A while back, I read a study investigating highly-successful women lawyers. The researchers’ focus was those who decided to leave their professions to be “stay-at-home” Moms.
One of the more interesting findings was the burden of suffering the decision caused these women, the most prominent being rejection. Previously delighting in animated conversations with their professional peers which oftentimes transpired at “Happy Hours” as well as lunches and dinners at high-end restaurants, when these women announced their decision, their professional peers “dissed” them at work and no longer were interested in having those animated conversations with them. Then, after leaving their jobs, their peers wouldn’t respond to emails or telephone calls. It was as if those “stay-at-home” Mom’s had contracted some kind of cooties-like virus that, if unleashed, would prove deadly.
While it certainly did possess that potential, it wasn’t quite in the way many of us might think.
Reconnecting with themselves as women—especially motherhood—these former highly-successful lawyers reported discovering a particular type of fulfillment which they experienced as somewhat odd and certainly different but more personally satisfying than that their professions afforded. For example, taking their toddlers to the children’s park to play and talking with other moms about mundane “Mom” stuff as their children played, made them feel embarrassed when they compared these conversations to all the very important, “professional” matters that had consumed many hours when they were working. The embarrassment stemmed, they said, from realizing their former female colleagues would never countenance engaging in such a conversation if perhaps the content was beneath their dignity as women.
In our culture, this study’s findings exemplify one of the most prevalent forms of suffering emerging when any of us makes the decision to swim against the tide of the predominant culture’s orthodoxy. Perhaps like those stay-at-home moms, the sting of that suffering isn’t so much the rejection, but more so the discovery that people we accounted as colleagues and perhaps even close friends only paid attention to or were interested in us only as long as we supported what they thought, what they did, and the choices they made regarding how they lived their days. Challenge any of that or, worse yet, leave it all behind to swim against that tide, the suffering this decision generates is palpable when they toss us to the wind.
The tough life’s lesson we learn? Our self-worth will never come from other human beings. Instead, it comes as we pattern our lives by and live God’s truth each and every day, come what may. If others don’t accept us because we base our lives upon God’s truth, those of us who possess a strong sense of self-worth know that being rejected by others is their problem not ours.
That’s easier said than done, however, and presents a problem, perhaps one best articulated on Good Friday by Pontius Pilate when he asked, “Truth? What is truth?”
In today’s first reading, the apostles were summoned before the Sanhedrin—the legal enforcers of Jewish orthodoxy who themselves were enslaved by and lived in fear of their Roman imperial overlords. During the interrogation Sanhedrin’s members inquired of the apostles, “We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name?” To the inquiry, St. Peter responded, “We must obey God rather than men.” While the members of the Sanhedrin couldn’t but agree with St. Peter’s statement, they knew he had trapped them and, not knowing how best to respond, ordered the apostles to stop speaking in that name—the name of Jesus—and summarily dismissed the apostles. Upon leaving the Sanhedrin, we were told, they rejoiced at having been “found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.”
Similar to those stay-at-home moms, “sleepy” Catholics know what constitutes the Church’s faith and its practice. However, they spend their days living in fear about what others may think and what they might actually do were “sleepy” Catholics to witness to the faith. Cowering in fear before the equivalent of today’s Sanhedrin, this failure to witness to the Catholic faith oftentimes begins today with simple and straightforward moral matters, like not praying before meals in public places—like a school’s cafeteria or at a restaurant. “Sleepy” Catholics fret “What will others think about me?” Yet, this lack of witness to the Catholic faith is a slippery slope, constructing what ultimately becomes the solid foundation upon which “sleepy” Catholics justify not witnessing to God’s truth, having concluded it’s more important to obey human beings rather than God.
The justification? Taking a page from the people of this world, “sleepy” Catholics say “It’s my personal belief and I have no right to impose it upon others. They’re free to do what they want as long as it doesn’t infringe upon me.”
Yet, if “sleepy” Catholics were intellectually honest with themselves, their actual justification is the fear of being rejected and tossed to the wind by those with whom they’re trying to ingratiate themselves. “Sleepy” Catholics are desperate to be accepted by others and, rather than being obedient to God, live in fear of human beings and freely will to obedient to them.
The victim in this scenario? It’s not the truth which, like the “Glory Be,” “…was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” No, the victim is every person who “sleepy” Catholics fear will reject them for witnessing to God’s truth. Perhaps it’s a spouse who “sleepy” Catholics fear calling to accountability for selfish behavior, a child who’s mesmerized by everything that’s currently bewitching one’s peers and leading that child to confuse what one needs with everything one wants, or a friend who’s heading out of town on the expressway leading to self-destruction.
“Sleepy” Catholics construct this fear upon the foundation of what’s essentially a false belief: Truth is intrinsic, rooted in perceptions and biases that raise what are mere opinions and preferences to the level of “personal truths.” Witnessing to anything that contradicts these “personal truths” warrants rejection for having the temerity to witness to truth as that has been conveyed across every generation.
That truth is the inerrant Word of God revealed in Scripture and Church teaching which God has breathed into every human being at the moment God created each of them. Absent that bedrock upon which each of us can, should, and must construct our daily lives if we are to experience true happiness, we risk losing everything that gives humanity meaning in life in any and every generation.
Consider the clause we’ve all heard perhaps countless times since COVID-19 made its appearance: “Follow the science.”
Who possibly can disagree? Science provides a helpful tool for humanity to separate fact from fiction.
- Consider this fact: Science has definitively established that in all mammals—not just us humanoids—a female is constituted by an XX chromosome and a male is constituted by an XY chromosome. Yet, there are many people today who have the temerity to assert they cannot identify what constitutes a woman.
- Consider a second fact: While many today invoke the word “transgender” to identify a biological female who claims to be imprisoned in the body of a male (and vice-versa), the simple truth is that science has definitively established this alleged state of being doesn’t exist in this solar system. Yet, there are many people today who have the temerity to assert that schools should teach children as early as three years old that gender is something they choose.
- Consider a third fact: Science has established as fact that from the moment of conception, what will be birthed—assuming all goes well during the course of a pregnancy, of course—will infallibly be either a male or female human being. Yet, there are many people today who have the temerity to state that a human being is a human being only after one brought into the world by a “birthing person,” making partial-birth abortion a “woman’s right.”
- Consider a fourth fact: While social scientists have established that in the United States about 5.6% of the population self-identifies as being sexually attracted to persons of their own sex (although that percentage appears to be increasing as the mainstream media and schools normalize homosexuality), science has established the fact that there is no homosexual gene. What does exist are five spots on the human genome that have been linked to homosexual sexual behavior; however, not one of those markers predicts a person’s sexual preference. Yet, many people today have the temerity to assert human beings are born homosexual (and some Catholics state that God created them to be homosexuals).
“Following the science,” basic facts like these are undeniable. Yet, there are many people today who have the temerity to reject one if not each and every one of those facts.
Unfortunately, although “sleepy” Catholics may not accept these claims, they go along with those who vigorously assert that these claims are “my truth” because “sleepy” Catholics just want to get along…especially when family members make these claims. “Sleepy” Catholics know that if they were to articulate what they know is the truth in a vigorous way and to challenge what’s factually contrary to science, they’d suffer rejection and be called out by the equivalent of today’s Sanhedrin for asserting what’s a “personal truth” but is, in fact, an opinion based upon incorrect information.
For this reason and unlike St. Peter in today’s gospel, “sleepy” Catholics end up being blind to the Risen Lord standing on the shoreline of their lives. “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” the Risen Lord asks. “Sleepy” Catholics respond “No” and, at day’s end, they have absolutely nothing to show for their Catholic faith. Flailing about as they strive to survive in a culture that’s hostile and alien to God’s truth, “sleepy” Catholics stubbornly refuse to try another way and, in particular, the one which the Risen Lord recommended: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.”
In contrast, when “WOKE” Catholics hear the same question and the Risen Lord tells them “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something,” they give it a try. Then, lo and behold and despite the suffering they are likely to experience, witnessing to truth actually works...perhaps not for the members of the prevailing Sanhedrin but as “WOKE” Catholics realize the Christmas Eve promise: “He shall be named ‘Emmanuel’—which means ‘God is with us’.”
The truth to which “WOKE” Catholics fearlessly witness ultimately demonstrates its veracity, ideally, as those who were once dead rise to new life. In a less ideal situation, the truth is spoken anew and gives pause to the members of today’s Sanhedrin who know they’ve been trapped and have to figure a way out, perhaps saying “Let’s just not go there.” But, with the truth stated, perhaps one day they’ll discover what many children have learned about all the parental advice they once were given...after they’ve become parents themselves: “My mom and dad weren’t as dumb as I thought.” Yet, when they were children, they caused their parents no small amount of suffering and grief by not listening and doing what their parents were telling them to do. To their credit, however, their parent’s didn’t remain silent and “went there.”
Today’s scripture reminds us of a second aspect of our Catholic faith: The Risen Lord is present on the shores of our lives and wants to share with us the “bread of life.” Scripture and Church teaching—God’s inerrant truth in every generation—is that bread and when we, as “WOKE” Catholics strive to “do this in memory of me” as Jesus taught, we don’t hoard the bread of life to ourselves. Instead, and like St. Peter, we say “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” and cast as wide a net as possible. Demonstrating that we love God more than human beings, we then do what the Risen Lord told Peter to do: “Feed my lambs.”
For those of us who struggle in a hostile and alien culture to be “WOKE” Catholics, the Risen Lord calls us to stretch out our hands, allowing him to lead us to a place where we might not want to go. However, and faithful to his command “Follow me,” like St. Peter we signify the kind of death—death to self and new life in God’s truth—by which each of us will glorify God.
For all those of us who’ve worked assiduously to heed the Psalmist’s recommendations over the past two weeks of this Easter season—to rejoice and be glad because this is the day the Lord has made as well as to give thanks to God for His everlasting love—today’s challenge from scripture, “We must obey God rather than men,” isn’t so much a challenge as it is a daily way of life that will enable us to say this week along with the Psalmist, “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.”
Observing those whose obedience to human beings has led them back into the dark tomb of fear rather than into the light of faith, the real challenge for us who seek to be “WOKE” Catholics this week is to learn to “to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name” and to rejoice when the people who live in, of, and for this world find us worthy to suffer for offering them the bread of life…just as many parents have done and God continuously does with us.
How might we “do this in memory of me”?
Upon awakening each day this week, conduct a memento mori: Recall that the Risen Lord reveals himself in the breaking of the bread which is God’s truth. Then, commit yourself to reveal the Risen Lord to a person who asserts during the day “it’s my truth” or “let’s just not go there.”
In this way, we will become one of those who are countless in number across the millennia and have taught “in that name.” Leaving the dark tomb of fear behind by not fretting about what others might think and actually do that may cause us to suffer for speaking God’s truth, this week let us say along with the Psalmist, “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me” and from slavery to living in fear of other human beings.
In this way, you and I can develop greater faith and this third week of Easter and become more “WOKE” as Catholics throughout the remainder of this Easter season.
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[NOTE: This past week, the Women’s Bible Study Group contacted me wanting to know what I mean when I use the term “WOKE” Catholics. For those who may be asking the same question, simply put: “WOKE” Catholics are Catholics who continuously make the sincere attempt to live the Catholic faith each day. It’s a play on words given today's “WOKE culture” where people are “WOKE” by the voice of the world as that’s communicated in politically correct, group think informed in this generation by cultural Marxism (and in previous eras by various ’isms—for example, early 1900s by modernism, in 1950s communism, in 1980s secularism, consumerism, and materialism, and today’s “WOKE’ism” that’s best know by the terms diversity, equity, inclusion, equity, and critial race theory.]
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