The Gifts That Conquer Ignorance

Throughout the course of Jesus’ life in public ministry the Scribes and the Pharisees were constantly trying to trick him. They would ask him questions to try and back him into a corner. Their strategy was always the same: “Teacher, which is right, ‘this’ or ‘that’?” They would throw him an “either/or” question, and his answer was always “both/and.”

Teacher, do we let this woman go free who was caught in adultery and ignore the Law of Moses, or do we kill her as the law prescribes and break your law of love?

Teacher, do we pay the tax, and subject ourselves to the Roman Empire, or do we refuse to pay and give our allegiance to God?

In today’s Gospel we hear another challenge: Teacher, which of the commandments is the one greatest? Jesus’ answer: these two…”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Notice Jesus’ response…he is very clear. There is no one commandment greater then these two. They are one. Loving God and loving neighbor are one commandment, and the greatest of them all. It is the one commandment that all the others come from, and boil down to.

This week we too have been asked the trick “either/or” question by the culture in which we live; one of which is "which is the more wrong thing, racism or riots?" Rest assured, it is in fact a trick question, and Jesus’ answer is as clear today as it was 2,000 years ago: love God, and love your neighbor.

Anyone who loves God neither acts out in racism, nor destroys a local business. Neither act can ever be justified with any kind of righteousness. In fact, I think it’s hard for us to say that one is worse than another, because they break the same law: love your neighbor.

Those folks who stand in peaceful protest of injustice are truly the heroes of the day today just as they were in years past, and they forever will be. Those women and men who testify to the truth of love and equality by their public unity and endurance of scorn by their adversaries. To include them in the same camp as the violent riots is likewise to break this law of loving our neighbor!

These days we find ourselves drawn into frequent debates about a solution to a problem that is far too complex, systemic, and ancient for any piece of legislation, arrest, or politician to change with the sweep of a pen. At the core of these issues is the same common problem: ignorance…and not the blissful sort either.

The solution to the problems that besiege us begins with countering ignorance, whose opposite is knowledge: knowledge, wisdom and understanding…three of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

They say that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad. Knowledge is about facts and information: we should know the history of racism in our nation. Where did it begin? How has it been fought? What did the great leaders of our history teach us about this ongoing social sin? Wisdom pertains to properly absorbing that information, and letting it settle rightly in our hearts. Wisdom asks questions like: how am I sometimes racist, and don’t even realize it? How do I treat people who are different from me? How do I react when injustice unfolds all around me? Wisdom has us turn inward. Understanding turns our Knowledge and Wisdom into conviction: this means I have to act. This means I have to do something. It asks questions like: what can I do? How can I change?

Wisdom gives us the filter of right and wrong as we process our knowledge. It reminds us that the requirement to love our neighbor is the screen through which all things must pass. Wisdom helps us not take the words and actions of history out of context. It helps us maintain a sense of balance as we process knowledge. Only then can we come to proper understanding.

These realities is part of what separates us from the animals, and acting on pure instinct. It helps us govern our passions, and is the Christian explanation of how we “think before we act.”

For the Christian, there really is no other answer to the problems of our time. It’s easy to call these answers silly or sentimental. Yet the truth remains that if every single person on earth lived by these standards there would be no curfew right now impeding the small businesses who just opened again after being crippled by COVID-19…the Floyd Family would not be mourning the loss of their son…a young Rhode Island man would not be in an Arizona Hospital recovering from an injury sustained when a peaceful protest turned violent…all cops would be “good cops”, because the “bad cops” would be inmates.

It’s easy to call these answers silly or sentimental, but I have not yet become so confident in myself that I am comfortable telling the eternal Son of God that he is wrong.