Friday December 22, 2017
Put down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the downtrodden! This is the war-cry of revolution. Revolution doesn’t mean a change of fashion, it means a violent upheaval in society. Or as Mao Tse-tung wrote in 1927, “A revolution is not the same as inviting people to dinner, or writing an essay, or painting a picture....A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
What have those two gentle women, Mary and Elizabeth, in common with Mao Tse-tung, one of the world’s most heartless dictators? Revolution! But surely not violence? Yes, violence too; that’s the most obvious thing in both revolutions. The difference is that Mao inflicted violence on hundreds of millions of people, while John the Baptist and Jesus endured violence. And countless Christians have endured it through the centuries. Strangely, this kind of revolution goes on forever, while the other burns itself out in a few generations, or even sooner. The most radical revolutionary becomes a conservative on the day after the revolution—and more than a conservative, a dictator.
I misquoted the Magnificat at the beginning. Mary did not say, “Put down the mighty…” but “God has put down the mighty….” That is the greatest difference between the two revolutions. The number one disciple, Peter, had chosen the way of violence, he was already using his sword, when Jesus said, “Put your sword back into its scabbard” (Jn 18:11).
