Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022112.cfm

The sky above;
the sky below.

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.

Inquisitive school children often raise that question. War seems so utterly irrational, counter-productive and unnecessary. No one will admit he wants war. So why do they happen?

Americans insist we want only peace and prosperity, and yet we maintain the largest military force on earth -- more powerful and better financed than all other nations put together – and seem to be continually involved in military conflicts. Even during a global recession, when every other nation cuts back on military spending, we agonize over the slightest cutbacks.

Saint James answers our children’s question: it is from your passions that make war within your members. You covet, envy, kill, and fight; and so you wage war. All because you do not ask. Or if you ask, you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Saint James goes on to teach a simpler way of peace: Ask for it. I always think of the blind Bartimaeus when I think about asking. The gospel of Saint Mark recalls how insistently he shouted at Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on me.” He kept shouting despite the crowd’s attempt to hush him. When Jesus called him, he abandoned his cloak in his rush to get to Jesus. When Jesus asked, “What do you want?” he said, “I want to see!” Finally, with his new ability to see, the blind man followed Jesus – because that’s what eyes are for.

Jesus’ straight answer and Bartimaeus’ direct response are wonderful. All our relations should be so simple, and especially that with God.

I find in this story the formula for asking: it must be urgent and persistent; it must be uncondtional; that is, ready to abandon everything else. It must be eager to follow the Lord. When the beggar dropped his cloak he dropped everything he owned in this world. There was nothing to hold him back.

How much would we surrender for the sake of peace? Would we ask our military to step down? Would we cede economic and political leadership of the world? Would we allow other nations to develop forms of government which are neither democratic nor republican, and seem entirely alien to us? Would we lend assistance without military materiel, personnel and know-how? 

To accept the peace our God would give us, we must surrender every condition we put upon it. Peace will not make allowance for choosing which babies should be born and which destroyed; an unequal distribution of resources; or a reserve of nuclear weapons. 


But it is there for us – when we’re ready.