THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Sermons, hymns, meditations and other musings to guide our annual pilgrim's progress through the liturgical year.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

A MESSAGE FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY


Some of you may remember back in the 1990s the controversy surrounding the alleged beating of a black man, Rodney King.  While the details of the case have long ago been consigned to the recesses of our memory, one thing has survived which no one has been able to forget.  This was Mr. King’s press conference at which he uttered the now infamous words: “Can’t we all just get along?”

While most of Mr. King’s words were rambling and inarticulate, this little phrase is actually a most succinct summary of today’s epistle.  It may sound trite and naïve, but if we wipe the smug sneer of cynicism off our face, we must reluctantly acknowledge that it has some merit.

Of course, if we are to use such a hackneyed expression, we must make sure we do so in the right context.  Because there is a time to make war and a time to make peace, a time to fight and a time to reconcile.  St. Paul himself acknowledges that he has “fought the good fight”, and he is not by this contradicting his exhortation to “get along” with our neighbors.  

When should we fight?  When we need to defend something good.  It may be our lives or the lives of another, and the level of violence should be proportionate to that of the attack.  Even lethal force is morally permitted if the attacker threatens someone’s life or virtue. If we are defending God and his truths, or our neighbor and his reputation, then we should keep our defense on the level of firm words and better arguments than the attackers. Truth will prevail, and we should not give in to frustration just because we’re dealing with an idiot who refuses to recognize the truth when we present it to him in black and white upper case.

This principle of self-defense extends even to attacks on our own person. In fact, this is the very definition of “self-defense.”  If someone threatens our well-being, our safety, our virtue (think sexual violence, for example), or our life, we can certainly defend ourselves with the proportionate level of response.  This is a right protected by natural law, and even by the US Constitution.

But let’s face it, usually, when we are hurt, it is not by a violent attack but rather an attack on our pride.  Our “attacker” humiliates us, and unfortunately we respond with anger, bitterness, back-biting, slander and hatred.  Now we venture outside the notion of self-defense, not defending virtue but abandoning it, substituting pride for humility, anger instead of peace, and hatred in the place of charity.  This is what St. Paul counsels against today when he says,“Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  And let the peace of God rule in your heart.”  Or to put it another way, “Can’t we all just get along?”

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