Pax Christi South

Ez 18:21-28 Ezekiel seems to be saying that what goes around comes around. When we engage in evil, we are embracing death. When we do good, we are participating in life. God does not derive pleasure from the sins and death of the wicked, the unjust. God wants the wicked to turn to godly ways and to live life fully. The psalmist reminds us that God is forgiving.

Mt 5:20-26 Jesus ups the ante. We can no longer claim to be just because we do not commit murder. Jesus us telling us that the quality of our relationships with one another is what counts.

Anger and name calling is wrong. Does this mean that there is no such thing as justified anger? Hardly. Jesus was angry for the right reasons on many occasions. We call this justified anger.

Our problem is that we can always seem to justify our anger. We can readily deceive ourselves. How do we overcome our propensity to justify our anger? It begins with our prayer life. Contemplative prayer cleanses us and heals us. Thomas Keating, Trappist monk, tells us that the Divine Physician is at work during our prayer. If our lives are rooted in the prayer of contemplation, God will purify our motives. The deeper we go into solitude, the more we will grow in our love of God and other people.

It is natural to get angry. It is divine to forgive. We must also remember that justified anger, channeled in the appropriate ways, can rectify wrongs. We MUST get angry and speak out against injustices if we are to be true to the Gospel message. To do this effectively, we must be grounded in mindfulness and contemplation.

Gandhi reminds us that our goal is not to make enemies of our opponents when we speak out but rather to make friends. Each person has a piece of the truth—despite the fact that many religious people think they have THE truth. In dialogue we seek the truth the other person speaks and we speak our truth. This requires humility. Thus reconciled we can bring our gifts to the altar.