When we feel powerless, we are tempted to turn toward violence or despair
It likely goes without saying that crazy things are happening in the world. It isn’t a new occurrence for people to believe violence solves a problem and to act on that. Because we are not God, we notice how powerless we are in many situations. That reality sometimes leads us to either cynicism and careless withdrawal or to hatred and violence toward those who disagree with us or live life differently than we do. The Scriptures for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time invite us to a deeper wisdom we can seek for those times when we are tempted to manipulate circumstances so that everything comes out our way.
The Scriptures this weekend offer us a different way to act — rather than trying to be God, we should change our belief in how powerless we are. To follow these Scripture readings, we must relinquish our ongoing desire to be God and have things go our way. For sure, there are many things that happen that we can’t control. We may wish with all our hearts that we had that much control, but we do not. We are only in charge of our own lives. Our problem is that we believe that our own life has very little power or influence. There’s nothing further from the truth.
The Catholic Church continues to provide examples of lives who are truly making a difference. Recently, the Church has declared two new saints. When someone is declared a saint, we create a statue of them, place it on a pedestal and convince ourselves that our lives could not possibly be anything like the saint’s life. That is too easy an excuse for us not to try to be saints.
We all likely have families that are filled with people living great lives and serving others. I have family in the hospitality industry and health ministry. There are people who, regardless of their professions, go out of their way to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and welcome strangers. Living this way makes the world better, but we sometimes lose sight of that fact. We have no reason to give up hope or to act with cynicism, as that only adds to the problem. Instead, we should use our gifts to assist God in building up the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.
I can tell you a few things that I know aren’t godly and certainly don’t help in the healing of our world. Violence against ourselves or others is always destructive. Deciding that one human being is more valuable than another is destructive to the fabric of humanity. Backbiting, fearmongering and prejudice eat the community and family alive from the inside out. Claiming to be a Christian and acting otherwise offers the world an excuse to be cynical and not hopeful.
Seek a community that will support us in living a godly life. That doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but it does mean that we’re willing to work for the common good of all, without exception. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Father Donald Wester is retired and serves as lecturer of homiletics at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
