Joan Chittister of the National Catholic Reporter has an outstanding essay on "The Shock of Being Shocked" by the recent Amnesty International report.
Her essay reminded me of the method Jesus often used to reveal truth to minds that were already made up, closed to the truth, and resistant to the revelation that he had to offer. In a variety of ways, Jesus would say something or do something that would "shock" or "jolt" people enough to get their attention and thereby enable them, if just for an instant, to get a glimpse of the different way of viewing reality that he was trying to reveal to them. After that, how they responded to what he revealed to them was up to them. They could either snap their minds shut again and turn back to their old view of the world, or they could open themselves to his new revelation and explore the new view of the world that he was revealing to them.
Eternal destinies were determined, one by one, by the way people responded to such "shocks."
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