Functional Pacifism and the Lust for Battle

Truly sons are a gift from the Lord,
a blessing, the fruit of the womb.
Indeed the sons of youth
are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.

O the happiness of the man
who has filled his quiver with these arrows!
He will have no cause for shame
when he disputes with his foes in the gateways.

It occurs to me that the family is the basic unit of the Church, what one might call a platoon. The hierarchy of the Church can in this way be compared to military hierarchy. The comparison is apt, for although we think little on the war that surrounds us, we are indeed fighting - every day, every hour, all our life long we struggle. We have Hope of final victory, because we have Faith. Yet the battle is hard fought. With good reason is the Church on earth called Militant.

In simpler, rougher times, when men were men, women were women, and families were families, in a simpler age the family truly was the ultimate thing. A man had a need of a woman and children for whom to care. A man without cause, a man useless to any but himself, is lost indeed. There is, I believe, an inborn desire in a man to be necessary, to be gallant, heroic, and virile. He needs a woman not just for what she can give him - for her softness, beauty, grace, and kindness; he needs her also for what he can give her - his life.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ has loved us.

This is an extraordinary burden. I hesitate to speak much on marriage, for I am utterly lacking in direct experience, but I can observe others, and I know the desire in me. The family, in these simpler times of which I was speaking, was an army in miniature. A man with sons stood proud, a force to conquer the unknown, the foe both human and animal... and spiritual. Perhaps I idealize.

There is a real spiritual war, with casualties, victories and defeats along the way. We may rest at times in the consolation of a small battle won. We may suffer to see our Lord in those times when we have failed. We pour out our efforts for the salvation of souls, never seeing the whole, never seeing aught but that which entangles us at the present. We fight on, because we know the end, because we have no choice but to strive in love. We fight on, remembering that by uniting our sufferings to Christ on the cross, we may hope also to be united in the glory of Christ risen. In this fight, the family is paramount. Each father is a little Lieutenant, each mother a little Sergeant. And the children, ah the children. With what pain must a father send his children forth into the fray. With what agony must a mother wait for her little soldier's return from a perilous mission. Our weapons are unique. The sacraments sustain us, nourish us, and give us strength for battle.

I've been a functional pacifist for only a short time. I say functional, because while I am not opposed to war in an absolute sense, I yet abhor it in an immediate sense. I abhor the dehumanization of the enemy, be they japs, krauts, gooks, ragheads, hajis, or what have you. I abhor the making of war on civilians. My country has not fought a true defensive war (say what you will) in over one hundred and fifty years. It has not fought a constitutional war in fifty years.

So why am I talking about this, about my pacifist instincts (which will likely rile up a few people). This is why: there is in me, and I think in all men, a lust for battle. There is a desire to fight, to contend, to achieve a great victory - yes, to be heroic. But how to fight? Find a battle worth fighting.

This is the battle. Well did Dickens call his tale "The Battle of Life". This lust for battle exists for a reason. When we direct our desire to wage war away from nameless, faceless enemies whom we kill without knowing why, and to a named, twisted villain, truly the great Satan, then our war becomes holy. Then, in the silence, in the quiet of our hearts, we press on. At times we must rage against him. At times he will beat us down. At times we cry out in desperation. At all times we fight together. The family, the Church, we are brothers in arms. And so we stand.

Hope in God, I will praise him still.