his Selected Poems,

“The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. 

‘When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out 'Stop!'"

“When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.” 

That suggests to me there is a need to talk about war from time to time. Is that why today’s first reading is here?  Is that why it’s put into our scriptures?

OTHER REASONS FOR WAR

There are other reasons for war besides land grabs.

There’s nationalism and race and prejudice and one group thinking they are better than other groups.

We see and hear some of this going on today.

We see some of this in today’s gospel.  Here’s this woman - a Canaanite woman - the same group the Israelites were scoping out - to wipe out - that we heard about in today’s first reading.  She asks Jesus, a Jew,  for help, and Jesus says, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Then she out growls and out barks Jesus and says, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs  eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

Some commentators think this story is put in here because the Canaanites - in their region of Palestine - were becoming Christian and some Christians were prejudiced against these new comers, these outsiders, these non-established Christians. 

We see this same pattern in other gospel stories with regards the Samaritans - who become the heroes in some gospel stories.

Prejudice, racism, trying to be  top dog in the show is found everywhere and is part of the dialogue about wars.

Listen to Haile Selassie on all this. Remember that old warrior from Ethiopia:

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned ...
Everything is war. Me say war.

"That until the're no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation... Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significa...nce than the color of his eyes, me say war.

"That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war!” 

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily for today was, "Thinking and Talking about War."

What say you of war?

What think you of war?