Jesus becomes aware thousands of people have followed him up a hillside. He becomes concerned about their physical well-being. A little boy who has food is also concerned and willingly shares the little food he has, first by bringing it to Jesus. Jesus then shares the few loaves and fishes with everyone else. A miracle of compassionate communion ensues. Some in the crowd mistakenly react with adulation. They seek to turn a heartfelt sharing between people, started by a generous unnamed boy, into a coronation of one man. Jesus does not need to be their king. He does not want to be their hero and so he goes further up the mountain to be alone in prayer.
It’s important and natural to look up to people, those whose character and behavior make them admirable. We want to be inspired. The word inspired comes from Latin inspirare and translates as ‘breathe.’ To be inspired means to have breathed into us the Spirit of Divinity. When we feel inspired by another, their words, their actions, we might be tempted towards adulation or hero worship and fail to discern the Spirit of Divinity flowing between us. It may also be the case that we are not truly being inspired but rather just stimulated; relieved of boredom by a spectacle of stagecraft. Unethical individuals, such as Donald Trump, live by spectacle and manipulate the stimulation they effect. When Chris Hedges writes in Empire of Illusion – “We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power” – Donald Trump comes to mind. But to some, of late, even those who call themselves Christian, Trump is a hero. He is a hero because he wages war on Mexicans with his bigoted comments. His further political theater has been to ridicule former POW John McCain, a person Militarists look up to as a war hero. The warrior nature of Trump’s political theatrics combined with the slavish spectacle of war hero worship in the U.S. will not result in an empowering conversation about either. Self-titled Christians need to question what they are being coerced into – the worship of warriors as heroic. They need to recognize what they are being inspired out of – compassionate communion – shared with everyone.
Self-titled Christians could admit that Trump’s mimicking a warrior in his public spectacles means the man lacks even the humility of the little boy from the Gospel. Trump also lacks the boys compassion as Trump is observably cruel (How weird is it to see self-titled Christians embracing the anti-Christ they kept warning us about?) Self-titled christians could also admit among other his qualities, McCain being a warrior means he is no hero and does not inspire Christians. The Spirit of Divinity in Christ does not flow through warriors. It’s also doubtful that these political figures, Trump especially, would ever be satisfied with anonymity. Trump is unlikely to ever step away from being a spectacle with a crowd, leave his spotlight of adulation and hero worship, to follow Jesus up the mountain for prayer.
Prayer: Spirit of Divinity, help us be truly inspired and inspiring.
Question: What has been my tendency with worshiping heroes versus my being inspired?
July 26 2015 John 6:1-15 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time