In Jesus’ time, learned scholars would convene among themselves apart from the people. In their enclaves they devised rules for the people to obey, often using specialized language. Asserting knowledge hidden from mere commoners, these learned rulers, and their consorts, kept the people divided, arguing over minutiae of their rules. Jesus, on the other hand, free from and disobedient to rulers, spoke routinely and openly in public, conversing with whomever he met on his travels. He told stories with everyday symbols and metaphors, creating meaning for people to grow in wisdom and truth, especially about learned rulers and their divisions. In today’s Gospel Jesus pokes fun at learned rulers when he says of the mystery of God, “you have hidden things from the learned and the clever which you have revealed to the little ones.”
Learned rulers still convene for exclusion and still devise rules for common people to obey. They and their consorts still tell of hidden knowledge and keep the people divided, arguing over minutiae. The description is a match for conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories do not help people to grow in wisdom and truth, especially about rulers and their divisions. That is because conspiracy theories are devised by rulers for division (QAnon, pizzagate, Birtherism, voter fraud, coronavirus as hoax, …). Rulers spawn them specifically to hinder wisdom and truth. What is the core wisdom and truth conspiracy theories hinder but can be known even by “little ones?” It is that a very real conspiracy is happening all around us, all the time, hidden in plain sight and done by rulers. It is their known rule over vast systems that cause suffering. It is that known harmful rule that is maintained while the rulers and their consorts keep us quibbling in the muck of their minutiae. It is the very real conspiracy of capitalist GOP/Trump rulers who are conspiring against Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and child nutrition programs; against peacemaking, cease fire agreements, and the regulation of weapons; against human rights, equality, racial harmony, and democracy; against competency reviews in judicial appointments and fair elections; against science, vaccination, and pandemic response; against protection from poisons polluting our air and water including animal and nuclear waste; against asylum seekers and care for immigrants; against corporate accountability and against oversight on retirement funds, on banks and on drug companies; conspiring against fair housing and fair labor practices, employee and disability benefits all of which lets Wall Street once again plunder Main Street. It is these very real conspiracies and their very real consequences, all hidden in plain sight and happening all around us all the time that are made minutiae by the conspiracy theorist. The dehumanization, impoverishment, and killing seen, heard, known, and proven, all continue – because the conspiracy theorist feeds on minutiae that might be or could be but never will be proven. The minutiae never will be proven because that very lack of proof is the germ from which all conspiracy theories are devised – by rulers. Devised in the lab of the rulers who tell them are lies, untruths, partial truths, speculation, disinformation, enemy making, and more. The lies and speculation and more, devised by rulers and believed by their conspiracy theorist consorts, are the means of our division. We will argue over minutiae spawned by rulers while rulers hidden in plain sight conspire for our suffering and death.
“Who abides this hidden in plain sight truth, when life is far from astute, rather bent by human will and selfishness… disaster waits… I cannot abstain, cannot avert my eyes to what I see, and the catastrophe that has already begun… Warnings met with ambivalence, too much to lose for most.… make reality dull and boring, and people just focus on their lots… too invested in greed and more that just denies the truth… as new roads of self-interest open… I wish I could turn it off, not see what I see, but alas I cannot, and so in witness I believe the truth be told, and if perchance others can see… we can avert the strife already created and reverse this dark hold on reality.” (Hidden in Plain Sight Truth – Tony DeLorger)
Prayer: Spirit, inspire us for wisdom and truth.
Question: How can I be wise and truthful about all the harm hidden in plain sight?
July 05, 2020 Gospel Matthew 11:25-30 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time