Why do I protest? I protest partly out of obedience to the Catholic Church.
In a speech Pope Francis delivered to a joint session of Congress, the Pope told us, "It is our duty to stop the arms trade." Therefore, I must do something to do my part to try to stop the arms trade. I need not protest, but I must do something to try to stop the production, sale and transfer of armaments. I try to fulfill my duty to stop the arms trade partly by protesting.
Thus this morning other Catholic Workers and I protested on a street corner near the facilities of a prime producer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area. This particular manufacturer has developed intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as air-to-air missiles. On the street corner, I was holding a sign which said
IT IS OUR DUTY TO STOP THE ARMS TRADE
- Pope Francis
In standing on street corners outside the facilities of a major arms manufacturer, as Catholic Workers we seek to afflict the comfortable. We aim to nudge out of their comfort zone those who are numb to the consequences of their producing armaments. We invite those involved in the production of armaments to question the work they are doing, why they are doing it, who they are affecting and how they are affecting them.
Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 along with Peter Maurin, sought to afflict the comfortable in addition to comforting the afflicted. She fed hungry impoverished people who stood in the breadline outside the Catholic Worker House in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City.
As Catholic Workers we work for justice by feeding those who are hungry. Pope Paul VI said, "If you want peace, work for justice." Catholic Workers offer food and housing to those who are indigent, helping to respect these persons' basic human rights. Catholic Workers labor for justice by striving to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters are treated with dignity. In so working for justice, we work for peace.
Yet we also realize peace by choosing peace rather than violence. When the chief priests and Pharisees and guards arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, Saint Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Jesus told Saint Peter to put his sword back in its scabbard.* At that point, Jesus taught against resorting to violence, warning, "All who draw the sword will die by the sword."**
Jesus told Saint Peter, the man who was to become the rock upon which His church was going to be founded, to put away his sword. In so directing him, and in His coming, Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophets. The prophet Isaiah prophesied
In days to come,
The mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it.
Many peoples shall come and say:
"Come, let us go up to the Lord's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in His ways,
and we may walk in His paths."
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another
nor shall they train for war again.***
Today we can beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Today we can convert our spending on the development of missiles into spending on the development of the capabilities of human beings. As a Christian, and as a Catholic, I am compelled to speak out against immense budgetary outlays for military spending. When we have so many homeless people sleeping in bushes, we are not seeing justice realized, and thus we are endangering peace. Rather than spending $582,000,000,000 on defense in 2015,**** in the United States we could have re-allocated some of that gigantic sum toward building low-income housing and to providing more mental health services and drug rehabilitation programs to care for our poor brothers and sisters. Jesus has described that after we die, He will say, "In truth I tell you, insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."***** By redirecting our funds from stockpiling armaments to caring for our poor neighbor, we turn our attention and energies to Jesus Himself.
We are either caring for those who are poor or we are taking steps to make life more insecure for them. Similarly, we are either directing our energies toward peace, or we are doing something to bring the world closer to war. We bring the world closer to either peace or war through our deeds, our words, and our thoughts. When Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to the children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she urged them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace.
We are either doing what we can to strive for peace or to work for war. As Albert Einstein noted, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
When we stockpile weapons, we act out of fear. In love there is no room for fear.****** When we truly have faith in God, we do not fear, for we trust in God. With faith in God, we have sure confidence in Him. Trusting God, we choose love rather than fear.
With true faith, it is easy to have the imagination necessary to envision a better world. Seeing what lies ahead for us, we know that we must love our neighbor, to care for those who are least among us.
Then we are aware that we need not worry about protecting ourselves at the expense of loving our neighbor; if we were to choose to try to protect ourselves, we would harm both ourselves and our neighbor. In choosing not to love our neighbor, we become less than what we have always been meant to be. We harm ourselves when we refuse to love, for we deny our true potential.
With faith, we open ourselves to the creativity God wishes to unleash on the world through us. If we wish to be truly bold, we choose to love when others are not doing so. If we want to be truly courageous, we will lead on the path of love when no one else appears willing to follow.
If we would be profoundly brave, we would give up our defenses. Then we let God work through us. To have the humility to make ourselves completely vulnerable at the hands of God, to totally trust in God: that is true courage, the most heroic act one can possibly make in this lifetime, and one which will be richly rewarded in the next life.
* John 18:3, 10-11; Matthew 26:50-51
** Matthew 26:52
*** Isaiah 2:2-4
**** "The Federal Budget in 2015: An Infographic," The Congressional Budget Office
***** Matthew 25:40
****** 1 John 4:18
In a speech Pope Francis delivered to a joint session of Congress, the Pope told us, "It is our duty to stop the arms trade." Therefore, I must do something to do my part to try to stop the arms trade. I need not protest, but I must do something to try to stop the production, sale and transfer of armaments. I try to fulfill my duty to stop the arms trade partly by protesting.
Thus this morning other Catholic Workers and I protested on a street corner near the facilities of a prime producer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area. This particular manufacturer has developed intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as air-to-air missiles. On the street corner, I was holding a sign which said
IT IS OUR DUTY TO STOP THE ARMS TRADE
- Pope Francis
In standing on street corners outside the facilities of a major arms manufacturer, as Catholic Workers we seek to afflict the comfortable. We aim to nudge out of their comfort zone those who are numb to the consequences of their producing armaments. We invite those involved in the production of armaments to question the work they are doing, why they are doing it, who they are affecting and how they are affecting them.
Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 along with Peter Maurin, sought to afflict the comfortable in addition to comforting the afflicted. She fed hungry impoverished people who stood in the breadline outside the Catholic Worker House in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City.
As Catholic Workers we work for justice by feeding those who are hungry. Pope Paul VI said, "If you want peace, work for justice." Catholic Workers offer food and housing to those who are indigent, helping to respect these persons' basic human rights. Catholic Workers labor for justice by striving to ensure that all of our brothers and sisters are treated with dignity. In so working for justice, we work for peace.
Yet we also realize peace by choosing peace rather than violence. When the chief priests and Pharisees and guards arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, Saint Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant. Jesus told Saint Peter to put his sword back in its scabbard.* At that point, Jesus taught against resorting to violence, warning, "All who draw the sword will die by the sword."**
Jesus told Saint Peter, the man who was to become the rock upon which His church was going to be founded, to put away his sword. In so directing him, and in His coming, Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophets. The prophet Isaiah prophesied
In days to come,
The mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it.
Many peoples shall come and say:
"Come, let us go up to the Lord's mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may instruct us in His ways,
and we may walk in His paths."
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
One nation shall not raise the sword against another
nor shall they train for war again.***
Today we can beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Today we can convert our spending on the development of missiles into spending on the development of the capabilities of human beings. As a Christian, and as a Catholic, I am compelled to speak out against immense budgetary outlays for military spending. When we have so many homeless people sleeping in bushes, we are not seeing justice realized, and thus we are endangering peace. Rather than spending $582,000,000,000 on defense in 2015,**** in the United States we could have re-allocated some of that gigantic sum toward building low-income housing and to providing more mental health services and drug rehabilitation programs to care for our poor brothers and sisters. Jesus has described that after we die, He will say, "In truth I tell you, insofar as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."***** By redirecting our funds from stockpiling armaments to caring for our poor neighbor, we turn our attention and energies to Jesus Himself.
We are either caring for those who are poor or we are taking steps to make life more insecure for them. Similarly, we are either directing our energies toward peace, or we are doing something to bring the world closer to war. We bring the world closer to either peace or war through our deeds, our words, and our thoughts. When Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to the children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she urged them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace.
We are either doing what we can to strive for peace or to work for war. As Albert Einstein noted, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
When we stockpile weapons, we act out of fear. In love there is no room for fear.****** When we truly have faith in God, we do not fear, for we trust in God. With faith in God, we have sure confidence in Him. Trusting God, we choose love rather than fear.
With true faith, it is easy to have the imagination necessary to envision a better world. Seeing what lies ahead for us, we know that we must love our neighbor, to care for those who are least among us.
Then we are aware that we need not worry about protecting ourselves at the expense of loving our neighbor; if we were to choose to try to protect ourselves, we would harm both ourselves and our neighbor. In choosing not to love our neighbor, we become less than what we have always been meant to be. We harm ourselves when we refuse to love, for we deny our true potential.
With faith, we open ourselves to the creativity God wishes to unleash on the world through us. If we wish to be truly bold, we choose to love when others are not doing so. If we want to be truly courageous, we will lead on the path of love when no one else appears willing to follow.
If we would be profoundly brave, we would give up our defenses. Then we let God work through us. To have the humility to make ourselves completely vulnerable at the hands of God, to totally trust in God: that is true courage, the most heroic act one can possibly make in this lifetime, and one which will be richly rewarded in the next life.
* John 18:3, 10-11; Matthew 26:50-51
** Matthew 26:52
*** Isaiah 2:2-4
**** "The Federal Budget in 2015: An Infographic," The Congressional Budget Office
***** Matthew 25:40
****** 1 John 4:18
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