To be Catholic is to be a Rebel

Today's and yesterday's readings are Gen 5-7:24, Ps 5-6, and Mt 4-5:20. I will reflect on the Gospel reading.

When I read from the Gospel of Matthew this morning I could not help but be reminded of  Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous book The Cost of Discipleship. In the book, Bonhoeffer aims to awaken the German Church from its spiritual torpor. When Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, and James and John, they immediately drop everything they were doing and follow Jesus. Here is what Matthew says:

" As [Jesus] was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him" (Mt 4:18-22).

Matthew does not indicate that these men even hesitated before following Jesus. What faith they must have had! Their past lives were physically and maybe financially trying but their future life will require spiritual endurance. Jesus says as much when he urges his disciples to "rejoice and be glad" (5:12) when people insult and persecute them. In our country, we are not killed for our faith; however, you can be sure that our faith in Jesus Christ is put to the test. We must expect people to look at us funny when we say we are Catholic and when we speak about our faith in Jesus. We must expect our values to contradict those of our society. In other words, we must be rebels!

As a young adult Catholic, I desire to be a rebel just like any other college student my age. But what does it mean to be a rebel? Jesus gives us the answer. To be a rebel is, and always has been, to follow Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as LORD. Of course, we must lead others to Christ through love. But, we must not be afraid to be different - to reject the ways of the world. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We must be true witnesses to Christ in our lives so that people who live destructively can see Jesus in us and be set free.

I am convinced that to be Catholic is to be a rebel! 

And I've always wanted to be a rebel :)

Get Your Teddy Bear Jesus Today!!!

I am quite annoyed by the kind of homilies and sermons we hear in our churches today. It is true that in the past pastors only spoke of Hell and ignored the mercies and love of our Lord Jesus. This of course was because people weren’t very Christocentric. The Christ of the Gospels is both love and justice, and this was often overlooked in the past.

It seems that today’s churches are becoming more and more centered on Jesus. However, while people are become more Jesus-centric they are not really Christocentric. Allow me to explain.I often have to wonder, “What sort of Jesus do we follow today?” Are we really worshipping the Jesus of the Gospels or are we worshipping what I call a “teddy bear Jesus”? The teddy bear Jesus is more like a comfort toy whom people turn to when they “need” him, but otherwise he is only a Sunday thing. It is on Sunday that we decide to think about Jesus, and even then we do not think about or pray to the correct Jesus. We pray to the social justice Jesus who preached love and forgiveness, but deliberately overlook or water down his harder teachings because well, “we just can’t believe in a God like that.” But then, why read from the Gospel at all? Church is seen only as a social event, and sermons must reflect the atmosphere or else the pastor is a “fundamentalist.”

I fear that my post today is too angry, but the homily I heard today just got me thinking. Who is God? Do we really believe that Jesus is God or is he only a good man?  If Jesus’ parables were only speaking of love and peace (which everyone incidentally supports but hardly anyone understands from a truly Christian perspective) then why did people try to stone him to death every time he gave a parable? Maybe the Jesus of the Gospels challenges us to, yes! , be actively engaged with the world but also to know that apart from God we can do nothing, and that someday we will have to render an account of our lives to God. People are so devoted to the historical Jesus that they have forgotten that he was God, something that history can never prove. Almost every Christian wants to follow Jesus, but our churches don't know who Jesus is. The Jesus that pastors preach is the tolerant, socially acceptable Jesus who never existed. 

“To be sure, most people do have religiousness; they have it in the form of an idea, but they have not made up their minds about when it actually is to be used. Is it to be used on the day of need? No, then it is natural to become impatient and to despair halfway. Is it to be used on the day of joy? No, then it is not needed. Is it then for everyday use? No, then there is no proper occasion for it. Then when is it to be used!”   - Søren Kierkegaard (Book On Adler)

Of course, it might just be better to go beyond mere religion to faith...

Who do you say I am?

“Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” (John 4:12).


“Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” (8:53).

Jesus takes up the question and responds to it with another question. “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20b). The disciples explain that “[s]ome say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life” (9:19). Certain Jews say, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” (John 8:48). The crowd’s responses are diverse, but the question still remains. “Who do you say I am?”

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) describes a Rabbi’s quest to understand Jesus. Rabbi Jacob Neusner wrote a book called A Rabbi Talks with Jesus in which Neusner was one of the people listening to Jesus on the mount. Although Neusner was fascinated with Jesus for a time, he ultimately decides not to follow Jesus becomes he comes to the conclusion that Jesus claims to replace the Torah, to replace the Law. Jesus claims to be the same God that as a Jew Rabbi Neusner has been worshiping throughout his whole life. Neusner’s fidelity to his Jewish faith and to the Law that was given through Moses prevents him from accepting Jesus.

The Jews, recalling prophets in salvation history, cannot accept a carpenter’s son to be greater than the patriarchs. They find that Jesus’ claim to be greater than the Law, to be the giver of the Law in fact, cannot be reconciled with their Jewish faith; thus many choose, like Rabbi Neusner, not to follow him. And although Jesus repeatedly attempts to convince the Jews that the scriptures all point to his coming, many cannot take the leap of faith.

“Who do you say I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus also responds to his own question: “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” (John 8:58).

So, who do we say he is? That is the question. We must decide.

Mary Magdalene: The Disciple

I was reading up on recent news and was angered to find that when Vatican City found out that most of the Anglican priests that wanted to join the Catholic Church were women, the bishops got really angry and of course prevented them from entering the Church. I wanted to understand why the Catholic Church does not allow women priests. They say that it's because Jesus only appointed male disciples (He could have appointed His mother but He didn't) and that He himself was a man, and since all priests are representatives of Jesus on Earth they must be men. But I think that Jesus did have women disciples that were not mentioned in the Gospels for obvious reasons: most notably Mary Magdalene. When Mary saw that Jesus had resurrected she went to the disciples' homes and told them. When Jesus was killed, all the disciples, it says in John, went into hiding and locked the doors in fear of persecution by the Romans and Jewish leaders. Mary Magdalene, though, not only knew where they all lived, but was able to give them this important message. In addition, she follows Jesus in Luke 8:2. Obviously, the disciples recognized her as one of Jesus' important followers (maybe even disciple) although the Gospel writers were too afraid to mention her involvement. Another woman disciple was the Samaritan woman at the well who, upon hearing Jesus' self-proclamation as the messiah, spread the Good News around Samaria.