Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time--Dom Peter
Every family has its injury stories. We’ve all had those conversations where we begin to relate all of the funny accidents suffered by our brothers and sisters when we were kids. In my family, my oldest sister was by far the most accident-prone, but one injury I suffered always made the highlight reel. I was playing basketball in the seventh grade championship tournament. In the opening minutes, we ran a play in which I was supposed to look to pass the ball to a teammate under the basket. I underestimated the size of the defender and tried to toss the ball over him to my teammate. The fellow on the opposing team swatted the ball back to me. Now needing to improvise, since I had messed up the play, I started toward the basket myself. This same defender leaped up in the air to try and block my shot, and as he came down his top teeth came crashing down on my head.
What was funny about the injury was what followed. The poor fellow fell to the ground holding his mouth, and everyone gathered around him, though it turned out that he had nothing wrong; he had just met a hard head. Meanwhile, my coach screamed at me to come over to the bench, where he proceeded to forcefully remind me of the efficacy of the bounce pass; that is, until he saw blood spurting from my head. He started screaming, and everyone left the poor guy on the ground and ran to me. An ice pack was produced and plopped on my head and I was rushed, in uniform, to the emergency room. By the time I got there the wound, which only appeared great because it was to the head, had healed over. I waited for some four hours as serious injuries were treated first. My coach even came by and apologized for yelling at me. When I finally saw a doctor, he gave the good news and the bad. Good news: you only need one stitch. Bad news, you’ve suffered a human bite. We need to reopen the wound, disinfect it and then give you a tetanus shot. All of this, while hardly grievous suffering, certainly caused more pain that the initial wound. Worst of all, my basketball team lost.
This story comes to mind whenever I hear our Lord’s teaching today, “Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?” Some commentators puzzle over this saying, seeing that it seems to contradict the fact that at the birth of Jesus, angels sing, “Peace on earth.” We can just as easily say, “Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.” From one perspective, I had already healed before I saw the doctor that night in the emergency room. From another perspective, I was in far greater danger by this premature healing than I would be by reopening the wound and causing greater pain. IN this light, we can say that sometimes, under the banner of compassion, we allow injustice to go on or even allow those we love to go on hurting themselves. We can pride ourselves on being more patient and understanding than others when in fact we are enablers and co-dependents. On the other hand, this also does not mean that every well-meaning rebuke we offer to those who irritate us is spreading the fire of Jesus’ word. How do we recognize the peace that the world gives and the peace that only the Father can give?
Peace, both in the Hebrew language, shalom, as well as in the Greek of today’s gospel, eirēne, connotes not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice and harmony between persons. The peace that Jesus brings is characteristic of the harmony of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom opposes the kingdoms of this world, but most particularly the vast web woven over all nations that has turned values upside down. Pope Paul VI famously said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” To this, I as a monk might add, “If you want justice, work for purity of heart.” That is to say, we should begin by recognizing that we are part of the problem. The problem of conflict is not simply “out there.” The false peace of the world is a projection of the détente that we have made with our inner dividedness. To achieve purity of heart, we must acquiesce to the project of repentance and conversion urged on us by the gospel.
When we embark on this struggle against the inner demons that each of us harbor, we discover that before we can realize the kingdom of God even in the one place where we exercise the most control of our lives, in our hearts, we must be willing to be divided, aware that our good motives are typically bound up with bad, and that good intentions father forth malicious actions. We must take the word of God into our hearts, where it can change us.If we do not take this step, our interpretations of the events around us will always be clouded by these suspect motives and actions; the peace we find will be the world’s peace and the fire we spread will be merely destructive and not purifying. Conversely, if we truly become pure in heart, one with Jesus Christ, then we can expect to receive the baptism that he received, and the anguish that accompanies it. But we will do so with the confidence in the Father that our Lord showed in going to the cross, confidence that God’s Kingdom will come, whether we hasten it or not. Let us pray that through the grace of the sacrament we receive today that we will indeed hasten, and not hinder, the coming of God’s Kingdom.
What was funny about the injury was what followed. The poor fellow fell to the ground holding his mouth, and everyone gathered around him, though it turned out that he had nothing wrong; he had just met a hard head. Meanwhile, my coach screamed at me to come over to the bench, where he proceeded to forcefully remind me of the efficacy of the bounce pass; that is, until he saw blood spurting from my head. He started screaming, and everyone left the poor guy on the ground and ran to me. An ice pack was produced and plopped on my head and I was rushed, in uniform, to the emergency room. By the time I got there the wound, which only appeared great because it was to the head, had healed over. I waited for some four hours as serious injuries were treated first. My coach even came by and apologized for yelling at me. When I finally saw a doctor, he gave the good news and the bad. Good news: you only need one stitch. Bad news, you’ve suffered a human bite. We need to reopen the wound, disinfect it and then give you a tetanus shot. All of this, while hardly grievous suffering, certainly caused more pain that the initial wound. Worst of all, my basketball team lost.
This story comes to mind whenever I hear our Lord’s teaching today, “Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?” Some commentators puzzle over this saying, seeing that it seems to contradict the fact that at the birth of Jesus, angels sing, “Peace on earth.” We can just as easily say, “Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.” From one perspective, I had already healed before I saw the doctor that night in the emergency room. From another perspective, I was in far greater danger by this premature healing than I would be by reopening the wound and causing greater pain. IN this light, we can say that sometimes, under the banner of compassion, we allow injustice to go on or even allow those we love to go on hurting themselves. We can pride ourselves on being more patient and understanding than others when in fact we are enablers and co-dependents. On the other hand, this also does not mean that every well-meaning rebuke we offer to those who irritate us is spreading the fire of Jesus’ word. How do we recognize the peace that the world gives and the peace that only the Father can give?
Peace, both in the Hebrew language, shalom, as well as in the Greek of today’s gospel, eirēne, connotes not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice and harmony between persons. The peace that Jesus brings is characteristic of the harmony of the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom opposes the kingdoms of this world, but most particularly the vast web woven over all nations that has turned values upside down. Pope Paul VI famously said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” To this, I as a monk might add, “If you want justice, work for purity of heart.” That is to say, we should begin by recognizing that we are part of the problem. The problem of conflict is not simply “out there.” The false peace of the world is a projection of the détente that we have made with our inner dividedness. To achieve purity of heart, we must acquiesce to the project of repentance and conversion urged on us by the gospel.
When we embark on this struggle against the inner demons that each of us harbor, we discover that before we can realize the kingdom of God even in the one place where we exercise the most control of our lives, in our hearts, we must be willing to be divided, aware that our good motives are typically bound up with bad, and that good intentions father forth malicious actions. We must take the word of God into our hearts, where it can change us.If we do not take this step, our interpretations of the events around us will always be clouded by these suspect motives and actions; the peace we find will be the world’s peace and the fire we spread will be merely destructive and not purifying. Conversely, if we truly become pure in heart, one with Jesus Christ, then we can expect to receive the baptism that he received, and the anguish that accompanies it. But we will do so with the confidence in the Father that our Lord showed in going to the cross, confidence that God’s Kingdom will come, whether we hasten it or not. Let us pray that through the grace of the sacrament we receive today that we will indeed hasten, and not hinder, the coming of God’s Kingdom.
posted by Prior Peter, OSB | 11:26 AM
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