Switzerland does not take sides; it is a famously neutral country. The rest of the world has clashed all around it, yet Swiss neutrality sails above the fray, banking and making watches, enjoying chocolate and cheese.
This is a cartoon caricature of that alpine nation, yet not far from the common assessment. Another cartoon concept that even more people hold is that their own lives, their positions and their prospects, are neutral places, from which they may evaluate and embrace whatever values and viewpoints they find suitable. If they do not take sides, they avoid the conflict. People like to think of themselves as Switzerland sailing above the wars of religion.
They are fools, fodder for tyrants, ideologues, and false prophets. You see, my brothers, we must carefully seek after our own salvation; otherwise, one who is bent on deceiving us will insinuate himself and turn us aside from the path that leads to life.
This week in the Divine Office, which all the clergy and many others of the Church pray daily, we have had the so-called Epistle of Barnabas, which is neither an epistle, nor is its author Barnabas, the companion of Saint Paul on his missions. However, as a treatise on the Faith it has been known, respected, and quoted since the earliest Church Fathers. Written as early as the 70’s (not the 1870’s or 1970’s, just the 70’s) or as late as the 120’s AD, its author is unknown, but he conveys not only the content but also the urgency and necessity of the Faith in Jesus Christ that was liberating people from their darknesses all across the classical world: You see, my brothers, we must carefully seek after our own salvation; otherwise, one who is bent on deceiving us will insinuate himself and turn us aside from the path that leads to life.
Our lives do not play out on neutral ground. The options available to human beings are not as innumerable and varied as are their minds and opinions; the default situation for us all is poverty and violence. Left to our own devices, only the strong survive, and they only until comes one even stronger. How can we know better, unless someone teach us?
Our Creator God, distressed by our helplessness, over generations and epochs, has revealed His nature and identity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Slow learners we, He extends to us more than simple knowledge, but moreover accompaniment and assistance. Since we are unable and unwilling to change our own destructive, selfish nature, He takes and transforms it in Himself, then invites us in to share. The only lifeboat on the stormy sea, she has room when Here comes everybody.
No man can craft a system or explanation for himself or others that will deliver him from dreadful downward drag of our own rottenness in both inclination and action. Every attempt across the arc of human striving has ended in ashes. Only in the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom 11:33) is the possibility of human life and society where there is more, not less.
Oh, you may try to remain neutral, thinking you are asking only to “do it your way” and be left alone. But therein lies the kernel of your annihilation. There is no middle between two opponents; there are only as many bad ways as there are people in the world, and one solitary good way, one path to life. Court not death by your erring way of life, nor draw to yourselves destruction by the works of your hands. (Wis 1:12)
Every soul must choose a side, and not to choose is to give oneself over to the one who can consign both body and soul to Gehenna, with its unquenchable fires. Seek your salvation, for the ones seeking your destruction are legion. In the world we inhabit, there is no neutral ground.
Monsignor Smith
