Worldly vs. Catholic Wisdom

Third Sunday of Lent

Have you ever noticed that there is never a shortage of people who are willing to give you advice?  I suppose I might be cutting out my legs from under me, as most homilies are supposed to help people find practical way to apply the Gospel to their daily lives.  But, just think about it: how many TV shows or commercials are basically trying to give you advice on how to diet, how to learn, how to understand what’s happening in the world, in politics, in sports?  Maybe it’s “Dr. Oz,” maybe it’s “The View,” maybe it’s a commercial with your favorite celebrity on a political or social issue, maybe it’s a talk show on your preferred cable news station, or maybe it’s even the way the news is presented by individual networks.  But advice seems to be everywhere from people who want to tell you how to live your life.

This is, of course, nothing new.  Different groups have always been trying to influence the way people think, trying to get people to live their life based on a particular view of reality.  And with the advent of social media, that has only increased.  You can’t scroll Facebook or Twitter without seeing pithy quotes that are supposed to help you be a better person.  Sometimes the phrase sounds good, but in fact, isn’t really Catholic or Christian.  For example, I saw a post on Facebook the other day that said, “There is no turning your back on God.  There is only turning your back on yourself.”  Sounds profound, deep, insightful, right?  It’s rubbish!  Of course you can turn your back on God!  There are so many quotes like this that are from non-Christian or secular websites or pages that may sound amazing, but, in fact, are contrary to Scripture.  And we should be wary about giving our minds and our will to any wisdom that doesn’t come from God through the Scriptures or the Church’s teaching.  I’m not saying it’s all bad, but much of it is, and we don’t want to be poisoned by something that we think might be good.  Imagine picking mushrooms, not knowing which ones are good and which ones will kill you, and leaving behind the guidebook to which ones to consume.  That’s what it is to take wisdom from a non-Christian or secular source without running it past what God has revealed to us.

And what is the wisdom that God gives to us?  The wisdom of God is Christ crucified.  It seems like foolishness and maybe makes people stumble, but our crucified Christ is “wiser than human wisdom,” as St. Paul said in our second reading.  The life of Christ is not only a story, it is a pattern, a guide for all those who want to find happiness.  I know, it may not look like Jesus’ life had a lot of happiness: He was poor, wandered around, most of His best friends abandoned Him when He needed them the most, and He died mostly surrounded by His enemies in a most shameful way of dying.  Sign me up for that, right?

But God raised Jesus up, and, in fact, we have no evidence that Jesus ever seemed to want for anything, or lack any happiness.  He felt sorrow for those who couldn’t or wouldn’t follow Him, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Gospels paint Jesus as a happy Person.  He didn’t have money; He didn’t have power (in the way the world sees power); He didn’t have sex (do people really do that?!?).  But Jesus was happy; truly happy.  And He was happy because He lived by God’s Word, the words of everlasting life, as our Psalm response said this morning.  

The Ten Commandments that we heard in our first reading seem like a long list of nos that cramp our style: no idols, no taking God’s Name in vain; no work on the Sabbath; no murder, no adultery, not stealing, no lying, no coveting; the only really positive commandment is “Honor your father and your mother.”  And yet, that wisdom from God which seems so negative, opens us up to a larger ability to say yes.  By not doing menial work on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, the day of the Resurrection, we are saying yes to enjoying time with our family, maybe even with a family dinner; to serving the poor; to worshipping God and being fed by God’s word and the Body and Blood of Jesus.  And all that because we take a break from work that will always be there.  Think about the people who say yes to taking whatever they want, even if they don’t have the money to pay for it: they may get away with stealing a candy bar or maybe something more, but eventually it catches up with them, and they end up being prosecuted, maybe even going to jail.  And I don’t know many, if any people, who are happy and in jail.  So by saying no to stealing, they are saying yes to freedom, to more opportunities, and to a happier life.

Sometimes living by the wisdom of the Word of God may seem like simply a lot of nos.  But in fact, the ways that God asks us to say no actually allows us to say yes: yes to God, yes to love, yes to peace, yes to happiness.  May our Lenten observances also encourage us to say no to all the things that bring us death and slavery, to our sins, and say yes to all the things that bring us life and freedom, to God’s grace.

"Are We There Yet?"

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

            We’ve seen it in many TV shows and movies.  Maybe we’ve even experienced it in our own lives.  It’s a long car ride.  There are kids in the back of the car.  “Are we there yet?”  “No.”  “How much longer?”  “No too long.”  “Are we there yet?”

            This is the same type of question that the disciples are asking today, although, rather than asking about a car ride, they’re asking about the end times: “Teacher, when will this happen?  And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”  And as disciples two thousand years later, we’re still wondering the same thing.  We are very curious about the end of the world; about when and how it will happen.

            Of course, if you believe Hollywood or the Mayans, we only have about two years left.  Secular culture is so convinced that if we just do the right math we’ll figure it out.  But to secular culture and to us Jesus says, “‘See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, “I am he,” and “The time has come.”  Do not follow them!’”

            What do we know about the end?  Well, from what we heard in today’s first reading, it will be a day when the wrath of God is revealed in its full power against sin and its agents as “all the proud and evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch.”  For those who, in this life, have opposed God, it will not be a happy day.  “But for you who fear my name,” continues to prophet Malachi, “there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”  So for those who have not opposed God, who have done His will; who have loved God above all things, and their neighbors as themselves; who have not separated themselves from God by mortal sin, it will be a time of healing and peace.  For those who have been already perfected in this life and have lived as saints, heaven will immediately await.  For those who, although they have not separated themselves from God by unforgiven mortal sins, still have some attachment to sin, they will be purified by Purgatory, so that they can, after their purification, deign to see God face to face.

            This should cause us to wonder, if it were to happen right now, what would be my eternal destiny?  Would I be considered a sheep who attended to the Lord’s hunger, thirst, nakedness, and loneliness through my care for those least brothers and sisters of His?  Or would I be considered a goat for ignoring the Lord’s needs through ignoring the least brothers and sisters of His?  Have we worked in the vineyard of the Lord, truly caring for others?  Or have we been the people that St. Paul admonished in the second reading, those who conduct themselves in a disorderly way, “not keeping busy but minding the business of others”?

            But in discerning how we have lived our life, we should not be led to despair.  The call of the Lord, and the call that He is making through these readings is not to give up.  We are not to be like children, who, knowing that the trip might take 4 hours, might never go because “we’re not there yet!”  Rather, we are called to a deeper conversion, to turning back towards the Lord and to getting to know him better. 

            But conversion is not just about doing the right things so the big policeman in the sky (the way we can sometimes view God) won’t lock us in the prison of hell.  Conversion is about being truly happy.  I firmly believe that all of us want to be happy.  But, ironically, we can sometimes act against that happiness by simply seeking pleasure.  But by letting our pleasures rule us, we very quickly becomes slaves to our pleasures and passions, and do not enjoy the freedom that comes from denying ourselves pleasures from time to time in order that we might be truly happy later.

            And I’m not saying that we deny ourselves all the pleasures that life licitly offers.  God save us from dour-faced saints!  Truly we can enjoy friendship and fellowship with others at parties, as long as those parties don’t lead us to drink in excess or don’t lead us to neglect our responsibilities as students, employees or employers, or whatever our avocation is.  Truly we can enjoy the romantic companionship of another, as long as we or they are not married to another person, and as long as that romantic companionship does not lead to sexual activity that is not fitting to our state in life (i.e., single or celibate, or married).  Truly we can enjoy the great taste of food, as long as we do not become gluttonous and eat too much, or, on the other extreme, eat but not take nourishment from that food because of a lack of a good body image.  We can enjoy the many gifts that the Lord has given to us and have pleasure in our life, but we must be sure that our pleasures are truly leading us to happiness.

            If we are responding to the Gospel in real ways and following God’s Law, then the end of the world is not something we will fear or try to calculate, because we will be living lives constantly prepared for the Lord to come.  Christ will return to reign as eternal King on earth when it is the appointed time and will bring His divine wrath to those who opposed Him, and His divine justice and mercy, which heal, to those who were united to Him by their actions.  May we, by the way we live, be ready to inherit the happiness that awaits those who remained faithful to the Lord, and be ready to say at all moments of our life: Come, Lord Jesus!