Parish Missions

Who’s Really on Trial?

The contrast between two radically different worldviews is dramatically evident in today’s Gospel. The world inhabited by the political and the religious leaders presented by the evangelist Mark bears little resemblance to the world that Jesus has been advocating.

Pilate, the consummate politician and pragmatist, represents this world which does not want the status quo tampered with. The religious leaders, cut from the same cloth, have conned Pilate into judging Jesus for that very reason. His brand of Judaism is turning their world upside down. Pilate and the religious leaders, each in their own sphere, feel that their control, their power, is being threatened.

Jesus, on the other hand, is neither politician nor pragmatist. Jesus is clearly counter-cultural. Concern for power or control is not part of his message or his mission. Rather his concern is for those who have no power. His world would strive to bring justice and peace through the sheer force of love. The utter simplicity of the world Jesus envisions confounds those who would lord it over others.

The contrast between these two worlds could not be more striking.

The question for us today is where do we stand? Does our world resemble the world of Pilate and the Chief Priests or the world of Jesus? We likely would not even hesitate to identify ourselves with the latter or, at the very least, jockey for a place between the two. But the contrast of choices in the Gospel would preclude any fence sitting.

Just how do we handle the worldview Jesus has been offering?

In the political realm Jesus would say that the least among us should be our focus. The poor, wherever they are, should be the object of our concern. Surely the starving masses in Third World countries would attract Jesus’ attention long before our sagging 401-K’s. The fact that the poorest are hardest hit by a world economic crisis doesn’t require an MBA, just simple compassion. Our political leaders take their cues from us. Maybe they’re floundering through these issues because we haven’t got our sights set on the world Jesus offers us.

For Jesus, power is something left to the one he calls Father. For Jesus, power exists for lifting up the powerless. Unless our political structures embrace this use of power, conflict and division will triumph over justice and peace.

In the midst of conflict and division,

we know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace.

Your Spirit changes our hearts:

enemies begin to speak to one another,

those who were estranged join hands in friendship,

and nations seek the way of peace together.

Your Spirit is at work when

understanding puts an end to strife,

when hatred is quenched by mercy,

and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.

--Preface to Eucharistic Prayer Reconciliation II

For we who are his disciples, Jesus would say the alienated and lost should be our passion, even before the faithful. As I travel the country (nearly 500 churches to date!), it amazes me that barely 25-30% of registered Catholics in this country attend Sunday Eucharist on any given weekend. Yet, the institutional church seems more concerned about who washes the dishes! Our attitude toward the divorced and remarried, toward gays, toward the role of women rarely reflects the mind of Jesus, who championed the broken, embraced the lost and never discriminated.

The world which Jesus envisions is one that is so compassionate, so inclusive that sinners are more highly valued than the self-righteous.

He was moved with compassion

for the poor and the powerless,

the sick and the sinner;

he made himself neighbor to the oppressed.

By his words and actions

he proclaimed to the world

that you care for us

as a father cares for his children.

--Preface to Eucharistic Prayer Jesus the Compassion of God

This feast of Christ the King should lead us to reflect on the contrast between the world we live in and the world our creator envisions for us. The prayer Jesus offered us says it all:

Thy kingdom come, the will be done

ON EARTH as it is in heaven.

The hymn we sing echoes his prayer:

Not in some heaven light years away,

But here in this place the light is shining.

Now is the kingdom, now is the day!

--Gather Us In, Marty Haugen

Christian apologist Gilbert Keith Chesterton once opined:

“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting;

it has been found difficult and not tried.”

To that, let the Church say, “AMEN!”