Scripture:
Reflection:
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on war than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Dr. King was a prophet for our times, as Amos was a prophet for the people of the mid- to late 700s BCE. Both saw all of God’s people as equal. Both recognized that when we exploit the poor and most vulnerable among us in favor of the comfort and security of the wealthy, when we arm ourselves with weapons of death, the survival of humankind is threatened.
Today’s reading from the last chapter of the Book of Amos essentially states what happens when we listen and act on God’s plan to create a brand new way to live: “I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel; they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities, plant vineyards and drink wine, set out gardens and eat fruit . . .”
My friend Jane Sammon, long-time editor of the Catholic Worker and friend of Dorothy Day, once gave a retreat for the Catholic Workers in Louisville. Sitting under a big maple tree on an early June afternoon, she began her reflections by reading the entire Psalm 85, today’s psalm, which builds on the words of Amos. Psalm 85, a recipe for human interaction, has been lost in the trash bin of out-of-fashion wisdom.
It is high time we did a dumpster dive, found it, and applied it to our troubled planet.
The saber-rattling among nations, in our streets, and in our homes has reached frightening decibel levels. The Cold War is re-heating with threats of more nuclear arms testing, larger nuclear stockpiles, and direct threats of nuclear war. Guns saturate America, from small towns to wealthy suburbs to inner city pockets of deep poverty, resulting in a steady stream of killings day after day. More children now die from guns in our nation than from any other cause.
Thinking that arms…whether weapons of mass destruction, bombers, fighter jets, tanks, cannons, and battleships…or personal guns… will bring peace is a lie. They will not secure what we own. They will not keep us safe.
The “old wineskins” of vengeance, “national security,” “protecting the American way of life,” will not hold the new wine of Christ’s emphatic calls for justice, mercy, and love.
If we choose to follow Christ, we must surrender the mindless illusion that we will finally achieve peace when the “enemy” is contained or destroyed. The enemy is us. The conversion Christ demands requires we fully trust in the power of love to conquer evil.
This is the message of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the message he learned by praying over the Book of Amos, Psalm 85, and the Gospels of Jesus Christ.
There is no other way to peace.
Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.