Where do
you stand right now? What do you assume to be true (does that word still have
meaning?). What do you assume to yourself: responsibility, authority, guilt? What to
assume in August?
It has
this double significance, you see. There’s assuming the faith of certain
sources, a very ancient understanding. There’s assuming the trust that others
should have in you. Do you trust yourself, though?
Looking
around the world is a painful process, with the earth itself unstable, unable
to be comprehended. Earth, air, fire, and water corrupted to unknowable ways. Human
agency, deployed in wars, invasions, crimes, and fraud. We stand in Dante’s dark wood, facing the assaults
of violence and greed.
Can we
assume that anyone will bail us out? Must we assume the task ourselves? What is
called for? To cease oppressing — everyone — to stop assuming we know what’s
best everywhere. To bring about the liberation of the captives, and recovery of
sight to the blind. Even to find the right words — often no words — to preach
good news to the weak, among whom we are included. So read Jesus, in a time of
Imperial domination, when the truth is not in us.
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