An Ever-Vigilant Openness

Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

A favorite spiritual teacher of mine suggests a question we might ask ourselves at the start of each new day. And that questions is this: “Am I going to add to the aggression in the world today?”

What if the labor and the burden, from which Jesus wishes to give us rest, is the labor and burden of the aggression we each bear? And what would it take for each one of us, once and for all, to lay that burden down?

Today in our scriptures we have a wonderous vision from the prophet Zechariah of a king who comes to us “meek and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” And we are challenged to believe that it is by this meekness that “the warrior’s bow shall be banished.” And it is upon this meekness that God’s dominion rests. Dominion comes from meekness. Sit with that thought for a few seconds… Dominion comes from meekness.

Unfortunately for us, though, living in a culture where everything must be done in short-hand, every long word abbreviated, every complex church and political issue reduced to an either-or, black-or-white, talking point… unfortunately for us, living in a world obsessed with dichotomies and oversimplifications, meekness rhymes with weakness. And so the meek are weak and the aggressors are strong.

Yet, Jesus tells us he is meek and humble of heart. And elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew he tells us the meek shall inherit the land! One scripture scholar reminds us we need to be very attentive to what the word Meek means in Biblical Greek… for in Greek, Meek is not Weak!

In Greek the word for Meek is praus and it is defined as: “an ever-vigilant openness, a disposition of good will that is always ready to encounter a situation with a view to building it up and re-creating it.”

“An ever-vigilant openness!” Now I imagine none of us here have never been hurt by the world, perhaps even hurt by those closest to us. None of us, I would assume, have completely escaped being exploited, abused, manipulated, mistreated, misunderstood or dismissed. So we’ve learned to be ever-vigilant, maybe even hyper-vigilant, but usually with an eye to defend and protect, to close down as a means of self-protection rather than open up with a willingness to meet every encounter with a view to build up and re-create. Basically, we learn to justify aggression. We learn to see it as “What I have to do to stay safe!” We put aggression into the world every day and then we marvel at the burden of aggression our world bears. We labor under aggression and we see meekness as weakness and the only dominion that results is that of the oppressor.

Jesus in our gospel today, with the wide-open face of a wondering child, “rejoices” in God, rejoices in the truth that it’s the “little ones” who know that ultimate power lies in meekness and in their meekness are not afraid to live open-faced, open-handed toward the world. Will they get clobbered on occasion? Absolutely! But to turn to the tools of the world in those moments and fight aggression with aggression is the real weakness here.

So maybe it all begins each new day with our own willingness to ask ourselves that one simple question: Am I going to add to the aggression in the world today? And, in response, let us commit ourselves, even in some small way, to cultivate today, this day, an ever-vigilant openness.

So what would it mean for you today to view the world, your immediate context, with an eye toward building it up and re-creating it?

Jesus says: Come to me all you who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me. For I am meek and humble of heart and your souls will find rest.

As we once again receive in the Eucharist today the one whose dominion is founded on meekness, let us pray that we might lay down the labor and burden of any self-justified aggression we bear and instead live into the very real risk of a wide-open, wonderous face turned, with hope, toward the world.