Political systems are a mess from one end of the world to the other. One may conclude, from their utter awfulness, that they’re supposed to be a mess, simply to separate sheep from goats. Today’s Reading, from Matthew 13; 10-17, includes the following:
“You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.”
Those who embrace loving our neighbors continue to be appalled at the fate awaiting those who refuse to be converted and healed. But, they have chosen to gain things in this world by hurting their neighbors. We see them impoverishing those around them by raising the price of energy. We see them killing their neighbors by denying them access to better medical systems and messing up existing medical systems. We see them turning generations of children into helpless illiterates who think only of satisfying physical desires. We understand that they have given into various types of bribes to do these horrible things.
We explain the awful hurt they are doing to their neighbors, but they do not hear. We show them how much damage they are doing, and they do not see. Their hearts are, as Scripture tells us, “gross”. They do not want to see, hear, or understand. Even an ultrasound picture of a living baby is not enough to let them see that the unborn baby is a human being, one of their most helpless neighbors.
Rather than understand, in every generation, many, maybe most, choose to reject The Loving Programmer. His vast Creation Program put each of our souls in each of our bodies to let each of us decide whom we will obey and worship and be subject to in this world and which of the two kingdoms beyond awaits our inevitable arrival.
