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Diversionary Tactics There is a great story of male childishness and female rootlessness in the first book of Kings. Ahab the king covets the vineyard of Naboth and offers to buy it or give another in exchange for it. But Naboth - like many of the leaders of our cultural minorities in the Philippines today when confronted with those who want to take their land by fair or foul means - answered Ahab, "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors." At
this Ahab became gloomy and out of temper, he went to bed and turned
his face against the wall. On hearing of this his wife Jesabel wrote
letters in Ahab's name, using his seal, to the elders and nobles where
Nabaoth lived. In the letters she told them to have Nabaoth accused
of cursing God and the king and to have him stoned to death. They followed
out her instructions to the letter. When Ahab heard that Naboth was
dead he went down to his vineyard and took possession of it. But
the word of the Lord came to the prophet Isaiah and told him to go to
Ahab and say "You have committed murder: now you usurp as well.
For this, in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the
dogs will lick your blood too." Ahab said to Elijah "So you
have found me out. O MY ENEMY." It
seems to be a deep human instinct to treat the one that faces us with
our sinfulness, or who challenges our behavior, as our enemy and to
divert attention from the real issue by imputing guilt and evil to the
accuser. How often we meet people who justify their anger against the
Church and it's teachings, by pointing to the misbehavior of some individual
in the Church. In the Gospel we see Jesus constantly challenging the
Jewish leaders because of the inconsistency between their words and
their behavior. Today, in the Gospel, we find them making a big issue
out of the fact that the disciples of Jesus eat without washing their
hands according to the Jewish custom and making that a reason for not
listening to the challenging teaching of Jesus. He loses his temper
with their hypocrisy and lashes out in the words of Isaiah, "this
people honors me only with lip-service, their hearts are far from me.
The worship they offer is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only
human regulations." Jesus
goes on to talk about the importance of the heart. What is important
is not what goes into a person but what comes out of them - their behavior.
Our behavior shows what is inside us. "It is from within, from
peoples hearts, that evil intentions emerge; fornication, theft, murder,
adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride,
folly." The
precise difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was that they looked
at the external activity whereas Jesus looked at the heart, the source
of activity. They looked to the fulfillment of law and tradition while
he looked to love and commitment. They looked at the letter of the law
while he looked at it's spirit. We
can also find the same tendency in our selves. If we are honest enough
to look into our hearts we will discover elements of the childishness
of Ahab and the rootlessness of his wife Jezebel as we subtly make events
work out for our own benefit. We can find people who are very careful
about their devotions and have no problem in treating their maids worse
than their pets. Where are those who will travel hundreds of kilometers
to see a dancing sun but who make very little effort to live the words
of the gospels in their lives. This kind of honest looking can only take place in silence. One of the most extraordinary things about meditation is that it is self cleansing. I think one begins to meditate as one begins most things, for very selfish reasons. However, as we meditate we become more aware of our selfish motivation and of our diversionary and other tactics to ward of the challenge to live as Jesus would have us live.
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