Growing up in the Midwest, I’d guesstimate that just about everyone was familiar with the phrase “The Big Ten” which represented the gold standard for Division I athletics. Following the dog days of summer, there was Big Ten football. During the frigid days of winter, there was Big Ten Basketball. For fans, this is what constituted religion: Contributing to the cause by purchasing season tickets, being present at every game, and taking one’s seat in the sacred Temple to participate actively in the liturgy. If a fan was really lucky, getting to meet a Big Ten coach was to be in the presence of God Himself, just like Moses on Mount Sinai or Archbishop Perez in the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul here in Philadelphia!
That was “real” religion…including an intense focus upon loyalty to one’s team, captivating dreams about what’s possible “only if,” and eager anticipation of how seemingly insurmountable obstacles will be overcome through hard work, discipline, and heroic selflessness on the part of every team member. Then too, should the team fall short one particular week, there always was next week. If this year’s season fell short of expectations, it was characterized as an exercise in “rebuilding” what will provide the solid foundation for next year’s successful season.
One interesting aspect of this religion is that no fan ever considered any aspect of its practice burdensome, except perhaps for having to wait a couple of days or maybe even a week or so to re-enter the sacred Temple.
How different the attitude when the topic is true religion and the true “Big Ten”—God’s Ten Commandments! They’re burdensome rules which suck all the fun out of life.
Think about what that attitude really means: We’d surely be better off if we cared more about ourselves than others, if we eliminated everyone we don’t like from our lives, if we took everything we wanted from others, and if we lied about others to promote the achievement of what’s exclusively in our self-interest.
Yes, indeed! Freed of that millstone around our necks which make obedience to God paramount if we are to enjoy all the game of life has to offer—assuming, of course, there is a God who commanded these Big Ten—we would then be free to enjoy fully the true religion exemplified in the gold standard of Division I athletics. With everything “all about me” and “not about thee,” the world would be a much better place, wouldn’t it?
If you think about it, however, even if we could prove that God doesn’t exist, those “Big Ten” of true religion still offer a vision of a better life and society than the one we currently have or, for that matter and as history teaches, have had in the past. The implicit wisdom of God’s “Big Ten”—that each of us must curb our selfish narcissism that views the world as revolving only around us like the planets of this solar system revolve around the sun—is a timeless, if not eternal truth. The failure of human beings to heed this wisdom is the narrative of some of the most despicable pages of history.
There’s only one antidote to the ruthlessness of every human being living solely for oneself as that infects others and becomes embodied in an amoral populist mob, an amoral society, or an amoral civil state that’s been discovered to date: “Love God and your neighbor as yourself.”
Notice that one doesn’t have to be a theist to grasp the wisdom implicit in God’s “Big Ten.” It’s equally obvious to nontheists!
These considerations raise four questions for those who are theists:
- Why are so many who claim to be theists unwilling to admit that God mercifully gave humanity these theologically foolproof commands that even honest nontheists must admit that living according to God’s “Big Ten” makes eminent sense?
- Why is it so many who claim to be theists don’t hear God’s voice reminding them throughout each of their days of what Rabbi Abraham Heschel called the divine “No,” asserting that God doesn’t speak and, even if God did speak, they can’t hear God speaking?
- Why is it so many who claim to be theists seek a true religion that affirms their narcissism so they can persist in believing the world revolves solely around them?
- Why is it so many who claim to be theists dream of a vision of what might be in this world, yet don’t appreciate that success in this world requires overcoming tough obstacles through dedication to hard work, discipline, and heroic selflessness?
Important as those four questions are—and the answer to each is obvious—God’s “Big Ten” offer a roadmap to achieve a vision of what can be…if each of us commit to living a truly religious way of life where we worship God, leaving behind the idols we’ve crafted of ourselves as well as the false religions we’ve made of secular entertainments. Having allowed ourselves to become corrupted, we aren’t even conscious that none of those entertainments has the power to redeem even one of us. Grasping hold of an idolatrous lifestyle, the objects of our fancy grasp hold of us and through their power and allure, become objects of worship.
God’s “Big Ten” provide the antidote: Having succumbed to idolatry requires becoming aware that we have done so, first, and wrestling against their power and allure, second. This awareness has the power to release the allure of those idols and, as the power of this allure weakens, for us to regain our humanity, dignity, and ability to be the person God has created us to be and to become that person in and for this world. This self-awareness strengthens the power of will so we can leave behind those idols which, in turn, makes room love, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness to make their home in our hearts. This is all God hopes of humanity.
As Moses told the Hebrew people about 2700 years ago:
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations.
Good as that would be and as difficult as it is to live out each day, Jesus proposed something even more arduous: To live the spirit of God’s “Big Ten.” Addressing the Pharisees, Jesus said “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
The problem Jesus was highlighting might be called living a “low-road religion” that’s based upon what I’ve been calling a “Christmas crib faith.” This kind of religion and the faith motivating it begins with specifying what God’s “Big Ten” mean literally. So, as long as someone doesn’t worship idols created through selfish narcissism—one doesn’t murder, commit adultery, covet or steal things that belong to others, or lie—all’s good with God!
Not so sure? Follow the precepts of the Church literally. Go to Mass on Sundays and the holy days of obligation, observe the rules regarding fast, abstinence, and marriage, and contribute to the support of the Church. Do all of that and, as far as God is concerned, you’re good to go!
How far that religion and the faith motivating it is from a “high-road religion” that’s based upon what I’ve been calling a “Good Friday crucifix faith.” This kind of religion and the faith motivating it begins with identifying what God’s “Big Ten” mean symbolically, for example, identifying the idols I worship through my selfish narcissism—like entertainments and entertainers as well as electronic devices, to name just three of them—how I’ve murdered others—maybe not with a gun but with my tongue, not committing adultery but partaking of pornography, not coveting or stealing things that belong to others but treating people as things to achieve my self-interests, and not lying but always making sure I have what today’s politicians call “plausible deniability.”
Jesus’ concern isn’t how we meticulously comply with God’s “Big Ten” but whether we allow God’s “Big Ten” to transform our hearts so that, in turn, our words, actions, and thoughts reveal love God and neighbor.
Note well: It’s possible to comply with every aspect of God’s “Big Ten” as well as with all the precepts of the Church yet never once demonstrate love of God and neighbor.
For that reason, St. James wrote the early Christian community of Jerusalem:
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To care others in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
That’s why Jesus told the people in the crowd:
Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they are what defile.
The “spirit of the law” doesn’t replace the “letter of the law.” No, it puts into practice the law’s meaning, as this evidences itself in love of God and neighbor. It doesn’t matter whether one is a theist or nontheist.
A student once asked the anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered the first sign of a culture’s civilization. Perhaps like many of us, the student expected to hear about material things like fishhooks, clay pots, or grinding stones. But Mead responded that the first sign of an ancient civilization’s culture was a broken femur (thighbone) that had healed.
Why?
In the animal kingdom, Mead explained, a broken leg is a death sentence. Incapable of running from danger, getting to the river for a drink, or hunting for food, the injured animal provides easy fodder for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for its femur to heal.
When it comes to human civilization, Mead explained that a healed femur provides evidence of something spiritual: Another human being took time to stay with the injured person, bound up the wound, carried the person to safety, and tended that person through recovery.
Helping another person through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.
Yes, human beings are at their best—and most civilized—when they care for others, exhibiting love of neighbor and, for theists, because they love God and do what God has commanded both in letter and in spirit.
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture: Using the words of St. James, to humbly welcome the word that has been planted in us and to be doers of the word not hearers only, deluding ourselves.
How might we do that?
It’s as simple as this: Today, define what living “true religion” means for you and commit yourself to live out that definition.
- If it means living a “Christmas crib faith,” live it! Yes, live a “low-road” Catholic faith by fulfilling the absolute minimum which allows you to worship the idols of your own making. Knowing this kind of faith affirms your narcissism and you can persist in believing the world revolves solely around you, just honestly admit your motivation: “I freely chose to love myself more than God and neighbor.”
At least, that’s being honest and, after all, that’s a whole lot better than being a hypocrite, which is what Jesus called the Pharisees. - If it means living a “Good Friday crucifix faith,” then live it! Yes, live a “high-road” Catholic faith by being obedient to God in all you say, do, and think. Commit yourself to cast any and all idols aside by striving to overcome any and obstacles that keep you from loving God and neighbor as yourself by actually engaging in the hard work, discipline, and heroic selflessness required.
And, when you fail, as you and I surely will due to fallen humanity, confess your failure, realizing that not one of us can save ourselves from sin. Instead, “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls, being doers of the word and not hearers only.” Then, start all over again by recommitting to live a crucifix faith—the hard work, discipline, and heroic selflessness it will take—and use as a measure of success not your failures but the degree to which the Holy Spirit moves your heart with pity and you “forgive those who trespass against us,” as Jesus did from the Crucifix on Good Friday.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for others in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
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