Optional Memorial of Saint Sharbel Makhlūf, Priest

Saint Charbel Makhluf

 Lectionary: 399

But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Jeremiah, speaking for the LORD in today's first reading, invites everyone to,

"Return, rebellious children, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion.

To paraphrase President Roosevelt, we have nothing to lose but the loss of our fears. for the Lord is kind and merciful. 

I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart,

who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.

In his History of Western Philosophy, written during World War II, English philosopher Bertrand Russell, described the widespread loss of religious faith in Europe, and its replacement by nationalism. God was displaced by a religious faith in the state, and then in the one man who represents the state. 

At the time, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mussolini were the new demigods of Germany, Russia, and Italy. Each promised to "shepherd you wisely and prudently," and each one failed spectacularly. Of the three only Stalin and his State survived the War because, rather late in the war, he joined the Allies in their war on Germany. Mussolini was savagely murdered by Italian mobs, and Hitler apparently killed himself as the Allies closed in. 

Russell also described how the ideology of nationalism first promises freedom to every citizen and then, with growing opposition from other nations and divisiveness within the country, the same free citizens surrender their freedom to the dictator. He -- invariably he -- becomes the only "free" person in the country; and he can do whatever he wants with unanimous and overwhelming support from his people. They refuse to see his stupidity, dishonesty, and lack of foresight. Even when his more competent sycophants know he is making fatal errors they cannot and dare not speak up. Apparently even brilliant men like German Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel put more faith in Der Fuhrer's mistakes than their own competence. 

Henry Kissinger predicted the fall of every ruler who builds the state around himself. Brittle and inflexible, their regimes inevitably disintegrate as readily as the statue in Nebucchadnezzar's dream: 

“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.

Its head was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze,

its legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly clay.

While you watched, a stone was hewn from a mountain without a hand being put to it, and it struck its iron and clay feet, breaking them in pieces.

The iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer, and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

“This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king’s presence. Daniel 2:31ff

Perhaps Kissinger referred to the Prophet Daniel; the principle is the same. As the Psalmists assures us:

I have seen a ruthless scoundrel,

spreading out like a green cedar.

When I passed by again, he was gone;

though I searched, he could not be found. Psalm 37:35

In the silence which follows the scoundrel's disappearance, we hear the Word of the Lord:

"...the seed sown on rich soil

is the one who hears the word and understands it,

who indeed bears fruit 

and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”