May Day is coming. (Image by Olivia Hernandez) pic.twitter.com/GLqpbmEqWJ

— Tina Vasquez (@TheTinaVasquez) April 28, 2014

May Day is not a holiday in NZ: we have just had two long weekend (Easter and Anzac day). We have a public holiday on October 25 to celebrate the eight hour day… which makes me giggle, because most people I know either work far more than eight hours (if they are employed) or nowhere near it.

And other stuff too, but i like this. #MayDay2014 ? RT: “@carolduncan: May Day. pic.twitter.com/2w7JGW11XQ”

— ElleReezy (@Elle_Reezy) April 30, 2014

But the text today is one of those “insensitive” ones that will get the haters fuming. Because it talks about two things:

• Abstaining from the desires of the flesh. This, by the way, is more than lust: it includes gluttony, sloth and envy. It includes all the destroyers.
• Live a life of honour. Act in a loyal and faithful way to your king, your governer, your mayor, your master and your spouse.

Recasting this teaching in modern jargon: you cannot control the emperor, or the mayor, or even your spouse. You can only control yourself. And if you do that and act honourably, no man will call you an evildoer, and God will be glorified.

1 PETER 2:11-3:12

¹¹Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. ¹²Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

¹³For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. ¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

¹⁸Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. ¹⁹For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. ²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” ²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

¹Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct,²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ³Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; ⁴rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight. ⁵It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. ⁶Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you.

⁷Husbands, in the same way, show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life – so that nothing may hinder your prayers.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. ⁹Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called – that you might inherit a blessing. ¹⁰For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; ¹¹let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. ¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Now, since it is May Day, and because it flows from the text, some doctrine from a Catholic Friend (who demonstrates, as an aside, that predestination is not a Calvinist doctrine, but a Christian one)

Christianity teaches us that evil – and, with an inevitable consequence, any kind of social evil, like poverty or social hatred – is the result of the imperfection of this world, which in turn is the result of the Fall. The rebellion to God’s law of our first Ancestors – a rebellion we all carry within ourselves, and which is at the very root of man’s sinfulness – has caused the world to be afflicted by war, famine, pestilence, poverty, perverts, communists, V II priests, and Jorge Bergoglios. The Christian message has always been clear.

Inequality has, in all this, never played any role. On the contrary, it is evident to the dumbest tambourine player around that inequality is in the very fabric of Creation, as people are born with hugely different gifts and qualities and graces, which are all extremely multiform in their appearance, but also extremely inequal in their quality and quantity.

A girl is born beautiful but poor; another beautiful but rich too; a third both poor and ugly; a fourth gentle and smart. A boy is born strong, another weak; a third brave, a fourth stupid; some are deformed, some are handsome, some witty and some dull, & Co.

It goes on. Some are born in Catholic families, some in Proddie, some in heathenish, some in atheist ones. How is this “equal”? (at least if Catholicism, or at least Christianity, is of any importance to you?).

Some, God loves more; some, God loves less. Some are predestined to be saved and will profit from God’s efficacious grace; some will only get sufficient grace and, being rebellious, will end up in hell. Does this sound like “equality” to you?

It goes on still. Were Christians, then, sleeping the past two thousand years, when huge inequality in wealth – and I mean here wealth born in, not acquired – and talents were considered as a god-given state of affairs? Why has Jesus not demanded that, say, Zacchaeus be not wealthier than his average follower, or even countryman? Or did he not do so, because he did not have the privilege of a smartphone, with which to access Francis’ astonishingly senseless statements and new-age-cum-communism philosophy?

All this seems obvious enough. Obvious, I mean, if you believe in the Fall, in sin, in judgment, in evil, in the devil, and in all that stuff.

The idea that we can all be equal is in part a nonsense. Yesterday one of the trainers at the gym came up and said to me that someone had told her I’m fairly intelligent. I muttered “yeah” and got back to pushing a sled — something this trainer (who is at least two, if not three decades younger than me) can do much better than I can. We have varying talents. We have varying roles.

But we can do these things with honour or with dishonour. We can rule with humility or with contempt: we can obey willingly, reluctantly or not at all. Today we need to reflect on the history of revolution and rebellions — which in the West, from Cromwell to the Orange revolte in Ukraine, has been a story of failure, as the next stable regime is more corrupt, more cruel, more entrenched.

Let the athiests have their secular day. Let them pretend that they won the war for workers freedom because they won battles in good times. Let us, instead, live well: it is better for us and far better for society.