With the Easter season consisting of 50 days, only 22 remain if we’re to reclaim our faith and, when the Risen Lord breathes his Spirit into us anew on Pentecost Sunday, we will be living a more authentic Catholic faith. Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles reminded us that living a more authentic faith means to “speak out boldly in the name of the Lord.”
That frames the question for this fifth Sunday of Easter: “What does it mean for adult Catholics to ‘speak out boldly in the name of the Lord?”
I think this an especially important question, especially given today’s “I’m okay, you’re not okay…but that’s okay” mentality. Ultimately, it promotes the idea that all an authentic Catholic faith requires on anyone’s part is to “just get along” and not allow our differences to divide us as the Body of Christ.
It’s an attitude that’s pervasive in the Church, even in its hierarchy here in the United States.
A cursory review of the tweets and articles authored by many of the nation’s bishops reveals a faction of bishops who say that politicians who self-identify as Catholic but advocate policies contrary to Church teaching should be denied Holy Communion due to what this faction calls “Eucharistic coherence.” That is, Catholics should not present themselves for Holy Communion if they are in a state of grave sin or whose lives are not in communion with the Church, meaning Her magisterium.
Other bishops disagree mightily, saying they’d not deny Holy Communion to those same politicians if only for the reason their personal views may differ from their public views, their job being to represent the people who elected them not their privately held view on those issues. Quoting Pope Francis, these bishops ask “Who am I to judge?”, arguing—as we heard St. John remind us in today’s Epistle—only God knows the true state of their hearts.
Both factions contend the other is “politicizing” the Eucharist, contending that only their members live an “authentic” Catholic faith.
Oftentimes, the vast differences demarcating the two groups is reduced to an argument over pastoral style. The former group, called “conservatives,” emphasizes justice—that is, they uphold Church teaching and are characterized by those on the other side of the aisle as not caring about people unless those folks have money. The latter group, called “liberals,” emphasizes mercy—that is, they care about people and their needs and are characterized by those on the other side of the aisle as not giving one hoot about Church teaching unless it furthers their agenda.
Viewing this internecine political squabble wherein each side uses Scripture and Church teaching to promote its favored policies, ordinary Catholics either ignore it all as irrelevant to their faith (which appears to be the majority of U.S. Catholics) or pick and choose up sides—as if authentic faith is some sort of titanic clash between human beings who believe only they and their fellow, likeminded Catholics live an authentic faith. Worse yet, what constitutes their “authentic” faith depends upon how they “feel” about a political matter. In this way, those Catholics are like the early Christians in Corinth where some followed Paul, others Apollos, and yet others, Peter. Only today, it’s St. Pope John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis.
To any Christian who would play this game which divides the Body of Christ, St. Paul asked: “Are they not mere men?” (1 Corinthians 1:12). His point: Christians don’t follow men but Jesus Christ.
Indeed! When the Catholics root their faith and its practice in mere men and their beliefs, they live an inauthentic faith. How so? The don’t ask “What’s a bishop ordained to do?” but “Does a bishop say what I want to hear?” The simple fact is: A bishop is ordained to “speak out boldly in the name of the Lord ” by sanctifying, teaching, and governing the Church as Jesus Christ taught.
The simple truth every one of the nation’s bishops should proclaim: Any Catholic who truly believes in the Real Presence and is living in state of grave sin or whose life isn’t in communion with the Church and Her teaching would never present him- or her- self for Holy Communion, further compounding sin with sacrilege.
But, that’s not the point for this fifth Sunday of Easter because the readings from scripture remind us that when our faith is authentic it compels each of us, as Catholics, to “speak out boldly in the name of the Lord.” All of this talk about factions among the bishops and politicizing the Church only deflects attention away from ourselves, allowing us to live a comfortable, yet inauthentic faith by not speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.
How so? We make decisions not upon the Truth of Christ but our political sentiments. The former have to do with our ultimate goal—eternal life won through the victory of Jesus Christ over death on Easter Sunday. The latter have to do with regulating our lives in society until death—where all of that will end for all of us. Politics and theology will come to their end when human life ends, but faith paves the way to the resurrection of the dead and eternal life.
Why then do we allow politics to define our faith? Doesn’t that accord primacy of place to what’s passing, transitory, and inevitably going with us to the grave?
Yes it does! And for that reason, when we make decisions according primacy of place to what ends in the grave, we live an inauthentic faith.
Then, building upon those decisions, many Catholics spend more time fretting about the things associated with life in this world that they fail to engage in the kinds of things associated with eternal life. For example, they’ll spend more time surfing the web than praying, texting than reading Scripture, watching cable television stations that promote their political views while excoriating any other view, and shopping online than performing spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
When we make the kinds of decisions that accord primacy of place each and every day to the former rather than the latter, the facts convict us: We live an inauthentic faith.
“The proof is in the pudding,” as it’s said. The outcome of these decisions and living an inauthentic faith leads to not to unity but division in the nation, where political factions care more about what’s in their self-interest than the common good. It leads to division in the Church where political factions are more about what’s in their self-interest than the Truth of Christ. And, perhaps most sadly, it leads to division in our marriages and families where the best we hope to achieve is to “just to get along” because “I’m okay and you’re not okay, but that’s okay.” Then, over time, this becomes oxygen of the “new normal” that we breathe in and out, just as water flows through the gills of a fish...ending in death.
Rather than “speak boldly in the name of the Lord,” we then ask, as did Pontius Pilate on Good Friday, “Truth? What is truth?”
So, it must be asked: “It is for this reason God sent His only begotten Son?”
No.
As the Psalmist reminded us today, God became incarnate in Jesus so that, conforming our lives with the Truth of Christ, “all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD and all the families of the nations shall bow down before him.” Notice: Not before Paul, Apollos, or Peter. Not before St. Pope John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, or Pope Francis.
If God’s only begotten Son is to become incarnate today so that “all the ends of the earth shall remembers and turn to the LORD and all of the families of the nations shall bow down before him,” you and I must bow down before the LORD and order our decisions rightly. Only in this way, like the early Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria as well as Norristown, Audubon, and Eaglevillewill be at peace. As you and I bow down before the LORD and order our decisions rightly, will our marriages, families, and the Church be built up as we live in the fear of the Lord. Assisted by the consolation of the Holy Spirit, we will fulfill the reason for which God sent His only begotten Son into the world.
That requires each of us to answer a simple question honestly: “Do I believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting?” If we respond “Yes,” then we must seriously consider what it means for each of us—not what it means for popes, cardinals, bishops, archbishops, and priests—to “speak boldly in the name of the Lord.” But, we cannot do that if we don’t pattern our lives upon the bedrock tenet of our Catholic faith.
That represents our challenge from scripture this week: To contemplate and answer in truth the question “Do I really believe in the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come?”
Why is it so important to answer that question truthfully? None of us will ever “speak boldly in the name of the Lord” if we don’t really believe in the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come. The predictable outcome? We won’t ever just get along…in the world, in the nation, or in our marriages and families....the fundamental foundation upon which the Kingdom of God is constructed with Jesus Christ—not Apollos, Paul, or Peter nor St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, or Pope Francis—as its cornerstone.
The evidence will demonstrate the truth: We will live an inauthentic faith because we don’t believe and uphold, or even promote, the bedrock foundation of the Catholic faith. When we sin against God’s commandments as the Church teaches them, we won’t to go to Confession, resolve to amend our lives, and obtain sacramental absolution. And for that reason and that reason alone, we are not at peace with ourselves—reassured in our hearts through confidence in God. Forget about getting along with others.
Yes, indeed, there’s a titanic clash transpiring within the Church today, just as one has transpired in every generation. But, the clash isn’t between political-theological factions. No, it’s between the Truth of Christ and the deceit of Evil. As St. John reminded us in today’s Epistle, “…let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” We can only do this, St. John adds, by believing in the Truth of Christ, that is, to keep his commandments by loving one another.
The only way we can “do this…in memory of me” is when the Spirit he breathed into us at Baptism and again at Confirmation lives in us. “By this is my Father glorified,” Jesus taught, “that you bear much fruit and become my [authentic] disciples.”
This week, let us also pray for one another so that by the end of this fifth Sunday of Easter, all of us will cast off those political-theological divisions and prepare ourselves to “speak out boldly in the name of the Lord” in our marriages and families, the fundamental foundation upon which the Kingdom of God is constructed with Jesus Christ as its cornerstone.
Comments
Post a Comment