I've mentioned before that I have a tendency to romanticize the past and think that society just keeps getting worse. As I've been meditating on the sorrowful mysteries (the time in Jesus' life between the Garden of Gethsemane and the Crucifixion), I've realized more and more that things have always been bad. There are four very short passages that helped me to realize this.
Moral relativism is nothing new
One thing that I've really come to appreciate in the last six months is the importance of truth. I had never really thought about it before, and have since been blown away by it.
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"
(John 18:37-38)
When I read that I hear Pilate's voice dripping with scorn and disdain, as he scoffs "What is truth?" How many people today will acknowledge an objective, absolute truth?
Expect to be mocked
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.
(Matthew 27:29-31)
As followers of Jesus, we really shouldn't be surprised when people treat us like they treated him. So just as the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus, we should not be startled when the secular among us, including the powerful, mock Christians.
The way of the Cross
Not only should we not be surprised by this treatment - we should expect it. Jesus himself told us to on the path to his crucifixion.
A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children... for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
(Luke 23:27-28, 31)
Forgive anyway
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
(Luke 23:34a)
We should expect persecutions as Christians. (We usually don't experience this physically as Americans, and yet large physical blows might be easier to defend ourselves against than the daily temptations that seem so small.) No matter what kind of mockery and scorn we receive from the world, we are to forgive.
I personally have a hard time forgiving if a person hasn't specifically asked for forgiveness - and even more so if they don't think they've done anything wrong! And yet, that is what I'm supposed to do. Jesus modeled it perfectly for us. Subjected to wrong after wrong, he still forgave.
I know this sounds quite negative, that the world always has been and always will be a hard place for Christians. But I was actually comforted by this realization. Of course the world is always going to be against us. But Christianity has withstood over 2000 years of the world's pressures and enticements and persecutions, and it's still going strong. No matter what the trials of our day and age, no matter how overwhelming they seem to be, no matter if it sometimes feels like we're losing - we know who wins in the end.
Us.
Jesus.
"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are Easter people and Hallelujah is our song!" (Pope John Paul the Great)