20 Sep 2015
25th Sunday in Ordinary
Time, Year B
The situation today isn’t all that different from
way-back-when. The Book of Wisdom was
written about fifty years before the birth of Christ, and it was written for
the Jews who were living in Alexandria, Egypt.
And Alexandria was a place where the culture was influenced by both
Egyptian and Greek ways of life and ways of thinking.
The Egyptian gods were there.
The Greek gods were there. And
Greek philosophy was really ingrained in the way people thought. It’s significant that the largest library in
the world (at the time) was in Alexandria.
The author of the Book of Wisdom knew that he—and all the other Jews in
the city—were constantly being pulled in this
direction or that direction: ‘Think
this;’ ‘Believe that.’ And somewhere in
the mix of all this blending of cultures, beliefs, and ideas was the Jewish
faith.
But the Book of Wisdom was written as a reminder to the Jews
to be true to their faith and to their
God. There were some Jews who stayed
true, and the Book of Wisdom calls them the “just” or the “wise.” And there were some Jews who maybe
assimilated too much of the Egyptian
and Greek cultures, and the Book of Wisdom calls them the “wicked;” which is
what we hear about today.
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And this situation is exactly what we deal with today: We’re
disciples of Christ, members of his Catholic Church, and every day we’re influenced by ideas and beliefs which may or may not be Catholic or even Christian. Every day we have choices to make. You know, we’ll come across a blog or
something in the newspaper where somebody’s trying to ‘sell’ a certain
point-of-view. And the question is: Am I
going to let what they’re saying influence
me, or am I going to say, ‘No, that doesn’t sound right,’ and just ignore it? It’s the same situation the Jews experienced
in Alexandria, Egypt.
Now, in the letter of James, he suggests that “passions” are
the cause of all the divisions in society (and in the Church). And what he means here is that sometimes we
humans can feel so strongly about
something—we can be overly passionate
about something—that we stop listening
to others, and we actually turn in on ourselves—which, of course, is the
opposite of peace and love, which require us to “go out” and be “open” to
others.
Without knowing it, our human passions—our convictions—can actually
alienate us from the community we belong to.
And this ‘tug-of-war’ over what we believe and think is something we’re
going to experience even more intensely
during this election year. We’re in the
middle of a cultural tug-of-war over the principles and philosophies we live
by. And there’s a lot of passion behind them.
For example, we can look at abortion. And the Church hears the call of God: “Thou
shall not kill,” and also: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” From our Catholic perspective, the question
of abortion is very clear . . . and a
little complex. It’s complex because sometimes
the mother’s life is in danger and
the fetus has no chance of
survival. That’s oftentimes the case
with ectopic pregnancy.
But the basic principle,
the simple and overriding principle we Christians live by is that no one has the power or the right to end a
human life. Of course, we see this echoed
in our Declaration of Independence: “the inalienable right to life” is given to
all by “their Creator.” Though, some people
disagree. A lot of people disagree; even many of our Catholic brothers and sisters disagree.
There’s a passion at work here; a passion for ‘individual human rights’ and ‘health care’ which turns
many people in on themselves. The right
to ‘do what I want with my body’ blocks out the more basic right to life. And the human community—even the community of
faith—is divided and not at peace.
Even right here in Mass, our passions—our beliefs and philosophies—can divide us. Now, when a parish takes a survey, there are
generally a lot of critiques about
the music at Mass. And it was no
different here with our recent survey. We
hear that: People love the organ;
people hate the organ. People want exciting, vibrant music; people want calm, inspiring music.
People want new, modern music;
people want traditional hymns.
And these divisions are rooted in our passions, in our beliefs and
convictions about: who God is, what
Mass is about, what the Church is, and what relationship there should be
between the Church and the world in which we live. And all these beliefs and convictions
are shaped not only by our Catholic faith, but also by a whole society of competing philosophies about life and faith;
competing ideas about happiness and fulfillment.
And the fact that we have
all these ideas and philosophies and beliefs floating around is not the problem. You know, part of being “Catholic” is that we’re
interested in the wider “whole.” My
goodness, the entire Tradition of the Church would collapse if we weren’t open
to new ideas and sources of truth, whatever they happen to be.
The problem isn’t that there are a lot of ideas out
there. The problem is in being
influenced by ideas without first asking in all humility and curiosity: “Is
this really Christian? Is this really
Catholic?” It’s so easy to become so passionate
and convinced about an idea that we
block out the bigger picture; that we righteous in our minds instead of
sober. It’s so easy today to be carried
away from the community of faith and worshipping other gods, particularly the
god which is our own sense of rightness.
We see this among the early disciples. Jesus tried to tell them about his passion
and death; but they wouldn’t listen.
They thought they knew how the
Messiah was supposed to live—and being put to death wasn’t supposed to
happen. And so, as we hear, they did not
ask him any more questions; there was a breakdown in their communion with Jesus
because of their own sense of rightness—they
knew what was true (they thought).
And so, we’re not all that different from those Jews in
Alexandria, Egypt, way back when. They
were trying to find their way in the midst of a world of competing values,
competing philosophies of life—all the while trying to stay true to their
God. We’re in exactly the same boat.
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And while we sit and ponder how to be a Catholic Christian in
the world today, Jesus puts himself right in front of us and says, “I Am the
Way, and the Truth, and the Life. I Am.”
Just like that child he put in front of the disciples—a child who had no
legal standing and was worthless in the eyes of the world—just like that child
he puts himself in front of us—him who
has been banished from the public square and is worthless in the eyes of the
world—he puts himself in front of us
and says, “Follow me. Let me
into your heart and mind.”
Christ is our touchstone for truth and wisdom. He’s the one we go to when we wonder: “What
should I believe?” But Christ doesn’t
exist by himself; he lives on in his Church.
As he said to Simon, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.” And the Holy Spirit of Christ came on
Pentecost and filled the hearts and minds of his disciples who make up his
Church.
We live in a world of competing values and philosophies of
life; some are good to adopt into our lives; but others take us away from God
and his Church. And when we feel that “tug-o-war”
in our hearts or minds, it’s good to go to Christ, to sit with him and his
Church with all humility. And there,
where there is no division, no overriding
passion within us, but just simple openness to the goodness of the Lord . .
. there, we’ll find the assurance that what I believe is truly right and good.
And it will be so because it will be God’s truth, and not our
own.
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