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| Kiev Mourns |
"The strong do what they will,
The weak do what they must...."
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
To think that I almost dropped a course in college history because it began with this book...and in those days, I was asking the "relevance question." What difference will this book ever make for understanding the world. It's been a second Bible. The land grabs of the powerful over the weak recurs in history--and is it laughable that our leaders and others around the world can only reply in utter weakness--"Now, now...this is the 21st century and we don't act this way." It was Thucydides who chronicled the human heart and mind that does not change over history--the powerful take what they want.
Yet this Jesus moves into the wilderness sojourn we call Lent--utterly weaponless. The temptations were all about power and his choosing to demonstrate it. He chose to be human--the Son living to the Father, which made him the son. St. Paul got it right when took a popular hymn and recorded it in his Letter to the Philippians, 2:5-11--who emptied himself and took the form of a human to be a servant. Later, Paul would write--God's power is made perfect in weakness, leading by serving.
It was Stalin who scoffed at this notion of power, laughing it off--"Tell me, how many divisions does the Pope have?" Check out the status of Stalin now! It seems that this world as conflicted as it is gives way to a Kingdom, therein....a world without end.
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