“Faith”: Curing the Human Appetite for War
Exodus 17:8-13; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8
How does one preach a homily on a reading that shows God taking sides in a war or the story of a God who allows and encourages the extermination of a people – the Amalekites? Could the men or women of today condemning the Arminian genocide, the American-Iraqi war, Turkey-Kurdish slaughter be better than the God of the Bible who seems to pride himself in the Nigerian cattle herdsmen’s and Boko-Haram’s massacre style? Is there even a justification for the death of a sinner or the evil person – evil and sinner from the human standpoint – since God’s verdict is not known? The name Joshua – God-is-salvation/God-saves: whose salvation is God or who does God save and from whom and why? I guess there are so many questions to ask about today’s first reading, but are there ways of circumventing the kind of the image of God one reads off the text of the first reading – a God of war?
In the first reading, Israel was guaranteed victory over Amalek; in the gospel, a widow with no army, no placards and banners, won victory over a Judge, who “neither feared God nor had respect for human beings”. An oppressive Judge in the gospel feared for his life from the inconveniences caused him by a simple single widow – a nobody-widow – and a widow who confronts a Judge seeking for justice through her words. In conclusion, God is better than the bad Judge of the gospel, but seeks FAITH in the human person, the FAITH he found in the persistent widow.
Perhaps the gospel of today tells us how God distances himself from our wars and genocidal tendencies, no thanks to the human lack of FAITH. The gospel of this Sunday makes the Judge in question anonymous, but describes him as having neither fear of God nor respect for human beings – he lacks faith in God and human beings. This statement explains the two elements needed to start any war – neither the God who created the human person, giving him/her the gift of life is held in awe nor the human person who chooses life over death is respected. Curiously, the same Judge of the gospel never wanted to be killed, he abhors death, by the disturbances of the widow! Indeed, “justice” is the realization that what is good for the goose must be allowed to be good also for the gander – the protection and defense of every human life.
The message of this Sunday revolves around the importance to be given to life, especially human life. The first reading has no business encouraging wars and explaining how God supports the slaughter of the Amalekites. The corrective comes from the gospel which teaches us that God wants you and I to go pass that opinion of God killing our enemies for us; on the contrary, we are taught how the power of FAITH helps us to see the importance of life for all the living, and how the lack of FAITH leads to the glorification of wars and the killing of other people.
If the “strong” of the first reading, Israel, defeated the “weak” of the same reading, Amalek, the underdog of the gospel, a widow, defeats the strong, a Judge, through the power of FAITH. Not just “faith” as belief in God, but “faith” in the human person’s ability to change and do the right thing. “Defeat” in today’s gospel is the power of conversion of a Judge to do the right thing; it is not defeat as vanquished but as winning over a soul for God. This is the FAITH that Jesus praises in the parable – a man who neither fears God nor respects human beings was still capable of meting out justice to a widow. Imagine what will happen, when you and I, those who believe in God and respect human beings, display their faith in the transformative power of prayer! The persistence of the widow, not to say her prayers, brought the best out of a Judge! Who are the beneficiaries of the display of your faith and prayers? If God answers speedily the prayers and supplications of those who invoke his help, do you so much as remember to ask for his help through prayers?
Today, there is no longer Israel versus Amalek, there is only the children of God, those redeemed by the blood of Christ. Therefore, you and I can locate within ourselves a battle ground that needs FAITH to conquer, if we must retell the encounter between Israel and Amalek. If God-saves (Joshua) and the uplifted hands of Moses with the staff of God brought victory, a victory threatened by the rebuttal/onslaught of Amalek and relapse of Israel when those hands are down, this episode admonishes the power of fidelity to God through prayers in order to overcome odds that sometimes add up against us. It is our experience, in our faith journeys, that some setbacks or broken promises send us back to God with apologies and resolution to start all over again. The first reading, with the momentary setbacks in Israel’s battle against the Amalekites, teaches the support we sometimes need from others to help strengthen our weary arms and hands in order to keep us going in our journey of faith and relationship with God – we need our own Aaron and Hur to steady our weak arms.
The positive interpretation of the first reading and the rest of today’s readings makes the Christian understanding of the whole of Scriptures good news. This is the encouragement we get from our second reading: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is when we learn to see something good in others and in every situation that the faith God seeks in each one of us becomes a reality. Odds and odious situations always have an alternative reading and meaning, a positive meaning just as every cloud has a silver lining!
We could make Paul’s admonition to Timothy ours, “be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). Indeed, curing the human appetite for war is only possible when we can see the good in our fellow human beings through faith and persistent prayers.
Assignment for the Week:
Choose one person in need of conversion and pray for him/her all week long.