Today, we see one of the most profound readings in the Bible and I am not talking about the Transfiguration.
One of the most powerful realities in the epistles, the letters in the New Testament, is that like many letters they express Gospel truths simply and powerfully.
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we can see these powerful words:
He saved us and called us to a Holy Life.
If we read that in context to the line prior, we can see that by our holy lives we boldly give testimony to the Gospel.
That is our mission. It is the mission you received at your Baptism and it is the mission that we are called to live.
The obvious next question is, how do we do it.
We draw our strength from the Lord and we live in touch with his will through our union with Christ in prayer and liturgy and we act accordingly. Now, notice something closely. This is what I mention all the time in different forms.
Paul, in this exhortation says nothing about morality. There are two reasons, one is the morality is already a given. So, everything he says has the morality in the background. However, the other reason is that there is more to living our faith than living our morality. That is the base value but we need to build upon it.
So, Paul is not just saying to live a moral life, but to live a life according to God’s own design and grace.
Our Catholic faith is about living Christ’s vision for our lives. That vision will be beyond our own vision of where Christ is calling us.
If you look carefully you will also notice that St. Paul is saying to bear your share of the hardship of the Gospel. Now many will take that to mean that to live Catholic morality is difficult. Actually, it is not. What is difficult is living one vision of how to be on this earth in a sea of other visions most of which are counter to what we believe.
Let me give an example in light of the recent primary election we have. You do realize that there is not a single party or a single candidate that promotes values that perfectly align with Catholic teaching. Not one.
You also realize that at least at one point in their histories both political parties had an anti-Catholic plank in them.
We need to look at what we believe in light of Christ’s vision for our lives and see that it will run counter to what others believe, even among people whom we agree with somewhat politically somewhat socially, somewhat medically
Whenever there is a dispute there are always positions and there are issues.
Should we put a traffic light at the corner of Holton St. and Franklin St.? Immediately, there will be positions: some will be for and some will against. In order to settle this, we need to look at the issue: Safety vs. Traffic flow. You cannot settle the question until you address that issue.
People will complain about the Catholic stand on such things as artificial contraception and the definition of marriage and so much more. What they do not understand is that the purpose for marriage in the Church is counter for the purpose of marriage outside the Church.
The purpose for marriage inside the Church is procreation and growth in the sacramental love of the couples as they mutually grow in love of God and neighbor. In technical terms that means procreative and unitive.
The reason why we run counter to the concept of marriage in society is that reason is almost the exact opposite. The unitive purpose is first and the pro-creative is either not a factor or it is much further down the line.
The issue is not then whether to use artificial contraception and who gets married to whom, it is what is the purpose for marriage. In the Catholic Church the purpose for marriage is to bring children into the world and raise them within the context of a holy family in witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That purpose is the foundation for our positions.
There is a radical difference from our understanding of the purpose of marriage and the understanding outside those doors.
The whole focus of our existence is not simply to do good but to testify to the resurrection of Christ and his power and grace in our lives.
You can fight all the positions and all the parties until the cows come home, but until you understand that fundamental difference you are not going to get anywhere.
Once you understand that difference you will understand that people will see you differently and you will at times find yourself at odds with the world around you. Remember, at least one point in the history of the two main political parties they had an anti-Catholic plank in it.
Our positions on artificial contraception and marriage are rooted in our purpose for marriage.
Our positions on how we should live our lives is rooted in different understanding of our purpose as human beings.
If we understand that our purpose is, as St. Paul says, to live a holy life in testimony to the risen Christ, our values, goals and life focuses will be completely different. That does not mean that we will all become monks, but we will live our lives in that perspective.
Whether we are a janitor, a CEO, a rock star, an actor or a homeless person. St. Paul calls us to live our lives with that understanding of mission and when we do, we are challenging people’s concept not of morality but of anthropology: Who they are and what is their reason for existence. I pick those occupations because I have met or know of good Catholics in each of them.
St. Paul challenges us to look at our lives and evaluate them in light of the powerful work of Jesus Christ in our lives.
Photo: Cowboy at Prayer photo By Billy Hathorn - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11230724
Questions for discussion
at home or work:
- Have you ever found yourself at odds because of your faith?
- How does our definition of what it means to be human run counter to others in our life?
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