Church News: April

One thing I love to do throughout each week is work on the big crossword puzzle in the paper. Recently, there was a clue whose answer brought to mind the famous ancient saying, “Veni, Vidi, Vici.” It means, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

A quick Google search says that it was a phrase Julius Caesar allegedly wrote to the Roman Senate after a swift victory in a campaign to expand his empire.

I thought of these words while reading a story from John chapter 1. Two people who meet Jesus for the first time ask where he’s going. John says that after Jesus tells them, “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him.” 

I wonder what version of “veni, vidi, vici” people caught up in the horrors of many times and places would say?

Maybe, I came, I saw, I feared. Or, I came, I saw, I cried. Or even, I came, I saw, I despaired. 

What do we Christians do when we encounter fear, grief and despair when those we trust betray Christian values, many of which they espouse? We come, we see and we remain. 

Well, it’s no accident that the part about the disciples following Jesus comes right after John tells about Jesus’ baptism. It’s because coming, seeing and remaining are all connected with each other — and with baptism.

When we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are baptized into a new way of coming, a new way of seeing.

Because of their baptism, Christians must side with the ones whom Christ loves. They neither conquer them nor leave them to the conquerors. We must always ask: Are our actions, and those of others, consistent with the teachings and example of Jesus, or are they not? 

Christians are called to live out what they promise in their baptism: to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself.” (This is how the Episcopal Church puts it.)

So we come and see and remain, but not as conquerors, for Christ has already defeated the violence of the world in dying for it. 

Following him, we come to any place where the least are exploited or brutalized. We see by bearing witness in solidarity with them.

We remain in resistance and repentance. We remain in repentance of our evil and of the evil done in our name. We remain in Christ, loving our neighbors: both the conquered and the conquerors. 

We remain, loving ourselves into changing our ways.