As a result, we are about to enter a period of unprecedented national darkness that promises to rival that of Germany, 1933-1945. For at least the next four years our country will be controlled by an organization Noam Chomsky calls "the most dangerous in the history of the world."
More dangerous than the Nazis? Yes, Chomsky insists. Hitler did not have the power to destroy the planet by nuclear war. Hitler ruled Germany before climate change threatened innumerable species, Mother Earth herself, and continued human existence. And yet the entire Republican Party denies that the problem even exists! Yes, it is the most dangerous organization in the history of the world.
And despite all of that, there's not a peep about it from the pulpit. People keep going to Mass as though the most important upcoming event is the arrival of St. Nicholas at the parish potluck -- or the Christmas bazaar.
So what should we do in the face of such disconnect?
How about following the example of John the Baptist, Brigid Fitzgerald and her husband?
This would entail:
- Admitting that present forms of church are hopelessly disconnected from the unprecedented tragedy and threat represented by the accession to power of anti-poor climate change deniers.
- Publicly moving out of our local church building.
- Perhaps, opening a store front JMJ Catholic church on the Main Street Jim Wallis referred to in his article referenced above.
- Inviting former Catholics, college students, and other disaffected church members to join.
- Publishing the invitation in local newspapers.
- Meeting in the store front for Eucharist each Sunday at the very times the local church celebrates Mass.
- Empowering faithful women in the JMJ community to preach and celebrate the Eucharist.
- Gathering in the storefront on Wednesday evenings for prayer and to plan the week's acts of resistance to Trumpism in all of its manifestations.
- Using those premises as a sanctuary for the bottom 1% threatened by ICE and police.
Objectors will say:
- We have no authority to do this.
- It's better to continue our reform efforts from within.
- This will only cause division in our church.
- The status quo really doesn't bother me, because I use the quiet provided by Sunday Mass to facilitate my own prayer life.
- (If, like me, you're of a certain age) I'm too old for such radical disruption of my life.
To such objections John the Baptist might reply:
- "I had no official authority to start my desert community of resistance and reform. In fact, I was identified by the authorities as an enemy of the state. Eventually they cut off my head. So don't expect approval."
- Reform from within? "I gave up on that early on. So did my cousin, Jesus. Both of us operated outside the temple system which we criticized harshly."
- Division in our faith communities? "That didn't bother me either. Can you get much more divisive or polarizing than by calling religious leaders a 'brood of vipers'?"
- Withdrawing into personal prayer? "The spiritual masters in my Essene community convinced me that prayer and meditation are essential elements undergirding prophetic action. However, pietism is useless unless it leads to the kind of witness I gave and risk I took on the banks of the Jordan."
- Too old? "Again, my Essene mysticism would not permit me to identify with the physical as if I were primarily a body with a soul. The truth is that we are first of all ageless spirits who happen to inhabit temporary bodies. The imperative for action is no less incumbent on older people than on the young. Hell, the elders criticized me for being too young to oppose them. I was barely 30 when they killed me."
Again, as Jim Wallis has intimated, the specter of John the Baptist should haunt us this Second Sunday of Advent, and drive our faith communities onto Main Street. These unprecedented times call for radical response outside the sacred precincts and independent of the sleepwalkers awaiting the arrival of St. Nicholas.
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