In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus and his disciples found themselves in the midst of a maelstrom threatening to capsize their fishing boat and take their lives by drowning. Terrified, the disciples turned to Jesus and demanded he do something. In turn, Jesus asked, “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”
I observed the disciples must certainly have thought Jesus was out of his mind!
In today’s gospel, a man’s daughter is at the point of death. Terrified, the loving father—a synagogue official named Jairus who loved his daughter almost more than he loved himself—saw Jesus and, falling at his feet, begged Jesus to do something so his beloved daughter would live. When it’s reported she died, Jesus said Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just have faith.”
Surely Jairus must have thought the same thing: “Is this guy out of his mind?”
The common element of both gospels that captures people’s attention most is the terror both the disciples and Jairus surely were experiencing. For the disciples, it was the terror experienced when confronting the possibility of immanent death. For Jairus, it was the terror experienced when a parent confronts a child’s immanent death and, worse yet, the announcement of that child’s death.
Jairus forgot what the Book of Wisdom taught us in today’s first reading:
God did not make death,nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living….For God formed man to be imperishable;the image of his own nature he made him.But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,and they who belong to the devil’s company experience death.
That is, sin fosters death—not just the person who dies but also a sense of loss of life in those who survive—leaving people feeling lost, alone, and without hope...knowing no one can save them from this awful fate.
Another common element of both gospels that oftentimes captures people’s attention might best be summed up in the adage, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” That is, when we’re terrified, what we’re really confronting isn’t fear but the truth that fear has unleashed: None of us can save ourselves. Whether we love ourselves or others more matters not because, when death closes in and we’re at wit’s end, we almost naturally turn to God to save us.
Both of those elements would make for a fine homily and they have…for centuries.
But, those two common elements overlook a third: In both gospels, Jesus responded to the pleas of helplessness provoked by terrifying events. In the boat, Jesus could have said to the disciples, “Leave me alone. I’m sleeping.” And to Jairus, Jesus could have said, “Can’t you see I’m busy. Stop bothering me.”
Think about it: Had Jesus responded in either of those two ways, he’d be pretty much just like you and me…not loving God and neighbor as we love ourselves by giving priority to our personal comfort or busy schedule.
That represents a “Christmas crib faith” manifesting itself as we set about doing everything what we want to do rather than being attentive to others and what’s troubling or terrifying them—“waiting on them” as a servant would one’s master or mistress. That’s a “Good Friday crucifix faith” because we’re not doing what we want to do but what we need to do and to be…for others in their need.
When Jesus responded to the disciples’ terror by asking “Why are you terrified? Don’t you yet have faith?” and to Jairus’ terror by stating “Don’t be afraid; just have faith,” Jesus wasn’t putting them down by saying “Suck it up buttercup! Get with the program!” Instead, Jesus was telling them, “You can count on me 100%. I will take care of it.”
In short: “I am the Savior and will save you from what terrifies you. You can count on it.”
There’s only one problem with all of this, however.
Jesus wasn’t talking about himself. No, he was talking about his disciples, Jairus, and by extension, you and me: “Do you have faith that others can count on 100% when they’re terrified?”
St. Paul expressed the same idea of living a “crucifix faith” when he told the Corinthians in today’s epistle that excellence in faith, discourse, knowledge, and earnestness—laudable as this kind of excellence is—pales in comparison to the excellence of the love we should have for one another.
“May you excel in this gracious act also,” St. Paul wrote.
Leaving a warm, fuzzy, and comfortable “crib faith” behind and embracing a passionate, rough-and-tumble, uncomfortable “crucifix faith” requires excelling in demonstrating love for others. That means loving them as we love ourselves which, Jesus taught, is the greatest of all commandments because loving others as we love ourselves is the fulfillment of all the commandments.
If you take a step back and think about it, how many people spend their time fretting and feeling guilty about the particulars of the Ten Commandments and laws of the Church, worrying that God is going to judge them unworthy of membership in His Kingdom? Notice how selfish that is! All those folks are worried about is themselves and exhibit zero concerns for others’ needs. You and I could fulfill every one of the commandments and laws—every miniscule detail—and walk away very sad, like the young man who turned and walked away sad because he was more concerned about his many possessions (Matthew 19:22).
Why sad? Like that young man, we’re so very far from faith’s goal: Life in the Kingdom of God.
What Jesus is teaching concerns what today is called “witnessing” to or “evangelizing” others in the Catholic faith through the concrete facts of our daily lives. That is, to be authentic, a “crucifix faith” must encourage in others the belief that we are 100% trustworthy—we are and will always be “there” for them in their need. In this way, faith impels us to lead countercultural lives, pointing the way to the new life that lies beyond what’s terrifying and currently exercising a negative influence over the lives of others who are sad because they have very little, if any, faith.
- Did you ever consider the powerful witness given by people who are assiduous that the marvelous tools of technology don’t intrude upon what’s most important in life: Prayer, reading scripture, family, attentiveness to the living and breathing people God has placed smack dab in front of us in our marriages, families, homes, and neighborhoods? Not bowing in homage to the idols of technology but being their lords, masters, and mistresses causes others who do bow to those idols to pause and reflect upon their false worship. It might even cause some of them to desire to recommit themselves to God. This kind of witness strengthens what’s called “spiritual capital.”
- Did you ever consider the powerful witness given by families who worship together as a family? When others experience this witness, it causes those who don’t worship as a family to reflect upon what “secret sauce” that family possesses that theirs doesn’t. It may even cause them to desire to live a more holy family life. Witness as a family to the Catholic faith also strengthens spiritual capital.
- Did you ever consider the powerful witness given by young people dress nice for Mass and are reverent in the way they worship at Mass? When their peers experience this witness, it causes them to reflect upon what those young people possess that’s absent from their lives. It may even cause them to try living a more virtuous life that will make them more reverent of God. The witness of young people who worship reverently strengthens spiritual capital in their peers.
- Did you even consider the powerful witness of married couples who are celebrating milestone anniversaries—25, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years of “wedded bliss”? When I embarrass these couples by calling them forward for a special blessing and present them to the congregation as they were on their wedding day, it causes those couples who haven’t experienced those milestone anniversaries to see that it really is possible that, one day, they can also be one of those couples. It also causes young people whose parents are married as well as those young people whose parents who have divorced to believe they also can be one of those couples at some point in the future. The witness of couples celebrating milestone anniversaries strengthens spiritual capital in couples who have been experiencing a maelstrom as well as in children whose parents’ marriage has died.
- Did you ever consider the powerful witness of those who deliver meals to the elderly through “Meals on Wheels,” volunteer to build housing through “Habitat for Humanity,” visit and bring Holy Communion the infirmed whether in hospitals, rehab facilities, or at their homes? How about feeding the hungry at Mother Teresa’s Soup Kitchen or organizing clothing to be distributed to the homeless at Brother’s House? The witness of these folks strengthen spiritual capital in others who might otherwise spend their hours tending to everything they want while neglecting the needs of others.
All of us have sinned and it’s likely will sin again. It’s time to stop worrying about that because a genuine conversion from sin evidences itself in “witnessing to” our faith and “evangelizing” in today’s world by loving others as we love our selves which, in turn, strengthens spiritual capital in others who, absent our witness and evangelization would otherwise sink into the darkness of today’s culture and drown to death or accept the dark fact of death with no one they can depend upon to save them from what’s terrifying them. Like the disciples in the boat and Jairus, they need someone who will save them…someone, like Jesus, who strengthens spiritual capital in others by practicing a “crucifix faith.”
Like sin, faith is also personal but it’s also communal as it motivates loving God and neighbor as we love ourselves by serving them in their need, thus forging a spiritual connection between God’s people that challenges them to live as God’s holy people. When we turn from sin, the practice of faith internalizes and strengthens an orientation to serve others by re-orienting our lives away from preoccupation with ourselves to caring actively for others in their need. No government program or non-governmental organization—lacking faith as its inspiration—can save people. Only a “crucifix faith” can.
That represents this week’s challenge from Scripture: To express greater excellence in what St. Paul called this “gracious act.”
To that end, our task each day this week is to embrace a “crucifix faith” that witnesses to and evangelizes others in the Church’s faith and practice by identifying one fear you have to confront but feel powerless to do anything about…something that intrudes into your thoughts and distracts you during the day or maybe in the middle of the night when you wake up and can’t fall back asleep. That’s keeping you from living your life as God intended...the evidence of sin. Then, remember what Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just have faith.” Demonstrate that faith by moving beyond the fear by practicing your faith.
How? Keep in mind the dictum: “To the one who has been give much, more is expected.” For those us who really, really love ourselves, that’s how much we really, must love God and neighbor if we’re to point others, like Jesus did, to life’s true North: The Crucifix of Calvary.
Of this week’s challenge from scripture, St. James reminded the early Christian community of Jerusalem:
Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will object, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2: 15-18)
Don’t be afraid; just have faith.
Comments
Post a Comment