Beloved in Christ,
A popular saint of 19th-century Russia once said "acquire the spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved."
Where should we look to find the solutions to the problems that plague us? Where do we go to find the medicine to heal the brokenness that is all too evident today? To whom should we turn to fix the evil that exists in the world around us?
Some turn to politics, and believe that the world would instantly be a better place if only the right political party could be in power. Others turn to nationalism, believing that the cure for the world's sickness is to be found in the supremacy of this or that nation. Still others turn to 'ethical codes,' and claim that our problems would be solved if we all bought organic food, or became vegetarians, or pacifists, or whatever else.
When these sorts of things occupy the core of our answer to the world's pain, then they become what St. Paul calls invented righteousness in today's Epistle reading. St. Paul laments the fact that many around him have failed to respond faithfully to Christ's Gospel. "Being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness," (Romans 10:3). We establish our own righteousness apart from God's righteousness whenever we think that the answer to the world's brokenness must be out there somewhere, in this or that institution, philosophy, or source of power.
What, then, is the solution? "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart," (Rom. 10:8).
As Christians, we believe that the brokenness in the world can only be fixed by fixing the brokenness in our own heart first. I cannot overcome evil by going to war with it in the world; I can only overcome evil by going to war with it wherever I find it within myself. Only by allowing the Holy Spirit to fill me, that spirit of peace, can I then become a vessel of peace to those around me.
After spending years in Soviet forced-labor camps, the author Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote that his experience convinced him that evil is not something that can be pinned down to only one group, nation, or philosophy. "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts."
Let us, then, turn back to the presence of Christ in our heart. Let us allow him to conquer the divisions that exist within us. Only when he is victorious in our hearts can his Kingdom become a living reality in our world. When we pray "Thy Kingdom come," we are praying for his Kingdom that is "not of this world," (John 18:36), but is "in the midst of you," (Luke 17:21).
In Christ,
Fr. Jeremy