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March 18, 2021This Lent I have been thinking about “Truth,” one of the Dominican mottos. I wonder what it means in times like this when so much threatens to divide us. This is close to home for me. My son and my grandson are often locked in argument and when it happens each of them argues heatedly from his own perception of truth and neither give an inch to the other’s point of view. Misery ensues.
The scripture from the first Testament today tells of a time when Moses argued with God about God’s change in plan for the people God had chosen to lead through Moses. When Moses is opposed to the change and argues, God says: “Let me alone.” Moses persists and God gives in! What extraordinary grace! In the second Testament Gospel story Jesus is in an argument with the Jewish leaders who refuse to listen to him, arguing: “We listen to Moses not to you.” Jesus responds: “If I testify on my own behalf my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.”
When any of us get locked into our own perception of Truth, how will God get through to us, simply testifying on our own behalf? How will we learn to live together in families or communities or in a divided nation and world? This Lent I am praying for a bigger perception of Truth than I have now. I have decided to fast from arguments that lead nowhere and yield nothing — And almsgiving? Well, I’m asking to be guided; but I will keep my eye out for peace and justice work that can offer the kind of grace God offered Moses. I think that kind of work builds in the kind of stillness that invites God to speak a bigger, more grace filled, more merciful Truth than any of us can imagine.
