I’m not going to lie; this week’s post is very difficult for me to write. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why. If you’ve been following the Church news of the past two weeks, then you know why and you can understand that a measured dissertation on hypocrisy is all-but-impossible to accomplish when there is a giant pink elephant standing in our living room – yet again.
As someone who has had mostly positive experiences with the spiritual leaders in my life my heart breaks for those who were not as fortunate. I am sickened by the details that have emerged and angered by the knowledge that the people in power felt compelled to cover it up. I turned to today’s gospel reading hoping to find comfort and instead found Christ warning his followers about this very same thing – the people who do not practice what they preach. What the heck? I thought to myself. Aren’t the gospels supposed to be a handbook of sorts on how to live and work as Christians? Didn’t these folks bother reading the employee manual?
When bad news of this nature hits, it’s easy to become cynical. You begin to doubt everything you think you understand about the world around you. You feel let down by…someone. Even if I wasn’t directly affected, I am certainly disillusioned by the cover-up. I feel like I have fallen down the rabbit hole and I wonder if anyone is who and what he or she appear to be.
In an effort to combat my writer’s block, I started watching Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the recent documentary on Mister Rogers. Although I knew it was a flattering portrait of the man I’d spent so much time watching on television when I was a kid, there was a part of me on the edge of my seat wondering if I would learn something that would tarnish his image in my mind. What if I discovered he was hiding the fact that he was gay? What if he really was a Navy Seal who killed a bunch of men with his bare hands and had the tattoos to prove it? What if he was a pain in the butt to work for? I think I was a little bit worried that Mister Rogers would let me down as well.
Instead I found a genuine man who wasn’t perfect, but lived each day trying to make the world a better place for the children of the world. He was an ordained minister who used a television pulpit to respect the dignity of every individual who inhabited his “neighborhood” both on screen and in living rooms across the country. He talked about tough subjects and addressed important issues in a matter-of-fact way that any child could understand. He was a servant leader who slowed each day down a little and provided us a safe place to breathe. He reminded us to always look for the helpers trying to make a difference when things seem to be spinning out of control.
Hypocrisy hurts. When you put your faith into something that lets you down, it’s only natural to feel hurt and angry. But like Mister Rogers sang, it’s what you do with the mad that you feel that matters the most. Do we wash our hands of the people and institutions that have failed us, or do we roll up our sleeves and strive to make it right?
Today’s readings for Mass: EZ 43:1-7AB; PS 85:9AB and 10, 11-12, 13-14; MT 23:1-12
