One of the biggest factors preventing our spiritual transformation is the conventional mind.
Gospel reading for June 9, 2024, 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus attracts people! He cannot even have a meal with his friends without people coming to him with their needs. Of course, Jesus is eager to heal and liberate people in pain. He drives out demons and cures illness. And yet, even as many are drawn to Jesus, others are scandalized. Jesus’ family thought he was insane. The scribes of Israel believed he was possessed by Beelzebub. These groups represent the conventional mind. The conventional mind is simply the way everyone thinks and what everyone tends to pay attention to. It is the mindset that takes offense when the standards of society are violated and the powers that be are questioned.
“The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘By the prince of demons he drives out demons.’” The scribes denied and ignored problem people, that is, those possessed by demons. Today’s guardians of conventionality do the same. For instance, all who follow Jesus should be alarmed by the way American cities are criminalizing the homeless. It appears they want to disappear the problem of unhoused people not by investing in them for their flourishing, i.e., providing affordable housing, but by incarceration and fines. Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, yet mainline American media are demonizing college students for issuing the same call.
Those caught up in the conventional mind seem to find it too inconvenient or even offensive to help people. Fear and division drive them. Their work is diabolical: the word “diablos” (the Greek root word for “diabolical”) means to throw apart or separate. Anytime we build high walls to keep people out – whether literal walls to keep out immigrants, walls of impenetrable “orthodox” doctrines to keep out the impure, or legal ones intended to contain unhoused people, disproportionately Black and Latino, in the walls of a prison.
The scribes demonize Jesus himself because Jesus’ action is impeccable: he is liberating people, healing them, and repossessing them for God. So the frightened authorities, those most invested in the conventional mind, do not attack his healing work but Jesus himself: he’s possessed by the devil! They divert attention away from the liberation by making people question Jesus himself.
The conventional mind would rather discredit a true liberator than question the mores of society. It fears losing power, not being right, or not being liked/respected. Or it might just be fear of any change at all. It may be a fear of an ego-constructed world falling apart. Well, Jesus did not come to usher in the end of all our egocentric and conventionally constructed worlds where poverty, war, genocide, and prejudice are tolerated as long as the system holds or, really, as long as the people on top stay on top with all their stuff!
The conventional mind will try to shut down the liberating presence of God by demonizing, fomenting hatred for a person or group, and creating divisions between people. These are powerful motivators. Hate and fear sell very well. Many politicians whip up outrage and anxiety to secure power. The scribes, as much as politicians and religious fundamentalists today, build walls between themselves and the “impure” to maintain social order or some idea about orthodoxy. They desire control. They want to force others to fit an idea they have in their heads.
Jesus does not ask us to control others or reality in general but invites us to surrender control and let God be God. When that happens, we are liberated. But we cannot force it. God does not respond to our impetuous and often willfully violent efforts, even when they are directed towards ourselves and trying to exorcise some addiction from our own lives. Jesus is clear: we cannot drive out Satan with Satan. We can’t fight fire with fire. Using violence to stop violence doesn’t work. It might work temporarily, but not long-term. Those who are hurt build resentment, while those inflicting the harm become mean, and heartless, even enjoying the pain they create.
When we fight, we lose. Fighting never seems to solve anything. It only foments more division, widening the gaps already existing between people. This is a core strategy of the conventional mind. Jesus does not respond to reality by fighting. He accepts the moment, rooted in God, and then acts. He does not allow the circumstances he experiences to define his spirit or condition his mind. We are the opposite. To accept the present moment is to accept the Will of God. "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Thus Jesus tells us his real family is made of those who accept and carry out God’s Will in whatever the present moment brings. This includes loving the person before us and offering the liberation of Jesus. Living in the present moment then brings us out of the conventional mind into unity with the Will of God.