Sagrado Corazon del Cristo Rey, Mexico City
‘You are the light of the world.
A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden.
No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand
where it shines for everyone in the house.
In the same way your light must shine
in the sight of men, so that,
seeing your good works,
they may give the praise
to your Father in heaven.’
Demagogues and spin-masters (read, ‘marketers’ and ‘PR practitioners’)
tell people want they want to hear to get their attention and commitment.
There are times I wonder whether Christ was playing this kind of game,
specially when he preached the Beatitudes.
These are what poor and oppressed people would dearly love to hear.
Was Christ being a like a demagogue or a spin-master
promising just to take away all sources of poverty and oppression?
As if by magic?
On the contrary (counter-culturally, counter-intuitively, paradoxically),
he asked his disciples to take up and face squarely the cross
and in such a ‘sacrifice’ come the beatitudes he preached on the hill.
The fool on the hill. Preaching from it. Crucified on top of it.