12th Sunday Year A - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2005

The first reading today gave us the spectacle of Jeremiah urging God to act violently against his enemies: Let me see the vengeance you will take on them.  Then in the gospel we saw Jesus simply assuming that violence would be the response to his disciples’ openly proclaiming the truth: What I say to you in the dark, proclaim from the housetops.  Do not be afraid of those who kill the body.  Jesus himself became the focal point, the convenient scape-goat, of violence as traditional enemies – high priests, the Roman governor, the urban crowd – unanimously colluded in wreaking on him the most violent form of public execution in their repertoire – crucifixion.

Why?  They would all have had their own reasons, and they would have all been different.  So what was the real reason, that they shared in common, that led them to crucify Jesus and later to persecute his outspoken followers?  Probably, they were not in touch with it, and perhaps even refused to look at it: the same reason that moved the otherwise admirable Jeremiah to invoke that violent retributory response from God on his behalf.

Well, there is a leaning towards violence that lurks in the hearts of us all.  Other people threaten our self-esteem and self-image, our sense of being in control, our comfort and convenience, our cherished beliefs, our heroes and our idols.  In most cases we can live with our spontaneous instincts towards violence.  We keep them in check.  But eventually we gang up together, overlook the violence we feel towards each other, and channel it onto socially acceptable victims: homosexuals, asylum-seekers, the axis of evil, and so on.  We usually don’t know why we do, but we feel safer when we do. 

Most Australians apparently approved of the vicious practice of putting asylum-seekers, even their wives and children, behind razor-wire fences, to protect us from them, and readily believed that they were the kind of people who would throw their children overboard to save themselves.  Thank God for yourselves, other Christians, and all those other people of good will who put their hands up to be counted!  Some change seems to be happening to our national policies - but I won’t hold my breath.

Jesus was killed because he chose to show the futility and destructiveness of  retaliatory violence.  He said: love your enemies.  Imagine it!  He revealed the truth that societies refuse to face – the sublimated violence that holds them together.  Everything that is now covered will be uncovered.  By maintaining his own innocence, he showed violence clearly for what it was, however much it was passed off as defensible “in the national interest”; or, as the high priest in his case said: It is better that one man die for the nation than that the whole nation perish.

They managed to kill him easily, but they could not corrupt him – they could not get him to play their game.  He did not wish them violence.  He persisted in his determination to forgive the very people who were in the act of  killing him.  He wasn’t afraid of those who kill the body.  What he would not do was to compromise his soul, his deepest truth.

And he directed his disciples to do likewise: Hone your awareness of cover-up, of double-speak, of what you are up to, of what you are frightened to face.  Then, as you discover the truth, share it.  What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight.  What you hear in whispers, proclaim from the rooftops.  He didn’t ask of them (or us) what he had not done himself.  I stand in awe, not just at his courage, but at his freedom and strength to face death without bitterness.

Does his option for non-retaliation and non-violence work?  Certainly its opposite hasn’t all these years, these centuries.  People still kill those they identify as their enemies, and think they are virtuous, even claiming that God is on their side, as did Hitler.  Most nations are the same, even when their gods are different.  They will still build their monuments to their wars and have their national holidays.

It seems clear: Jesus’ way does not pay off in the short term.  That is why he says: Do not be afraid.  Not because there is not plenty to be afraid of! But don’t let it get the better of you.  And he makes the promise: If any declare themselves for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for them in the presence of my Father in heaven.  Because they have lived the truth that they proclaimed.  They did not allow themselves to be corrupted.  It can be dangerous to tell the truth in love.  But, as far as Jesus is concerned, it seems to be the only way to save the world.