“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Rom 5:6-11 ESV)

Breakage occurs sooner than we expect. There is always, while we are elaborately putting life together piece by piece, there is always the ravages of time primary and all over, caught up with, our fellows and peers and gals. Then, the goal is to “do the right thing”, in haste, in Awareness, in Cognisance most divine and remedial. But what is this “right thing”?

Breaking out of our comfort zones, to be aware that whilst we are whistling away the days, others could not go further, were unable to carry on, broke and compromised the very things they had formerly held so dear: this awareness beckons us to the Radical thought of a Christ. How, might I go to my Cross today? Where, might I shed the accumulated good works and be a fool for His sake? Why, might I allow personal recognisance a patient listening Line, rather than a hasty one? That is, provided we listen with Effect, with Agency, with that prayerful certainty of our Office: a word, a blessing, an acknowledgement that someone is listening, it warms and basks in the light of the Office: it is enough. It is a start.

So to that breakage occurring “before we were primed and ready”. To that friend in need or the daily compromises made. All this calls on the Christ we met, who was an alien righteousness to us, who starkly juxtaposed Desirables with Absences, voids with exuberance, a squinting and bespeckling Light into each corner of our now beautiful selves. Beautiful in His eyes. Beautiful, because we Become: we Become what others intuit in us. The foolish one learns Composure. The awkward one learns Humor. The head-hung-low one sees their own Potential. Promise. Religion.

Christ’s immediate response was a bit Fun if we include in that term the fact souls were on the line, nothing to joke about. We each of us face a strange new history of church things, where the question of civil response to what are traditionally “church things” is blasphemed and degraded and mocked: the wink-wink-nudge-nudge Accusations that were meant as a parable; the use of a public trial to insinuate a totally unrelated Charge, the fact of “Sin” being punishable in a court of law by contrast with “Crime”. The latter, yes, the former, never.

Breakage is already in the works, already planned by a foe most beguiled and confused as to proper Just Getting Along types of prayer. The breakage is a reminder to all who make friendships this day, that these are friendships not of blase convenience but of souls on the line and threats avoided but nonetheless implied, remembered with a gratefulness as to their absence. We therefore reach out, we imagine, take the day or the week in prayer because only then and all of a sudden it dawns on us: someone needed to make the phone call! So-and-so could only do so much! Behind-the-scenes Actions: these are held together on wings and a prayer! That people will come together. That some form of camaraderie—we do not know nor presume to understand how—will take effect. That an enemy might be more comfortable talking to a middle-man, middle-woman.

And then to our life experience aka basic training: that the persistence of evil in the world is no disproof of God’s existence. He has His reasons, and these—to think outside the box—could include: that He wants to allow several or two lamp posts, just to see who “Shows up”. That He cannot use Divine Authority quite as recklessly as the peoples use their imagined or fantasized authorities. That He has some deeper principles at work, and we for now await the day when All Things will become clear. Or the curiosity factor, that Evil is real and rampant in the world, so why not let this as much as any be the teaching moment. Moreover, He has answered, and that with His Son. If we don’t hear Him, who will we ever hear? So to gawk, to await a “show of force”: this is the scripture-writers’ hopes that that force already be Seen and Acknowledged in the healings, in the patient peace-mongering, in the solemn or joyous hikes through the temple yard.