Can we trust our leaders to be truthful?
Sunday 31A 5th November 2023
[Malachi 1:14-10, Matthew 23:1-12]
As I sat at lunch in the food court, I saw at the next table a mother with her two beautiful twin daughters, perhaps six years old. In these sad days, seeing children brings to mind the hundreds of them in Gaza who are being bombed day and night. Many have been trapped under rubble, screaming in pain; or taken to a hospital which has run out of medicines and anaesthetic. As I pondered, I saw too that the little girls were just like the countless Jewish children forced in cattle trucks to be slaughtered in the Nazi gas chambers.
Each of these murderous atrocities, within my lifetime, were planned and carried out by highly intelligent political leaders, admired and loyally followed by populations of millions. Watching the lovely family meal nearby, I saw how urgent it is to question, deeply, those who lead us in government or church.
The prophet Malachi, around 500 BCE, criticised the leaders of his society: “You have caused many to stumble by your teaching; have shown partiality in your administration”. Jesus too, criticised the religious leaders of his time, who “occupied the chair of Moses”, having the education to interpret the Law. Jesus blasted them for twisting the Law to help themselves, instead of the majority, the poor; and for loving honours, flattery, titles and special dress.
We expect our leaders to be trustworthy for the same reasons that we expect it of our spouses, children and shopkeepers. Without trust and truth-speaking, families and society will collapse into chaos. Malachi and Jesus’ drew their teaching from the Jewish Torah, which speaks of the transcendent God, Origin of all being. Malachi said: “Are we not brothers and sisters? Have we not all one father?” Theologians conclude that God is not only the source of truth, but Truth itself, for God’s essence must contain all goodness and being.
Jesus warned us, his followers: “Call no one on earth your teacher… or your father, since you have only one Father…in heaven… The greatest among you must be your servant.” Our leaders in the Catholic church seem to have slipped up here somehow… and they failed terribly when they obeyed Canon Law to conceal priests who abused children. As I watched the little girls eating lunch in the food court, their many victims also came to mind.
Political leaders often speak falsely. They invent lies most of all to drag us into war, then to manipulate us with the horrors that war causes. After October 7th Israeli leaders and Joe Biden got world-wide sympathy with the Big Lie that Hamas had beheaded babies. The truth now emerging is that of the 1400 people killed on that day probably half were Israeli soldiers or police, and of the 683 whose details have so far been released, only seven were under the age of nine, and so far, no evidence of atrocities has been produced. *
Again, Israel’s leaders claimed that Hamas fired the missile that killed hundreds of civilians at the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. In fact Israel had issued warnings before that attack, and (according to the WHO) has carried out 51 other attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza since October 7th. As veteran journalist Chris Hedges notes: Israel’s leaders do not deform the truth, then invert it, and most international news media unquestioningly echo their lies.
For decades, propaganda has badly eroded the truth about Israel and Palestine, so is is urgent that we listen to more balanced Jewish writers like Amira Haas, Gideon Levy, Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappé or Gabor Maté, who agree with Palestinian historians in exposing the popular lies about the founding of the state of Israel:
That Palestinian land was largely unoccupied before 1947.
That 750,000 Palestinians fled their homes and villages in 1948 because Arab leaders told them to, and not because of massacres by Zionist militias.
That Israel’s leaders want a just and equitable peace, when in fact they want the whole land.
That Israel is a democracy, when it is an apartheid regime, with laws that discriminate against its Palestinian citizens.
What is our task? To draw closer to the God of all peoples – who is Truth – so as to deepen our compassion for all people involved in the current violence? To pray with confident hope that truth will prevail?
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* Official Israeli report.
Finding The Treasure 