Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Abbott
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
My hope is built on nothing less
What is the hope that belongs to our call?
In our Empty Nesters’ Sunday School class we talked about how the media influences our thinking more than we want it to. Then I came home and read the paper.
One of my favorite cartoons took the wind out of those newspapers’ sails. Stephan Pastis draws a gentle pink Pig and a cynical gray Rat who daily have carefully crafted discussions titled “Pearls Before Swine.” But this time it’s the TV doing the talking:
In the news today …
 four muggings occurred in …
A suspected terrorist has …
A mysterious illness killed …
War broke out in …
Then Pig switches to another news channel.
In the news today …
9,673 people walked in the park without incident.
24 347 people enjoyed their trips to Europe.
2,114,250 people were happy and healthy.
And 75 wars did not start.
Pig would be smiling, if we could see his lips behind his snout. He pivots on his TV-watching pillow and looks at Rat, standing behind him. “News that puts news in perspective,” he says. And Rat agrees:
“I’m saner already.”
It’s amazing what a short break from catastrophizing can do for any of us. All of us. But every culture (or at least ours) maintains a financial and ego-driven investment in transmitting fear and inadequacy. The biblical solution to this is love. But God’s love is free, so it doesn’t get a lot of attention from those who want to be rich or famous.
There are no other solutions, really. So Richard Rohr calls our society’s leaders out:
It’s the nature of culture to have its agreed-upon lies. Culture holds itself together by projecting its shadow side elsewhere. That’s called the “scapegoat mechanism.” This is the tendency to export our evil elsewhere and to hate it there, and therefore to remain in splendid delusion with less and less willingness to be critical of our country, our institution, and ourselves.
I guess he’s calling us all out, when we “export our evil elsewhere.” Whatever energy I get from watching other people’s problems while resting in my own safety and satisfaction leads me away from God, not toward him.
One avenue out of this trap is simply paying attention to what goes right in the world, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. “I’m saner already,” as the rat said.
We who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm.
Our hope is not in our culture, or in humanity, but in the promise of God, not only the promise to Abraham, but his promise through Jesus Christ.
… which reaches into the interior beyond the veil, Jesus, high priest forever.
Although I have appreciated today’s Saint Anthony when I’ve lost (and then found) my car keys, Saint Anthony knew God’s promise and God’s hope, and he lived his life accordingly. “He whom popular devotion has nominated as finder of lost objects found himself by losing himself totally in the providence of God.”
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call. Alleluia, alleluia!
(Hebrews 6, Psalm 111, Ephesians 1, Mark 2)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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