“Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people,” “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.”
It is inconceivable to the chief priests and elders that they need to change, that they have anything to turn away from and anything else to turn toward. Not their minds, not their manners, not their morality. They cannot hear the truth Jesus speaks. It is because the chief priests and elders are too busy telling a story they have invented. It is the story of rulers as heroes. Their story works as a tool to maintains their fixed, unchanging status in society. Being so successful with their story, it is thus equally difficult for modern day chief priests and elders to hear the truth that they too have anything to turn away from and anything else to turn toward. It is the same turning that is always needed, away from ruling as hierarchs and toward living as common people. It is the turning needed by the Supreme Court and all courts. Study after study shows court justices grow richer with their time on the bench as do plaintiffs who are already rich. When plaintiffs who are poor face the court system, rare as that is, they are forced to operate from within the court’s complicit bias. It is the complicit bias of precedence, meaning the supremacy of persons wealthy and white and the supremacist system and institutions they constructed. That complicit bias toward supremacy remains as the framework within which we all operate. It is the complicit bias of real and systemic advantage. For example, it is the advantage in spending that persists for rich over poor in matters of community services, health care, schooling, and transportation. It is as well the advantage in the hero narrative that persist for whites over people of color. It especially persists when addressing any beneficial changes brought about by the disadvantaged in those same matters. The chief priests and elders must therefore eliminate the history and thus the books that tell the truth about Blacks and other minorities who brought about a turning in the hero narrative. Therefore, the stirring speeches of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King turning people to the truth of supremacist oppression and to common people’s freedom are taken out of context or are censored as upsetting harmony. The witness of Medgar Evers and Ruby Bridges turning the people to the truth of supremacist fears and to common people’s courage are omitted as “lacking in academic value.” The narrative of the chief priests and elders is the lie that there is no systemic racism in the form of white supremacy. There is only black racial bias against white people made to feel guilty. They keep busy telling their story but it is not so widely believed anymore. Try as they might, the chief priests and elders cannot keep the people from knowing and telling the truth. The common people keep turning, the world keeps turning.
“You fixed your sight on the servant’s plight, and my weakness you did not spurn, So from east to west shall my name be blest. Could the world be about to turn? My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, For the dawn draws near, And the world is about to turn.” (Canticle of the Turning – Rory Cooney)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, keep us turning.
Question: How am I needing to turn from someone who harms to someone who helps? How am I turning other people from harm to help?
October 01, 2023 Gospel Matthew 21:28-32 Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time