Catholic Fundamentalists are fond of saying, when thinking about various problems that we see, “There are two kinds of people”, and we go on to see which kind of people are involved in the difficulty at hand. We get our inspiration for this from Mark 4:1-20:
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
In this passage, we are told that there are two kinds of people. Some have been granted access to the Kingdom of God. Others are “outside” that Kingdom. Any period in history reflects the earthly power that these two groups have. Sometimes, there are political structures under the control of believers who see and perceive; listen and understand. During these times, things generally go well for people within the body politic so controlled.
Most of the time, those who look but do not perceive join with those who hear but do not understand and impose governments devoted to killing, lying, and stealing.