Dealing with Difference

The cry of Jeremiah in the text from the Roman Catholic Lectionary is a reaction to being challenged and threatened by the authorities by whom his prophetic message of change is rejected. The reaction of the people to Jesus action and words as presented in John’s Gospel is that some listen and consider the possibility that He is the promised Messiah. The understanding of the authorities is that Jesus practices and advocates changes in the way the people of Israel relate to God. The response is to dismiss the dialogue by reference to a “fact” which forces selection of an option and a conclusion. This technique is a familiar one. We tend to resort to the “shut down” when we are not open to hear. The danger of “dual thinking”, where we confine the possibilities to one of two options is raised by Franciscan author Richard Rohr as an obstacle to relating with the world and the Divine.