You will even be handed over by parents,
brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Not long ago, most Americans would have found this scenario unimaginable. Who would hand over their parent, brother, sister, child, relative, or friend to death? There's no one like that in my family; it could not happen!
But the times have changed and polarization has set into the body politic. Many, perhaps all, families are divided between Republican and Democratic camps. They watch different television stations and scan different websites and hear only the echo of their own opinions among their friends and acquaintances.
Their preferred news sources insist that anyone who disagrees, temporizes, or attempts to understand the other side is evil, unpatriotic, and must be overcome. Failure to overwhelm and neutralize the enemy will certainly spell the end of life as we know it. This cannot happen!
It's no longer so difficult to imagine neighborhoods divided, parishes rent, and families in internecine war. If I have not yet been turned over to the authorities by loved ones, it may come to that. I might even feel compelled by some madness to betray those I once loved.
Even as the election year began in 1860, few Americans believed a Civil War would erupt over the issue of slavery; only the most radical abolitionists and their opponents were ready to take up arms. Perhaps there is a time for everything under heaven, and even a time for hatred.
In 2001, many young Americans enlisted and prepared to fight terrorism abroad so that it might never arrive in America. Somehow, terror did an end run around their invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and swept into the homeland. It transformed news into propaganda, sowing fear, suspicion, distrust, and division into every conversation. The deceptions that had always been a part of hard ball politics now threaten to dismantle democracy.
In today's gospel, Jesus predicted times like this. He described a crisis in which the gospel itself was the issue. Some announced and lived the Gospel; others violently opposed its proclamation and its practice.
But in today's polarized environment all sides claim the gospel as they hurl hateful words against each other. The Lord's command to love your enemies has taken on new meaning as the old enemy -- Communism -- has disappeared and we sleep with the enemies in our cities, churches, and homes.
The Gospel that penetrates joints and marrow discovers the enemies within, which are my own fear, greed, sloth, and pride. They are my own unwillingness to live in the world as it presents itself, preferring the world that might have been, should be, or might become.
Joseph Kazantzakis, in his novel, The Last Temptation of Christ, described the final agony of the Crucified. Even as he died he remembered the opportunities missed, the wider, easier path to comfort he might have taken. With his last breath he clung to the cross which held him and surrendered to God his Father.
We his disciples follow.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.