Reflection - Naïveté

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122620.cfm
Acts:6:8-10, 7:54-59
Matthew 10:17-22

Naïveté was probably part of my initial make-up. Nothing else could possibly explain my gullibility. There was a time when a couple of guys — adults, no less — almost had me convinced that if a winter freeze was long enough and cold enough that the local lake could form a solid ice cap, and if during that same time the water level of the lake went down, then the ice would form a dome over the lake and you could go boat fishing under the dome. The naive and the gullible have these kinds of problems.

A strong dose of skepticism came in 1966. I was in college then; but was home for the summer. A tornado slashed through my home town of Topeka, Kansas, staying on the ground from one edge of the city to the other, just barely passing south of the downtown business area and the state capitol. TIME was a major news magazine in those days. They reported that “the only tall building left standing for blocks around was emblazoned with an ad that read: a refuge in time of storm.” Trouble was, even before the tornado, it was the only tall building standing for blocks around.

Over the years my gullibility has been nibbled at and gnawed upon by a variety of incidents. Some, like the divorced parents of friends, nibbled at my view of domestic life. Some, like President Nixon, challenged my respect for public officials. Some, like the exposure of clerical corruption, shook my confidence in the Church. All that is probably as it should have been. Naïveté breeds gullibility and gullibility generates a type of comfort that is mostly content with the way things are — or at least the way things seem to be.

The year 2020, along with a few that immediately preceded it, shattered that comfort zone for me in unexpected ways — unexpected because certain things had seemed rock solid at least in the present. As a nation we had already started to promote variety in the meaning of marriage, in the possibilities for gender, in the subservience of truth to tolerance. In 2020 scientists offered us their own ambiguities regarding the proper approach to dealing with the Coronavirus. That was probably the least of my concerns for other areas had been moving rapidly to the top of my dissonance scale. I was still naive enough to believe that at least our leading politicians would act for the benefit of people and country; naive enough to think that certain governmental institutions, especially the ones investigating corruption, were above corruption; naive enough to believe that blatant lies from the media could not survive in our competitive environment and that, as Shakespeare said: “truth will out”; naive enough to expect that our society was more sophisticated than to be manipulated by the CEO’s of social media; naive enough to think that historical ignorance was a failure for only the few. I was wrong on every count. All in all, 2020 has been more than just a year; it has been a time of animosity, discord and even schism in the fabric and structure of our society and our institutions. If you don’t feel the pressure to conform that has been brought to bear by the few, then possibly you have already succumbed.

Our group, the group which was the impetus for writing these reflections, gathers on Wednesday mornings. The readings that currently have our attention are from the coming Saturday, this week that is December 26th. Christmas, of course, is the day before. The net consequence of all this is that two days before the birth of the Christ child we are reflecting on St Stephen, the first Christian martyr. It is an incite-full juxtaposition of events, one that invites us to consider the earthly destiny of the Christian just as we celebrate the salvation that transcends that destiny. But there is even more that it offers. In these troubled times, the convergence of these two feasts should be as striking as the recent astronomical conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

In my naïveté and gullibility I have clung to the handiwork of men as if there were constancy, durability, reliability even a degree of perfection. Noble words and documents seemed sufficient to confirm a better tomorrow. Now, the challenge to fundamental principals and ideals — even basic truths — projects an unexpected current and future chaos. Shattered stability reveals the sand on which mankind tends to build; we forget that “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Psalm 127:1) Nothing should surprise us in the affairs of men. No deceit, no lie will remain untried until the promise that began at Bethlehem is fulfilled.

The conjunction of reflection-nativity-martyrdom following the loss of enchantment with human institutions — even one that is also divine in origin — compels us to examine our beliefs. We necessarily must ask ‘what am I willing to die for?’ That alone will guide us toward what we are ready to live for. If we find ourselves disillusioned by the structures and institutions that men have made, maybe we need to consider a different one. In just two days we will recall once more that . . .

“To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom,to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

It is truly a wonder that our Lord should come to earth. That was the promise that Stephen saw fulfilled. That was the Kingdom Stephen was willing to die for. Today we live with a different promise — one that includes not just the forgiveness of sin, not just a Resurrection to eternal life, not just the certitude that he is with us always, but a promise that “ . . . the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace . . .”

Is it a promise we are ready to die for? Is it a promise we are willing to live for?