RBWords

     Ignorance, faith and violence make for a deadly combination.  We know this all too well from history as well as from terrifying contemporary experience.  I had a parishioner at one of my university parishes who attended daily Mass and consistently prayed for "an end to ignorance."  It seemed like an interesting thing to pray for in the midst of a secular campus dedicated to research and teaching, but the latter do not eliminate ignorance simply because they reveal information to students and teachers!  It is understanding the belief and world of another person or group of persons that eliminates ignorance.  Becoming "informed" is only the first, but very important, step in the process.

     The challenge is an ancient one but it is clearly present in Jesus' words from the Gospel of John.  I've pointed out that the Farewell Discourse is designed to help disciples to understand Jesus' life and teaching in the light of the circumstances in which they were living when the gospel was composed.  Jesus points out that if he was persecuted during his own life, so will they be.  He points to ignorance of himself and of his Father as being at the root of the persecution.  He also makes a statement that should strike a familiar note in our own times:  "the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God."   We may immediately think of religiously motivated terrorists of Islamic faith, but history teaches us that Christians have acted in the same way!  [Crusades, pogroms!]  Contemporary atheists point to this violence as a reason for dismissing religious faith outright!

     Opposition to religious faith, whether it be from non-believers or from different believers, is more than intellectual.  It is a "visceral" thing.  There is more than intellectual opposition involved.  Culture and security and other factors combine to make ignorance and fear into lethal instruments of a limited faith.  At the very least, we can join with that parishioner of mine in praying for "an end to ignorance" and make the all important first step of learning about the "other" and trying to understand before we try to "expel" them.  AMEN