We have met the enemy

A few years ago the company I worked for was trying hard to implement a new program that would greatly improve the lives of our customers, our team members, and—of course—our stockholders.  It was a radical change in proven procedure, but a necessary one.  Naturally, there was a lot of ‘pushback’ by the management team (myself included); a lot of excuses, disagreements, and arguments as to why we shouldn’t ‘fix’ what wasn’t ‘broke’.  Some were even resigned to the attitude that any good manager hates to see in his team: “It’s impossible!”  My boss came up with what I thought was a great motivator to identify the root cause of our inability to comply with the new program.  He gave each of us a hand mirror to carry with us and told us to look into it every time we wanted to see our ‘biggest obstacle’.   

It sometimes seems that the solutions to our country’s problems are “impossible”.  Racism, greed, vengeance, poverty, global warming, unemployment, discrimination, apathy, inflexibility to other opinions, dishonest politicians of every party and ilk, and ‘journalists’ with agendas; the list goes on and on.  To quote the wise opossum POGO in Walt Kelly’s famous comic strip, “We have met the enemy, and it is us!”

What do we pray for when the enemy “is us?”  When I reflected on the Gospel of Matthew today (Matthew 7:6, 12-14), Jesus gives three sayings that provide a good answer to that question.  First, Jesus says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.” We can pray that we don’t trample the words of Jesus “underfoot” in order to pursue greed or vengeance or our own will.

Jesus then says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”  We should pray for the grace to follow the Golden Rule.

And after that, Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  We can and should pray for the grace to discern the “narrow gate” and the “constricted road.”  We can pray for the willingness to let go of whatever it is that keeps us from entering the “gate” that leads to life.

We don’t have to be anyone’s enemy, even when we disagree about what needs to be done.  What we’re asked by Jesus to be is loving, compassionate, understanding, kind, forgiving, and merciful.  We need to look in a mirror and ask ourselves, “Are we?”