We really do want to remain in the wrapped up in the swaddling comfort of a what I’ve been calling a “Christmas crib faith” rather than venture to that place where God is calling each of us, first, as young people and, second, as adults. Our model for venturing forth, of course, is God’s only begotten Son who God sent to Earth and called to journey from his childhood years in Nazareth of Galilee to his adulthood years in Jerusalem and, finally, to his death on Mount Calvary on Good Friday.
Like Jesus, God has sent each of us to Earth for a specific purpose and our journey of faith begins with a “Christmas crib faith” in the domestic church of the home. It continues when we leave that childhood faith behind and it matures as we venture closer and closer to our Jerusalem and Mount Calvary where we will be challenged to live an adult faith by embracing what I’ve been calling a “Good Friday crucifix faith.” The days, weeks, months, years, and decades we live that adult faith will test our mettle as well as our commitment to live an adult “crucifix faith.”
The question that adult faith asks is pretty straightforward: Will I demonstrate love of God and neighbor by pouring out my blood for them? And with Jesus as our model, will we honor that commitment when people hurl insults, judge us unworthy, condemn us, and reject us…just as the people of Jerusalem—and his disciples as well—did to Jesus?
That’s a price many of us aren’t willing to pay. We would rather remain comfortable, luxuriating in our swaddling blanket of a childish “crib faith,” offending no one and getting along with everyone…our goal being to live in kumbaya all the days of our lives.
Every once and a while, however, God sends a person who of an adult faith who takes seriously his or her whose mission to call out those adults who live a childish “crib faith.”
In today’s first reading, God sent Joshua to the infidel Israelites. Calling them out because they failed to follow through on their commitment to live their faith in the God who saved them from a host of evils, Joshua didn’t tell the Israelites what they had to do. Instead, he asked a question:
If it doesn’t please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve.
In the same way, Jesus was teaching adults who had already committed themselves to live as disciples. However, when they learned that discipleship exacts a high personal cost—the first payment being to give up their comfortable and cozy faith—many of them basically said “To hell with that!” They returned to their former way of life, no longer following Jesus because his teaching was “too difficult.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t condemn any of those disciples who turned their backs on their commitment and eventually on Jesus as well. Instead, Jesus turned to the Twelve apostles and, like Joshua, asked them: “Do you also want to leave?”
At the heart of today’s many moral ills is a childish “crib faith” especially as it evidences itself in the way many young adults glibly promise “I do” to one another—and, lest we forget, to God—in the Sacrament of Marriage. Then, when the high price of that commitment becomes increasingly apparent, how quickly many spouses turn their backs on that commitment—just like the people in that great crowd of disciples turned their backs on Jesus!
In the end, what those spouses really wanted was to be comfortable, living in the swaddling blankets of a “crib” marriage and luxuriating in the myth of marital bliss until death. Discovering an authentic marriage requires self-sacrificing love—learned by living an adult “crucifix faith”—the price exacted was simply too high. The commitment they made to their spouse and to God ends up being just as worthless as the breath with which they uttered “I do” and the marriage certificate they signed at the county courthouse.
The effect which that failure to follow through on that commitment has upon spouses, children, and society is always devastating. Yet, as devastating as that effect is for life in this world, even more devastating is its effect it has for life in the next world.
“I want a faith without suffering,” is the motto of those who live a childish “crib faith.”
Contrast that motto with the real-life experience of Catholics living Siroki-Brijeg in Herzegovina. Having lived in fear for centuries being oppressed by the Turks and later the Russian Communists, Catholics in Siroki-Brijeg lived an adult “crucifix faith.” Harsh experience has taught these Catholics that salvation comes only through the Crucifix. And their commitment to an adult faith is demonstrated in one astounding statistic: There isn’t one recorded divorce among the town’s 13,000 Catholics…that’s not one broken family in anyone’s living memory!
That salvation comes only through the Crucifix is reinforced as Catholic couples in Siroki-Brijeg prepare for marriage. The fundamental idea of that preparation to grasp fully how the Crucifix is the foundation of marriage—through which they will cooperate with God in begetting human life and bring themselves and those of their children to the Crucifix which brings forth divine life.
When priests prepare couples for marriage, there’s no discussion about finding the ideal “life partner,” “best friend,” “soulmate,” or taking psychological tests to identify and discuss differences in attitudes, opinions, hopes and aspirations to get along better, or how money will be managed. Instead, priests tell couples:
You have found your cross. And it is a cross to be loved, to be carried, a cross not to be thrown away, but cherished.
How’s that strike you as being pastoral?
I wonder how many priests in the United States use this image when they prepare engaged couples for marriage? Imagine how most young couples today would respond if priests did use this image! Perhaps they’d be struck dumb!
But in Siroki-Brijeg, the Crucifix is a home’s treasure, representing as it does the greatest love known to humanity.
The Crucifix also figures prominently on the wedding day:
- Setting off for church to be married, they bring a Crucifix along.
- During the wedding ceremony, the priest blesses the crucifix.
- During the exchange of vows, the bride places her right hand upon the body of Christ affixed to the Cross and the groom then places his right hand hers. In this way, the bride and groom’s two hands are bound together with Christ on the Crucifix.
- The priest then covers their hands with his stole as they proclaim their vows to love, honor, and obey each other all the days of their lives.
- The bride and groom don’t then kiss each other as is customary in the United States. Instead, they kiss the Crucifix as the true source of their love.
Joining their hands joined over the Crucifix teaches the bride and groom the true meaning of their commitment: If either spouse abandons the other, they have let go of the Crucifix and having abandoned it, they will have nothing left in of any value in life having forsaken their true source of life, hope, and joy.
Following the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds bring the Crucifix to their home, enshrining it in a prominent place of honor. In this way, the Crucifix becomes the focal point of family prayer because the spouses—united in Christ—believe their family is born of their living a “crucifix faith.”
- When trouble arises or when conflict breaks out, as it inevitably will, the couple keeps their commitment not by going to lawyers, psychologists, fortune tellers, or astrologers but to Jesus on the Crucifix to seek help. Kneeling before the Crucifix each evening, they pour out their hearts, weep their tears, and exchange their mutual forgiveness…“for they knew not what they were doing,” as Jesus prayed from the Crucifix on Good Friday.
- These spouses don’t go to sleep with a heavy heart because they continuously turn to Jesus—the One who has the only true power to save human beings from their sins and of whom the apostles said to Jesus in today’s gospel: “You have the words of eternal life.”
When God graces couples with His children and entrust them to their ministry as parents, Catholic spouses in Siroki-Brijeg teach their children to kiss the Crucifix and never to go to bed without having thanked Jesus, their family’s true friend who’s to be respected and embraced. In this way, their children learn there’s nothing to fear and when they kiss the Crucifix, their worldly fears melt away as they follow through on their commitment to live an adult “crucifix faith.”
I can hear sophisticated young Catholic adults who live a childish “crib faith” saying, “That’s so old-fashioned!” and, in a previous generation, “That’s so and Old World!” Yet, compared to those Catholic couples living an adult “crucifix faith” in Siroki-Brijeg, Herzegovina, where does that kind of faith lead?
- No practice of the faith in their homes or beyond.
- No catechesis of their children at home and rejection of Scripture and Church teaching.
- Little authentic love of God and neighbor, searching for happiness in material things instead.
- Bills for lawyers, psychologists, fortune tellers, and astrologers who don’t possess the words of eternal life.
Those young Catholic adults aren’t to be condemned because they turn their backs on the Crucifix. No, they’re to be pitied, just as the Holy Spirit moved Jesus’ heart with for everyone who turned their backs on him.
Similarly, many of us are also to be pitied because, having not been immaculately conceived, we have turned our backs the Crucifix and, to one degree or another, we continue living a childish, swaddling blanket “crib faith” thinking that’s “good enough.” And even better yet: It doesn’t require any suffering!
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture: To answer honestly Jesus’ question “Do you also want to leave?”
Don’t fear if you really do want to turn your back on the Crucifix. Jesus won’t condemn you. Instead, the Holy Spirit will move his heart with pity, grieved because you’ve committed yourself to find happiness in this world, forsaking the joy God has prepared for you if only you followed through on your commitment to be a disciple who lives a “crucifix faith.”
But, if you want to fulfill that commitment, enshrine a Crucifix in a prominent place of honor in your house. Then, as trouble arises or conflict breaks out this week, as they inevitably will, strengthen your commitment.
How? Go to Jesus on the Crucifix for help. Kneeling before the Crucifix at the end of each , pour out your heart, weep your tears, and experience God’s love and mercy. Don’t go to sleep one day this week with a heavy heart. Instead, turn to Jesus—the One who has the only true power to save you from your sins and of whom the apostles said to Jesus in today’s gospel, “You have the words of eternal life.”
As Joshua told the infidel Israelites, “If it doesn’t please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve.” And, like the Israelites, renew your commitment to live a “crucifix faith” each day this week by saying:
I also will serve the LORD, for He is my God.
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