The Standard of Christian Living

The Standard of Christian Living – 33^rd Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C

Teaching ethics to children is a great challenge.  Invariably we begin by setting up rules for them to follow, and this works well until the parent breaks the rule and the child notices.  When we attempt to explain exceptions to the rules, children do not understand and the rules fall away as an ineffective ethical system.  We adults face that same dilemma as well.  The rule “Thou shalt not kill” is a good one, until we start allowing for more and more exceptions to the rule that the rule has little value for establishing an ethical system.  Seeking the standard of Christian living is the challenge we face in this week’s readings.

The prophet Malachi speaks of the justice due to evildoers, and he likely refers to doing evil in the sense of breaking God’s law, the fundamental life of the people of Israel.  The entire prophetic tradition sees the infidelity of Israel as a violation of God’s law.  While laws and doctrine are important, these do not form the foundation for our life of faith.  The Mosaic Law lacked the ability to save us, and it is clear from the Gospels that Jesus is not establishing a code morality for us to follow.  In fact, the attitudes of purity of heart, meekness, and the other qualities of the Beatitudes replace the code morality of the Mosaic Law. 

Other people seek the security of beautiful places of worship and exquisite liturgical practice as a foundation for Christian inspiration of living.  Some within Jesus’ company seem to fall into this category, as the Gospel text today speaks of some who were talking of the adornments of the Temple and the votive offerings of the Temple.  The Temple was the central symbol of faith for Israel, and upon its destruction an entirely new understanding of Jewish life was necessary for Judaism to survive.  The same is true for the Christian.  Public worship and beautiful buildings for that worship are important factors, and yet we see that Jesus asks us to look elsewhere for grounding our Christian life.

Paul provides us with the fundamental obligation for the follower of Jesus – be imitators of the Lord Jesus.  Imitation is an action worthy of children of God, as children imitate their parents and others they admire in order to be like them.  For imitation to be effective in the Christian life, it cannot be reduced to merely external actions and practice.  Imitation must find its way to the virtue in the person of the Lord Jesus.  The Law can admit of interpretation and legalism, while worship and buildings can be reduced to formalism unless they are all grounded in the imitation of the Lord Jesus in our own lives. 

Pope Francis continually reminds us that the most fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has saved us from sin.  This belief establishes for us the fundamental mission of the Church as participating in the redemptive mission of Christ.  This truth also grounds our public worship of God as a reliving of our proclamation of faith – Jesus Christ has saved us.  All of our other teachings, public liturgical acts of worship, and all of our other works must be consciously connected to the fundamental truth that Jesus Christ has saved us from sin.  No set of rules can make us be like Christ.  No beautiful church building or ornate liturgical celebration can make us be like Christ.  They can do so if they lead us to imitate the Lord Jesus and to appropriate within ourselves the perfection of Christ in our own lives.

The challenge in imitating Christ is that such imitation has two components, one that is shared and one that is personal.  On the one hand we are all called to a life of holiness that consists in avoiding that which is positively evil while also doing that which is positively good.  Hence, we all must not kill, steal, and the like as well as perform acts of love toward our neighbor.  On the other hand, we must discern how we live out the life of perfection and holiness in our individual lives.  We all have different situations of life that demand a personal discernment from us.  Not all of us are called to the priesthood and religious life, and yet even those who are must discern how best to answer that calling from God, just as we who are called to married life or the life of the single person must discern how we are to answer that call in our own lives. 

We come together in public liturgical worship in order to support one another in our universal call of imitating Christ, and to discern how God is calling me to live this imitation in my own life during the coming week.  We pray together:  “Father in heaven, our living source of all that is good, from the beginning of time you promised man salvation through the future coming of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Help us to drink of his truth and expand our hearts with the joy of his promises, so that we may serve you in faith and in love , and know forever the joy of your promise.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

 

Make Way!

Make Way! – 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Two conspiracies are present throughout the Gospels.  On the one hand, there is a multitude of people who are trying to prevent others from seeing Jesus.  On the other hand, there is the prompting of God that enables the person seeking for Jesus to overcome all obstacles in order to meet the Lord Jesus.  These two dynamics are present in today’s Gospel reading, and they remain present in our world today.  By reflecting on the Gospel text we might more readily see solutions to the obstacles that exist to meeting the Lord Jesus.

Zacchaeus is a notorious man known to all in Jericho.  He is a tax collector, meaning that he came from a poor background in order to obtain this position of collecting taxes for the hated Roman occupation while at the same time enriching himself along the way.  And yet Zaccheus wants to see Jesus.  However, he is a short man and he is unable to see Jesus because of the crowd.  Here we find the first obstacle to seeing Jesus.  Very often we find ourselves focusing our attention on Jesus, but we are neglectful of others and unwittingly we become obstacles to people seeking Jesus.  If we merely make room for others so that they may see Jesus, then others will find it easier to come to the Lord Jesus.  This step to overcoming obstacles requires that we recognize the need of others to see Jesus and that we need to get out of the way so that others may approach Him.

As the story progresses, the second obstacle to Zacchaeus meeting Jesus presents itself.  Jesus has indicated that He wants to stay at Zacchaeus’ house, at which the entire crowd – including the disciples – become outraged at this turn of events.  They all began to grumble, and certainly Zacchaeus could hear it.  At any point hereafter Zacchaeus could have grown afraid at the attitude of the crowd and withdrawn his offer, but he did not.  The Spirit of God had overcome this obstacle and Jesus came to stay with him.  Here we find a more insidious obstacle to people meeting Jesus – our own negative attitudes.  We, like the first disciples, set up preconceived conditions on other people meeting Jesus, and if they do not follow our method or paradigm, then we turn them aside to maintain our neat little group. 

This Gospel passage is not intended for the Zacchaeus’ of the world.  They continually seek Jesus in their lives and attempt to overcome sin in their lives.  Instead, this text is designed for the Christian community as a reminder that we must continually keep the way open for people to encounter Jesus in their lives.  At the same time the text warns us against the arrogance that would make Jesus only for ourselves and not others. 

Pope Francis has recently warned us to avoid this tendency of making the church a private chapel.  He reminds us of our identity as individuals and as the Church.  When asked who he was, the Holy Father replied, “I am a sinner.”  Has this not been the theme of the Gospel in the last two weeks?  And is not this our identity as well?  Once we recognize our brokenness before God, we then come to realize the primary and fundamental mission of the Church:  to be the reconciliation of God on earth.  Such was the fundamental mission of the Lord Jesus, and in reflecting on the Gospel we can come to see how best to carry out the mission of reconciliation on earth.  Jesus continually remained in relationship with sinners – with the disciples, Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, Martha and Mary, with me.  As sinners, we must remain in relationship with God in order to continually grow in our quest for holiness.  As members of the Church  called to be the reconciliation of God on earth, we must remain in relationship with all people, walking with them on the pilgrimage of life, introducing them to the Lord Jesus by how we live in every aspect of our lives.

As we come together as the people of God, we seek His presence on earth just as Zacchaeus did in Jericho.  We pray to overcome every obstacle in our journey and to avoid being an obstacle for others in their journey:  “Let us pray, in the presence of God, the source of every good.  Father in heaven, God of power and Lord of mercy, from whose fullness we have all received, direct our steps in our everyday efforts.  May the changing moods of the human heart and the limits which our failings impose on hope never blind us to you, source of every good.  Faith gives us the promise of peace and makes known the demands of love.  Remove the selfishness that blurs our faith.  Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”