"Lord, help me...."
When we hear the Canaanite woman, whose "daughter is tormented by a devil," plead with Jesus for help, we can relate for indeed our world seems to be infected with evil, something of which we are reminded daily in our media. One of the storms of life which we are experiencing at this time in our history is the so-called "War on terrorism," a mass media term for a military response to the events of 9/11.
"The current moral climate is one of more or less resigned compliance with the world view popularized by the mass media," the monk, Thomas Merton, wrote during what was called "The Cold War." He says further: "Apart from a very small minority who demand uncompromising unilateral initiatives toward peace, the necessity of force and military strength seems unquestionable to the majority."
There have indeed been proposals to bring peace to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and there are other alternatives than invasion proposed for dealing with Saddam Hussein, yet, as Merton writes further, "the details of these peacemaking plans do not reach and illuminate the mind of the common man."
Merton's reflections, written in the 1950's, sound remarkably contemporary, and indeed the temptation to violence and war is a common element in the human condition, one that disciples of Jesus work against in our striving "for justice and peace among all people" as we profession in our Baptismal vows.(BCP p. 305).
"The thought that is obsessed with war puts aside other considerations and concentrates on the fact that one is threatened with attack, indeed with destruction. This type of thinker is convinced that only the strongest means are of any use. He distrusts negotiation because he is sure that the adversary is an arch deceiver. He is convinced that the enemy will attack him violently as soon as he thinks he can get away with it. In this climate of thought, strategy tends to work around to the idea of 'hitting the enemy before he hits me first.'"
"The crude simplicity of this view tends to recommend it to the average man who does not have time to do a great deal of thinking and who, in any case, does not have access to the more selective and thoughtful sources of information which might enable him to form a more sophisticated judgment. It is clear, and its sweeping ruthlessness gives it an appearance of realism. But unfortunately it maintains a moral and political atmosphere of fear and hatred in which it is more difficult even for "experts" to view things with objective detachment."
"But in the moral climate of mass opinion, engineered by publicists, "truth" tends to mean a sensational revelation of some new iniquity on the part of the enemy. Evil actions do exist, and "the misfortune is that on both sides there is enough real iniquity around to make the concoction of sensational news items quite easy. Justice, in this climate, operates on a double standard: one for one's own side and another for the enemy, so that what is in him criminal is, in us, simple realism. Love is assuredly not the driving force of peace politics which are inert and firmly rooted in inveterate distrust...."
Just as Jesus moved beyond his own people and responded to the plea of the Canaanite woman, we need to see again that the whole human community is one family in which all nations, groups and individuals must cooperate on the basis of truth, justice, love and liberty in attaining the universal common good. We must stop thinking according to the popular polls and reflect on what our faith would tell us as disciples and citizens is working for justice and peace nor war.
Joseph+
