From the crib to the Crucifix: Repent and believe in the Gospel

Today, the Church celebrates “Word of God” Sunday to remind Catholics across the globe of the fundamental importance of Scripture to developing and nurturing a healthy relationship with God. To that end, Catholics are encouraged to read Scripture at three, progressive, and developmental levels: the literal (to know what is written); the moral (to understand what is being taught about how to live the quality of life God has entrusted to each of us); and, the spiritual (to engage Scripture, and hence God’s living Word, in listening and discerning where God is calling us to venture).

Christmas Day “crib” Catholics—whose practice of the Catholic faith is “childish”—rarely, if ever, read or study Scripture. At best, what they know “about” Scripture is what they learned as children, perhaps from their parents or as a student enrolled in a Catholic school or CCD/PREP program. And, that’s where their study of Scripture ended—at best, at the literal level. They’re like children who read comic books but don’t imagine the contents, get transported to an alternative universe, and learn to think about life in new and novel ways by leaving the past behind and embracing the future.

That helps to explain why Scripture has little, if any centrality in the lives of “crib” Catholics. Neither reading nor consulting Scripture, these folks leave the Bible—perhaps it’s the family Bible—on a shelf or, worse yet, on public display on a credenza or coffee table…to convey the impression that Scripture is a focal point of their family life. In this way, “crib” Catholics wrap themselves in the swaddling blanket of the Scripture that makes them feel “oh so good” and “comfortable.” Looking good on the outside, Jesus said of the Pharisees, they’re really a mausoleum...filled with corruption and death.

No mature adult remains behind in the crib! Life naturally forces children to leave the crib behind and to begin, undertake, and embrace exploring the world by going to school, working, getting married, and having a family.

Notice: All of that requires human beings to embrace suffering and that’s not a viable pathway for “crib” Catholics. For these folks, the practice of faith should be “fun,” make them “feel good all over,” and have few, if any, bothersome requirements. Why? “Crib” Catholics are of this world, live in this world, and live for this world, as St. Paul would say. They aren’t much, if any bit whatsoever interested in maturing as Catholics in their practice of the faith. Why? That mandates being of and living in this world for the Kingdom of God…which requires suffering because, they haven’t learned from Scripture, no one can “have it all” in this world.

In contrast, Good Friday “crucifix” Catholics—whose practice of the Catholic faith is “child-like,” as Jesus taught, read Scripture at the literal level, yes, which causes them, in turn, to wonder about what the text means because the Scripture teaches what can be most beautiful and ugly—moral virtue and vice—about human beings, in general, and themselves, in particular. These Catholics learn from those texts about people who they have already or could become, steeling the courage it will take to remain alert to and vigilant so they will grow in virtue and avoid vice.

Hearing God’s word spoken personally to them in the silence of hearts, these Catholics are like the disciples in today’s gospel. What they heard so captivated them that they left everything “oh so cozy” and “comfortable” to follow where God was beckoning them…which would require embracing the Crucifix to put sin to death and rise to new life. Not only that: They became the “light to the nations” bringing the light of God’s truth into the darkness of the world, not as a cudgel but an example what’s possible by living in and of this world for the Kingdom of God. “Crucifix” Catholics not only know and understand that, they willingly embrace it fully aware that what’s going to be required is to suffer for what’s good by rooting out what’s not.

If I was an alien from some foreign and distant universe at ended up attending Mass today, the readings from Scripture would make me think today was Ash Wednesday not the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time in what the Church calls this “Year of Grace 2021.” Scripture reminds us of the two things: To “repent and believe in the Gospel.” Yet, today’s “Word of God” Sunday. Shouldn’t the readings remind us about the centrality of God’s Word in our lives as Catholics?

The readings do…in an interesting way.

“Crib” Catholics don’t repent, first, in their hearts by identifying their sins and, second, by confessing their sins. Instead, they push all of that aside believing that true happiness is found by living for this world. What matters for “crib” Catholics is whatever at this moment makes them feel good…irrespective of whether or not it’s virtuous. As that becomes a downward spiral characterizing how they sped their days, Scripture becomes increasingly irrelevant to “crib” Catholics. Descending deeper and deeper into the darkness, they may feel “oh so good” and “comfortable”…but only temporarily. So, “crib” Catholics then turn to something else that makes them happy because, for them, suffering is to be avoided at all costs.

As the days, weeks, months, years, and decades roll on, “crib” Catholics become increasingly addicted to happiness, they also become increasingly unhappy because their hearts grow increasingly devoid of joy. In addition, “crib” Catholics feel guilty about the past and become its prisoners. Not studying Scripture they know nothing of God’s love and mercy—after all, they don’t believe in the Gospel—and live in fear of God’s just judgment.

Not “believing in the Gospel” as the source of true happiness, “crib” Catholics don’t repent.

“Crucifix” Catholics also want to be happy, yes, but they seek primarily the joy that comes by living as a child of God. Their child-like faith develops and is nourished as they consult Scripture regularly, read it, and contemplate its contents at all three levels. Making this a regular experience, “crucifix” Catholics experience consolation because throughout the Scripture, they learn how God has continuously extended His love and mercy to infidels throughout history to the point God sent His only begotten Son to save sinners—people who profess but don’t live their faith—not the saved because God cares not about the past only the present and moving forward.

“Crucifix” Catholics seek to become perfect as their Heavenly Father is perfect but, knowing their Heavenly Father created them not as gods but imperfect beings, they’re motivated to continue moving forward to the goal which is the joy of living in the Kingdom of God. That’s why, possessing “fear of the Lord” in their hearts, when “crucifix” Catholics sin, they do what they’ve learned from their study of Scripture: Trust in God’s love and mercy, pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and repent because they believe in the Gospel.

Believing in the gospel and repenting from sin require some degree of suffering for the sake of redemption and represents our challenge from this week’s Scripture on this “Word of God” Sunday: To read and reflect this week on today’s gospel, in particular, and identifying precisely what is keeping us back from being the person God created each of us—as distinct individuals, not categories—to be. Then, believing in the Gospel, to repent by leaving all of that behind trusting that God doesn’t care about the past only today and the future.

This repentance takes the form of “suffering”: Prioritizing time each day this week to read Scripture and begin to become more familiar with the Word of God at all three levels. This will require time, reflection, and prayer—so God’s living Word will transcend deeply into our hearts. Then, becoming increasingly less attached to the things that are of and in this world over the weeks, months, years, and decades moving forward, we will leave the crib behind in the past as we embrace the Crucifix and the living Word of God begins to recreate each of us to be the “light to the world.”

Living in and of this world but for the Kingdom of God, “crucifix” Catholics have learned from Scripture that there will always be suffering along the way. What will characterize their “child-like” faith—and disguises them from the “childish” faith of “crib” Catholics—is what they learned from studying Jesus as he lived Good Friday: Suffering for good ends is redemptive for oneself and many, many others.