On the 4th of July all Americans are aware of our national identity and our pride in it, and even the perpetual critics of our domestic and national policies feel like flag waving. It's a time of unity in identity. It's a time when all divisions--ethnic, linguistic, racial, religious or political--all seem smaller than that which unites us.
This year, I'm choosing to make our religious conversation on this very special weekend for all of us, a conversation about inner peace. I'm doing that because I firmly believe that what we, as a people, wish to share with the entire earth is peace--peace based in justice. And, as Catholic Christians, we have an entire faith-tradition behind us, urging us to, indeed, help to further that program.
Now, I could lecture us on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and I could outline the principles behind restorative justice, and I could quote to you poetry of some of the world's finest minds on the topic of peace.....and we could all just smile and leave and have a hotdog and light a firecracker. But, I really feel that IF we, as a people, wish to further the goal of our nation leading the world in steps of peace based in justice, then we, as Christians, need to be working harder on what it means to be peaceful people, ourselves. We are the majority of the nation. Not Catholics, we're only one fourth of the nation, but all Christians put together are close to 85% of our people. Now, I think IF we, the vast Christian majority, are doing our own inner work, the outer work of peace will take care of itself.
Instead of griping that a court has ruled that the 10 commandments can't be placed on the wall of a statehouse, we should be putting those commandments into practice in our own lives. Instead of complaining of a conspiracy to undermine religion in America, we should be concentrating on being religious, in the best sense of that word.
I want to share with you what I feel the greatest threat to religion is, today. It isn't secularism, it isn't communism, it isn't atheism. I think the greatest threat to religion, today, is rage---good old fashioned anger in all its incarnations in the human spirit. People are angry about everything. Our political discourse is a shambles of name calling, and our religious discourse isn't much better. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. We can all see it everywhere. We see it in our workplaces, in our schools, in our governments, our courts. We see it in sports, in modern art and music--so much of which is unseeable and unlistenable, simply because it's so full of rage.
I don't think we, as Catholic Americans, remember that we have alternatives to anger. We think it's our only response to life as it unfolds. We've forgotten that other responses are possible. I bought a book this week---ANOTHER BOOK--Fr. Frank is ready to throw me out of the rectory, and he threatens that for every new book I get, I have to give an old one away. He's ANGRY!!! What can I say? It's PROOF of my sermon!!! Anyway, I've been thinking about anger for about 6 months, as I recognized it growing inside of me. I was angry at my community, at the Church, at the Pope, at the government. I was losing my center, and I said to myself, "I need to get a grip!" That was my Mom's favorite phrase: "Get a GRIP," she'd say! So I saw a book on anger with an intriguing title. It's called "The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger."
This is the opening exercise: You are at the grand opening of a new shopping mall on the edge of town. You've been driving around looking for a parking space for ten minutes. At last, right in front of you, a car pulls out of a spot. You hit your turn signal and wait as the car backs out. Suddenly, from the other direction, comes a Jeep that pulls intot he space. Not only that, but when you honk, the driver gets out, and makes a face that you interpret as a smirk. Are you angry?...................................Now change the scene ever so slightly. Instead of a brash Jeep driver, a cow walks into the space from the other direction and settles down in the middle of it. When you honk, she looks up and moos but doesn't budge. Are you angry? Or, are you amused? The situation is the same...you didn't get the spot you were waiting for. You have to find a different spot. But, in one you drive off raging and swearing under your breath, in the other you drive off smiling. What the difference between the two situations is "Your Interpretation of Reality."
In the first, you interpreted reality to say that in a world of 6 billion people, #1) you are entitled to the first open parking spot, especially if you think you got there first, and 2) that strangers should be aware of your feelings and cater to them. When you look at those "implications" you see how silly they are. In the second instance, you find that a cow wandering in from a nearby field to be funny, even if it takes your parking spot. You can do this because you have NO EXPECTATIONS of a cow.
The question of import is, "why would you have expectations of 6 billion strangers to be aware of your inner feelings and give you a parking spot that both of you came upon?"
Anger is a response to unmet needs. Unmet needs translate into disappointment. Let's face it, we were all taught how to deal with disappointment when we were kids. At some time in our distant past, a picnic was planned or an outing to the shore, and at the last minute it had to be cancelled. We probably tried a temper-tantrum. (Which is sort of what "keying the car that took your parking place," is--it's a temper tantrum--something, not excusable, but understandable, in a two-year old. But we aren't two anymore!!! Are we?
If we tallied up all the deaths caused by road rage, barroom brawls, heart attacks and war, what Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman calls "organized anger," we would find that this "deadly sin" of anger causes more deaths, world-wide, than anything else.
So, if we wish to be a leader in the peace of nations, we need to learn to "study war no more" in our hearts. Today's first reading speaks of how the Messiah will usher in the Messianic Age--and it's by disarmament! Get rid of the horse and the chariot, and ban the warrior's bow. These are the items of "organized anger." That's what war is--organized anger. In the Gospel reading Christ asks us to deal with "disorganized anger," the small anger that is taking up room "rent free" in our heads. He begs us to learn from Him. And what are we to learn? Meekness. Meekness is the the ability to shut our mouth and open our ears, and listen to another human being. When we understand their reasoning and their actions, we will probably have less anger. When we know that the person driving that car that took our spot is desperately looking for a bathroom due to a disease she has, we feel compassion, not rage. Why make her say it? Why make him stop and explain his stress? Why not just give him the benefit of the doubt?
If we Americans would lead the world in peace, we simply need to learn to walk in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. My prayer for each of us in this coming week is that we can listen more closely, and find reasons to give another the benefit of the doubt on at least one occasion each day. IF your entire family is planning to get together, if your family is anything like mine, you'll have numerous opportunities to "give another the benefit of the doubt," and to opt to just listen instead of react. It's like building muscles--we get better the more we do it. And it IS my prayer that we all share a safe holiday, and that we all have a holy holiday of peace. And may God bless you all.+
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