There are certain texts in the Bible that are intimidating, daunting, downright alarming. “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn and offer the other.” Right, like that’s going to happen. “Give to those who ask.” Have you ever seen how many are asking when you walk downtown on State Street? For me, the most alarming of all is the speech of St. Peter in the Book of Acts: “The author of life you put to death… Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance.” All that is required in order to do something as terrible as killing the Son of God is ignorance. The ones that Peter called brothers (church-going, tithe-paying, commandment-obeying, one and all) would probably be horrified at the thought of offending God — and yet they did so because they acted out of ignorance. So with us. We don’t have to want to do evil. We don’t need to intend to sin. We don’t necessarily decide to commit some wrong-doing. But acting in ignorance can result in hurt and harm and injury to those around us that might eventually lead to killing the Son of God.
What does that mean: to act out of ignorance? It might mean that you just didn’t know. “I didn’t realize the pizza was hot so I burned the roof of my mouth.” Ignorance means in this instance a lack of information. But there is another way of acting out of ignorance that reflects that the root of the word “ignorance” is the verb “to ignore.” With this definition you would say, “I burned the roof of my mouth because the pizza smelled so good I couldn’t wait.” You chose to ignore the consequence of eating hot pizza. This is the kind of ignorance that St. Peter is talking about in his sermon. When the people acted out of ignorance, they ignored all the ways that the life and mission of Jesus showed him to be the fulfillment of the Scriptures. If Jesus was who he said he was then their lives were going to be disturbed and they would have to change their ways. Their minds were made up that Jesus was a threat to their customary way of being so they ignored evidence that he was from God … which led to putting the author of life to death.
This isn’t merely an old, old story of how those people behaved back then. It is our story as well. We ignore those things that disturb our ability to sail along unperturbed on the river of denial. We ignore those things that we don’t want to hear or those things which seem outside of our control or those things which will demand that we grow. Now, as then, acting out of ignorance, ignoring inconvenient truths, can produce horrible consequences. Some examples from my life (you probably could add some from your own.) I ignore that my actions contribute to global warming and the coming environmental disaster. Paying attention to it would require that I change my lifestyle so I ignore it hope it goes away as if it’s just a big bully. I ignore that my life is so much easier because of white privilege. Noticing how racism skews society would require that I act in ways that promote justice. I ignore how my actions (or inactions) have hurt people. Since I didn’t mean to hurt them I don’t feel a need to walk in their moccasins, to see things from their perspective. And, interestingly, I ignore myself – my pains and conflicts. To notice them would require doing something about what’s happening with me so I just hope things get better as I go whistling past the graveyard. In all these examples, and more besides, ignoring what is going on, acting out of ignorance, only makes things worse.
How to fix it? What enables us to stop acting out of ignorance? Please note that the opposite of ignoring is not knowing but discovering. We might know the catechism backward and forward but we must discover what it means for my life. What we need in order to avoid acting out of ignorance is not knowledge but wisdom. The Scribes and Pharisees had a great deal of knowledge about the Bible but they still acted out of ignorance. They were unwilling to discover the new thing God was doing. The Gospel of St. Luke says that Jesus helped the befuddled and confused disciples onto the path of discovery by opening “their minds to understand the Scriptures.” If that worked for Peter, Andrew, Mary Magdalene and the rest it will work for us as well. Once we discover the meaning of the Scriptures with wisdom, not just knowledge, we can get over our tendency to ignore the unpleasant or challenging. There’s only one problem: the Scriptures are big! Have you seen a Bible? 72 books, 1748 pages, 1189 chapters, 31,103 verses, 807,361 words. Our minds would really have to be opened to understand all of that. Happily, Jesus provided a little synopsis of the Scripture that we can use. You remember the scene when someone asked him about the greatest commandment? Can you pick out, Jesus, from that big, fat book what matters most? Sure, Jesus answered. Love God and love your neighbor. That’s it. All the rest is commentary.
That’s what insures that we don’t act out of ignorance. Love. In popular culture we talk about “falling in love” and how you tend to act impulsively, even foolishly, when you are in love. Maybe we need to demonstrate our love of God and neighbor with a similar wild abandon. There’s a song from My Fair Lady “If you’re in love Show me. Sing me no song Read me no rhyme Don’t waste my time Show me. Anyone who’s ever been in love will tell you that This is no time For a chat. Show me now.” That’s the challenge. We show love of God and neighbor by being good stewards of creation, by wearing masks and getting vaccinated, by connecting with someone who is suffering, by being generous toward the poor, by forgiving someone who hurt us, by eliminating violence from our circle of care, by finding the common humanity in the rich diversity we encounter. You get the idea. Show love and save the world.
