"Even what they have will be
taken"
Thursday, January 26, 2017
9:22 AM
There are currently two different stories
playing out in North America. One is a story of a nation that seeks to
reconcile with its oldest relatives, the First Nations and the land itself. The
nation-to-nation relationship of First Nations to the newcomers is a quest to
move toward a feeling of greater intimacy in our communities and solidarity that
is both local and global. It is a journey of attempted reconciliation founded
upon the land.
The other is a story of a nation that
believes it can hang on to greatness by trying to go back to some use of force that
will generate prosperity - or something perceived as secure and comfortable.
They rage and thrash against some perceived enemy and wall themselves in - and
play the pipe while the end comes.
Pitrim A. Sorokin wrote, "When any
socio-cultural system enters the stage of its disintegration the following four
symptoms of the disintegration appear and grow in it: first, the inner
self-contradiction of a irreconcilable dualism in such a culture; second, its
formlessness - a chaotic syncretism of undigested elements taken from different
cultures; third, a quantitative colossalism - mere growing at the cost of
qualitative refinement; and fourth, a progressive exhaustion of its
creativeness in the field of great and perennial values. (pg 14 of "Tragic
Dualism, Chaotic Syncretism, Quantitative Colossalism, and Diminishing
Creativeness of the Contemporary Sensate Culture" in American Catholic
Sociological Review" Vol 2, No. 1 (March, 1941). Pp. 3-22)
The gospel for the day: Mark 4:21-25
21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be
put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For
there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except
to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ 24And
he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be
the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to
those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what
they have will be taken away.’
The phrase from Mark that captures me is,
"from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken
away." Nations that have begun to disintegrate and who cannot muster any
creativity as far as the great perennial values shows that it has nothing.
Sorokin writing in 1941 points out that a
nation that is dualistic and displays "irreconcilable contradictions”, that
all the while "proclaims "democracy of the people, for the people,
and by the people"; in practice tends to be more and more an oligarchy or
a plutocracy or a dictatorship of this or that faction…" pp 2. "It
(this nation's culture) exalts him (man) as the hero and the greatest value,
not by virtue of his creation by God in God's own image, but in his own right,
by virtue of man's own marvelous achievements. It substitutes a religion of
humanity for the religion of superhuman deities."
A nation seeking to live out the great
perennial values of right relatedness built upon reconciliation which includes
telling the truth, empathetic listening, and coming up with a shared plan, is
like a light set on a stand. This is the City on a Hill which is a light of the
world…"to those who have, more will be given." The nation that does
not turn inward in reflection and repentance, seeking to be healed and heal the
brokenness around; that roars and shakes its fist at the heavens and proclaims
its own greatness while berating its citizens of their lawless nature and their
need to be policed, has begun to disintegrate. Shouting for more violence, more
prisons, bigger walls, bigger guns, and more control exhibits a loss of what
has made it a great nation and is merely hastening its own demise. By its own
judgment it has nothing of a creative nature to indicate the way forward in a
complex world - if it continues, "even what they have will be taken
away."
In the midst of all this there are two
stories playing out. I was just thinking about these things.
