October 10, 2004: Unchaining God

The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time



I hope you don’t think I’m too weird or nerdy, but I was browsing online the other day, looking at a site called “The Physics Factbook.” [http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/RachelScottRosenbluth.shtml] There was an interesting page that gave all kinds of data on the human brain. I learned, for example, that at birth, the average human brain weighs 14 ounces. It usually reaches its maximum size at age 15—kind of a frightening thought! At its maximum, the brain weighs about 46 ounces—slightly less than three pounds.

If you’d like a comparison, go down to the gas station and buy one of those “Big Gulp” soft drinks. The cup it comes in would just about hold a full-grown human brain!

Now, even though there’s no way for medical professionals to prove it, the old theory was that we use only about 10% of our brain capacity. If that’s true, you might think that we start out with a Big Gulp, but after deducting the non-working part, we’re down to doing all our thinking with a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

And that, my friends, is the sum total of the tool we’ve been given to try to comprehend the infinite and figure out the mysteries of the ages. Not too likely!

Struggle as we might, there’s no way that we can decipher God’s awesome plan for our human race. Because we are limited, we have a tendency to put limits on how we think God works—and that short-changes both God and us.

The Mass readings today caution us about this. Perhaps St. Paul summarizes the theme when he tells St. Timothy, “The word of God is not chained.”

You see, many of us do believe that God’s word is chained. We hear it within the limits imposed by our own experiences and even our own beliefs. What do you really think God feels about the hot-button and even the mundane issues of our own day? Does He bless love-filled second marriages, or does He condemn the new spouses for adultery? Does He really think abortion is never, ever permitted, or does He understand that maybe a woman has no choice in certain circumstances? Does He find it unnatural that two men or two women could be in love with each other, or is He happy to bless them to express that love? Would it be OK with Him if women could become priests and bishops and maybe even the Pope, or it that beyond the pale? Does He honestly think it is a terrible sin for a couple to use contraception, or does He really think it’s all right?

You can probably come up with dozens of other questions like these… and we’ve all seen the texts of the Bible used to defend either side of just about any argument. If God is pure love and if He loves all the children He created, then how do we arrive at so much condemnation—from each other and even from the Church?

You see? Our quarter-pounder-brain-with-cheese does have a tough time deciphering the mysteries of our own religion, much less the mysteries of the universe!

Obviously, people of faith live within a tension. We are what our environment and traditions have formed us to be, yet at the same time, God’s holy word urges us to go beyond these circumstances to shape a new environment and create new traditions according to His plan.

The first reading describes this kind of tension in an ancient setting. On the one hand, the Israelites believed, at the time, that Yahweh was limited by geography; he was the God only of Israel. When Jews traveled outside the Promised Land, Yahweh was powerless to help them. The gods whose territory they entered took over at the border. That’s why when the Syrian general, Naaman, was cured, he asked the prophet Elisha for “two mule loads of earth.” His idea was to take the Jewish soil back to Damascus and spread it around his property, so in effect, Naaman would be on Israelite land so this would empower Yahweh to help him as his god!

But on the other hand, we also hear about the limitlessness of Yahweh’s word. Yahweh didn’t just help His own chosen people, as you might think. Who does He decide to heal? Naaman! Not only a Gentile, but a hated Syrian enemy!

The same kind of tension pops up in the Gospel, too. We see, for example, that Jesus’ show of power appears to be limited by Jewish law when he tells the lepers to go show themselves to the priest. Under the law, only priests could declare that someone was a leper or cured of leprosy. But then, on the other hand, Jesus acted outside the norm. He first cures a heretic, a Samaritan! Then, after this outcast Jew comes back to thank Him, Jesus says something incredible: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

Think about that! The mainstream Jews ostracized Samaritans precisely because they lacked orthodox faith, yet here’s Jesus blowing everyone’s mind by declaring that God’s saving actions aren’t going to be limited by a person’s orthodoxy!

We know that. We know that not only Catholics are going to be saved. We don’t by any means have a monopoly on God’s blessings. Maybe we’ve been shown a most wonderful and reliable way to stumble along to the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not the only path for all people.

Now perhaps it makes sense why the letter to Timothy includes part of a beautiful, early Christian hymn: “If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with Him. But if we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

Christians believe that becoming one with the risen Jesus is the most unchained experience we can have on this earth. Dying and rising with Him takes us beyond the restrictions that our daily lives impose on us. Jesus’ actions aren’t even limited even by our unfaithfulness to Him… thank God!

So: how are we to respond to today’s readings? Are we being given free license to live any old way we want or to believe anything we want? No. Absolutely, no. We belong to Christ Jesus, and He wants us live in right relationship with Him, with each other and with all of creation. We are not God. We can’t shape the world to suit ourselves or our desires. No, we are creatures, living according to His design of what’s right and what’s wrong, and what’s loving and what’s not.

Yet on the other hand, we have to unchain God so He can work outside our limited understanding. And there’s the tension. It would be good to get into the habit of not only examining our own actions each day, but also to reflect on God’s actions in our lives. Blessings often break through the restrictions we just assumed were there.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, open your mind and heart to the breathtaking possibilities and miracles that are at work all around us. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!





Today’s Readings:
2 Kings 5, 14–17
Psalm 98
2 Timothy 2, 8–13
Luke 17, 11–19