The word ‘conspiracy’ is being used a lot lately. It is being pulled out of a lot of different hats in an attempt to come to grips what is going on within our society. Where does the word ‘conspiracy’ come from? It is a compound of ‘con’ and ‘spirited’, which, in its old Latin form, meant to ‘breathe together’, or to share the same spirit. We run into this formulation in the Nicene Creed where it says that Jesus was ‘con-substantial with the Father’, meaning that he was of the same substance as the Father. In John 20:22 it says that Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” As Christians then, we become ‘con-spirited’ with Christ. At Saint Benedict Parish, after our Holy Spirit weekend away during Alpha, we return as bonafide co-conspirators with Christ in the salvation of the world!

In normal usage, ‘conspiracy’ suggests something sinister, or fraudulent, but that depends on whose ‘breath’ is the animating force of a conspiratorial endeavour. In Ephesians 2:2, Saint Paul says that Satan is “the prince of the power of the air.” He is stalking us, singing, “Every breath you take, every move you make, I’ll be watching you.” He entices us to conspire with him against the Kingdom of Heaven. To counter this, Jesus asks us to pray daily that we do not fall prey to this temptation and be led down the garden path of iniquity, but that we be delivered from the clutches of this conspiratorial evil.

Conspiracies, whether meant for good or for ill, don’t play out on the main stage; they are ‘Off Broadway’ productions. Obscurity is in their DNA. For example, Jesus was not born in a palace in Rome, but in a stable in an out-of- the-way Judean village. He tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, or like a tiny mustard seed. God works his providential will by temporarily allowing it to be camouflaged by all the razzmatazz of the world. Jesus tells us to be sure and keep awake to the hidden reality of things, for in the fullness of time, all truth will be revealed.

In the public arena, our faith can be mocked and belittled as being just some religious conspiracy theory. We are in good company though, for Jesus was also mocked. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” In reality, we are not actually conspiracy theorists but conspiracy actualists, for Jesus actually rose from the dead, and the Eucharistic gifts actually become his body, blood, soul, and divinity. That tiny mustard seed has grown into the mighty tree of the Church and the hidden treasure is revealed on the altar at every Mass.