New Zealand CW Pacifism Touching in the Season of the Prince of Peace

By Monica,  The Lamb Catholic Community, (evolving of the LCW)        Columbus, Ohio

       In this approaching season honoring the birth of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, one will marvel at the constant and unblemished history of the Christian pacifist Maori people against "the Crown," [England], and its imperialist havoc of greed, malice, slaughtering and prejudice.  Still, they remained true to their Savior, who preached, modeled, and died for love.  Their history is below from the Christchurch Catholic Worker in New Zealand ("Christchurch" being the name of a city).

     As one recounts horrific details of a massive ISIS bombing in Egypt yesterday killing over 300 innocent Muslims at prayer in a mosque, and as one recalls another very recent grisly tragedy of innocent praying civilians in a Texan Baptist church at the hands of Devin Patrick Kelley, a former U.S. Air Force soldier (committed with mainly a Ruger AR-15 assault rifle),  -- one's immediate reaction may at first be to take up arms and kill the enemy. An eye for an eye. Yet, the power of God, who is love, who created the universe, all life, all human beings the world over made in His image and likeness, beckons to much higher ground, much higher levels of love.

       Like the purity of witness in Jesus Christ, all members of the early church communities for the first 300 years after Christ's death, Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, St. Francis of Assissi, St. Justin the Martyr and countless Catholic Workers, Amish, Mennonite and Quakers, death does not have the final say; and the nonviolent cross and way of Jesus Christ has enormous power -- moreso than hate and killing will ever have.  

      Was the Temple restored because of the armed killing and slaughter at the hand of the "Jewish rebel warriors," as described by history scholars, called the Maccabees, or mainly from the pure, holy and undefiled blood of the seed of the martyrs -- elderly Eleazar, tortured and killed for his beliefs in Yahweh, as well as the mother and her seven sons who were brutally tortured and who perished together rather than disobey even one of God's smallest commands?  These pure actions and  witnesses have greater power to change the world with the genuine conversion of hearts, the method typical of God's sweeping movements in history.

       I have heard from the pulpit that the main way that the Catholic Church proliferated was not with the Old Testament mentality of killing, pillaging, and butchering of men, women, and even children (there are several genocides in the Old Testament) in the name of God, but with running further and further distances to avoid persecution.  Done purely, in holiness and Truth, and even with martyrdom, this is the seed that grows strongly and steadily, that explosively proliferates -- that precious seed of the blood of the martyrs.

       Even our country was somewhat begun in this manner -- with the English Puritans fleeing religious persecution in England, going to dangerously great lengths to begin anew far, far away.  

       Some say we would not have a country now if it were not for winning the Revolutionary War, defending ourselves against these British.  Great Britain had far far greater control over India in the 19th and 20th century than it ever had over the British colonies.  Ghandi, and his program of active nonviolence -- purer to Christ than many Christians live  -- helped to completely overthrow British control and gain India's independence in 1947.

        In Matthew Kelly's book, Catholicism, he quotes what Ghandi answered when asked why he did not simply become a Christian since he read Jesus' words nearly daily, lived them nearly perfectly, and promoted this way often.  He replied, "I would become one if I met one." 

       I have heard some say that all of Europe would be Muslim if it were not for this or that "Christian" army and their bloodbath, or without the rosaries prayed to kill and slaughter the enemy men and boys fighting against them.  Is God not capable of the proliferation and spreading of His Gospel in pure and holy ways and witnesses? Must He have these violent, bloody ways at all?  Could He employ His own newer commands aligned with His Way of His own Son who came down to show us how to fulfill all the prophecies and old order, to then further purify, align, and raise all of our actions to the level of perfect love toward all, even the enemy?  Jesus contrasted ways of old to His new way with prefaces like "... before it was ..... but now I say .... "

Tom Siemer and Rita D'Escoto Clark

         My father, peace activist, Tom Siemer, always said to me, while growing up, that the reason the very birth place of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Middle East is so Muslim is that we Christians messed up the purity of Christ's way and Truth in our militaristic and often greed-filled attacks and slaughter of the "enemy" men and boys.  This Old Testament mentality still continues in the Middle East to this day, sadly, and in the name of God on both sides.

        In giving the "Our Father," Jesus furthered His desiring that our actions here be indistinguishable from our actions in Heaven: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven."  Jesus wants our actions to be pure from beginning to end -- such as with Mother Teresa's whose actions of love are the means and the ends and everything in between -- mirroring what they will be in Heaven.

      Some say, "But we had to kill, especially at times like Hitler's, when the atom bomb was necessary..."  Fr. Richard McSorley, S.J. and Georgetown University always taught that "He who chooses the lesser of two evils soon forgets he chose evil in the first place.  There is always a third choice."

     But wait, aren't we not truly, truly capable of loving on Earth the way that we will be able to love in Heaven after our time of purification and purgation?  We will be capable then only after this process that we will undergo, right?  Won't it be perfect there because of the purification of people, as opposed to now, when we are still weak and exposed to the human condition as well as to evil?

     It seems that Jesus believes that we are capable of our actions being to the level they will be in Heaven and even beyond the best of human actions altogether (to the Father's perfect love level) when he teaches: "You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."  He says this after giving the new command of loving even the enemy.  His confidence in us and our ability to love and act at the perfection level of the Father is utterly amazing, but true.  

       Should we be so willing to not risk breaking a least command of God surrounding what goes into our mouths (as with the Maccabees), but risk breaking far greater ones surrounding the outright killing of people through carnage and butchery, of violently ending actual sacred human life?  Do we take seriously Jesus new command to solely love our enemy, do only good to those who hate us, only bless those who curse us, be the proof that we are a children of our heavenly Father in our peacemaking?  

    Which actions are more powerful, the blood of the seed of the martyrs and their holy, unblemished  offering of their lives, or the militaristic killing, maiming, and mutilating of sacred human life?  Is human life sacred or is it not?  Can it be destroyed or can it never be destroyed at the hand of human beings?  Can one person ever choose or have a choice over the life or death of another person?

     My mentor, Fr. Richard McSorley, S.J. from his mentor, Fr. Horace McKenna, S.J. (who many things are named after in Washington, D.C.) taught me that "Jesus Christ is present in every single human being the world over."  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVII and Martin Luther King Jr. said that God's own indelible stamp is within every single person.  You stop God's work of salvation in the person that you choose to kill.  In a sense, you play God, and as in the Old Testament, and "God alone is the author of all life and death."   

    Our special prayers are for and appeal is toward the Muslim women in Egypt, and in the Middle East, from all sects of Islam.  They must see the recent carnage and bloodshed of the innocently praying men, women and children in Egypt as so evil, so against all that is good, against all-merciful God, against love and and beliefs of all kind, that they will work hard for peace, mercy, and reconciliation for a world they are leaving for their children.

     We ask all Christians, especially Catholics, to do the same.  One small way here in Columbus, is to learn more about and extend friendship toward the Muslim cultures and peoples here in Columbus, many war refugees from the recent Iraqi War as well as refugees from Somalia and other countries, at the Noor Islamic Culture Center and mosque (5001 Wilcox Rd. in Dublin). 

      They have certain days of the year where teachers and others are invited to learn about their religion and their culture. In peacemaking, dialogue and friendship are crucial, and we can all be instruments of peace and mercy.

Meeting Tariq Tarey, Nov. 2017

       One Muslim from Somalia, famous photoartist, director, and documentarian, Tariq Tarey, has created an exhibit at our Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society near the soccer stadium) about some of our newest Ohioans -- the Bhutanese and Nepali refugees.  These join other refugees, such as those from Somalia, and teaches the difference between an immigrant (coming for a better way of life) and a refugee (fleeing for their lives typically from war-torn or high famine areas).  This exhibit ends January 8th, so get their quickly. :)

     

Bhutanese-Nepali Neighbors:
Photographs by Tariq Tarey

Fri., May 5, 2017–Sun., Jan. 7, 2018
Weds.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun. Noon–5 p.m.
Ohio History Center, Columbus 

The history of the more than 20,000 Bhutanese-Nepali people in Columbus is rapidly becoming the history of Ohio. This exhibit consists of 30 photographs of members of the Bhutanese-Nepali community, taken by Tariq Tarey. Each photograph is accompanied by a narrative written by Doug Rutledge, which explains each individual’s history. The photographs emphasize the historic sequence of the Bhutanese-Nepali refugee experience; from living and working in Bhutan, to being forced to leave Bhutan, the experience of living in refugee camps in Nepal for 20 years or more, to resettlement in Columbus, finding jobs, buying homes and finally becoming American citizens.  

The exhibit at the Ohio History Connection on refugees was put together by Tariq Tarey, his background is  below.

Tariq Tarey from Somalia (I met him
at a talk he gave in Columbus)

          Tariq Tarey is a documentary photographer, skilled in both still photography and video, who specializes in refugee affairs. In July of 2006, Tariq’s show, Forlorn in Ohio, which documented the plight of Somali refugees, appeared at the Kiaca Gallery in Columbus. Forlorn in Ohio also traveled to Wright State University, in 2007. Several images from that show are now part of the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art. In recognition to the power of his work to call attention to the plight of refugees, Tariq was honored with the South Side Settlement House’s prestigious Arts Freedom Award in 2006. In that year, he also won the Ohio Art Council’s Individual Artist Award. In 2008, Tariq was given the Individual Artist Award by the Greater Columbus Arts Council. He directed the documentary, “Emergency Living: Somalia in the Aftermath of Famine.” Tariq also directed “Women, War and Resettlement: Nasro’s Journey,” which was aired on WOSU Public Television in 2012. In 2014, Tariq’s film, “The Darien Gap,” was shown in the 2 nd United States Conference on African Immigrant and Refugee Health. In 2015, Tariq’s photo spread appeared in the Magazine, 614, in an article entitled, “Journeys of the Diaspora.” In 2015, Tariq also did a photo spread for a publication entitled, Impact of Refugees in Central Ohio.

      Mother Mary, or Maryam in the Muslim world, pray for us, especially the Muslim women to help bring peace into their world, as you brought Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, into the world.

     The New Zealand Catholic Worker article is below.  To revive your hope in humanity, in the sacredness of all human life in their witness of Christ-like pacifism, and gain a restored fervor over the power of love and peace beyond what this world could give amidst a sometimes violent and cruel world, please read this amazing true story of the history of the Maori people in New Zealand..., which models so very well, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

We Are Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

                                          by Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

It is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water the seeds already planted, knowing that 

they hold the future promise.

we cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, 

and do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way,

an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builders,

and the worker.

We are the workers, not the master builders,

ministers, not messiahs,

We are prophets of the future not our own.

Christian Nonviolence (MLK): Rabbi Heschel Implored to Heed the Prophetic Voice of Dr. Martin Luther King

THE LAMB CATHOLIC WORKER, Columbus - RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL, one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the 20th century, implored us to heed the prophetic voice of MLK just ten days before the assassination. Their words are more prophetic today, forty-five years later.  Here are excerpts from “What Kind Of People Worship Here? Who Is Their God?” by Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, April 4, 1993 [at the 25th anniversary of the assassination], Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tenn., (Fr. McCarthy is an Eastern Rite [Byzantine-Melkite] priest of the Catholic Church in communion with the Bishop of Rome).
                "Shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. commented,  with the question, 'Who killed President Kennedy?' [After having been killed himself then, the more important question one could ask about either Kennedy or King is], 'What killed him?'
                Humanity is a historical phenomenon. Every person and every generation are partly the result of the persons and generations that preceded them. Whatever killed Martin Luther King did not first make its appearance on April 4, 1968.
             The man who was murdered on this balcony 25 years ago [45 years ago in 2013] unreservedly committed his entire adult life to the war against the loathsome spirit of violence… There is no Martin Luther King to be honored who is not irrevocably vowed to nonviolence. Dr. King taught: 'We must pursue peaceful ends by peaceful means...Many people cry, 'Peace, Peace' but they refuse to do the things that make for peace...The stage of history is replete with the chants and choruses of the conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace.'
             A world mired in so-called "justified" homicide does not know what to do with the nonviolent. The only Martin Luther King is the man who said and lived: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, we will still love you... We cannot in conscience obey your unjust laws... Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good.'
           Dr. King always gave voice to his great truth without equivocation: 'I'm committed to nonviolence absolutely, ... I am just not going to kill anybody, whether it's in Vietnam or here...If nonviolent protest fails this summer, I will continue to preach and teach it...I plan to stand by nonviolence...(because) only a refusal to hate or kill can put an end to the chain of violence in the world and lead toward community where people live together without fear.'
          He accepted this risk [of his life] because he understood that (both) 'violence and nonviolence agree that suffering can be a very powerful social force. But there is a difference. Violence says suffering can be a powerful social force by inflicting it on somebody else, so this is what we do in war...The nonviolent say that suffering becomes a powerful social force when you willingly accept the violence on yourself, so that self-suffering stands at the center of the nonviolent movement... There is no easy way to create a world where people can live together...but if such a world is created...it will be accomplished by persons who have the language to put an end to suffering by willingly suffering themselves rather than inflicting suffering on others...Unearned suffering is redemptive…' 'Those who adhere to or follow the philosophy of nonviolence,” he asserted, "just follow a consistent principle of non-injury. They must consistently refuse to inflict injury upon another.' He was convinced that: 'Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past...1f we want truly to advance a step further, if we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new man afoot, we must begin to turn humanity away from the long and desolate night of violence. May it be that the new person that the world needs is the nonviolent person...A dark, desperate, sin-sick world waits for this new kind of person, this new kind of power.'
           Dr. King realized with the clarity of the Hebrew prophets that nothing was more powerful or pragmatic than following the will of God, which meant following the way of nonviolent love of friends and enemies. He preached: 'We have power, a power that cannot be found in bullets and guns, but we have power. It is a power as old as the insight of Jesus of Nazareth and as modern as the techniques of Mahatma Gandhi...The Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence is one of the most potent weapons available...' 'Evil may so shape events that Caesar may occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but one day that same Christ will rise up and split history into AD and BC so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by His name...God is more fundamental than sin or evil. Good Friday must give way to Easter Sunday.'
           On April 4, 1967, one year to the day before he was to be murdered in Memphis, he delivered at the Riverside Church in New York City what many consider to be one of the strongest and most cogent denunciations ever made of the Vietnam War. But through it all, Martin Luther King never wavered in his adherence to nonviolence. When volley after volley of protest against his position battered him from every direction, he responded: 'In recent months several people have said to me: ‘Since violence is the new cry, isn't there a danger you will lose touch with the people and be out of step with the times if you don't change your views on nonviolence?’ My answer is always the same...Occasionally in life one develops a conviction so precious and meaningful that he will stand on it till the end. That is what I have found in nonviolence… You ought to believe something in life, believe that thing so fervently that you will stand up with it until the end of your days. I can't believe that God wants us to hate. I am tired of violence. What kind of nation is it that applauds nonviolence whenever Negroes face white people in the streets of the United States but applauds violence and burning and death when these same Negroes are sent to the fields of Vietnam?'
          As Martin King declared in his magnificent anti-Vietnam War speech: 'A time comes when silence is betrayal..' he was well aware that 'the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony.' One can only conjecture in sorrow what the texture and contour of humanity would be like in our time, if, for the last 1700 years, in response to an ever-expanding edifice of justifications for "Christian" homicide, … pastors spoke about violence.
          It is a telling fact of history that, while Dr. King declared, 'eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism,' when the roll is called of religious leaders of yesteryear, one will not find many with such a commitment. At this point, one can only recall the soul-chilling words of Martin Luther King during the terrible days of the Birmingham campaign: 'I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. I have looked at her beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over again I have found myself asking: ‘What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?’'
            The God of Martin Luther King is the same God as the God who is proclaimed by Jesus Christ and He is a God who rejects what a large part of Christianity and what a large part of the other religions of the world teach as acceptable human behavior. When reflecting what was the nature of the Ultimate Good, Dr. King said: 'What is the summum bonum of life? I think I have discovered the highest good. It is love. This principle stands at the center of the cosmos. As John says, 'God is love.' He who loves is a participant in the being of God. He who hates does not know God.' 'There is no graded scale of essential worth (among people); there is no divine right of another. Every human being has etched in his or her personality the indelible stamp of the Creator. Every person must be respected because God loves him or her. The worth of an individual does not lie in the measure of his intellect, his racial origin or his social position. Human worth lies in relatedness to God. An individual has value because he or she has value to God.' 'We love people not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but because God loves them.'
            Ten days before his death, Dr. King addressed the 68th Annual Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly. He was introduced by one of the great Rabbis and one of the most profound spiritual writers of the 20th Century - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In his introduction Rabbi Heschel asked: 'Where does moral leadership in America come from today?.Where does God dwell in America today? Is He at home with those who are complacent, indifferent to other people's agony, devoid of mercy? Where in America today do we have a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign God has not forsaken the United States of America. His mission is sacred. Martin Luther King is a voice, a vision and a way.'
          Rabbi Heschel knew well the Spirit and the Truth to which Martin Luther King was committed. He knew well that Martin Luther King was 'committed to nonviolence absolutely' and to a God who loves and values each and every person. Rabbi Heschel said to the Assembly of Rabbis, 'I call to every Jew to hearken to his voice, to share his vision, to follow his way.'
         Today I invite you to give your strength to that Spirit to whom Martin Luther King gave his strength. Today I invite you to give your life to that God to whom Martin Luther King gave his life."

Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, April 4, 1993, Lorraine Motel, Memphis, TN"

Where are the Roman Catholic Priests?
      Why does it take a beautiful protestant minister (MLK) preaching about the methods of a Hindu spiritual leader (Ghandi) promoted through a Jewish rabbi (Heschel) and a Byzantine priest (McCarthy) to bring about Christ's way of peace in the world?  Where are the Roman Catholic priests?  Why is it modeled so well through the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Quakers and not through Catholics?  Pacifism is not new, even though it appears to be very radical ("radical" comes from "roots," or going back to our "radich" roots). Peter Maurin described the living out of the Catholic faith in Truth as being "so old it is new."  Does God expect a manner of living far far beyond the ways of old and even beyond this world - that the Church followed purely for the first 300 years in the era closest to Truth itself, for longer than the U.S. has even been a country? 
       Rev. McCarthy helped to open the eyes of Fr. George Zabelka, a military chaplain over those who had bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when Rev. McCarthy pointed out several poignant facts.  First, those who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Christians from a mostly Christian country, Nagasaki being the most Catholic city of Japan{St. Paul Miki and Companions} who lost an entire order of sisters in one day. Nazism came to power and proliferated among and with Christians, with the deaths of multi-millions of Jewish and other people. Europe was decimated during World War I and World War II mostly by Christians upon Christians. 
        The grisly U.S. Civil War, when even biological brother fought against brother (with over 625,000 casualties and 50,000 more injured) was a war of Christians killing Christians.  {And an added note on that theme: the Iraqi War, where a mostly Christian nation (ours) pre-eminently attacked a country that did not attack the U.S. nor even threaten to attack the U.S., and killed over 40 times the amount we lost in 9-11, over 200,000 people, mostly civilians. It was not legally nor morally justified, according to Pope John Paul II, and yet Catholics were prayed onward during it, instead of our prayers following the Pope's lead against it}.
          Even though Jesus said there will always be wars and rumors of wars {how then could MLK be against militarism, something that will never go away?}, the real question is: to what extent should His followers participate in wars; and if they do, under what circumstances within a war?  Do we mirror Christ's way in the world?  Is God as tired of the violence - especially among Christ-followers - as Martin Luther King was?  Will people continue to die at the hands of Christ-followers? Are our actions indistinguishable from the Old Testament mentality that still heavily exists in the Middle East to this day?  What kind of people do worship in the Catholic Churches here and everywhere in the world?  Could we be marked out, so to speak, as children of God in our love of our enemies, as Jesus defined as being children of God?
     It is understandable though, why Catholics have this war-like mentality (we're the good guys and we can kill the bad guys).  One of my very dearest friends went through 16 years of very good Catholic education and was adamant that there were wars somewhere in the New Testament that God backed the good guys.  I said, "No you are wrong.  It was not part of Jesus' way as in the Old Testament.  New wine, new wine skins.  It is nowhere in the ENTIRE New Testament and early Church because it would have been unthinkable to kill the enemy with Christ's call to now love your enemies," in addition to many other words and actions modeling this.
          Fr. Zabelka, the former military chaplain, went on to become a peacemaker, boldly speaking out against weapons of mass destruction because they are designed and used against innocent noncombatant civilians - mass extermination of entire populations. Moreover, their fall-out clouds and radiation would encircle the world, killing and causing radiation sickness and cancers among people of all countries. To describe, the blast and fallout ranges used in the WWII U.S. nuclear bombs are pinheads compared to that of actual mega nuclear weapons of today whose massive radioactive clouds would be beyond imaginable.
         And so, to military chaplains:  we are amazed at your willingness to serve and to put yourselves in harm's way for the salvation and nourishment of souls!  Because all of you are part of the military (you had to join to become a chaplain), we continue to personally pray that the following remains strong in you: that your first and foremost allegiance is to God, and especially His teachings through His Son, Jesus Christ; that your second allegiance is to the Chair of St. Peter himself, your true moral and spiritual shepherd, Pope John Paul II, called to "feed My sheep,"; and that your third allegiance is to your country (the people of the United States). Please do not be afraid to speak out as boldly as St. Stephen, St. John the Baptist, or Fr. George Zabelka - by the power of the Holy Spirit - if you see or experience anything that goes against God and the teachings and modeling of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, or against our Pope and his guidance as well as that of the Catholic Church - the encyclicals, pastoral letters, and statements. Also, if a young soldier comes forward with serious moral issues in his role, we pray for strength and courage on your part to support him if you feel it might be from Jesus Himself, even if it means your allegiance to the above three is higher than your allegiance to your role in the military.  We will continue to pray for you!  Pray for us at The Lamb Catholic Worker!]