Spirit of the World: Day Three

Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay

Day three at Fish Eaters.

Day three at The Catholic Company.

It may be a guy thing, but I'm often drawn to difficult things (although that is not universally true, since I also shirk mundane difficulties). Today's reading ends with the most difficult: "the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Mt 7:14). Being a faithful (and should I say "devout" given the modern twist?) Christian isn't easy. Indeed, staying on the narrow road and reaching the narrow gate is impossible without God. And if you're not bearing your cross, you're probably not doing it right. Christianity isn't about comfort and ease in this life. That's not Christ's promise.

"Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you" (Mt 7:6). How is it that I've missed this until now? Thanks to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and The Didache Bible, it's finally penetrated. If anything, the passage applies to the Blessed Sacrament, the most holy thing in the Catholic Church (for it is actually and truly Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament). This sacrament is not for those outside the Church (and it's not terribly difficult to enter the Church). And I remember the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament by atheists and Satanists (at least that is what they reported they did). That's literally trampling on it.

"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find..." (Mt 7:7). Yes, it's about persevering in prayer (which we always should do), but it's also a promise: God will give good things to those who ask. The most important things you need, whether you realize it or not are mercy and grace. The Mercedes Benz you're asking for may not actually be good for you (that is, material riches).

 "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt 7:1). This verse is often misused to condemn people who judge actions to be sinful (guess what? In judging those who judge, they've done the same thing). Notice the personal pronoun "you" in the statement. We are not to judge people. The verse follows with the insight that most attracted me while I was on the path toward returning to the Church. That I and others note the speck in the eye of people who are not us, while ignoring the log in our own eyes. Our critical gaze is almost always outwards, when true transformation begins when we turn the gaze at our own hearts.

A very popular psycho-babble phrase when I was growing up was "I'm okay, you're okay." Looking back on it, it seems to me to answer a real need for mercy in a world that was beginning to turn away from God (around the same time, the cover of Time magazine asked, "Is God Dead?"). I see a similar thing from "recovering Catholics" who complain about "Catholic guilt." Pain and guilt can be good things, if they point to something wrong, in need of healing. The problem with these attitudes comes with the thought by the person that he doesn't need to change. The examination of our hearts is not to hate ourselves, or to think ourselves beyond mercy, but actually and eventually hate sin in the same way you might hate cancer. It's in order to move a person toward repentance, and ask Jesus, "Please heal me!" This is the cry of the blind man, asking to be healed, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Lk 18:35-43).