Soaked in Blood
I suspect there are some who find it especially tragic that violence has broken out in the land of Christ’s birth during the Christmas season. Despite the fact that neither of the two parties follows the Christian liturgical calendar, many of us still cling to a vague sense that Christmas should be a time when all combatants-Christian or otherwise-lay down their arms, if only briefly.
It’s tempting to see such sentiments as a relatively harmless form of nostalgia, a recollection of a more self-confident age when, thanks to the Jesuits and the British Empire, we could think of Christianity as an enterprise on which the sun never set. Such nostalgia, though, sits uneasily in a culture where store clerks are now so aware of the diversity of our holiday traditions that they no longer seem to know what to say after they hand us our change.
More to the point, the idea that Christmas is a “season of peace” is a form of sentimentalism that robs the Incarnation of its eschatological force. On Sunday, we heard Simeon prophesy that the Christ child was “destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be contradicted” (Lk 2:34). Soon we will hear that He and his parents are forced to flee their home while others are slaughtered in His place (Mt 2:16). The feast days immediately following Christmas are the feasts of martyrs: St. Stephen, the Holy Innocents, and St. Thomas Becket.
It should not surprise us that the Octave of Christmas is soaked in blood. As Frederick Douglas once observed, “power concedes nothing without a demand.” We who believe that the Incarnation marks a turning point in the struggle to redeem the world also know that the present ruler of this world is not about to go quietly. Like the French living under Nazi occupation who witnessed D-Day, we know that something fundamental and decisive has happened and that our situation is transformed, but we also know that there is much fighting and, yes, dying left to do before the end.
Our weapons in this fight will not be the weapons of the world. Against hatred, we bring love. Against missiles, guns, and improvised explosives we will bring prayer, fasting, and witness. Against historical grievance and the burden of memory, we bring forgiveness and reconciliation. Against division and polarization, we bring the worship that makes us One Body, which we offer for the life of the world.
Christmas, rightly understood, is not meant to be a brief period of refuge from the evils of the world. It is a summons to take up the struggle against those evils. It is a call to gird our loins and offer prayers to the One who “trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle” (Ps 144:1). The Messiah has come! Nothing will ever be the same again.
There are no wars without weapons The illicit arms trade seems to flourish generation in and generation out. Why? Are the arms dealers so powerful that they are untouchable? And what ablit the countries that produce the arems? Isn’t the U.S. The biggestt producer of all? If so, why can’t we control production here?
Challenging reflection Peter. You touch on a few things I’ve been pondering the last few days.
At the risk of getting in over my head: I understand that the “textus receptus” of the NT that was the basis for the King James Version translation, has the heavenly host singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). I don’t doubt this is the root of the notion that we should lay down our arms on Christmas. The NAB translators, using source texts they consider more authentic, render the verse “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Certainly a more challenging translation when pondering events in the Middle East.
Ann: Weapons systems and the big-ticket items like jets and tanks and the like is a whole different arena, especially when you look at $ value of exports, but I assume you are referring to small arms (rifles, RPG’s, and light machine-guns primarily and to a much lesser extent, handguns) – if so, the United States actually has the most transparent small arms exporting market in the world. Very few American small arms are available on the international black market nor found in conflict regions or rogue / totalitarian states and American small arms exports represent an insignificant part of the US firearms’ industry overall sales as well as of the international market, both legal and illegal. European (in particular Germany and France), Russian, and Chinese manufacturers dominate in sales of small arms to conflict regions and the like. Germany’s Heckler & Koch and Belgium’s FN Herstal are the big suppliers to the more affluent buyers such as African warlords and dictators and drug kingpins in the Golden Crescent and Triangle. Russia’s Izhmash and China’s Norinco are the two biggest players in the world’s most widespread military weapon in the world – the Kalashnikov AK-47. Norinco, H&K and Russia’s KBP are the big exporters for RPG’s. Some new players are emerging as well, such as state-controlled manufacturers in North Korea and Russia just recently sold some manufacturing technology to Venezuela so they can begin manufacturing their own AK-47′s. French firms, which have a web of ownership and are often partially- or wholly-owned by the state are the preferred suppliers of slightly heavier weapons to African conflict regions such as .50 cal machine guns, mortars, non-tracked vehicles and cheap helicopters. They were the principal arms supplier to Rwanda in the 1990s for example, who purchased about $100 million of so of arms from France with their IMF and UN funds.
Thanks for all the info, MAT. I was actually thinking of all sorts of arms, large and small. Does the US sell weapons systems ?
Fie on the French and. Germans. Can the European Union do anything about them? And shame on the others countries too. Is armscontrol any sort of priority for the UN? True, it ultimately has only the power to shame, but shame can also a powerful weapon.