Selections from today’s Mass readings:
1st Reading
In those days, the princes said to the king:
“Jeremiah ought to be put to death;
he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city,
and all the people, by speaking such things to them;
he is not interested in the welfare of our people,
but in their ruin.”
Jer 38:4-6, 8-10
2nd Reading
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
Heb 12:1-4
Gospel
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
Lk 12:49-53
While the Church teaches the just-war theory, it also teaches that peace comes only through love and forgiveness – through the particular kind of love called mercy, an unconditional and sacrificial love exemplified within the scourged and pierced body of Christ crucified. There are times when we must defend the innocent, but we must only do so when those means of defense do not violate the laws of God.
You will not kill.
The only soldiers who kill without remorse are those who don’t see past the zippers on the body bags they fill. In most wars, most casualties come from indirect weapons – bombs, artillery, crew-operated machine guns, etc. These weapons allow men to blow apart bodies without being splattered by bone and ligament, without having to see the carnage that metal meeting flesh causes. Infantrymen who’ve plunged bayonets into throats, who’ve had their victim’s guts spill out over their fingers – they know the truth about killing, and this truth does not set them free. It eats them alive, as surely as metal ate their enemies apart.
You will not kill.
In his book, On Killing, Lt. Col Grossman explains that nearly all human beings have the divine mandate against killing written in their hearts, and that killing leads to real and lasting psychological consequences.
All who take the sword will die by the sword.
- Jesus ChristTheir sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken.
- Psalm 37:15
If men trusted in God as they fought in justified warfare, if men obeyed the rules of proportionality, then men would not kill. There are limits to what Christians can do in wars. Some set the limit at nuking cities. Others set the limit at indiscriminate bombing. But Christ sets the ultimate limit: the sword. Swords cannot forge peace. Killing cannot forge peace. Killing only begets killing – the first casualty being our very own soul.
American soldiers, though often courageous and self-sacrificial, fight with weapons of futility: swords. Why? Because they are being led by faithless princes who have no understanding of the power of God.
A King is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
and by its great might it cannot save.
- Psalm 33:16
You will not kill.
It is time we took seriously what our God has done, what our God has commanded, what power he has granted us to defeat evil and sin in not only our world, but our hearts. Violence is counterproductive, and death finds its source not in God, but in Satan. Satan deals death (a murderer from the beginning), and those who deal in death work for him. Good men serve Satan unknowingly, and are unknowingly led to spiritual and bodily ruin.
Christians must sometimes go to war. We must sometimes use force against our enemies. But this must never mean picking up the sword and killing. Once we do so, we have already lost.
“Violence is a lie . . . violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings.”
- Pope John Paul II (Address at Drogheda, Ireland 1979)
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