Who Are Those Guys?

November 1

Feast of All Saints

In the cult classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” there is a great pursuit of the outlaw-heroes across the Old West. The forces of law and justice are relentless, exhausting the bank robbers. At one point the two stars of the show stop to look across miles of desert only to see the forms of their pursuers moving closer toward them. One looks to the other and asks the same question we see in the book of Revelations: “Who are those guys?”

Until the coming of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, to become human and live and die and rise again, the power of lawlessness and injustice ranged freely across the earth, kept at bay only by the application of force. In every human heart, every society, there was a ticking time-bomb of weakness and evil that brought down individuals, communities, civilizations. Even in the people of God that force we call original sin was at work. It was so pervasive that the psalmist asked the question "who is worthy to ascend the mountain of the Lord?" An evil-drunk heart led God’s people to choose no-gods, to abandon their spouses for adulterous relationships, to surrender to drunkenness, even to cast their firstborn children into fiery furnaces in horrible acts of idolatry and murder.

Jesus came into that drama, that perpetual tragedy, and brought hope. Because He was all-holy, because He introduced the divine and sinless into the human condition, and gave us through the sacraments a way to latch onto holiness, humans could participate in His holiness, His divinity. Moreover, if we accept the Father’s rule, do the Father’s will, we can participate in the Holy Spirit’s power. We can become the relentless pursuers against evil as we, by acts of love, spread the virus of holiness in ourselves, our families, our communities and nation.

Jesus Himself gives us the secret to winning this battle with evil. Do the rich control the world? Blessed, happy, holy are the poor, those who are not enslaved to the pursuit of creature comforts, those who do not pile up stuff instead of spiritual wealth. Do the powerful control the legislatures and courts, protecting those who commit genocide on the unborn, those who peddle pornography? Blessed, happy, holy are the powerless, for as Paul says, in weakness does God’s power attain perfection. Step by step, Jesus outlines a plan for the coming of God’s kingdom. It’s like spiritual judo. Listen to the Holy Spirit, anticipate with His wisdom the next move of evil, and step aside so that the power of evil is used against evil. And in all things, love, love even the enemies who would destroy us, because God loves us all and we become like God only when we love.