[1]I’ve been following on social media the debate to many of the hot button topics in the news recently. Immigration & “The Wall,” state abortion laws, and who’s entering the next presidential race, just to name a few. My social media accounts are populated with mostly clergy, (priests & deacons) and church folk who consider themselves good Catholics & Christian people. Yet our community divide on these issues is tremendous. Not just the issues but in the way some have chosen to respond in their comments leaves me wondering about the gospel values professed.
St. Paul writing to a Corinthian community suffering from similar divisions. Paul’s answer to the infighting was to engage a metaphor from the political arena, that of concord and love. He admonishes them that love builds up. Love is a binding force in the community, an antidote to schism. He is encouraging them to, “Be on guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong, and that every act should be done with love.”[2] (1 Cor 16:13-14)
Life is about choices. Our God in his loving wisdom has graced us with free will to make choices. Choices that include or exclude, are life-giving or death-dealing, choices that build up or tear down, unite or divide. Consider the people of Sodom & Gomorrah, their choice resulted in destruction and death, on the other hand, the people of Nineveh’s choice resulted in repentance and life.
In today’s Gospel Jesus returns home on entering the synagogue to teach as was his custom. The hometown crowd on hearing him question how such honorable teaching could come from one born to a lowly artisan. The question, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” (Lk 4:22) seems to be an attempt to belittle Jesus’ birth status. Jesus response poses the possibility that outsiders, Gentiles, may be better able to judge the honor of a prophet than those who know think they know him best. The community’s idea of God was of a domesticated deity who was not supposed to shake them out of their complacency. There’s the belief that if we just keep the law then God will remain with them. They question who this son of a carpenter is to challenge them in their beliefs, to the point they led him out of town ready to toss him over a cliff!
Jesus was not the last religious leader to meet this kind of opposition. Most people who go to places of worship want to be comforted and consoled from the divisiveness of the world. We enjoy familiar ritual, we feel affirmed in our values and strengthened in our convictions in this sacred space. When we are challenged to think of God and Jesus in new ways, to embrace new styles of prayer and worship, to respond to His call to mission by reaching out to non-Catholics and the poor, or to choose new ways of responding to topics and people that challenge us, it can be threatening.[3]
Care must be given that we, in our efforts to communicate our values, don’t let our response become our own sin. You’ve heard the adage, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” St. Thomas Aquinas says, “It is lawful to hate the sin in one’s brother … but we cannot hate our brother’s nature … without sin.” So, the strife between us who judge and our brothers and sisters who sin is a strife between two loves. Do we love them more than they love their sins, or do we love them less than they love their sins? The strongest love will always win in the end.[4]
In 1991 I found myself in a small group of 18 men and women representing every armed service, being trained to be human relations advisers. The topic was religion with the conversation centered on the very issues mentioned earlier. When they turned to me, the only professed Catholic, I remember my response vividly. I believe, despite the law of the land, God has graced us with the free will to choose a path to life or death, I choose life. He graces us with the wisdom to choose our how we will respond, to those who oppose would my views, with words that build-up or tear-down a person, I choose to build-up to avoid creating enmity where we would be unable to grow together. God gives us the courage to choose to be a witness of His mercy, forgiveness, and love, a choice that can unite or divide a community, I choose community unity. My faith tradition also allows for the choice to be reconciled, should, through my chosen words or actions, cause death in anyway, tear-down a person, or cause divide in the community, to seek forgiveness and be reconciled with God and those I’d offended through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This choice is made possible only because Jesus, fully human, made a choice in the garden, on the night of his passion. His choice, to fully trust God, was an act of love beyond all understanding.
As we prepare to share in his expression of love, let us be as St. Paul suggests to “be on guard [especially with our tongue & keyboard], stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong [in our Christian witness], and choose to let our every [word and act] be done with love.” (1 Cor 16:13-14)
Let the love that burns in our hearts, as we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus himself, be carried into the debates and challenges of our everyday lives. All for the glory of our heavenly Father who is Love.
[1]
New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986. Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Corinthians
12:31-13:13; Luke 4:21-30.
[2] Living the Word, Year of Luke © 2018 by Laurie
Brink, O.P. and Paul Colloton, O.S.F.S.
[3] Sundays with Jesus,
Reflections for the Year of Luke, James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2006.
[4] Practical Theology,
Spiritual Direction from Saint Thomas Aquinas, by Peter Kreeft © 2014. Ignatius
Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment