Dear Friends,
Let me tell you a story of unintentional but real hostility to bring home today’s readings. The story goes back to a retreat I was making at Mount Savior Monastery near Elmira, NY. The monks were sheep farmers, and this one evening I was sitting outside chapel before night prayer. Overhead I heard the unmistakable sound of a hot air balloon being lowered. Within minutes, a beautiful gold, cream and yellow balloon came into view. As always, I was thrilled at the gracefulness of it, but as I watched, the pilot of the balloon deliberately descended to skim over the heads of the sheep and lambs. I suppose the maneuver displayed the skill of the pilot and gave the passengers a thrill, but the sheep and lambs fled in terror, scattering family groups and befuddling their evening serenity. Sheep and lambs have been known to die of fright and as I watched, I hoped this would not be the case for these innocent animals.
The golden balloon was an agent of hostility for the sheep, quite unlike the shepherds who tend, protect and care for the flock.
I thought of this incident as I read this week’s readings, especially one line in Ephesians which says of Jesus that he is the peace between us, the one who breaks down the hostility which keeps us apart.
We are people who live with hostility in our civic society and in our church. We cannot talk effectively about women’s leadership in the church, other forms of gender hostility, hostility around birthing issues, racial and class hostility, people killing one another in the name of God. We can’t explore new avenues of living and acting in society without crashing into someone else’s viewpoint or judgments. The barrier of hostility seems firmly in place. Yet in his own flesh, the author of Ephesians says that Christ made peace and brought reconciliation to those who were far off and those who were very near.
Sometimes we are the flock threatened with being scattered by violence, to use Jeremiah’s imagery today. Sometimes we are the hostile agents. Still at other times we seem to be the hostile agents because we pursue life-altering, life-giving change in order that all might live with indignity, integrity and harmony. For all who live with hostility, let there be peace.
How do we invoke Christ’s unique capacity to bring about reconciliation in our hostile world?
In the best of all possibilities, we seek to understand one another, reveal our fears, hopes and concerns. Face to face, let both sides come together who claim to know something about the truth – to hear and learn from one another, to understand one another’s sense of history, theology and experience. When such encounters are not possible, we resort to others to speak on our behalf. We give them courage to do so, and we do not cease to pursue an end to hostility. Faithfulness to Christ requires that we do so.
When Christ died on the cross, the Gospel writers report, the curtain in the temple was ripped in two, top to bottom. Symbolically, that means that barriers to the Holy of Holies was removed, once and for all. No one was unwelcome, because Christ died for all.
As a people, let’s not restitch the barrier to the Holy of Holies or scatter the sheep. Let us encourage the powers that be in Church and society to refrain from the kind of dominance and dogmatism that refuses to see truth in other perspectives and in the lived faithfulness of people who raise seemingly hostile questions. Let the golden balloon blow away.
~Sister Joan Sobala
