From the Director - A vision worth living for
01.03.2008
There is a computer programme called "Photoshop" that publishers use to improve their photographs. They can brush out inconvenient truths with it and make a scene gentler and softer. We have done something similar with Jesus. We have been "photoshopping" him for centuries and now it is difficult for us to get back to the real Him.
He was probably not meek and gentle but a provocative orator, a disturbing presence rather than a comforting or beautiful person; someone we would normally avoid. The events of Holy Week bear witness to that.
The Gospels share the belief that something radically new was happening in Jesus. He proclaimed it most clearly in Mark 1: 15, "The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the Gospel". Jesus was extremely conscious of the power of evil in the world. His whole life was a struggle against evil, starting with the Temptations and ending with the Cross. At the same time he was confident that a new age had dawned and that the power of God was greater than the power of evil, so the struggle was worthwhile.
The Kingdom or Reign of God is mentioned a hundred and sixty times in the New Testament. Jesus spoke of it constantly. It was the heart of his preaching, the vision that gave unity and purpose to his life.
The Kingdom did not mean heaven, the place where good people go when they die. It was much more relevant and of this world than that. Jesus was not primarily an ethical teacher or moral example. He was a "revolutionary", the leader of a movement to re-create the world. He believed in a compassionate God, in the Spirit alive in every individual, in justice for the poor, in struggling to overcome evil and all marginalisation, in enjoying life, in the task of building a new community and living in the world without despair or cynicism.
For him it was a vision worth living and dying for and it is his hope and vision for us as well.
Fr Noel Connolly
director@columban.org.au
