THE ZIG OF CAIN AND THE ZAG OF CHRIST ~ 8

 

                                      As I begin this it is the 20th commemoration of 9/11 today and those of us old enough to remember that day will never forget the evil horror.

Each of us, even if we ignore the truth of Genesis or reduce it to mythology, are hard pressed, if we look honestly at our own life choices, to be unaware we, all humanity and creation in general, cannot escape the stark reality all creation, the human family in particular, experience the brokenness which is ours, which is humanity’s, because of the choice made by Adam and Eve to believe satan, the liar, rather than God our truth-speaking, loving, Father.

The first experience by human beings, starting with Adam and Eve, after by sin if not rupturing completely certainly fracturing our relationship with God and His Trinitarian love for us is fear, followed by God not seeming to recognize us, and that is because sin distorts His image within us, thus we are unrecognizable as the person He has created.

Only a cry for mercy and forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation can restore the image, the reality of our personhood, restore right relationship with love Himself.

There is also in Genesis another direct connection to 9/11, to every human act of anger, jealousy, hatred violence: Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. {Genesis 4: 3-10}

Everything is connected, be it some hidden act of rejection of other by any means up to and including murder, be it an act we do alone, internally, or externally, or as part of some group-think or act, each is participation in and carrying forward of Cain’s evil legacy.

Metanoia, as individuals or groups is the only way to stop the rivers of blood, the dangerous divisions which infect the human family, destructively, to this very moment.

9/11 and other such terrorist acts, the infamous string of mass shootings, racism and other such evils, the lamentations we hear are the crying out of the blood of our brothers and sisters from the earth, the sobbing of our brokenhearted brothers and sisters in the night.

If we are silent in face of evil acts against any of our brothers and sisters then we are complicit.

Metanoia is the conversion of heart when makes us participant in Christ’s Heart and action of compassionate love and understanding. It is all there in the Holy Gospel: Mt. 5: 3-12 & 25:31-46/Jn: 13:34,35.

The root of all the sin is pride-blame. Once they had listened to satan’s lie pride entered the hearts of Adam and Eve and when challenged by God about their disobeying by trusting satan Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed satan.

Whom are we blaming in our own hearts, an individual, a group, a race?  The blame may be rooted in objective fact but by the time we have shredded objective fact in the blender of our emotions it becomes revisionist history and fuel for the fires of anger, unforgiveness etc.

The key to protect our minds, emotions, hearts, souls from the above is:…… learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart……..[Mt. 11:29] We do live in times of great stress, fear, divisions, anger, hated, violence etc., and it is far too easy to blame the pandemic, or anything else, anyone for the weight of these times. Both those who accept we are in a pandemic and those who do not we all bear the stress of the time we live in. As individuals, externally, not much we can do about the state of the human family, but internally by the conversion of our own hearts, we must pray and fast for the conversion of the human family. That is how we can do much, in, with and through Christ.

There was enormous pressure on St. John Paul II to cancel World Youth Day 2002, scheduled to be held barely two months before the first commemoration of 9/11. Rightly the Holy Father refused for he understood the importance for people to come together in the great witness of faith, community, love which World Youth Days are.

Blessed to be there I constantly recall the Holy Father’s words from his homily of Sunday Mass, July 28 [1]: "You are the salt of the earth! You are the light of the world!" (Mt 5:13-14)……. Jesus offers one thing, and the "spirit of the world" offers another. In today's Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul tells us that Jesus leads us from darkness into light (cf. Eph 5,8)…...  You too are called to be transformed. "Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph 5, 14), says Saint Paul. The "spirit of the world" offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness. There is perhaps no darkness deeper than the darkness that enters….. people's souls when false prophets extinguish in them the light of faith and hope and love. The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility……..Salt seasons and improves the flavour of food. Following Jesus, you have to change and improve the "taste" of human history. With your faith, hope and love, with your intelligence, courage and perseverance, you have to humanize the world we live in, in the way that today's Reading from Isaiah indicates: "loose the bonds of injustice ... share your bread with the hungry ... remove the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil.... Then your light shall rise in the darkness" (Is 58,6-10)…… although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal…..Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son. [1]

The first draft of this was done on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. When I stood on the edge of the 9/11 pile, as the pile was finally being removed, just a few feet from where I was standing two broken beams, with melted steel draped over them, like the white cloth draped on cross after the Good Friday Liturgy, reminded me love, which flows from Love Himself, is greater than hate, anger, violence.

[1] https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20020728_xvii-wyd.html   [italics are mine]  © 2021 Fr. Arthur Joseph

 

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