“Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.” (Matthew 4: 12)
A couple weeks ago, I went for a walk with a young man from Zimbabwe I have known for a few years who recently completed his graduate studies at Dalhousie. I always enjoy our conversations in part because of his intellect and also that his experience is so very different from mine. I think we both feel free to ask difficult questions of one another as we search to learn something new. For example, although he grew up in a country colonized by British diamond miners and he stands in horror at the wretched evil legacy of Indian Residential Schools in Canada, I don’t think it impacts his faith as much as it impacts mine.
I don’t think it impacts his faith as much as it impacts mine, likely because his faith is not as institutionalized as mine. His faith grows out of his community, mobilized by a communal hope worked out through individual repentance and a piety that is not dependant on the convenience of a church building in every neighbourhood. He has not had the luxury of falling into an easy spiritualization of the Gospel that doesn’t offend the complacency of the comfortable middle class, like me. In rural Zimbabwe, he tells me people walk miles when they hear a priest will be offering a Mass under a well-known tree. For the honour of serving at such a Mass, one must arrive at least ninety minutes early lest other eager volunteers get their first.
In the Gospel reading today, John the Baptist had been arrested and Jesus withdrew to a land spoken about by the prophet Isaiah whose people had seen a great light. Jesus’ message is the same as John’s, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven as come near.” (4:17) Like John, Jesus knows his reliance on God for all consolation, sustenance and guidance will be resisted by the power brokers of the age because it is seen as a threat to their understanding of power.
Is the Gospel that is preached transformational good news for those marginalized by the dominant social, political and economic structures of our society?
The Church has a sacred calling, a sacred obligation, to preach the Gospel, not to uphold an institution that has a tendency to cling to the very understanding of power that Jesus condemned. The later leads to evils such as residential schools rather than offering a sustaining hope of communion with God.
Religion that falls into bed with state power produces institutionalized darkness. We must turn away from an easy spiritualization of comfort and its empty promises as we turn our face toward the way of Jesus Christ. It is not evil to be wealthy, nor is poverty a virtue. The Good News is that in every place and every time, Jesus shows us the way to our innermost freedom to simply be free in our identity as Beloved and to be aware of forces that deprive us of living out of that great light. For truly, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16)
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