26th Sunday OT, Year B September 27, 2015
Deacon Albert
St. John the Evangelist Cathedral
“Whoever is not against us is for us.” Not a bad rule of thumb. After all, it is pretty hard to make your way through life if you violently attack anyone and everyone who doesn’t live and think in a way identical to your own. Perhaps this teaching inspires Pope Francis’ efforts to find common ground with politicians by applying the Church’s teaching to major political issues. He has tried to go before them to say “you don’t have to be against us, we can find ways to work together.” So, he has emphasized issues we don’t normally emphasize in order to build bridges with the people who are farther away. But… don’t mistake the Pope’s strategy for a change in doctrine. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Most new sources realized what Francis meant when he referred to “life at every stage of its development” and the “fundamental relationships” of the family while addressing Congress. He’s being subtle, but he’s not ignoring the “tough truths.”
His stubborn refusal to fit into any one political category has outraged people on all sides of the spectrum, but his words and example have also touched the hearts of people on every side. This is because his motivation is ultimately not political, but pastoral. His preoccupation with mercy really ought to be the key to how we respond. I don’t mean “mercy” as in “everyone is fine, nobody has to change.” I’m talking about the mercy that means admitting you’re wrong, realizing you should be punished, but finding that your judge, God, has decided to lift the penalty if you but turn to him and repent. That’s the mercy we’re talking about.
So how is this past week an example of Mercy? It is an attempt to reach out to people who in many ways are actually “against us.” An attempt to show them how they can be “for us” instead. The fact is that, if they stay against us, if they choose to sin and teach others to sin, then they will ultimately have to face the rather… unpleasant realities described in our second reading and the second half of our Gospel. Fiery Gehenna, everlasting worms, endless rotting and corrosion. We do not desire that for anyone, so we seek their cooperation and ultimately their conversion. Many of them accuse us of being on the wrong side of history, but we ought to be sincerely concerned that many appear to be on the wrong side of eternity. I think everyone in the Church agrees that we want as many people as possible to go to heaven, but the question remains: what is the best way for leading others to Christ?
Jesus Christ had a knack for recognizing good in the worst places: prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, and Gentiles. He saw good in them, he met them there, and he invited them to integrity – to really live for what is the greatest good, God himself. So what about the Church, Pope Francis and each of us? How should we interact with the world? We ought to reach into the dark and broken places in the world and find the people there. We must recognize God’s image in them, we need to see their desire for good, no matter how obscure it may seem.
Many in the world are trying to do the “right thing.” Our history and our culture are filled with people who like to do “mighty deeds” and with people who try to give a “cup of water” to those in need. Are these not commendable actions? Should we not recognize their good efforts, encourage them, and count them as allies? Yes and no.
You see, the tricky thing about our Gospel is that there is an important context to what Jesus is saying. Jesus’ words “whoever is not against us is for us” are only said after a three very significant words: in… my… name. The doers of mighty deeds are praised because they act in Jesus’ name even though they are outside the visible bounds of the usual disciples. Those who give “cups of water” are only promised a reward if they have the right motivation: “because you belong to Christ.”
Many politicians and businessmen do “mighty deeds,” but only to increase their popularity, their profit margins, their own appearances. How many people give out “cups of water” or give food to the hungry, but they do it to look good, to make themselves feel morally superior to other people. This is not pleasing to Christ and it does not prove that you are for Christ. Jesus doesn’t just want us to do good things, he wants us to do good things for the right reason.
This might explain Pope Francis, and this ought to be our motivation. The Pope is attempting to take politicians, scientists, activists, and social workers at their word and move them to look deeper. They say “we care about the environment, immigration, human rights.” The Pope says “good, so do we” but then he adds “why do you care” and “how do you show that you care?” He affirms the good that he finds, but gently points them to a deeper integrity. The word Pope comes from the Latin “pontifex” which means “bridge builder.” That is his goal, that is our goal. Recognizing that there is room for scientific debate and disagreements over policy, we must hold the Faith and remember that “the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.” Nonetheless, we look with the eyes of mercy and build any bridges we can using whatever common ground we can find. Our goal is evangelization; we build these bridges with the hope and desire to lead others back across that bridge, however thin, to the center of truth, of goodness, of love – lead them to Jesus Christ who does not desire to take anything good away from us, but only wishes to make it more good, to make it truer, purer, and to root it in the one, eternal good of life in union with God.
This kind of union with God is ultimately only possible in one way; through the Spirit he has given us. God’s ultimate gift is not a vague ideal, but a historical fact – a historical person. From Moses and the Israelites to Peter and the Apostles to Pope Francis and the Catholic Church, we see God work through a chosen people. Grateful that the Catholic Church has the fullness of God’s revelation, we her children must not be like Joshua in our first reading. Joshua is jealous because he seems to think God’s Spirit is limited, he is worried that Moses might lose honor if he shares. Jesus Christ, however, shows us that leadership is about service and that God desires all humanity to be saved. Moses exclaims “Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”
Indeed, God would bestow his spirit on all if they would stop working against him. Fulton Sheen famously said that “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” They perceive wrongly because we so often live wrongly.
If your first concern about Francis’ speech is the implications for the next election, you’re getting ahead of yourself. The solution to the Church is not just what he does, what they do. Do you want to fix the Church? The world? Look in the mirror! Start by cutting off your own sinful limbs before you start hacking away at others. Seek mercy for yourself, pray often, stay loyal to the truth, but strive to see truth and goodness in others and to evangelize from there. That is your Christian vocation… “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!”