I Can't UnSee it
The Beautiful Way keeps finding new expressions of tender life, breaking through the cracks in the concrete hearts of our collective worldview. Jesus’ story tosses the tables of these stories of domin
“Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society. Rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story … one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step…. If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.” - Ivan Illich
As I meander my way through explorations of (re)new stories of beautiful ways of being and doing in the world, I find myself returning to the stories about Jesus. I know them well. I thought I did. They are familiar… sort of - because with each day I return to them, I see something different. Maybe more accurately, I see differently.
Sometimes, I blush with embarrassment at my inherited stories. The religion of Empire/domination cloaked in Jesus, handed down generation after generation, has obscured the heart of God in Jesus; the violence-soaked stories - empire, might makes right, system of exchange, isolationism/escapism, rebellion, retributive violence, cannibalistic consumption, exploitation and accumulation - even the plot line of the victim within Empires story serves the meta-narrative.
You see, the story you and I were born into and have been suckled by has produced a kind of myopia where we have been shaped to see a certain way. So pickled are we in these stories of violence; it is so very difficult to see any other way. It has us convinced that violence and domination, winning at someone/thing else’s expense, are God’s ideas. The end justifies the means. We flower it up with words like holiness, righteousness, salvation, and elaborate schemes so God approves what we approve of and, coincidently, hates those we hate.
It leads us along with a carrot at the end of a stick, and they’ll call it patriotism, faithfulness, orthodox, duty, prosperity, success, winner, free … Or a sharp pointy goad (or a gun) that will run one over, to be left battered in the ditch to the soundtrack of the collective hisses of loser, failure, a sandwich short of a picnic, or to put a fine edge on it - a f*&K up. But don’t despair; this story needs the f*&K ups, too. Who else would embody the cautionary tale or serve us as the scapegoat?
Through the ages, these stories have worked to co-opt the truly beautiful story of Jesus and his Abba, who is self-giving, co-suffering, and uncontrolling Love. At every opportunity, twisting it to serve its meta-narrative of blood. With each twist, it crucifies Jesus again and again. These stories are the antithesis of the beautiful story embodied by Jesus - with just enough god-babble to have a form of god-i-ness but no beauty. No Love.
And yet, the Beautiful Way keeps finding new expressions of tender life, breaking through the cracks in the concrete hearts of our collective worldview. Jesus’ story tosses the tables of these stories of domination by demonstrating something unique. Something truly beautiful. Something that robustly inspires more self-giving Love. An expansive and equitable way of being humans built on radical, inclusive, and whole-making Love.
Such a beautiful and living vision cannot be obscured for long. Love is tenacious. This story of radical self-giving and uncontrolling love recreates itself afresh in 1000’s contexts. In each and every moment, in both dramatic and subtle ways, the story of faithful, uncontrolling Love is born again. Again and again. And someday, we’ll each trip into it and see it. Perhaps a glimpse of it from the corner of our eye … and when we do, there is no unseeing it, and we too will be born again and again and again.
A new story. A new way of being human. A genuine Love Story.
Sola Caritas,
Michae
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