Let’s also be forceful

WE need to remind ourselves that there’s also such a thing as righteous anger, a certain outrage driven by love that knows how to defend the truth in charity, that knows how to distinguish between the error that has to be condemned and the person in error who has to be loved.

            We should not be afraid to enter into that mode when necessary. In fact, many times these days, with all the complicated challenges we’re having, that mode is becoming increasingly relevant and urgent! So, let’s train ourselves in this tricky aspect of our life. Let’s learn how to complicate our lives also, but in the good sense.

            We should not shy away from these possible occasions when we have to be angry and to apply some force. Christian life, of course, is a life of joy and peace, but neither is it blind to the need for struggle and war, since Christian joy and peace can only be achieved at the expense of some war, a war of love.

            Christ himself gives us a graphic example of this kind of rage in a number of occasions. At one time, he forcefully drove away vendors who turned the temple into a market place. In another, he castigated certain people for their stubbornness and for their hypocrisy.

            While he was furious, we could always see that his anger was not just an outburst of blind emotions. They were shown to bring out very important truths that just cannot be trampled upon for long and with impunity.

            These usually are truths that have been distorted not just once but many times, to such an extent that the distortion has hardened and has become some kind of stable feature of the people’s culture. They have corrupted the different systems of society.

            On another occasion, Christ tells us very clearly that “from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away,” (Mt 11,12).

            This shows us that we just cannot be sitting pretty, scratching our belly, being complacent and cavalier about things, and expecting that we get to heaven. We need to struggle, and even to wage war against the enemies of God and of our soul, for enemies there are and they do have also their powers and wiles.

            That’s why Christ tells us to be “shrewd like serpents, but simple like doves.” We have to learn to read the signs of the times, aware of what’s right and wrong in any given situation, and come up with an appropriate strategy to promote and defend truth, charity and justice that ultimately can be found only in God.

            Our ideas of truth, charity and justice cannot hold water unless God is in the core of them. Without God, we would just be left to our own devices, and while that set-up can give us some good and benefit, it cannot last long and cannot answer all the questions we will have nor definitively resolve all the issues that we will encounter.

            There’s a great need to study and master the doctrine of our faith, so we can articulate the will and the ways of God relevant to a specific situation in a most convincing way. In this, of course, a lot of effort, often thankless, is needed. In this area, we have to go beyond the sophomoric stage and make ourselves real experts, but always in God.

            We also need to exercise some force because the very process of growth, be it physical and especially spiritual and moral, would always require some forcefulness. The virtues, for example, just cannot come to us without persevering effort. Our skill at praying and sacrificing just cannot come without great effort.

            Besides, the continuing need for apostolate, of bringing God to men and vice-versa, certainly requires energy and a burning zeal. In one parable of the gospel, Christ even talks about a certain holy coercion in his desire to bring people to heaven.

            This is the parable of the “compelle intrare,” where the master told the servant: “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Lk 14,23)

            For sure, this holy coercion is not a matter of physical force, trampling on the freedom of people, but rather a matter of an abundance of doctrine, of affection, of patience and understanding.

            In this challenge of the new evangelization that the present and previous Popes have been talking about, there’s this need for this kind of holy coercion.