Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 282

I am not speaking of all of you.

I know those whom I have chosen.

But so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,

The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.

From now on I am telling you before it happens,

so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.

I have just  finished a troubling book titled, What we talk about when we talk about rape, by Sohaila Abdulali.  Beginning with her own story of rape and continuing with stories of women and men who have been raped, she points to the culture of rape that persists in many, if not all, parts of the world. Toward the end of the book she writes,

Zorba the Greek called the totality of life, "the full catastrophe." Dancing cranes, mango season, love, music, moonrise, decay, violence -- all of it, the full catastrophe. Rape is part of it. But I cannot, will not, accept that it is inevitable. Rape is a choice. Rapist choose to rape. the rest of us choose how we react. I don't care if I'm a mad dreamer, but I think a world without rape is possible."

In an extraordinary passage of his Letter to the Romans (chapter 7), as he faced the enormity of sin, Saint Paul spoke of his disappointment in himself. Although the words are very personal, they speak to everyone:

So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did the good, then, become death for me? Of course not! Sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin, worked death in me through the good, so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.

Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.

Saint John addressed the same agonizing enigma in the Fourth Gospel, the mystery of human choice.

While Ms. Abdulali's book is heavy on my mind,  I hear Jesus' remarks about slavery and betrayal in today's gospel. Slavery, rape, betrayal: they persist by our choice. Do they persist because God, creating us in his own image and likeness, has given us free will? Are they, as Adam suggested, God's fault? He shouldn't have made us free in the first place?

But without freedom there would be no delight in dancing cranes, mango, love, music or moonrise. There would be no pleasure in our affection and kindness to one another. We would be like beasts coupling, reproducing, feeding and dying.

Ms Abdulali makes few references to religion in her book, and none positive. She had a passing acquaintance with Catholic nuns in Mumbai and remembers only their fear of sex. The European women in an Asian city urged the girls to retain their integrity by avoiding boys. In her own case the advice, for good or ill, made no difference when she was assaulted by strangers.

The Gospel tells us of Jesus. He teaches us to carry unbearable crosses and to search for blessings where only horror appears. His resurrection assures us that no crime, not even the killing of God, is unforgivable; and every violence may be transformed to blessing. Slaves can bless their masters despite the bitter irony that slavery should not exist. Victims of rape can forgive and be reconciled with their assailants even in a culture that despises every show of weakness.

Ms. Abdulali is not familiar with the Gospel. Without that knowledge she flounders; she wonders if "sex workers" and sadomasochism among "consenting adults" might lead the way out of rape culture. She mimics the dominant European culture when she writes, "Sex is about pleasure and joy, for both (or however many are part of the action) willing participants."

But she has experienced healing through her marriage, which the Catholic rite of marriage describes as "the one blessing not forfeited by original sin nor washed away in the flood." The Sacrament of married men and women still offers knowledge of salvation through the cross, even to those who do not know the Name.