As experience taught the Hebrew people and many subsequent civilizations as well, lying, stealing, murder, adultery, and the like must, of necessity, be proscribed. But what set the Hebrew people apart from all other Utopic visions of was to ascribe the source of this inescapable conclusion to God and the order of God’s creation. The Hebrew ideal wasn’t to form a worldly Utopia but to restore this world to its original condition—as it was in and from the beginning—when God entrusted this world to humanity to safeguard by ruling and governing it both prudently and wisely. This world was to be ordered not chaotic as it was prior to its Creation, and by obeying God’s foundational rules, humanity would ensure it would be a prudent and wise order.
What subsequent history has taught—including the history of the Israelites—is that those minimum number of rules, important as they are, don’t provide a guarantee of peaceful or harmonious coexistence. When we remove the Source of those rules from the equation of how we will number our days prudently and wisely, we violate those rules. This only ensures that chaos will characterize life in this world, making peaceful and harmonious coexistence all but impossible.
It’s one of those “nice in theory, but doesn’t work in practice” theorems.
Given this proclivity on the part of human beings throughout Jewish history up to and including their days, we shouldn’t be surprised the disciples asked Jesus, “Then who can be saved?”
Jesus responded:
For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.
In other words, the only way you and I can pursue life in freedom and achieve happiness in this world is to give up that hope, placing our trust not in politicians and their this-worldly policies intended to promote partisan vision of Utopia. Instead, our motto must be “in God we trust” to promote a more perfect union, one making it possible for all people to coexist peacefully and harmoniously. That’s the “narrow way” of life—the “eye of the needle”—about which Jesus talked and we must embrace today.
But, it’s one thing state that motto—as “Christmas crib” Catholics do—but quite a different thing to strive to live that motto each day—as “Good Friday crucifix” Catholics do. What demarcates the former from the latter, is that “crucifix Catholics” have learned that embracing that “narrow way” requires grasping, understanding, and acting on the difference between liberty and freedom. Freedom isn’t the exercise of free will that allows us to do whatever we want to experience some modicum of happiness in this world. The dustbin of history is littered with countless nameless and faceless “crib Catholics”—whose names aren’t etched in the Book of Life—who failed to grasp, understand, and enact this truth during their numbered days.
Consider these present-day examples of how “crib Catholics” seek happiness in this world:
- Possessing the liberty to “hook up” to find that “perfect spouse,” once married, “crib Catholics” believe they can continue hooking up. But, “crib Catholics” soon discover, doing so introduces chaos into their marriages that oftentimes ends not in happiness and bliss but the death of their marriages. The truth that “crucifix Catholics” understand and informs their decision-making process: Spouses may possess the liberty to hook up, but they aren’t free to hook up.
- Possessing the liberty to beget children, once children are born, “crib Catholics” abandon their children to pursue other interests, thus introducing chaos into family life that oftentimes ends in its death. The truth that “crucifix Catholics” understand and informs their decision-making process: Parents may possess the liberty to pursue their selfish, self-interests, but they aren’t free to do that.
- Possessing the liberty to select an occupation or career to provide for a life in this word, “crib Catholics” realize they must abide by a particular code of ethics. And when they don’t abide by it, “crib Catholics” introduce chaos into the workplace that oftentimes ends in scandal and getting fired. The truth that “crucifix Catholics” understand and informs their decision-making process: They are not free to violate their workplace code of ethics.
The lesson for those of us who strive to be “crucifix Catholics”?
- Freedom doesn’t “liberate” us to do whatever we want, whenever we want, all based upon how we feel at the time. No, freedom “narrows” down our options, keeping us focused upon the responsibilities we’ve chosen to embrace as we pursue happiness in this world.
- Freedom also doesn’t liberate us from the Source of those minimal number of rules—seven in all—as we pursue happiness in this world. Absent that Source—the first three rule that provide the premise for the other seven—we become selfish, pursuing what’s in our self-interest not what’s in our best interest…reintroducing chaos into our lives as well as the lives of others which oftentimes ends in unhappiness.
In sum: We cannot save ourselves only God can save us from the chaos we’ve reintroduced into our lives and the lives of others because, as Jesus taught, try as we might, we can’t overcome that innate tendency to love ourselves more than God and neighbor or even as much as we love ourselves. Impossible as this is, Jesus assures his disciples, “all things are possible for God.” That’s why the Hebrew people called those “3 + 7 basic, foundational rules” that must govern every person in every civilization the “Ten Commandments” and which God entrusted to the Hebrew people through Moses. The first three of those rules remind us of the Source of our salvation from the evil of selfish self-interest and its ill-effects.
To grasp this lesson, as today’s first reading noted, requires “prudence”—not making decisions hastily—and “wisdom”—making the right decision. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews observed, we must discern the thoughts of our hearts to ensure we’re rooting our decisions in the first three rules, the Source of the law. In this way, prudence and wisdom will focus us not upon “doing things right” but upon “doing right things.”
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture: To learn to do right things by intentionally becoming more prudent and wiser by rooting our decision-making process in God who we trust.
How might we develop this discipline to protect ourselves from exercising liberty at the expense of freedom, trusting more in ourselves than God?
The spiritual exercise for this week requires slowing things down a bit and liberating ourselves from the habit of reacting—making spur-of-the-moment, rote decisions in the heat of the moment. Instead, we will develop the habit of responding—by discerning the thoughts of our hearts…the law of God—those ten minimal rules—God has breathed into our hearts.
There’s actually a rather simple and easy way to discipline ourselves this week to respond rather than react:
- First: Take one quarter and read the nation’s motto festooned on it—“In God We Trust.” For a few moments, contemplate what that means and pray “Help me to place my trust in you.”
- Second: Place that quarter in your pocket. Make sure to be aware of its presence by feeling it several times each day and, as you do, contemplate the nation’s motto and pray once again each time “Help me to place my trust in you.”
- Third: —When you find yourself challenged this week to react to a situation, take a moment to take a step back, touch the quarter, and say, “Give me a minute to think about this.” In your mind, play out the various possible scenarios regarding how you might respond to the situation. For each scenario, ask: “Ten years out when I see this replayed, will I be proud of myself?” If the answer to this question is “No,” then don’t enact this scenario and end up living what’s called a “double life.” When you discover the scenario that meets the “Yes” test and before responding, touch the quarter and pray “Thank you for helping me to play my trust in you.”
This spiritual exercise doesn’t guarantee freedom from reacting to events this week or any time soon. But it does guarantee that over time, each of us will grow as “crucifix Catholics” who witness reveals greater prudence and wisdom. More importantly, our aim will gradually shift over time and through multiple temptations from seeking to save ourselves as we discern—grasp, understand, and enact—what the Source of our salvation commands of us to do right things.
Yes, we will have to extend our arms on the Cross and allow the nails to piece our pride, but we will become more Christ-like in terms of our love of God and neighbor as that will evidence itself in our witness to prudence and wisdom in what we say and do.
As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews told us, “crucifix Catholics” know:
No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.
For those reactive decisions we’ve made in the past when we were “crib Catholics” which embarrass us today and we certainly don’t want others to emulate—having learned from the chaos we introduced into our lives as well as the lives of other people by reacting rather than responding—we will develop the prudence and wisdom we didn’t have back then when we cultivated the habit of reacting rather than responding to various situations by placing love of self above love of God and neighbor. But, more importantly, we’ve also learned to respond by rooting our deliberations in the Source of the law, the One for Whom nothing is impossible. Lastly, God will reintroduce order into the messy and chaotic world we’ve created by failing to rule and govern creation prudently and wisely.
In this way, prudence and wisdom command us as “crucifix Catholics” to “do right things” freely as not as slaves of the law but as servants of their Source because “In God We Trust.”
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