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(Sunday Homily) "Citizenfour": Keeping God's Law through Civil Disobedience

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A seed has to die before it can bear fruit, Jesus explains. That's our Teacher's metaphor about exchanging what the world calls "life," for what John's gospel calls "eternal life."

As in contemporary "America," the world's utopian ideal enshrines perfect security -- saving our lives at all costs, even if it means wholesale killing of others, even if it means surrendering the God-given freedom that makes us specifically human.

By contrast, Jesus' Way enshrines compassion, service and forgiveness, even if it costs us our lives.

Ironically, Jesus explains, if we expend our resources on saving our lives, we will lose them. But if we reject security as our guiding principle, we'll gain access to "eternal life" -- access to God's Kingdom, where God is King, not Caesar.

Mysteriously, today's final reading instructs us against loving our lives. It actually says we should hate our life in this world. Edward Snowden shows what that injunction means. His courageous example calls us to oppose Big Brother, and to support Snowden's own return to the United States -- as a hero.

Be sure to see "Citizenfour." It exemplifies today's readings. It's about opposing the values of "the world," and about losing one's life in favor of life's fullness. It provides an example of a young man following the Law of God inscribed deep in our hearts. That's our vocation too.

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Mike Rivage-Seul is a liberation theologian and former Roman Catholic priest. Retired in 2014, he taught at Berea College in Kentucky for 40 years where he directed Berea's Peace and Social Justice Studies Program. His latest book is (more...)
 

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