One of the most spectacular natural sights I
have seen is watching, from sea at night, Kilauea's molten lava cascade into
the ocean. Molten lava usually has a temperature in excess of 1200 F. In
addition to a fiery iridescent beauty, its tremendous destructive power indifferently
destroys homes and other structures in its path.
Once or twice most weeks, I walk in Kewalo
Basin Park. For several months I wondered about a large shed with fishing nets
prominently posted with signs declaring, "Kupu." My Hawaiian is extremely limited, but I do know that kapu means keep
out or forbidden, so that seemed
an unlikely interpretation.
Eventually, I saw a young man exiting the
shed as I was approaching it. Our eyes met and I seized the opportunity to
inquire about the meaning of kupu. He appeared pleased that I would take a moment to
inquire and explained that the kupu is a fern, which is often the first plant
to grow on freshly cooled lava. Kupu, he continued without embarrassment, is an
organization that helps young people like him get a second start. He invited me
to visit Kupu when I had more time to learn about the organization.[1]
It's easy to forget that the Hawaiian
Islands exist because of volcanoes. Beneath all of the buildings, roads, and
other structures that humans have added, beneath all of the lush flora and
coral, these islands are huge piles of ash, cinder, and lava. The death and
destruction of volcanic eruptions makes life here possible. You and I, this
parish and school, this community and this city all are kupu, new life that
flourishes where once there was only uninhabitable barrenness.
In today's gospel, Jesus said that those who
love him would keep his word and he gave them his peace.[2]
Jesus' command is that we love one another. Love is not the absence of
conflict. Human uniqueness – each person is a unique individual – inevitably leads
to disagreement and conflict. For example, no child matures into adulthood
without experiencing conflict with her or his parents. Instead of our futilely
attempting to avoid conflict, loving one another demands mutual respect and learning
to see God in one another.
In today's gospel, Jesus also gave his peace
to his disciples, that is, to you and to me. Peace is not the absence of
conflict. The biblical concept of peace – both the word eirene in Greek and
shalom in Hebrew – connotes human flourishing, living abundantly. We experience
peace – the peace that passes all understanding, abundant living, flourishing,
as individuals and as a community – when we cooperatively seek the common good,
bound together by love, aloha, strengthened by our different gifts, enriched by
our divergent perspectives, and completed by our sometimes-contradictory
priorities.
A week and a half ago, in earthquake ravaged
Montecristi, Ecuador, disheartened people spied a sign of hope. They spotted a
delicate statue of the Virgin Mary, brought to Ecuador by 16th
century Spanish missionaries, a statue that in earlier centuries had survived pirates
shelling the city, standing undamaged in the ruins of the basilica named for
her. Claims that the statue protected the city, when the earthquake that
measured 7.8 on the Richter scale killed more than 570 people, ring hollow.[3] Instead,
the statue, like the kupu fern, symbolizes the power of resurrection, God's
power to bring life out of death.
We all, individually and collectively, have dead zones
in our lives, ravaged by earthquakes, volcanoes, or other destructive forces. Many
of us try to hide or to ignore these dead zones, although occasionally a public
figure, such as Beyoncé in her newly released album, Lemonade, will dare to
break that silence. The good news of the gospel is that if we look carefully,
we can see signs – an undamaged statue, a fragile fern taking root – of new and
more abundant life when we dare to love one another and dedicate ourselves to
building the peace that Jesus would give to us, the peace of more abundant,
flourishing lives.
[2] John
14:23-29.
[3] Nicholas
Casey, "Virgin Mary Statue, Intact Among
Ecuador’s Quake Ruins, Becomes a Beacon of Hope," New York Times, April 21, 2016.
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