In These Times…Serpent or Dove…?

It is hard to watch the news these days…so much violence, so much corruption and deceit, so many crude remarks about women, about immigrants, about Muslims. In the face of all this we have our fresh focus statement. We are to be present. But how are we to be present in these times?

The temptation might be to despair at the darkness of it all. Or maybe it would give us some satisfaction if we just allowed ourselves to get enraged and join those who yell the loudest. The “Domination System,” as Walter Wink put it some time back, is having a heyday. Yet the transformative Word and the contemplative presence challenging us points in another direction.

It’s not that we are to be either serpents or doves. No, it’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and. We are to be both. But that’s where the directive ends. Jesus doesn’t say how, when, or where. Wisely, he knows that times change. More, he is confident we will know how to deal with these times.

How can he be so sure? Has he left us orphans after all? Dominic took great stock in the conferences of John Cassian. He carried them with him when he was on the road. For the curious, if you look at those conferences, they’re all about discretion. This is interesting. The founder of a new upstart Order that proposed to fill in the preaching gap in the church is reading about how to know when to be a serpent and when to be a dove. Yes, he wanted to get the Good News out to the common people, but having the truth is one thing, but how you communicate it, Dominic wisely knew, is quite another.

This is where the assurance of Jesus comes in. He has given us a gift to discern how and when to say things. The Spirit, who is the active Love of God, knows these times. More, that Spirit knows us who live in these times. The Dominican truth-bearer of our day discerns what and how to speak by measuring his or her truth-telling by the Love that is personified. Active love is compassion even for the crude liar, for the violent killer, for the out and out bigot or racist. It is concern for the victimizer as well as for the victims. Jesus, serpent-like, never condemns. He questions. Jesus, dove-like, frees demoniacs and they sit quietly before him with their clothes back on, dignity restored. Love discerns. The task before us is to proclaim the truth that loves.

Ah…there’s the rub.