We all know the song: "It's a Small World After All." It gets stuck in our heads every time we go on that ride in Disneyland. Chances are, the moment you step off the float, you'll be humming that song. It's a cute little song. Reminds us that we are all connected, regardless of our culture or geographical location.
But there are two versions of the "Small World." The first is that represented by the Disney ride, a world without borders where physical distance is meaningless. And that is all well and good. God made each and everyone of us. In our shared humanity, we have far more in common than we have differences, despite various languages and customs. The first meaning is quite Catholic in fact, "universal."
I worry about the second meaning of a "Small World." It is one I see far too often today. These small worlds are characterized, not by their openness, but by their walls. They are small worlds because there is not much in them. This is the "me, myself, and I" attitude that is so popular in our culture. This small world thinking reduces your interactions and love into a microcosm, whatever is within your reach and nothing more. Only showing kindness to those who think exactly like you do, who look exactly like you do, who act exactly like you do.
In a certain sense, this thinking reduces humanity to those that you "like." Anyone else is dangerous, even less human than those within your walls. And I am not just talking about physical borders. Within our own country, we see this in conflicts of controversy. For militant feminists, pro-choice radicals, and groups like Black Lives Matter, you are either with them or against them. Anything less than a full pledge of loyalty results in your ridicule, not in person, more often than not, but over the veiled channels of social media, for most of them are too cowardly to attack you face-to-face. You see this whenever anyone tries to say that there are differences between men and women which mean they ought to be treated differently in some respects (bigot!) or that all lives matter (racist!).
Small worlds tend to be kind of boring. You'll only hear the same things over and over and over. They consist in a silencing of all "offensive speech" or what I would call free discussion. Try to tell a denizen of these small worlds that the unborn have a right to live, that there is no difference between sex and gender, or that supporting the death-penalty is inconsistent with pro-life beliefs, and you will instantly be silenced, and probably insulted too.
That is because small worlds are the houses built upon the sand (Matthew 7:26). They lack a firm foundation. Any challenge to the creed of a small world is therefore existential. Any change to the status quo could be deadly.
Small worlds are cowardly. They are inhabited by people who are too scared to look beyond their own walls. We saw this the other day at a rally for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in San Diego. Crowds of his opponents hurled eggs and bottles, harassed, and assaulted his supporters as they left the rally. Now, I am not saying that I support or even like Donald Trump. His flip-flopping on abortion is unacceptable. But no one deserves to be attacked like his supporters were. Those protesters reacted so violently because they were confronted by a group of people living outside of their own small worlds. They discovered that someone held opinions that were not their own, and they could not deal with this reality.
And I am not saying that Catholics are immune to this kind of thinking. I see a somewhat dangerous trend of small worlds in our American parishes. We are the universal Church. Therefore, though we might only go to Mass at one parish, we cannot limit our outreach or efforts to that parish. It is not a competition. We need a greater awareness of the ways in which parishes can cooperate and coordinate activities for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
God does not want us to live in small worlds. I think Pope Francis captured this quite succinctly. In response to Donald Trump's plan to build a barrier separating Mexico from the United States, Pope Francis said that "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel." Though this was in the context of Donald Trump, Pope Francis' statement was universal.
We cannot simply build up walls around ourselves. Those walls separate us from those whom we should show love.
Jesus did not live in a gated community. He walked with tax collectors, prostitutes, and Pharisees alike. The message of the Gospel would not have spread if Jesus had remain hidden in the gentrified suburbs.
Therefore, we must engage in the construction of bridges. Do not avoid the people who hold opinions that differ from yours, engage them. Get in the thick of it. "Launch out into the deep" (Luke 5:4). We will not change lives with the message of the Gospel if we only preach within our own walls, within our small worlds.
Do not live in a small world. Cast down your walls. Open up your hearts to those that live beyond your borders, physical and otherwise. Love your family, but also love your universal family.
There are those suffering beyond your walls. Go to them. Bring the light of Christ into the darkness of their own small worlds.
Deus Vult!
No comments:
Post a Comment