I know several people who were caught up in the festivities last week at UD's celebrations of its basketball team making it to the Elite Eight tournament. For some of them, the celebration remained just that - a terrific celebration. But a couple people described the fear they felt at being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At some points during the celebration, some (students and not) took things too far by destroying property. What that meant was that others who were not destroying property, but who did things that in other situations might seem relatively innocuous - excited yelling, littering - sometimes got arrested or tear gassed.

 

It can be very difficult to think well on the fly, in circumstances where it's not clear when the tipping point has been reached, and what seemed innocent suddenly becomes dangerous. 

 

Today's scriptures focus exactly on people who aren't thinking well, and in reflecting on these scriptures, I think we find some ways of cultivating "thinking well" so that we stand a better chance of thinking well even in controversial or ambiguous situations.

 

In today's first reading (Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22), we see people who are "thinking not aright" who complain that the just one is obnoxious. Traditionally, Christians see this "just one" as being Jesus, and Jesus is obnoxious because he's pointing out all his detractors' faults and he's living a life that is so very much at odds with theirs. The implication is that if you DO think well, you're going to be trying to live in line with what Jesus himself teaches and lives.

 

So in the gospel (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30) we see some aspects of how Jesus lives. I will lift up two points in particular here (since, of course, there is far far more we could say about what it means to live as Jesus' disciples and to "think well....")  The first point is Jesus' emphasis on what it means to know him. We know Jesus and Jesus knows God - but we do not know God the Father. If we follow in Jesus' footsteps, we shall come to know God the Father.

 

This relates to the second point which is that "Jesus' hour had not come." Knowing Jesus - and then knowing the Father - requires patience, trusting that our own sense of timing isn't necessarily the best sense of time. It also requires embracing uncertainty.

 

How does a person learn to live patiently, though? What does it look like to have embraced uncertainty? I suggest that the more we try to cultivate patience - for instance, by being around children, the disabled, and others who might move more slowly than we do - the more thoughtful we become about our actions at that particular time. That, in turn, forces us to live a bit more with uncertainty. The more thoughtful we become, the less likely we are - even in emergency situations - to react in inappropriate or harmful ways.

 

Today, let us pray for the grace to be patient and for the willingness to live with uncertainty. Let us pray that we can become people who think "aright."

 

- Jana M. Bennett