Making Up Stories In Our Heads

Every year, right around this time of Lent, the readings start to take a turn. They begin to introduce us to the shadow side of the human experience and the ways that people are starting to plot against Jesus.

People have plotted against each other for a long time and for various reasons. We make up stories in our heads that a person is a bother, a nuisance or a threat. And sometimes we humans act on the thoughts in our heads and plot to do harm to one another.

We have seen this play out in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, nationality, etc. 

There’s usually a predictable pattern that emerges, and we see it in our recent headlines. There’s a process of objectification of the “other.” We call them names (terrorist; bloodthirsty, regime) and turn them into objects (no longer people with lives and relatives and feelings and friends). Then we create a justification as to why they are less than or deserving of punishment/retribution. Then we use some form of violence. Sometimes we then use language that obscures the violence, puts it in the third person or even says that the victim is the aggressor.

Look at the words in the first reading from Wisdom 2. There’s a group of people who have already told themselves a story about the “just one.” They convince themselves that “merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others.” They then claim that “[the just one] judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.”

This is ALL happening in their heads, and I’ll bet that it has happened to you as well. I know that it has happened to me. I make up stories about other people (especially people who have hurt me somehow or people I do not particularly like), and often the stories are purely based on speculation or what I think is happening in a situation. Or maybe we focus on a phrase or moment from a conversation or situation – giving us the needed ammunition to dislike or loathe someone.

And once we have created the narrative, we can move on to the next phase – which they do in Wisdom 2 when they say, “With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.” They have decided to use active forms of violence.

In the gospel from John 7, the same thing is happening. There’s a cohort of people who have already decided that Jesus is a threat and a blasphemer. He is not afraid to speak back to them in truth, and this only furthered their resolve to harm him.

While we may never have found ourselves plotting to harm someone, we might all do well to explore the narratives that we are creating in our heads about others – the people who bother us or get under our skin. The people who have hurt us. What words are we using to describe them? What motives are we attributing to them? Do we rehearse certain conversations or story lines over and over?

We might also do well to explore the narratives that we are receiving in the wider culture about the justification for war and so many other actions that harm others. What words are being used to describe people (or a country or its leadership)? What motives are being attributed to them? What are we being told we “must do” in order to address the situation?

Taken together, today’s readings remind me of the importance of both noticing our thought patterns (and what they do to us) as well as strengthening our resolve to practice non-violence in everyday life.

I often return to the words of Mohandas Gandhi. Both a student of the human heart and a fierce proponent of non-violence, Gandhi once said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.”

Lent is a time to develop new habits. This can start with a focus on our beliefs, thoughts and words. While I may not be able to control what other people do, I can control my own and I can resist/refuse when other express beliefs, thoughts and words that harm others. It may not always feel like much, but this is where some of the spiritual rubber meets the road.