During Advent, we read the text from Isaiah 2: “All nations will flock to Jerusalem because there they find the living word of God.” The upshot of hearing God’s word? “They shall beat their swords into plowshares…no more will they train for war.”

I tend to agree with Sister Troillett when I hear the amounts we budget for national defense. The collective defense budgets of all the nations of the world do not add up to ours. We seem to be able to live more comfortably with the corporations who scam the Pentagon or the CIA than with the marginally poor person who scams the welfare system.