The United States bombed Syria on March 6th as a response to Assad’s supposed use of chemical weapons on his own people, many of them children. Donald Trump said the attack was “an affront to humanity” since victims of the attack included children. The US attack shifted people’s opinions on Trump. For former supporters, the attack contradicted Trump’s long history of calling for the US to stay out of the Syrian civil war; he even vilified Obama when the then president seemed to lean toward a possible attack at Assad’s regime, and now those supporters see Trump involving the US in international issues and therefore bringing those issues here. For previous Trump opposers, this attack brings some positive validation to a president who has done nothing but fail since his term started. This polarizing issue tags along many other political disagreements, and among those disagreeing parties we can either see the church participating heavily — which involves using similar methods of compromising in order to gain something — or doing absolutely nothing in regards to the clearly visible injustice around us. But in light of what is true and what we have been called to do with our lives, which is to imitate Christ, what is true justice?
We know there are no easy solutions. Every possible proposition to resolve an issue will leave one of the parties involved unsatisfied. Compromises are made, expectations are lowered, and we just move on. But for every victory there is also a loss. Many of those losses are considered necessary because a party cannot win an interest over without the expense of someone else losing an opportunity to that interest. And no-easy solutions yield to quicker escapes. So when I see that in order to fix something and get it to work for as many as possible I will have to pay a greater cost, then I will be more likely to get out with as much as possible instead of giving up what I think I don’t want to lose.
The way of Christ has a different aim. It does not search for self-benefit, and instead it sacrifices for the benefit of others. Justice in Christ seeks to lift the poor from the ground, it gives validation to those who have been ignored, and it gives benefit to the ones who have gone without. Now, we can say this is true, we can agree on the belief that the words of Jesus confirm this, and that is great until Christ calls us to be part of that justice.
God bless this nation
It’s good to look at our options and pick what we think will be best for us. Saying “I will show you what bombs I have,” after a few weeks ago I also tried to ban you from seeking asylum in my country is the best option. We can definitely look to keep the traumatic issues of other people away from our home, and at the same time call those issues an affront to humanity. But Christ did not put a limit on how far we could follow him. There was not a set of divine characteristics we could choose from and reject the ones that were inconvenient. Christ has called us to be just like Christ. That, my friends, is where the gift of true life is. Instead, we have fallen to select some characteristics of the identity of Christ. We seek blessings from God as if it was an exchange of goods, as if we had to only do so much in order to get something. Interestingly enough though, we have also heard this exchange is such a good deal that we can say only a few words and the grace of God will unexpectedly change the whole destiny of our lives. Maybe there are a few responsibilities in that exchange, but they are covered with me securing the space for the songs that talk about Jesus to be heard on the radio, and maybe sharing the gospel through anonymous pamphlets. Every once in a while debates with atheists, scientists, and philosophers, may present themselves, so I have to be prepared to refute them and guide them to Jesus. If the United States of America has this type of people around, then God will be pleased with the transaction and offer a sweet deal, one that will put you above all the other nations that got it wrong.
Christ in us
Moments before Jesus was arrested, he went to the Mount of Olives to pray. “May this cup of suffering pass away from me,” he prayed. The cross was what his opponents wanted for him and Judas had already planned how to turn Jesus over to them. This was a troubled and painful realization, and as Jesus gave his whole to God, he did express his preference for doing something else. As Judas heads over to Jesus to let him get arrested, Jesus calls his disciples to also pray so that they will not give in to temptation.
When we get to Easter Sunday in the liturgical calendar it is like all these issues are now gone. Jesus came, he taught people the truth and opposed the evil leaders of the synagogue, he was arrested, beaten, and crucified. He died and was buried, and now he has risen. It is a wonderful celebration that Jesus the Christ has defeated death itself. It is important to notice how this wonderful act from the beginning is unrelated to anything we did before, or can currently do, and will ever do. My faith in God did not cause the resurrection of Jesus, and there was nothing I could have offered for Jesus to choose resurrection over death.
In Easter we have to say that it was God who acted in the most hopeless moment. In the darkest place, it was God who moves without the need of any of us. I say this because I think it helps us see a bit clearer that Jesus defeating death is so beautiful and at the same time so independent of what we are or what we can offer, that our inclusion in the story requires a much more inclusive involvement. Jesus did not depend on any of us, and there was nothing we could have done to bring God’s act of redemption to reality. God is faithful whether we like it or not, but in that faithfulness there is also the fulfillment of the life God meant for us, which is to be in holy communion with God.
Christ called us to look exactly like Christ. We are to love like Christ, which many times also means to suffer like Christ. That is what the justice of Christ involves, the radical and complete losing of ourselves. It is not an exaggeration to say that in order for true justice then to be done, we will have to sweat a lot, face our darkest and most terrible fears, and give our whole lives away. But see, that is true life. Christ invites us to open our eyes and see that it is when we choose to lose ourselves that we find the life we were meant to have. It is in losing my incomplete identities — for me that is a male, Hispanic, son of Raul and Raquel, husband of Meagan, and many others — that I can really live the identity I have been called to live, the identity of Christ.
This is a lot, and it’s really hard. Losing ourselves does not always feel like truly winning, and we often feel like we are not given the justice that Christ calls us to give. But pray that you will not give in to temptation in this dark hour. As you see how much easier it would be to turn away and ignore your brother and sister, as you see how much you could benefit from taking out those who seem to threaten those incomplete identities of yours, remember who Christ has called you to be. May we remember that we are very much a part of the act of God now, and that nothing less is going to fulfill that calling.
I leave you with the last lines of a poem by Michael Quoist. When the answer to Christ’s call seems to be too much, and when we don’t know if we can keep imitating Christ hopefully his poem, “Lord, Why Did You Tell Me To Love?” will remind you also of Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46
“Ah, Lord! My door is wide open!
I can’t stand it any more! It’s too much! It’s no kind of a life!
What about my job?
My family?
My peace?
My liberty?
And me?
Ah, Lord! I have lost everything; I don’t belong to myself any longer;
There’s no more room for me at home.
And Lord, You answered —
“Don’t worry, be happy! You have gained all.
While others came in to you,
I, your God,
Slipped in among them.”
OSOFOX 