Wisdom, courage and finally joy

Todays gospel (Mark 12:1-12) should be a source of wisdom and courage for the followers of Jesus. 

Wisdom and courage both consist in this: that the way of Christ is to rise in God's power after human defeat. This dynamic is at the heart of the parable Jesus relates of the man who plants a vineyard but whose tenants kill or beat all those who come to press the rights of the vineyard owner. Just as God sent the prophets to those who tended the vineyard of Israel, so the owner of this vineyard sent his representatives who were rejected one after one. In the end, they will not even accept his son...

Jesus of course tries to build bridges and so should we, but as this parable suggests, and as they say these days, the haters gonna hate. Sometimes we cannot save our friendship with God and our friendship with others: which should prevail? In the end fidelity to God is our compass, not bridge building with our neighbours, and when those we build bridges with cannot bear our friendship with God, they are only following the pattern of the vineyard's tenants. And what if our fidelity to God costs us dearly? What if it gets us thrashed or killed? Or cancelled and shunned? What if it leaves our credibility in tatters? Should we do a deal with the tenants so they leave us alone? Should we barter our fidelity for peace? Well, of course, we should not appoint ourselves as martyrs. God will choose the time for us. Here is where the wisdom lies: we think peace lies beyond cordial negotiations, but perhaps it only lies beyond our defeat. For only in defeat can God show us the power of His resurrection. Only in the defeat of our self sufficiency can God show us that, all along, He intended to be our sufficiency: we just could not see it.

And so here comes the courage. For it is one thing to acknowledge the wisdom of God in the vineyard but it is quite another to accept its logic for us. How do we surrender to the Father's forming action when that forming action delivers us up to a thrashing by the tenants or even some kind of death: death of friendships, death of reputation, or death of our human resourcefulness? Here too is where we need to say a fiat in sorrow, but even the fiat in sorrow builds on the fiat in joy, for sorrow will always be passing, a pure accident in our earthly transit, but joy, mercy and peace, the fruits of love, will be our song forever with God if only we are faithful to Him. Easter Sunday always lies beyond Good Friday.

Ernest Hemingway defined courage as grace under pressure. Perhaps the COLW definition should be grace and joy under pressure. 

This was the Lord's doing

And it is wonderful to see.