God Isn't Santa Claus

 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    When we’re young we often picture God as something like Santa Claus.  Our parents may encourage us to think of God like Santa Claus because we ask Him for things that we need and/or want.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, as, when we’re children, we should learn to go to God whenever we need something.

    But if we stay in this mode into adulthood, it stunts our spiritual growth and our capacity to be in a deeper relationship with God.  Specifically, it stunts our prayer life.  And prayer is certainly the theme of our first reading and Gospel today.  
    When we’re stuck in the Santa Claus God mode, all we do is go to God when we need something or want something.  “God, please let this girl like me”; “Lord, I need a better job”; “God, let me win the Mega Millions, and I’ll give some to the Church, and it won’t ruin me like it ruined all those other people”; or, as the song says, “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”.  And then, if we get what we want, God goes back into the distance, to be beckoned when some other desire arises, like a genie we summon from a lamp.  Or, if we don’t get what we want, we can write off God altogether, and figure that He’s not worth our time if He’s not going to give us what we want, especially if we feel we’ve been good and deserve it.
    God invites us to a more adult relationship with Him.  God wants us to consider our relationship with Him more in the vein of a child or a spouse.
    When we view ourselves as God’s beloved children, and Him as our loving Father, then we have confidence to ask Him for the things that we need.  And Jesus tells us today to be persistent, as children often are when they need something.  God can’t be worn down, like earthly parents, but how many parents have relented because their child kept asking them for something.  Of course, it has to be for something good, or something we need.  God doesn’t give us a snake instead of a fish, or a scorpion in place of an egg.  God gives us good gifts.     
    And children learn this lesson from their parents as well: if they ask for something that is not good, or something they don’t need, they don’t get it.  Children may ask for ice cream every night, but they don’t (and shouldn’t) get it, as it’s not healthy for them.  Soon enough, and sometimes with an explanation, children learn that their parents will give them anything they need, and sometimes even things they want, as long as it’s in the child’s best interest.  So with God: when we ask for something good, and are persistent in our asking, God gives us what is good for us and what we need.  
    But children do not only ask parents for stuff they want.  Children also go to their parents to say, “I love you,” and “thank you,” and just to be with the ones who love them.  God also wants us to come to Him when we don’t need something, when we just want to be surrounded by His love.
    When we view ourselves as God’s beloved spouse, we also have confidence to talk freely with God.  Of course, the analogy of a spouse falls down, because spouses are co-equals, while God is not our equal.  But God does want to hear from us openly and with confidence, even while respecting God’s majesty.  Look at the first reading: it starts with God sharing with Abraham the plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual wickedness, sins, the Bible says and the Catechism affirms, which cry out to heaven for divine justice.  And then Abraham tries to barter with God for the safety of the cities (which doesn’t change what happens, because there aren’t even 10 innocent people in the cities).  But Abraham has that confidence that a husband would have with his wife, or a wife would have with her husband, to talk about what is important, and to see what the options are and ask for a reconsideration.  Abraham is not rude or arrogant when talking with God (good luck getting what you want from a spouse if you’re being a jerk about it), but does not fear to bring up his point of view and make sure God understands where He is coming from.  Jesus told His Apostles at the Last Supper, “‘I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.  I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.’”  Through baptism, we become the family of God, and God wants to share with us His plans, and He wants us to share with Him our desires.  
    It is easy to get stuck in a childish view of God, and a childish way of approaching Him where we only go to Him when we need something.  Instead, we should rely on God for what we need, but do so in a chidlike way where we can go to God, not only for what we need, but also to thank God and spend time with Him because we love Him and He loves us, and know that He give us what we need, even if we don’t always know what that is.  We should, with the confidence of a spouse, share with God our hopes and doubts, our fears and our dreams, and listen attentively to God’s plans.  
    Don’t be stuck in a childish view of God.  Turn to Him in prayer each day, not just for what you want, but to spend time with Him in love and gratitude, and listen for how He communicates that He loves you. 

Son of God, Madman, or Something Worse

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Sometimes we can come across Scriptural passages that are difficult to understand.  I think today is one of those passages.  This account of Jesus doesn’t seem to jive with the mental picture most of us have of Jesus.  This is why, when we read the Scriptures, we should always have some sort of guide with us, whether it’s a book, a website, or a person.

            Because it looks today like Jesus is being mean at best, and at worst, racist!  Why won’t Jesus heal the woman’s daughter who is tormented by a demon?  Is it just because she is Canaanite?  Didn’t Jesus come to free captives, especially those who were entrapped by the Devil?  Our first reading from the Book of Isaiah seems to say that anyone who tries to follow God will be welcomed, and the sacrifices they make will be acceptable to him. 

One way to approach this passage is to take the Thomas Jefferson approach.  He was a Deist, that is, he believed in God, but not a personal God.  He believed God just set the world in motion and is now letting it run its course, without any personal involvement.  So, when he came to any miracles (a very personal involvement by God to suspend the laws of nature), he just eliminated them from the Bible.  It made his life much easier.  But, such a view, of course, treats the Scriptures as just another old piece of literature, and not as Divinely Inspired.  Treating the Scriptures as if we can pick and choose which parts we like makes us the masters of God’s revelation, rather than the recipients.

So, if we’re going to be recipients of what God is telling us, how do we deal with this passage?  How do we deal with, “‘It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs’”?  Well, let’s start by actually looking at the whole passage.  Yes, the woman is a Canaanite.  This means she is a pagan.  She does not believe in the true God, but worships many false gods.  She is not part of the Chosen People, Israel.  She also truly has a daughter who is possessed by a demon.  This is not very surprising, because when we deal with false gods, we’re often times dealing with demons.  That’s still true today.  When we mess around with astrology, tarot cards, Ouija boards, and false gods, we’re opening ourselves up to demonic activity.

But look at what Jesus says.  He doesn’t actually say no.  When the disciples want Jesus to send her away, He replies that he was sent “‘only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’”  She continues to plead for help.  The Lord has what sounds like a very cutting line, “‘It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.’”  Things sound pretty bad.  But then the woman pleads still more, “‘Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.’”  And then Jesus seems to do a 180: “‘O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.’”  Jesus wasn’t trying to put her down, or deny her daughter freedom from the Evil One.  Instead, He was searching out her faith.  He was trying to see if she was just coming to Him because he had done some pretty amazing things, like any other wonder worker, or if she truly had faith that He was Lord.

Of course, we should ask ourselves: who do I believe Jesus is?  Spoiler alert: Jesus will ask his disciples the same question next Sunday.  But we should start soul searching now.  Do we have faith in Jesus?  Or is Jesus just another wonder worker in our life?  Is He one of many gurus?  Who do we go to more for guidance in our life decisions: Jesus, our horoscope, our yoga instructor, or any other false gods we set up in our life? 

It’s probably not news when I tell you that, in the United States, only 25-30% of baptized Catholics attend Mass on a regular basis.  I know you’ve experienced that in our own parish.  I’m personally happy so many of you are here today.  I’m not happy because it means that we’ll make our budget for our weekly collection (though I hope that happens and it does make my life easier).  I’m not happy because our numbers may be getting better than the national average.  I’m happy that you’re here today because it means you have an opportunity to encounter Jesus in the Word of God and in His Body and Blood, and that encounter will help strengthen your faith.  Why do Catholics feel attending Mass each Sunday is optional?  There are a lot of reasons: an unpopular priest; music not to their taste; boring homilies.  But at the heart of them stands the reason that Jesus is just one among many.  The conviction that Jesus is Lord is absent from their lives.  Jesus is more like Santa Claus: if we’ve been good, He gives us what we want.  If not, we go to Hell.  We want good things, so we come to Mass, to extort the blessings of God in a religious quid pro quo.  But if Jesus is not Lord, then it is a waste of time to come to Mass.  Only if Jesus is God–the way we figure out how to live–does coming back each Sunday make sense.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way in his book, Mere Christianity:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

Maybe, right now, you’re thinking that Jesus is just one great moral teacher, like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, or Gandhi.  Right now, Jesus is searching out your faith.  And the good news is that Jesus wants to help you have faith that He is Lord.  By coming here, you at least have the chance to affirm that Jesus is Lord, and you want to form your life around Him.  By coming here today you can make your own the prayer of the father who came to Jesus: “‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’”  And if you have faith, not just because you’ve been a good boy or girl, Jesus wants to heal you, to strengthen you, to bless you, and to stand with you, even in life’s difficulties.  Let us proclaim, with our hearts and our lips and our lives, that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.