I'm Angry

Legitimately, I am angry at the world. I am angry at the Church. I am angry at the culture the the current generation and the previous generations that have led us to this point. I am angry at myself that I don't have an answer to the world's problems.

I wish that I did. I can't bring myself to watch the whole video of George Floyd's murder because I know that it is despicable. By the same token, I can't bring myself to watch the protests or riots, even here in Cleveland, because they go beyond outrage to destruction and violence. Just anecdotally, the number of gun-related crimes in Cleveland has jumped that last week or more, and daily protests continue in city and suburb alike.

I see activists of all stripes using this as an opportunity to defend or support their personal platform. Ban guns. No, increase gun ownership. Defund the police. Introduce marshal law. Black lives matter. All lives matter. It's a pro-life issue. This is what Kaepernick was saying. Vote red. Vote blue. Civil war is coming. Like anything, if you want to find support for an issue right now, the briefest of internet searches will oblige.

This is the result of the culture of death. We cannot get outside of ourselves enough to view the other as one of us. There is no others. There can be no us vs. them because Jesus assures us there is no such thing as a them. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them" -Luke 6:32. The direct result of the culture of death is an infinite number of classifications and separations that constantly define how we are different from "them."

I see it now reflected in young people's desire to define themselves. What are my pronouns? Who do I wear? What issues do I support, or rail against? Am I an ally? Have I checked my privilege? Thousands upon thousands of ways to separate myself from them, to define myself in opposition to the other. Terminal uniqueness. I am the only me. Everyone else is them.

"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" -Galatians 3:28. In Christ, there is no east and west. We find ourselves, our true selves, only by casting off our own labels, our desire to define ourselves, and seeking the Truth - being caught up in Christ Jesus and His worship of the Father. Then, and only then, will we discover who we truly are, sons and daughters of the King of Kings. "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" -Romans 8:17-18.

Only in this reality, when our divine sonship and daughterhood is our primary identity, can we set about truly caring about our brothers and sister. For then, they will not be some other to be built up, or protected, or offered reparations, or ostracized, or cast off - they will be us. Friends, let us set aside all division and be one in Christ Jesus, the divine physician, the only hope for this life and the assurance of life everlasting in the next.

I am angry - because I see division among enemies, and as much division from the many who desire justice. And the father of disunity, who sows division, is a father of lies and the prince of this world. But he will be overcome, and thrown into the eternal flame. Refuse his lies. Put on Christ. Love your neighbor- your literal, flesh and bones neighbor - as if he was your very self. Hunger for justice but let that hunger be satisfied by the Bleeding Charity.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.