Veteran's Day, the Feast of Saint Martin...Armistice Day (Redux)

 Today we commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War I…The Great War…the war to end all wars…so it was said…though regrettably it was not.

 I am a veteran, as is my father and some-few of my friends…just a few, and that includes a couple of my shipmates who I have maintained some connection with since my enlistment ended, thirty years ago.

 From the end of World War I, until 1954, we called this holiday Armistice Day, as a remembrance of that moment in that first great-global-conflict, when the fighting stopped along lines, in the trenches and across all-fronts.

 The end of the war choreographed like a dance, stopping suddenly, all at once.

 The end of the conflict came at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month; as if the war had a director who yelled “cut!” As if all the actors on the stage…all the pawns in the field, all the millions of people in their graves could get up from what they were doing and go home, that is not what happened; WWI was not a play.

 Nearly twenty million people were killed, twenty million families broken, with many millions more suffering in the aftermath from broken bodies and broken minds…and broken hearts.

 World War I was perceived by those who endured it as so horrible that it would end war itself, end it for all time…some folks believed…humans are prone to wishful thinking.

 

the gods of war are busy, always

sewing conflicts that are self-seeding,

perennial cycles of violence

hungers that cannot be satisfied

a thirst that cannot be quenched

the gods of war are always busy

Eris and Aries, discord and strife

constant as the wind

that turns mountains into dust

and yet reliant on our failings

 

 The eleventh of November is also the feast of Saint Martin of Tours, the patron saint of warriors, the first Christian soldier, St. Martin of the Sword…it was in recognition of him, and his feast that this date was selected to bring World War I to a close.

 The end might have come sooner for the soldiers in the struggle, but the politicians acting like art-directors, wanted to wait for a properly symbolic moment to bring the curtain down. They might have ended it the day before and some soldiers who perished might have lived to go home.

 At 11:11:11 the fighting stopped and the war ended, soldiers who had just moments before been locked in combat, became liberated and crossed the no-man’s land between their fortified tranches to share their rations with beer and songs...the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, it was easy to remember, set your clocks and synchronize your watch to.   

 Sulpicius Severus penned Saint Martin’s hagiography. It is by and large a work of fiction as most hagiographies were, either cut from whole cloth, or steeped and dyed from the barest scintilla of truth. Having said that, I will also say that…it is not likely that Martin of Tours ever lived, not the man we read about anyway. He is no more real than Peter Parker, Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne. Even if there was some such person, we are certain that the reports of the many miracles he performed, including raising the dead on more than one occasion, were all make-believe and lies.

Be mindful.

The Church has always had a penchant for relating falsehoods to the believers. 

Martin’s “life” is a fiction and our celebration of it does not represent the Christian Gospels very well. Severus’ mythologization of him is just another terrible series fables penned with terrible purpose, because through it the Church gave permission for Christians to takes up arms...it gave Christian soldiers leave to march to war, a vocation which had theretofore been forbidden to the faithful, and a matter of deep contention in the Church.

The spirits of conflict have a will of their own…and we are seemingly bond to theirs, like the double helix in our cells that determines so much our nature, one from which there is no deviation; it is like a disease with no cure.

 Let me tell the truth now…there is no god of war.

 War is product of human failure, it is governed by human machinations and caried out through human predation, by base pretenders to divine authority, we are beset by them in every generation.

 In 1954, President Eisenhower, who had been Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, he changed the name and thereby the nature of the November 11^th holiday, when he signed the law that turned Armistice Day into Veteran’s Day; a soldier himself, he did so to honor all Veterans whoever they might be, men and women, young and old who had served in any conflict, anywhere in the world.

 Friend or foe, ally or adversary, on this day we celebrate the courage of the average person, the women and men under arms, who were (and are) willing to risk everything for their tribe, their nation or their clan, weather they chose to be in the field, to set sail, to stand on a wall or leap from the sky, weather they chose to be soldiers or sailors, airmen or marines.

 That is what we celebrate today on Veteran’s Day; we do not celebrate the end of war, because it seems that war itself will never end. We do not celebrate the fictional life of a fictional saint, whose usefulness as a tool of propaganda promoted the idea that it was not only possible to serve Jesus with a sword, but laudable. Neither do we celebrate the false-claim that peace could ever be the fruit of war…the fruit of peace springs from a different seed altogether.

 If we are looking to harvest peace then it is incumbent on us to  sew tolerance and mercy, compassion and humility, justice and equity…and justice again.

 What we celebrate today is the character of those men and women who had the courage to enlist, to risk their lives for the sake of their sisters and brothers, whether at home or beside them in the field…we celebrate especially those who have or had been pressed into service against their will, and who served honorably nonetheless.

 We should always celebrate that quality of character, while simultaneously naming the flaws in our collective-character that lead again and again into conflict with one another, we must shun: fear and greed, anger and hatred, along with all of our calamitous attributes.

 The spirits of conflict have a will of their own…they own a piece of us, they reside in each of us….propel us toward whatever end…driving us toward something that presents itself as victory while dancing in a field of ruins.

 We are possessed…collectively; we are collectively…possessed.

 One hundred years after the end of World War I, we are still waging war all around the world. The United States of America is supplying arms to Ukraine funding the war in Europe, supplying weapons to the Israelis funding the ongoing war in the eastern Mediterranean, supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia, who is fighting a war by proxy with Iran in Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula; we are funding and feeding conflicts in every sector of the globe.

 At the core of these conflicts is a denial of these axiomatic principles of a just society:

 The legitimate powers of government may only derived only by the consent of the governed, and that all-people are endowed with inalienable rights, the chief among them being: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 Such truths do not matter to men who view human beings as assets…or liabilities, who see us as property or chattel…who speak as if their adversaries as if they were not human, and who refuse to conceive of a world in which they might live together in harmony.

 I served in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman, from 1990 – 1994.

 I served during the first Gulf War, though I did not serve in the theatre of combat where the United States armed forces and the coalition we pulled together killed three-hundred-thousand Iraqi people in the space of a few months; that is three-hundred-thousand families broken, with may hundreds of thousands more suffering in the aftermath from broken bodies and broken minds…broken hearts, and broken spirits.

 My father served for twenty-two years; the first four as a Marine, the next eighteen in the Air Force. Our nation went to war only once during my father’s period of service and the beginning of my own; we fought in Southeast Asia; my father served multiple tours of duty, Airbourne Recon, he earned multiple Purple Hearts among other commendations for duty and valor.

 He did not lead us into war, he was led there, and fought there for his sisters and brothers in arms.

 The official records from the Vietnam era states that 58,220 American servicemen and women lost their lives during the conflict (a war which we never called a war), and one in which we killed over three-million Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodians and Hmong.

 Human warfare has resulted in the deaths od many millions more human beings: men, women and children, in many other nations in the decades since the end of Vietnam and the beginning of my own enlistment, leaving millions more crippled and millions upon millions of families broken.

 We are terrible and profligate killers, we are experts at it, we Americans especially.

 Eisenhauer said that every bullet we fire, every missile we launch, that each of them is an admission of our failure as human beings, and especially of diplomacy. To paraphrase: violence does not beget peace, violence begets violence and this will never change.

 Only peace and reconciliation can bring peace and reconciliation; there is no time like the present to begin.

 Know this…peace is not a passive state, we must occupy ourselves with the pursuit it and pursue it constantly. If war is like a pernicious weed, whether it be a perennial, a self-seeder or a rhizomatic spreader, we must tend the garden and weed it…or there will be no garden for anyone.

 Remember…we are called on to love one another. We are called to pay respect to the inherent dignity of every human being, regardless of our disagreements, regardless of the pains we have endured, or caused.

 To free ourselves from the history of violence requires that we forgive one another and seek forgiveness for ourselves; if we do not, then the drumbeat of war will continue and we will be pounded into nothing by its repercussions.

 Love is the way, let it lead you out of conflict.

 If you want to honor our Veteran’s today, then commit yourself to meeting violence with love, while respecting all people (even your adversary), this is the way to hoor a Veteran, today...or any day.

A Homily – The Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – 1 Kings 17:10-16

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):7-10

Second Reading – Hebrews 9:24-28

Gospel Acclamation – Revelation 2:10

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

The Gospel According to Mark 12:38-44

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The narrative from the Book of Kings is not a miracle story, it is a metaphor that illustrates the nature of faith, which is to trust in the providence of the divine.

 Share what you have, even when you don’t have enough, even when you are on the brink of ruin and despair…make a feast of what you have and share it with those in need…this is the way.

 Praise God, creator of the universe. Praise God, with words in song. God alone is the author of our salvation, therefore do not trust in princes and kings, in priests and prelates, and princes.

 Know this!

 God is not a king.

 The life of a human being, the life cycle of our planet and that of the sun itself amounts to little more than a flare in the night.; a flash and it is gone…we are born, we breathe and we are gone,

 Remember.

 Happy are those who take up the work of heaven, humbly assisting the divine in works of mercy and the administration of justice:

 Lift up the oppressed,

          Wherever they are

Feed the hungry

Free the prisoner

Teach the ignorant,

          Wherever they are

 Advocate for those who need an advocate, care for those who cannot care for themselves. Find those who are lost in their wickedness, care for them until you bring them home.

 Know this.

 The cult of animal sacrifice is built on a fundamentally flawed understanding of the divine economy, and the relationship between God and humanity.

 God will never ask you to give your life for the way; the world might ask this of you, but God will not. You will not be rewarded with crowns and glories for doing so, the grace that leads to salvation is distributed to everyone, and everyone’s share of the infinite love of God is the same…it is infinite.

 During our sojourn on Earth we navigate countless paradoxes, we come upon them like rapids in the stream, we crash into and are caught in their back current: take joy is the smile of a stranger, the kindness of your beloved, the opening of a flower, the smell of bread in the oven, a drink of cool water, take joy in these things and share them with downtrodden, the disenfranchised and the marginalized…do it, and you will be on the way.

 The Good Pope Francis said he was saddened by the number of priests and prelates who use their offices in the church to enrich themselves; loving money, seemingly more than they love the people who they have been appointed to serve.

 When I think of the priesthood today and the priests strolling around in their long dresses, doing exactly those things that Mark complained about when he criticized the corruption among the scribes; today’s priests are yesterday’s scribes.

 I think of the monies that all the churches spend on their liturgies, their choirs, their incense, their candles; ostensibly to honor the creator, but really I think it is done in the service of vanity, an impiety that seeks to honor only itself, self-congratulatory and prideful of their pageantry.

 The liturgies themselves do little to honor God, or creation, with the creeds and the common prayers serving more to divide one group from another than to bring them together.

 In my church, the Catholic church, even the eucharist (imagined as God’s own self) is used as a weapon against the people by threatening to deprive them of it if they do not toe the line.

 This is contrary to the teaching of Jesus; it dishonors his life and death, to pretend that you can block a person’s access to the divine and obstruct them along the way.

Be mindful.

The real presence of God dwells within all people. The church, if it is to be relevant to more than a few, must empty itself, empty its treasury, and meet God where God is, living in the poor and the sick, alive in the heart of the criminal as well as that of the “good” citizen.

The church must emulate the widow in this Gospel when called to give, it must give all it has.

First Reading – 1 Kings 17:10-16

'Jar of Meal Shall Not be Spent, Jug of Oil Shall Not Be Emptied'

Elijah the Prophet went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her he said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a vessel for me to drink.’ She was setting off to bring it when he called after her. ‘Please’ he said ‘bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.’ ‘As the Lord your God lives,’ she replied ‘I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.’ But Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son. For thus the Lord speaks, the God of Israel:

“Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.”’

The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 145(146):7-10

The Blessedness of Those Who Hope in the Lord

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

I will praise my God all my days.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

  I will praise the Lord all my life,

  make music to my God as long as I exist.

Do not trust in princes to save you,

  they are only sons of men.

One day their breath will leave them, they will return to the ground;

  on that day perish all their plans.

Happy the one whose help is the God of Jacob,

  whose hope is in the Lord his God,

who made heaven and earth and all that is in them,

  who keeps faith for ever,

  who gives justice to the oppressed,

  who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord frees prisoners,

  he gives light to the blind,

  he raises the fallen.

The Lord loves the upright, cares for strangers,

  sustains orphans and widows;

  but the wicked he sends astray.

The Lord will reign for all ages,

  your God, O Zion, from generation to generation.

Amen.

Alleluia. Alleluia.

I will praise my God all my days.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 9:24-28

Christ, Our High Priest, has Done Away with Sin by Sacrificing Himself

It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was only modelled on the real one; but it was heaven itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of God on our behalf. And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest going into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own, or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all, now at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself. Since men only die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, too, offers himself only once to take the faults of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Revelation 2:10

Alleluia, alleluia!

Even if you have to die, says the Lord, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

Alleluia, alleluia!

How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 12:38-44

This Poor Widow has Put in More Than All

In his teaching Jesus said, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.’

  He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.’

 

A Homily – The Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Observation - November 9th, 2024, Saturday

Led Zepplin on the stereo

Couscous on the stove

The scent of chili…spices

            Steaming in the crock pot

 

 Wind in the leaves

outside my window

Dancing in the maple

Against the cool gray sky

A Homily – The Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Deuteronomy 6:2-6

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 17(18):2-4,47,51

Second Reading – Hebrews 7:23-28

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63, 68

Alternative Acclamation – John 14:23

The Gospel According to Mark 12:28-34

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

God is one, and we are one in God...we are one with God.

Love God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your strength of mind…and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the whole of the law and the sum of wisdom as taught by the prophets.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself, love the stranger among you…love your adversary as well.

The power of love is inexhaustible.

Do for another what you would have done for you, and do not to another what you would not have done to you; these are the golden rules.

Be humble in your comportment, and just toward the least among you, regard them with humility in the hour of their need.

This is the way.

Reflect on the psalm for today; it is a psalm of thanksgiving, it is also a psalm of vanity. The psalmist gives credit to God for saving him, but it was not God who did the work, rescue did not arrive by divine favor.

God did not hear his voice, alone among all of the others, and fly from the temple to save him...he saved himself, or he was saved by his allies; it may even have been just a matter of chance.

God does not favor one child over another, not one family, not one tribe, not one nation, not one sect. God loves all of God’s children equally, no matter the state of their sinfulness, whether they live in open rebellion to the divine plan, or rest in the peace that is found along the way, the peace of loving mercy.

God, the creator of the universe is not like Zeus or Jupiter, Indra or Thor. God does not step onto the battlefield, shoot arrows and hurl lightning at his foes...nor yours.

It is foolish to think so, and false to present Jesus as some kind of high priest to one of these.

Jesus was not a priest, the priestly system and the cult of sacrifice were corrupt, both in concept and in practice.

Our salvation and a right relationship with God do not depend on rituals of atonement, or paying taxes to a temple, and no human being has need of an intermediary to act on their behalf with God.

Every law related to ritual purity is a part of a shakedown, just one long con.

This is not to say that making restitution to a community for harms that a person has brought to it is unwise or that it does not have restorative value; it can and often does, but it is to say that your spiritual well-being and relationship with God are never what is at stake. No priest, at the church or the temple has the power or even a role in mediating that.

Be mindful.

Here is the gospel truth:

God loves you, and you are saved. You are not saved for anything that you have done, you did not earn it, you are saved because God loves you.

The promise of salvation is not that you will be spared from suffering and torment in hell, or that when you are judged God will forgive you.

The good news is that God has already forgiven you; you are already saved.

God has prepared you, and everyone for eternal life. Believe it!

Let the goodness of the promise flow through you now and start living this life as if the promise were true.

Know this.

We are not called to believe in the idea that Jesus is this or that, the Holy One of God, we are called to act on the principles of his faith, to live lives of charity and service to one another other.

Remember.

The grace of God is not transactional; love fosters love.

Love abounds, and God is always with you.

Listen!

God is one, and we are one in God...we are one with God.

Love God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your strength of mind…and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the whole of the law and the sum of wisdom as taught by the prophets.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself, love the stranger among you…love your adversary as well.

The power of love is inexhaustible.

Do for another what you would have done for you, and do not to another what you would not have done to you; these are the golden rules.

This is the way, it is the Golden Rule.

We are all moving along the way…imperfect as we are.

First Reading – Deuteronomy 6:2-6

You Shall Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart

Moses said to the people: ‘If you fear the Lord your God all the days of your life and if you keep all his laws and commandments which I lay on you, you will have a long life, you and your son and your grandson. Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosper and give you great increase, as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you, giving you a land where milk and honey flow.

  ‘Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 17(18):2-4,47,51

Thanksgiving for Salvation and Victory

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

Thanksgiving for salvation and victory

I love you, Lord, my strength.

I will love you, Lord, my strength:

  Lord, you are my foundation and my refuge,

  you set me free.

My God is my help: I will put my hope in him,

  my protector, my sign of salvation,

  the one who raises me up.

I will call on the Lord – praise be to his name –

  and I will be saved from my enemies.

The waves of death flooded round me,

  the torrents of Belial tossed me about,

the cords of the underworld wound round me,

  death’s traps opened before me.

In my distress I called on the Lord,

  I cried out to my God:

from his temple he heard my voice,

  my cry to him came to his ears.

 

The earth moved and shook,

  at the coming of his anger the roots of the mountains rocked

  and were shaken.

Smoke rose from his nostrils,

  consuming fire came from his mouth,

  from it came forth flaming coals.

He bowed down the heavens and descended,

  storm clouds were at his feet.

He rode on the cherubim and flew,

  he travelled on the wings of the wind.

He made dark clouds his covering;

  his dwelling-place, dark waters and clouds of the air.

The cloud-masses were split by his lightnings,

  hail fell, hail and coals of fire.

The Lord thundered from the heavens,

  the Most High let his voice be heard,

  with hail and coals of fire.

He shot his arrows and scattered them,

  hurled thunderbolts and threw them into confusion.

The depths of the oceans were laid bare,

  the foundations of the globe were revealed,

at the sound of your anger, O Lord,

  at the onset of the gale of your wrath.

He reached from on high and took me up,

  he lifted me from the many waters.

He snatched me from my powerful enemies,

  from those who hate me, for they were too strong for me.

They attacked me in my time of trouble,

  but the Lord was my support.

He led me to the open spaces,

  he was my deliverance, for he held me in favour.

The Lord rewards me according to my uprightness,

  he repays me according to the purity of my hands,

for I have kept to the paths of the Lord

  and have not departed wickedly from my God.

For I keep all his decrees in my sight,

  and I will not reject his judgements;

I am stainless before him,

  I have kept myself away from evil.

And so the Lord has rewarded me according to my uprightness,

  according to the purity of my hands in his sight.

You will be holy with the holy,

  kind with the kind,

with the chosen you will be chosen,

  but with the crooked you will show your cunning.

For you will bring salvation to a lowly people

  but make the proud ashamed.

For you light my lamp, O Lord;

  my God brings light to my darkness.

For with you I will attack the enemy’s squadrons;

  with my God I will leap over their wall.

Amen.

You, O Lord, are my lamp, my God who lightens my darkness.

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 7:23-28

Christ, Because He Remains Forever, Can Never Lose His Priesthood

There used to be a great number of priests under the former covenant, because death put an end to each one of them; but this one, because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood. It follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.

  To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens; one who would not need to offer sacrifices every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all by offering himself. The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 6:63, 68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 12:28-34

'You Are Not Far From the Kingdom of God'

 

One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to question him any more.

 

A Homily – The Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)