If God
is for us, who can be against us?
He did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
He did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
Is it coincidental that Halloween falls at the
end of National Bullying Prevention Month?
Halloween is a celebration of fear and
fearlessness. Many Christians despise the custom because they think it gives
too much recognition to demons. I think it’s a good custom because it helps us
to look at our fears and overcome them.
Speaking of bullying, I remember an incident
when I was a freshman in high school. I was a very tall string bean. Some people
said I looked like a matchstick, a very skinny body and a very large head. But I
could be scrappy when I had to be. One day a sophomore was picking on one of my
classmates. He had him down and was pounding his head on the floor. I felt
badly for my classmate, who was a meek sort of fellow, and started catcalling
the bully.
Of course he had no choice but to leave off
his pounding the other fellow and come after me. For some reason I was
fearless. I was offering myself as a sacrificial lamb in my buddy’s place. The funny
thing was that within a few seconds I had wrestled my attacker to the floor and
was pounding his head on the floor. Nor did his classmates rescue him.
Some people will say bullying has been going
on a long time in America; it will not stop soon. Actually it started with Cain
and Abel. It certainly continued with the European’s treatment of Native- and African-Americans,
and aggression against immigrants both legal and illegal.
It’s endemic in our religious practices as
well. Many Christians think brow-beating others into joining their church or
sect is God’s way; they feel a moral imperative to drive wandering sheep into
the fold.
In conversation with an atheist Pope Francis has
said: “Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to
know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world
around us. Sometimes after a meeting I want to arrange another one because new
ideas are born and I discover new needs. This is important: to get to know
people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads
that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they
lead towards the Good.”
Americans live and breathe in a culture of
consumerism and salesmanship. We continually try to sell our faith to others;
we search for ways to make it more desirable. If this is not exactly bullying,
neither is it honest.
The Holy Father recommends neither promotion
nor aggression but dialogue. The truth can speak for itself; it has its own
appeal; it will find its own way to penetrate
between bone and marrow in each person’s heart, without any persuasion from
either party.
It also undemonizes the hobgoblins of other religions, languages, nationalities and politics.
Happy Halloween.
Wonderful! I plan on sharing your thoughts with my students.
ReplyDeleteHappy Halloween!