Deliver Us from Evil

The pathetic ex-tyrant complains of mouth sores, and the entire world watches a hundred replays of his oral exam. What’s wrong with this picture? As the Christmas season unfolds this week, it’s a good idea for Catholics to remember the real message of the season: “Peace on Earth! Good Will to All Humankind.”

It is tempting to fixate on one dictator’s capture, if only to avoid the reality around us. But there’s no excuse for deceiving ourselves; the year about to end has not brought us closer to peace. Contrary evidence is as close as the headlines for December 26—the Feast of the Holy Innocents:

Two attacks break a lull in Mideast

Terror alert leads to air monitoring

Pakistan president survives attack

Pope asks for end to wars, terrorism

Colombians seek life beyond violence

Confession disputed in slaying of Serbian premier

N. Korea overspends budget for military

Turks’ anger at West grows

Insurgents kill three Americans in Iraq

I remember conducting a parish staff workshop after 9/11, where one pastor shared his personal trauma: “I don’t feel safe anymore. No matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing, I feel uneasy that something bad is about to happen.” We all sympathized with him, of course, but I couldn’t help noticing his age—too young to remember the Great Depression, but too old to have grown up in the 1950s. For a Baby Boomer like me, feeling unsafe came as standard childhood equipment. Bomb shelters, CONELRAD, strontium 90, the Strategic Air Command, the Early Warning System, the U2, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile Crisis—all provided constant reminders. Something really bad might happen at any moment, no matter where we were, no matter what we were doing.

When the Cold War finally ended, I struggled to imagine America at peace. After all, the only extended peaceful period since our war against Spain (1898) was Prohibition and the Great Depression itself, hardly a time of great security. My imagining was futile anyhow, as the First Gulf War broke out within two years, followed by outbreaks in Rwanda, Somalia, the prolonged Balkan conflicts, the “War on Terror,” and finally by our invasion of Iraq. Our national track record remains impressively consistent: with the possible exception of Vietnam, we’ve never met a war we didn’t like.

It’s no surprise that 2003 saw the US squander the one great opportunity—the silver lining—in the atrocity of 9/11. The world’s horror was so widespread that nations everywhere were prepared to follow America’s lead against terror; as the French headline said, “Today we are all Americans!” But now that sympathy is gone, replaced by anger and mistrust. Even the US-led “coalition” against Iraq depends on leaders (in Britain, Spain, and Italy) willing to ignore the will of their own people in the name of “democracy.” In the world’s eyes, the US preaches freedom and practices war. If we are not the most hated nation on earth, we are undoubtedly the most feared. Indeed, our prime response to the hate that triggered 9/11 has been to make people fear us more than they hate us. As the Pope said on Christmas, “too much blood stains the world.” Where have we gone wrong?

In 1961 the prophetic monk Thomas Merton referred to our problem as “war madness”:

An illness of the mind and spirit that is speeding with a furious and subtle contagion all over the world. Of all the countries that are sick, America is perhaps the most grievously afflicted. This in a nation that claims to be fighting for religious truth along with freedom and other values of the spirit.

Shortly afterward, Pope Paul VI addressed the UN in New York with the sharpest commend (or plea) of his papacy: “Jamais plus de Guerre! War Never Again!” Yet forty years later, war madness thrives. The Cold War is gone, but peace has not come. The War on Terror has no end in sight, the war in Iraq has no end in sight, the war in the Middle East has no end in sight, and the horizon holds the threat of war in Iran, Syria, and North Korea.

As 2003 ends, our natural instinct is to grope for some signs of hope. As a springboard for your own reflections, here are my own thoughts on eight tough lessons drawn from this difficult year. If enough of us can learn those lessons, and take them to heart, perhaps 2004 can be a better year—and perhaps the “Peace on earth” message of Christmas will seem more of a promise and less of a rebuke:

1. We must get real: do we really want “Peace on Earth”?

2. Destroying evil is not the way to peace.

3. Victory does not bring peace.

4. To understand peace, we must understand conflict

5. Might does not make Right—or peace.

6. Even when you win, war means failure.

7. The only real victory is defeating war.

8. To get peace, our faith must pass the test.

*****

1. We must get real: do we really want “Peace on Earth”? Thomas Merton suggested that many people re-define peace to suit their own private needs:

The peace the world pretends to desire is really no peace at all. To some people peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means the freedom to rob others without interruption. To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth without being compelled to interrupt their pleasures to feed those whom their greed is starving. And to practically everybody peace simply means the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to…comfort and leisure…It is absurd to hope for a solid peace based on fictions and illusions.

Merton believed, in fact, that many people hold an idea of peace that is “only another form of war.” After 9/11, for example, everyone asked, “why do they hate us?” We were blind to the violence built into US policies in the Moslem world. We need to open our eyes to the threats others see in us. If we’re going to pray for peace, we’d better pray for the real thing.

2. Destroying Evil is not the way to Peace. Christian faith has always perceived human nature as essentially good but damaged by an infecting evil (that’s what the doctrine of “Original Sin” means). Destroying evil is a worthy goal, but destroying all evil is an impossible mission. If peace comes only after the last evil person dies, then we will never have peace—and the message of Christmas is a fraud. But Jesus was shrewder than that. As a grown man, he gave his hardest lesson when he taught his followers “love your enemies”—because he knew that humanity would always include enemies. If you pursue peace by eliminating your enemies, the result is permanent war. Anyone can make peace with loved ones—the acid test is making peace with our enemies.

Our challenge is simple: when we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, we must be prepared to face the tough teachings of the man he became.

Next Week: the rest of the lessons.

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