DR. CUMMINGS: Was Jesus a hippie?
I hope this doesn't offend you. I know that some of you get your image of Jesus entirely from your "21st century reading" of the New Testament and not from a study of the times in which he lived; in which case, you will no doubt reject this hippie theory completely. You could be right, of course, and I could be overly influenced by my years in Berkeley, California in the '60s.
I was a university professor then. Both the boys and the girls wore weird-colored shirts and pants, hair down to their belt buckles, earrings the size of donuts, and they felt comfortable smoking pot and breast-feeding babies in my classroom — that is, when they weren't driving around Berkeley in their psychedelic VW buses waving the V-sign from the windows.
This was their way of saying "No" to the war in Vietnam, "No" to the authority figures around them, "No" to the political correctness of laws they felt were outdated and useless. They were rebels. I suppose every generation finds some cause to champion. It's what happens when you reach that age.
When Jesus hit 27, he looked around his little town of Nazareth and saw armed Roman soldiers on every corner. Rome had overrun Judea. His Jewish community was now controlled by Roman law. It would be like the Muslims setting up Sharia law in Macon. I have every reason to believe the young idealistic Jesus rebelled against it.
In his day, hippies were called Cynics. They walked around the Jewish villages, preaching their philosophy of voluntary poverty and asceticism. They had no money and they relied on their listeners to give them food and clothing and shelter. I'm amazed at how close Mark's gospel comes to this when he has Jesus telling his Apostles:
"Take nothing for the road but a walking stick; no bread, no traveling bag, no money. You can wear sandals, but not an extra shirt." (Mark 6:8)
Jesus and his Apostles must have looked a lot like the Cynics. They certainly didn't look like their pastors and preachers — the Pharisees — or like the rich and famous Sadducees, and they didn't talk like them either. No long robes and expensive rings; no fancy homes and costly vacations. Both Jesus and the Cynics believed in "leading a simple life free from all possessions."
Now all this sounds an awful lot like the "Catacomb Pact." On the evening of Nov. 16, 1965, close to the end of Vatican II, 40 Catholic Bishops met at the Catacombs of St. Domitilla to sign a secret pact intended to do away with the richness, pomp and ceremony in the Catholic Church. These "princes of the Church" agreed to begin living like poor people in their housing, food and transportation. They said they renounced forever "wealth and its appearance," especially in their clothing and rings. They would transfer their properties and their bank accounts and cancel their banquets. They said they wanted to be called "Father" not "Your Eminence" or "Your Excellence." They wanted to look like the "church of the poor." They wanted to be poor in spirit.
What a novel idea. A Vatican Renaissance — a return to the original concept of Jesus and his Jewish followers. Can't you just imagine what an impact this group of hippie Cardinals and Bishops would have made on the world had they followed through on their pact? No more expensive villas and servants; no more white ermine capes and jeweled crucifixes; no more Vatican bank accounts; no more corrupt Curia priests doing their bidding as if they were the crown princes of Europe. What happened? Why didn't it permeate the church?
One of the men who runs the Domitilla Catacombs put it this way: "Back then, it had the odor of communism — at a time when the Western world was trying desperately to eliminate this poison." However, all that changed when the Argentinian Jesuit was made Pope. Francis has pried open that closed document and now instead of communism, it smells like Christianity.
Pope Francis was too young in 1965 to have been one of those "Catacomb Bishops," but when you read the pact, it sounds like he wrote it. I used to wonder why this pope, riding around in his white Jeep Wrangler, reminded me of my hippie students — now I know.
Dr. Bill Cummings is the CEO of Cummings Consolidated Corporation and Cummings Management Consultants. His website is www.billcummings.org.
This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 3:16 PM with the headline "DR. CUMMINGS: Was Jesus a hippie? ."