Peace Be With You

 

Views from the Door of St Joseph's

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Skip at 16:07 omits analogy to 9/11

This morning, it would be nearly impossible to ignore or escape

The mood in our country.

Especially here on Capitol Hill.

Right now, right outside our church door.

We have streets barricaded with army trucks.

Ten-foot-high temporary steel fences cutting off streets and buildings.

Heavily armed police officers and soldiers

Stationed every few yards along the perimeter.

All that on top of a denied pandemic with 400,000 dead so far.

 

Have we hit rock bottom?

Today’s scene is reminiscent of 9/11, twenty years ago.

We had the barricades and soldiers in our streets.

We had a terrorist killing people by sending anthrax in the mail.

We had the shock, and the uncertainty, and the fear.

 

Back then, at least we had an external enemy to blame.

Someone we could unify against and rally against.

A cult leader in a distant land.

Now we have only our own countrymen to blame and fear.

We’re brothers and sisters wedged apart by rhetoric and lies.

And home-grown cults.

Misled by unworthy leaders in government, and media,

And public opinion, and even religion. 

Leaders who distort the truth, spin the facts, some who flat out lie.

We have people happy—eager—to embrace the clear lies.

So long as they fit nicely with their own prejudices.

We have members of our government receiving death threats.

Fearing that even their colleagues might turn them over to the mob.

It seems that truth and honor have been abandoned.

 

I certainly hope this is rock bottom.

And that things can only get better from here.

That despite the disillusionment, we can all find our way to the Truth.

 

We have reason to hope, to be optimistic.

We’re ready to turn over a new page as a nation.

We’re at a natural four-year break point, a chance for a fresh start.

We have a new administration starting this week.

One that has promised to make unifying the nation a top priority.

Many leaders are saying they’ve seen the terrible costs of division.

That it’s time to move forward in unity.

But can they?  Will they?

 

Thank God, we already have one completely trustworthy leader.

One who has shown us the way to the truth.

One who has laid out instructions for living a happy communal life.

A leader who is, himself, the Way the Truth and the Life.

 

How did we come to know Him?

Why do we trust Him?

Why do we follow Him?

Because at some time, someone pointed Him out to us.

Much as John the Baptist pointed Him out to Andrew.

And Andrew pointed Him out to Peter. 

 

After he was pointed out to us, we eventually decided to look deeper.

Like Andrew, we followed along for a bit,

Until one day Jesus turned to us and asked what we were looking for.

And invited us to come closer, to get to know Him,

To learn from Him, to follow Him.

 

Now, at this time of our nation’s deep despair,

We can’t rely on our mere mortal leaders to bring unity and peace.

Even if they make their best efforts, they can’t do it alone.

It will take all of us.

And we can help lead the way to ultimate happiness and peace,

By striving to model the behavior Jesus taught us.

By loving our neighbors as ourselves.

By forgiving our brother seventy times seventy times.

By loving even our enemies.

By being the blessed peacemakers.

 

Could that actually work? 

Well, it is what Jesus taught us to do.

It certainly won’t be easy for us.

 

Words alone won’t bring us all together.

We won’t convince everyone with our fine logic.

We all know that we’re right and the other guy is wrong.

We’ll still have disagreements.

But if we can forgive each other for real or imagined wrongs,

If we can apply fraternal correction with basic respect and love,

If we try to atone for any wrongs we’ve ourselves have committed,

We can move forward, and unity and peace will grow.

 

If we can do all that, we’ll help lead our country to a bright future.

And we’ll do even more.

We’ll be like John the Baptist and Andrew,

And like that person who pointed Jesus out to us.

Through our actions,

We’ll be that someone pointing Jesus out to others.

That evangelist drawing another follower to Jesus.

Enlisting another ally to help build the kingdom of God on earth.

 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jn 1:35-42

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