The Fires of Ferguson

It’s always somebody else’s fault.

“It’s the white man’s fault. It’s the black man’s fault. It’s the rich people. It’s the poor. It’s the immigrant. It’s the citizen. It’s the Republicans. It’s the Democrats. It’s the Muslims. It’s the Christians’. It’s the Jews. It’s the unemployed. It’s the employers.”

You see where it goes.

Round and round and round and round it goes and where it stops everybody knows.

It stops (or rather continues) in the cycle of violence.

If the problem is somebody else’s fault (you can see the logic) then that other person or group of people have to be destroyed.

So the rampage and the revolutions begin. So the incarcerations and torture begin. So the wars and rumors of wars. So the beheadings and crucifixions continue.

Now consider the Christian remedy.

The very first thing you must do to be a disciple of Christ is to say, “It is my fault. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa”

Repentance is this brilliant and most amazingly original virtue that counters the original sin.

The original sin is pride that says,, “It is not my fault!”

The original virtue is “My bad. Yes. It is my fault. I am not only going to take the blame. I am going to take the responsibility to put things right.”

Where in the violence in Ferguson–or anywhere else in the world–do we hear anyone saying, “I’m wrong, and I’m going to do something about it”?

This is the genius of true Christianity and this is what we call “faith”. That a person steps out of the safe little boat of blaming others to walk on the waves of talking the blame. Repentance as risk.

Where do we find the example and the support to take such a risk? By the transaction of faith whereby we look to Jesus Christ ad say, “I want to be like that. I want to be one of the ones who takes the blame and takes the responsibility. I want to be like that and claim that strength and know that Spirit.”

People like that are rare. People like that live life in a different dimension. People like that are amazingly converted people, and when we once meet someone like that we know for sure that Christ is alive in the world because his willingness to take the blame, take the responsibility and bear the cross is alive in them.

So see the blazing hell of Ferguson and see the fires below where those who lodge there cry eternally, “It was not my fault! It was not my fault!”