"The first shall be last and the last shall be first."

Continued from last week:

The head of Immigration in the Trump administration wants to change the words on the Statue of Liberty qualfying the "poor" only if they are "strong."

This smacks of Fascism!

Benito Mussolini the stronng man who ruled Italy glorified the "Strong Man" and the power of the State. He erected statues of strong nude men all over Rome.

He declared that he "would make Italy great again," and invaded tiny Ethiopia, and tiny Albania hoping to restore the Roman Empire.

Benito was much admired by Hitler who took his "strong Leader"--blood and soil" to even greater extremes declaring Germans to be "the Master Race" and thus exterminating the Jews.

Similiar rant is heard today from Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists in our own U.S.A.

So where did the two "Strong Leaders" end up?

Perhaps today's Gospel gives us a hint.

Benito was hung upside down from a pole in a filling station in Milan.

Once revered by the masses, he hung upside down next to his mistress.

Adolph put a bullet through his own head in a Berrlin bunker.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first."

Rick Steves the travel writer has an excellent documentary on Fascism.

And so we pray:

O God deliver us from evil:

from recism,

white nationalism,

Faccism,

Neo-Nazis

and all who would tear apart the

fragile weavings of democracy.

Deliver us from evil.

Amen