Beast Barracks

Mastering ourselves before trying to master the world

09/29/2018

John 1:47-51 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

My nephew, Isaac, has just joined the United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, and I could not be more proud of him. Before his first day of classes, though, he had to undergo cadet basic training, which is affectionately called “Beast Barracks.” Put simply, it is a beast. For six weeks these young cadets are tested in mind, body and spirit and not all of them pass the test. For example, in the class of 2020, of the 1,308 cadets who arrived for Beast Barracks, only 1,276 successfully completed cadet basic training. That’s an attrition rate of 2.5 percent, and they have not even started their studies at West Point.

The final rite of passage at the end of Beast Barracks consists of a 12 mile march from Camp Buckner back to West Point. They are dressed in their formal uniforms and march in orderly formation. When they enter Washington Road, named in honor of that great general and first president, they see family and friends lined on both sides to cheer them on for their final few feet. They have taken their first faltering steps to be soldiers in the U. S. Army. But notice the first lesson these cadets had to learn: you cannot defeat the enemy outside – the Communists or the Nazis – until you first defeat the enemy inside – your laziness, your ego, your selfishness. You must master yourself before you can master the world.

The Scriptures suggest that the angels have endured their own version of beast barracks and now march in lock-step formation fulfilling God’s will flawlessly. Revelation 12 recounts an other-worldly war between good angels led by St. Michael and the wretched angels led by Lucifer. It was an angelic test before the beginning of time, and tragically not all the angels passed it. Indeed when Revelation states the dragon swept one third of the stars from the sky, we should interpret that as symbolic language that one third of the angels failed that titanic test and followed the Dragon, Lucifer, Satan, the Beast down to Hades, the abode of despair and desolation.

However, two thirds of the angels passed that supernatural Beast Barracks, and learned to march in perfect precision behind St. Michael and were greeted by the glory of God. That perfect parade seems to be what Jesus indicates when he tells Nathaniel: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” The phrase “ascending and descending” I take to mean marching in military formation, passing before Jesus, the inspecting general. But notice the angels had to fight an inner war against their own importance (inordinate self-love) before they could successfully wage war against others, even other angels. In a sense, Lucifer had lost the war with Michael before he began to fight. Just like cadets at West Point, so too angels in heaven must master themselves before they can master the world.

My friends, I would like to take this analogy of beast barracks a step further and suggest to you that our whole earthly sojourn should be seen as a sort of cadet basic training. We are undergoing our own beast barracks for “seventy years or eighty for those who are strong,” as Psalm 90:10 attests. But bear in mind beast barracks is less about fighting the enemy outside of us as it is about fighting the enemy inside of us. Often we mistakenly believe my enemy is my argumentative spouse, or my nosy neighbor, or the boss who cares about profits more than people, or the Democrats or the Republicans, or Lucifer and his legions.

But I would suggest to you that our military training is best directed to defeating the enemy within: our pride, our laziness, our lustfulness, our gluttony, our gossipyness, our alcoholism, our super-sensitivity, our biases, our drug addictions, our prejudices, our ambitions, our arrogance, our greed, our back-biting, our passive-aggressive behavior, our small-mindedness, our cowardice, our overreactions, our underreactions, our exaggerations, our vanity, our anger, our impatience, in a word, all our inordinate self-love. We cannot become masters of the world until we first become masters of ourselves.

Then, one day when our earthly beast barracks concludes, we will march in lock-step in that parade of the perfect, which will include both men and angels, and pass as a mighty army ready for inspection before our general, Jesus Christ. And he will survey his soldiers, angelic and human, with a proud, and I pray, a pleased eye.

Praised be Jesus Christ!