Faith, Commitment, Service

The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: Jos 24: 1-2a, 15-17, 18b; Ps 34; Eph 5: 21-32; Jn 6: 60-69

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been stressing the importance of cracking open the bible as one key way to figure out God’s will so we can live by it. And remember, I’ve also said that the words alone aren’t always easy or obvious in their meaning.

As a case in point, today, we have the well-known reading from the letter to the Ephesians. The apostle Paul writes: Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church…

To our modern ears that sounds downright insulting! I don’t even think the Cable Guy could get away with a remark like that. So much talk about all of us being equal in the eyes of God, and then this in the Holy Scriptures! Are we really supposed to take it seriously that women are subservient and asked to be submissive to men—or is this an example of a terribly out-of-date and prejudicial attitude?

Actually, if you study the passage that this text is part of, you’ll see that the reading begins: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. It also tells husbands to love their wives deeply, just the way Christ loves his church. In other words, this isn’t a one-sided teaching that the husband is the boss and the wife is a peon. Paul is saying that if a couple is going to have a loving marriage, then each spouse has to put the other first. The wife has to do her darnedest to be subordinate to her husband’s wishes and the husband has to do his darnedest to be subordinate to his wife’s. If the two partners try to outdo each other in loving and deferring to one another, that is the greatest proof and guarantee of their mutual love. There’s the marriage covenant in a nutshell.

As you know, besides my regular parish work, I also do work for the Marriage Tribunal. Most of what I do involves reviewing cases where people have gotten divorced and are asking for a church annulment.

In case you’re wondering why marriages fail in the vast majority of cases that I see, it’s because one or both of the spouses weren’t able to live by the simple principle we hear about today. Instead of trying to serve or defer to one another, the marriage partners put their own selfish interests first. Maybe the problem on the surface has to do with money or drinking or running around or whatever, but as an underlying issue, it often boils down to one spouse basically saying: I’m going to do what I want to do, and if you don’t like it—that’s too bad.

That kind of attitude, of course, isn’t going to cut it in any relationship—most especially in a marriage.

By the way, this gives me a little opportunity to talk for a minute about the whole idea of an annulment. I’m sure you’ve heard the Church’s teaching on marriage, which flows out of the bible text that’s quoted in Ephesians: For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. We understand Christ’s teaching is that once a couple marries, they become one flesh and they can’t be divided… so divorce is not possible.

If that’s true, then how can we have annulments?

Ah… once again, we see that you have to be very careful about taking everything in the bible at face value apart from the deeper meaning that God wants us to grasp.

One of the key ideas underlying a marriage is that the spouses commit themselves to one another freely and knowingly. So if there’s undue pressure to marry—like the old “shotgun” marriage—that’s not free. If there’s fraud—like a person not marrying for love but as a way to become a citizen… or a person deceiving the other in some important way such as secretly never wanting any children but saying that they do to get their fiancé to marry them—that’s not entering into marriage knowing the truth. Or if one or both partners are so immature or selfish that they can’t comprehend the idea of putting the other’s interests ahead of their own, then that, too, can show that what they attempted wasn’t really the kind of one-flesh union that Christ or his Church envisioned. The annulment process looks into that and recognizes it.

In many places, the Scriptures draw powerful comparisons between marriage and our faithfulness to God. It’s easy to see the parallel in today’s gospel.

When a bunch of Jesus’ disciples felt that he was asking too much of them in terms of their faith, they walked away—just as sometimes one partner may say, “That’s it. I can’t take it any more”—and walk out the door of a marriage.

But then Christ asks his twelve closest friends, the apostles: Do you also want to leave? Peter answers with beautiful honesty and commitment: Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.

We have come to believe and are convinced. You see, it is always faithful belief that underlies a commitment, whether it’s to God or to a spouse. Then, that faith is lived out and backed up by our day-to-day actions.

I like how our translation says: “we have come to believe.” That reminds us that coming to the faith we need for a commitment is a process. It’s also good to remember that it’s very much the result of God’s grace. God shows us how to love and commit.

The Lord is asking us today to examine and renew our commitments—both to God and to our marriage partner. We’ve got to ask the Lord for the grace to always put them first and trust that God will take care of the rest.

May this be our prayer today.

Seeking Wisdom

The 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: Prv 9: 1-6; Ps 34; Eph 5: 15-20; Jn 6: 51-58

Our Scripture readings today speak about wisdom. Maybe it sounds obvious at first blush, but Paul reminds us that we should live wisely; we mustn’t be ignorant but instead try to understand God’s will and apply it in our lives. Wisdom isn’t some kind of mysterious or obscure knowledge that is dropped in our lap or spoon-fed into our brain. Rather, it’s meant to be a practical way of living that comes from following the Lord.

That’s what Proverbs means by saying that Wisdom has built her house, spread her table and invited us to come in and partake of her offerings. In other words, if you want to be wise, come check out what God would like to show you.

It’s very important to remember that God wants us to use the gifts he’s given us—things like thinking, reasoning, mental deliberation, and our conscience. We’re not supposed to park our brains outside the church door and blindly accept everything we hear, much the way a computer could be indiscriminately loaded up with data. That’s not human, and it’s really not entirely wise.

No, if we’re seeking a way to live well, to live wisely, then we’ve got to take the Lord’s teachings, make them our own, and weave them into the fabric of our life. Wisdom is not a Sunday-only thing; it’s for every day of the year.

As human beings, we are made up of body, mind and spirit. We have hospitals and health clubs to help us take care of our bodies. We have schools and libraries to enrich our minds. We have the Church and the Scriptures to support our spirits. And it’s vital that all three of these areas within us continue to grow and develop and flourish.

Think about it: no one would honestly suggest that the level of medical care or scientific knowledge or education of Jesus’ day would be acceptable to us today! Yet some folks think that the level of spiritual development that was good enough then should still be good enough now. In fact, in 2,000 years of Christianity, there has been tremendous development of our understanding of God’s truths, our wisdom.

Remember that Jesus left earth for good on Ascension Day. He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to help us and guide us, but for the most part his first followers had to figure out all the details on their own. Read the Acts of the Apostles and the history of the Church, and you’ll see the amazing deliberative process involved in working things out: did believers have to become Jews first, then Christians? Did they have to be circumcised? Did they have to follow the old dietary laws? How could Jesus be fully God and still fully a man? How could Mary be a virgin and still give birth to a baby? How can bread become flesh but still look and taste and smell like plain bread? How could women or slaves or lepers be equal children of God rather than second-class citizens? And millions of other tough moral and doctrinal issues that have come up over the centuries…

No question that the Church, after this long process of development, possesses much wisdom… and in fact, continues to grow in wisdom. But how do we, as individual believers, import this wisdom into our lives in a meaningful way… a way that lets us not just know “religious facts” but a way that lets us make this wisdom our own so we can live by it? The answer, to a large extent, is just the same way the Church got it: we’ve got to ask questions, challenge ideas that disturb us, reflect on our lived experiences, study what others have to say, and struggle to understand—all within the framework of our faith. This is a life-long process. It doesn’t end with 8th grade CCD.

The official Catechism of the Catholic Church—that thick book published by the Vatican in 1992—contains just short of 2,900 numbered topics representing a breathtaking contemporary overview of the Church’s wisdom. Will every Catholic be able to accept every single point unquestioningly? Now that would be a miracle! If I have trouble with 5 topics, or 17 topics, or even 43 topics, does that mean I’m going to hell? Well, I don’t think our Lord works that way… do you?

Let me repeat: coming to understanding and acceptance and belief and wisdom is the work of a lifetime. Our job is to ask, to seek, and to knock. Having a question or a difficulty doesn’t make us a heretic or a bad Catholic. On the contrary, it pleases God that we find it important enough to think about living in a way that tries to honor and please him.

Just to clarify, I am not suggesting that you become what some people call a “cafeteria Catholic” where you pick and choose which teachings of the Church you like and reject the rest. To do that is to make up your own religion! That kind of approach is usually based just on feelings with little to back them up except personal preference.

No, I’m speaking about a process that requires more effort and commitment on your part. It means studying the Bible—especially Jesus’ own words in the gospels—and trying to figure out what Christ is really saying. It means reading what popes and theologians and spiritual writers have to say on the subject, because they’re often very good at that. It also means comparing your own experiences with what you’ve read so you can see what matches and what doesn’t match and why that is. If you’ve lived through something, your viewpoint may be quite different from someone who doesn’t have the same investment as you. That’s an important piece.

And while you’re in this questioning mode, please be patient and charitable to people who may not be at the same stage of the spiritual journey as you are. Always remember that love is God’s most important commandment.

It is OK to take your beliefs apart and look at them long and hard. God’s not afraid of you doing that. That’s how you find personal value in them… so you can pack them back into your spiritual toolbox that helps you face life.

Then if somebody asks you about a belief you hold, you can honestly say that thanks to the grace of God, you have come to believe it… you have made it your own… and you live by it.

And that, my friends, is Wisdom.

Discovering the Kingdom of God

Feast of the Transfiguration
Today’s Readings: Dn 7:9-14; Ps 97; Pet 1:6-19; Mk 9:2-10 [Link]

The other day, Maggie and I were out at Middle Fork hiking around the trails. We both really enjoy it out there. When you come into the park, there’s a sign that says that you’re supposed to keep all pets on leashes, but I must confess to a case of selective blindness when I pass that sign! Sign? What sign? She really does get a kick out of having a place where she can run free.

The thought came to me as we walked through the woods that morning that Maggie really lives in two separate worlds. On the one hand, she lives in a human world. She comes when I call her. She eats what I put in front of her and when I decide it’s time. She’s careful about going outdoors to do her business, because she’s learned that humans apparently don’t appreciate you-know-what all over the floors and carpets.

But then on the other hand, she also lives in a dog world. When we’re out in the forest preserve, Maggie knows that if she spots an animal, she can take off after it—through the bushes and cockleburs, and even across the river if she wants. In her doggie world, she happily laps up water from muddy puddles if she’s thirsty... and if she’s lucky enough to come across a dead animal, well, she loves to roll around through the remains.

The interesting thing is, we humans also live in two distinct worlds. There’s our familiar earthly world, of course. And then there’s the kingdom of God. Believe it or not, we’ve got our feet planted in both these worlds—the earthly realm and the heavenly realm—at the same time.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus keeps telling us about the kingdom of God. It seems like he’s always explaining what it’s like: it’s like a giant mustard plant grown from a tiny seed… it’s like a treasure buried in a field that we’d sell everything to own… it’s like a dragnet filled with every kind of fish from the sea… it’s like a pearl of great price… it’s like a huge banquet to which everybody is invited.

He also keeps impressing upon us that this kingdom is already here among us. If we don’t see it, it’s because we’re not looking the right way.

The kingdom of God, as most of know from personal experience, can indeed be hard to see. At best, we may be only vaguely aware that there’s any kind of reality beyond the world we can perceive with our five senses. Nevertheless, sometimes God steps into our lives with something of a bombshell to wake us up… maybe a miracle or some kind of mystical experience.

Occasionally you hear about a person who’s had a real close call in life, or a near-death experience. That may be all it takes for them to re-evaluate their life and change it for the better. You might run into a Mother Teresa or some other living saint who impresses you so profoundly that you decide to radically alter your own life so you can be like that, too. This is definitely dramatic, but for some people it happens this way. Or, maybe you had a freaky-beyond-words experience like the three apostles who witnessed Christ’s Transfiguration. People we call mystics sometimes have experiences like that.

But as for the rest of us regular folks who for the most part live ordinary lives, things like that don’t happen too much. So how do we connect with this other world? Jesus tells us that people like us have to have faith that the kingdom of God exists. We have to have faith to see it. And the pathway to this other world—the kingdom of heaven—is through our belief and our life in the Spirit.

In the gospel, the Father says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

That, my friends, in a nutshell, is the way to the kingdom of God: listening to Jesus with ears of faith.

We are so blessed to have the very words of Jesus that have been preserved for us. You find them in the four gospels. One of my favorite bibles has all those words printed in red ink. If all you did was to read those red words, you’d have a pretty good idea of how to find the kingdom of heaven and how to take part in it—not just when you die, but here and now. I can’t imagine anything better or more fulfilling or more joyous than walking through life with Jesus Christ at your side, knowing that he’s there for you 100% and 100% of the time.

Sometimes Jesus’ words may seem backwards or confusing. Blessed are the poor… Doesn’t he mean that it’s better to be rich? Gotta think about that. If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek… Now wait a minute: doesn’t he want us to stand up for ourselves rather than be just a human doormat? Hmmm… better think about that, too. Love your enemies… Pray always… Courage! Don’t be afraid… Come to me if you’re carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest… Don’t judge others lest you be judged… and about 50,000 other things that often take some reflection to sort out.

Obviously, the kingdom of heaven is a very big place. I think it would take more than an eternity to explore it all… but that’s OK. Our first job is to get our toe in the door and to start to look around and invite others to come have a look, too.

Don’t be thrown off if somebody tries to put you down. Just pray for them and stick to the path God is calling you to. In my Father’s house there are many rooms…

I love how Peter says it today. He says: You will do well to be attentive, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. In other words, discovering your way into the kingdom means that you stop stumbling around in the dark and instead find the brilliance and safety of the light.

Over the next few days, I encourage you to lift up your heart to Jesus. Pick up your bible and start reading his life-giving words that were spoken just for you. What an amazing kingdom awaits…