Standing out and standing against

As human beings, many of us feel more comfortable when we “fit in” – when we connect easily with the people around us and with society in general.

It is a natural feeling, but sometimes dangerous, for there is no ontological guarantee that the majority is always right (of course, there is no ontological guarantee that oligarchs, technocrats, and dictators are always right either).

It is even worse when society itself has not just stumbled, but has actually turned onto the path of evil.

So it was in the time of today’s first reading (Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22): so much so that a person who simply lived morally and spoke truthfully would be violently targeted by society.

Let us beset the just one,
because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.

So it was also in the time of our Lord, as we hear in today's Gospel (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30) when our Lord's arrest and death is sought simply for his speaking the truth and performing good works.

"Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me,
whom you do not know,
is true.
I know him,
because I am from him,
and he sent me.”
So they tried to arrest him
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.

So it was also in the time of St. Thomas More, as this quote in the play A Man for All Seasons reminds us.

“If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable,
common sense would make us good,
and greed would make us saintly.
And we'd live like animals or angels
in the happy land that needs no heroes.

“But since in fact we see that
avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity
commonly profit far beyond
humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought,
and have to choose, to be human at all...
why then, perhaps we must stand fast a little
--even at the risk of being heroes.”

So it is also today, in many places and in many ways.

Indeed, it is not always easy to live a devout and moral life openly or to speak honestly about what is right and what is wrong.

But this is what we must do, with prudence and faithfulness.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ always give us the grace, courage, wisdom, knowledge and strength to do and speak what is right.