Sometimes when reading Girard i get caught up in the language. So let me - for my benefit - try to define terms again. Mimesis - is desire - seeking to obtain the object that the 'model' desires - imitation. There is also mimetic rivalry that is explained as this: if a model is a person in our immediate life setting (parent, authority figure, peer) then s/he is potentially a rival - so a rival and a model are basically the same - but we are not able to always see this. Now on to Satan again. In order to designate the exasperation of mimetic rivalry, the Gospels have a marvelous word that, at times, seems almost synonymous with Satan, scandalon - it means the obstacle against which one keeps stumbling. The scandalon designates a very common inability to walk away from mimetic rivalry which turns it into an addiction. The scandalon is anything that attracts us in proportion to the suffering or irritation that it causes us. It is even the aching tooth that we cannot stop testing with our tongue, even though it hurts more and more. The scandalon is all kinds of destructive addiction, drugs, sex, power, and above all morbid competitiveness, professional, sexual, political, intellectual, and spiritual, especially spiritual. Just think of the story of Pete - once again - who appears to be concerned about Jesus' discussion about Jerusalem and what will happen there when he arrives. This is Peter's dear friend and, no doubt, Peter is probably one of Jesus friends. And yet, Peter throws into the mix of their journey the rational for not going forward - the excuse to move in a way contrary from the way Jesus is called to go. It is an attractive alternative - certainly a safer one for now. This could very well be the pull. Jesus is drawn to the way of our God and Jesus also has this other way - a way that Jesus will tag as Satan - a stumbling block - attractive yet repulsive. Jesus sees it and hears it and does not get sucked into the mimetic rivalry at hand. He is self-defined by the promises of God and does not fall into trap that keeps us all so bound up in the ways of Satan - the scandalon. In the moment at hand, it is not at all easy - maybe even close to impossible - to catch ourselves in the act of following along with Peter. It is so inviting -seems so sensible - fits into how others think and act. And yet, we are called into another way of imitation - that of the life within the Reign of Go - the way of Jesus. Yet even in those moments, we are experts in making excuses and justifying our ways so that we continue in the way of the violence and brokenness of the world rather than the life of the non-violence of God's Reign. As you walk with us, O God, bring into our lives other saints who will be for us our eyes and ears that will remind us of your way even as we are ready to step off into the pathway in which we seem to know it all. For we know it all - sometimes - to our detriment and the detriment of others. Keep us in the way of your peace. Amen. |
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