By Canon Gerry Conroy
There is an old Italian proverb that says, ‘you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ It came to mind when I read that first reading from Sunday’s Mass. There it seems to be that God had decided to change his approach to dealing with his people. Instead of working great wonders that showed his power with acts of violence, he was going to work great wonders that showed his power with acts of kindness.
In violent times, in times of war and oppression, we all want to think that God is on our side and will help us get victory over the evil people that oppress us; after all it is about our freedom and getting justice and God surely also wants that and if violence is the only way left to us to get it, then violence it has to be. There are times for most people, I suspect, when violence still surges up from our stomachs in response to some wrong that has been done to us, when anger at some injustice requires a response from us. It is a sign of growing human maturity, I think, that we recognise that violence is not always the answer, perhaps even that violence is never the best answer.
The first reading reveals the Prophet Isaiah to have come to that stage of maturity, that we now take for granted: he wants to stop ascribing to God the violence that so marked a long tradition in Israel’s understanding of God as a mighty warrior. But if God’s majesty is not revealed in power to smite enemies, where is it revealed?
Perhaps that is also the point of the Gospel; his power is revealed in his mercy and compassion; it is revealed in the change of heart that he can bring about in people, turning violent hearts into hearts filled with compassion and mercy. I must say that looking at today’s world that would indeed be a greater miracle than bringing a powerful enemy to its knees.
St Paul is certainly an example of that power of God to change a person’s life: from being a fierce and violent opponent of Christ and his church to saying that nothing is more important to him than knowing Christ, that is as spectacular as persuading a mob intent on stoning the woman caught in adultery to put down their stones and walk away.
When you look at photographs of certain types of crowds protesting at some perceived wrong and see the
anger twisting their faces you can begin to grasp how difficult a thing it is to bring about a change. I confess that at times I wonder if there is more of the demonic in some protests than anything else, so twisted in anger are the faces of some people.
Is it not this anger and hate, this division amongst us, that is so opposed to the mercy and forgiveness of God that is the poison that spawns the violence in the first place? The Bible gives us this interesting insight into our human condition in the story of Original Sin with Adam and Eve. In its reflection on sin it tells us that the result is alienation: Adam and Eve are uncomfortable with one another, uncomfortable with God, uncomfortable even in their own skin. They can no longer enjoy in innocence the gifts of God; jealousy and anger and fear and shame now rise in our hearts and spoil what was once unspoilt.
That would truly be a great wonder; if God could show us His power by restoring to us a joy unspoilt by our sins; it would be much better than any show of power involving a violence that would force peace on us, persuading us to reject the disobedience of Adam and Eve and opt instead for mercy and forgiveness.
Is mercy and forgiveness really so powerful that it could achieve that? Perhaps we first need to pray that we will have the courage to try it.