In college, one of my favorite type of results are impossibility results. In Economics, there is Arrow's Impossibility Theorem that states that there is no rank order voting system that can aggregate people's preferences into a "sensible" community-wide consensus. In Computer Science, there is the NP-Complete complexity class of decision problems that says there are problems that are really, really hard to compute. I guess it is no wonder that when it comes to looking at the world in general, I also tend to look at the limitations of things and ideas. I have learned that I like limitations because limitations are freeing. Acknowledging limitations free me from doing the impossible!
On and off, I like to contemplate the stories of Jesus. I love to place myself at the scene, and to be able to look at Jesus, and to look at the person that Jesus is talking to, and try to imagine what is in Jesus' heart, and what is in the heart of the other person. I've been contemplating about the woman at the well. The gist of the story is that Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for water, and the woman is shocked that someone who is a Jew would ask her. Then there is some back and forth discussion about water that culminates in a discussion about having living water that will lead to eternal life. The story could have stopped there, but it goes on. Jesus and the Samaritan woman go on to a conversation where Jesus points out her moral fault.
The main surprise of the story is the Samaritan woman seems to be okay with Jesus pointing her fault out. She was surprised that he knew, but she was not angry. If I were her, I would have been pissed that someone would point out my fault. I would have wondered: Who are you to tell me who I am? So I wonder, was there something in how Jesus approached the woman way that made her feel not judged? In fact, she went around town and say "hey, someone pointed out my faults to me, he may be the Messiah!"
A lot of exciting and heated discussion has come from Pope Francis' interview in the Jesuit magazine America. One of the controversy is around the idea that Catholics may do better to focus first on evangelization, in sharing the good news of Jesus, than to start by focusing on a particular set of moral issues. Could he be following the example of Jesus in how he interacted with the Samaritan woman?
Indeed, this is one of my favorite parts of Francis' interview. It has been interpreted by some (gleefully by liberals, aggrievedly by conservatives) as softening on those moral issues, but instead Francis is encouraging us to put those issues in their proper place. Yes, good moral principles are a benefit to everyone, but in the face of resistance to those principles, telling people that their actions are wrong is not giving them the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteHi Matt, I agree completely with your reading. It is about placing the different issues in the right context. It is going to be interesting to see how Francis' papacy will unfold.
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