Readings for Trinity Sunday: EX 34:4B-5, 8-9; DN 3: 52-56; 2 COR 13: 11-13; JN 3: 16-18
All of us were horrified last week by the London attacks. And before that it was Manchester. And then there were the recent bombings in Kabul and the killings in Iran. The problem of terrorism seems to worsen each week, doesn't it?
And every time terror strikes, our leaders say the same thing. They assure us that they'll finally solve the problem -- but always in the same way: more bombings. So right now we're dropping bombs on weddings, funerals, and civilian neighborhoods in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and who knows where else?
The problem is: the bombings seem not to be working at all. And you know what Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. It's the very definition of insanity
But there is another way. You might call it Trinitarian.
Of course, what I'm talking about is diplomacy and dialog based on shared humanity. It involves listening to the other and making accommodations. It entails compromise, and working from the premise that there's more that unites us with al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorists than what divides us. That's true, because we're all human beings.
People of faith -- both Christians and Muslims -- should see that. Their faith perspective even tells them that we're all children of God.
In fact, that's the message of today's liturgy of the word on this Trinity Sunday with its emphasis on unity in plurality.
The Trinitarian doctrine tells us that what unifies all of reality -- including God -- is the divine nature we all share. It makes the many -- all of reality -- one. In the mystical words of today's gospel, that shared divine nature (the Holy Spirit dwelling within each of us) makes us all God's only Son -- his only daughter. That is: we though many are, in reality, one. Paul's favorite image for that unity was the human body. It has many parts, but it's a single entity. In a sense, there is really only one of us here.
Jesus explained what that means in practice:
- We are to love our neighbors as ourselves (i.e. because they are us!)
- That includes loving the least among us, because they are Jesus himself
- For the same reason, we are to love even our enemies.
The problem is that those of us who pretend to follow Jesus confine such faith claims to the personal realm. But that's not what Jesus did at all. He made no distinction between the personal and political. No good Jew could!
However, you might object: how can anyone dialog with insane people like al-Qaeda and the other terrorists? (Btw: do you think the "terrorists" might be asking the same question about us?)
The answer is, of course, that Washington's been conversing with these people for years. Remember, the U.S. created al-Qaeda in the 1980s when they were the Mujahedeen. Our leaders had no trouble talking with them then. It was at that point that Washington formed them to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan.
And the United States did more than dialog with them, it actually armed and funded them. It even identified their cause with the cause of Allah. In 1979, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, gave the Mujahedeen $3 billion. He told them "Your cause is right, and God is on your side. Your fight will prevail." He pointed to Afghanistan, "That land over there is yours. You'll go back to it one day."
The point is these people can once again be dialog partners. But to do so, their identity as children of God -- as our brothers and sisters -- must be recognized. They share a common humanity with all of us. They have legitimate grievances -- not the least of which is that U.S. aggression has killed more than a million of them over the last 16 years -- in countries that never attacked the United States.
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