Nation Building

Creating the perfect country within ourselves

03/27/2017

Isaiah 65:17-21 Thus says the LORD: Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people. No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying; No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime; He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years, and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed. They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.

          If you had the power to create the perfect country, what would that country look like? What a fascinating fiction: to start from scratch and create a country! Some may say we have already done that 200 years ago when the Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. We’re living in the best country in the world! And indeed, America is amazing in so many aspects. Others may disagree, however, saying, “No, we need all Republicans in Congress as well as the President, so we can repeal Obamacare and reform the tax code! That would be the ideal country.” Others would argue: “No way, Jose, we need all Democrats in Congress and a Democratic President, so we can expand Obamacare and have a more diverse and welcoming nation. That would be the best nation!” I don’t know about you, but I sure get tired of all the political rhetoric and wrangling. It makes me want to run off and become a Carmelite monk! But don’t you think most of the wars in the world have been fought over precisely which kind of country is the best: democracy is better than communism, totalitarianism, etc.  Which country is really the best?

          In the year 1516, St. Thomas More, who served as the Lord Chancellor of England, wrote a book about the ideal country called Utopia. Being Lord Chancellor, which is like a one-man Supreme Court, St. Thomas had a “30,000 foot view” of how a country should work and how it often fails to work. Additionally, he was a scholar, a statesman and a saint, so he could really wrestle with creating a prefect country. In More’s book, he imagined an “island country” where people shared things in common (no private property, sorry Republicans), everyone worked six hours a day, priests could get married (yay!), criminals were punished by wearing chains of gold, only children wore jewelry, so hoarding wealth was disdained (greed is kids’ stuff). But St. Thomas gave the country the suggestive name of “Utopia” which comes from Greek, and means “Nowhere.” In other words, More did not believe the perfect country could exist on earth; we can only try to make the country we live in a little better, which is what he did in England.

          In the first reading today, Isaiah says God will engage in engineering a perfect country, too. God wants to do some “nation building”! Isaiah writes: “Thus says the Lord, Lo, I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth…No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there or the sound of crying. No longer shall there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime…They shall live in the houses they build, and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.” Isaiah’s description sounds similar to that of St. Thomas More: a land that provides plenty, a people who live in peace, no one is poor, and no one is sad. Sounds pretty good, bring it on! But Jesus will add later in the Gospels, like St. Thomas More did in Utopia, that we must work for that Kingdom on earth, but remember that it will only exist fully in heaven. The nation building that God starts on earth will only be finished by him in heaven.

          My friends, most of us do not have the time or the talent to create our own country or even write a book about it. But one thing we can do is organize and orchestrate the operations of the little country called “John Antony.” In other words, each human person is also like a “little nation” whose internal workings need to be ordered well so that it can grow and prosper, just like the United States has (on the macro level). Indeed, the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, argued exactly that in his classic book, Republic. (Now, don’t get excited, he was not a Republican!) He said that the “philosopher-king” should rule the state, just like our minds should govern our passions. The country is the “macro nation” while the individual person is the “micro nation,” and both are in need of “nation building.”

          Folks, we don’t need to wage wars against other countries to establish Utopia on earth, even though I’m sure we’ll keep trying. Instead, we need to wage war within ourselves, binding our criminal passions with gold chains, working hard and not being lazy, giving graciously to the poor and not being greedy, overcoming lust and envy and pride. The first and the best place to start “nation building” in inside yourself. You are the nation that needs to be rebuilt. Indeed, that’s precisely where God’s grace is at work right now, engineering a “new heavens and a new earth.”

          Praised be Jesus Christ!