"You have revealed them to little ones"
Matthew 11: 25 - 30
“I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church
believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.”
When I first heard that statement I was struck by how bold it
was. After a long period of prayer, reflection,
stories and teaching, those already baptized in another Christian faith now
express their desire and willingness to embrace Catholic Christianity at the
time of Easter to be formally accepted into the Church as Catholics. Unlike the non-baptized, these folks have no
need for another baptism. They have
already expressed their faith in Jesus Christ and are familiar with a Christian
tradition – more or less.
Yet, they have come to examine more fully their call to embrace
Catholicism and now are ready to express publically their new belief. We joyfully celebrate that event, along with
the newly baptized, every year. What is
“bold” about that statement are the words: “. . . ALL that the holy Catholic
Church believes, teaches and proclaims to be revealed by God” ALL of it? Well, I’m not sure what the word “all” means
other than everything. I find that not only beautiful but greatly challenging,
particularly in light of our present day.
How many Catholics, baptized from infancy and raised in the
faith, believe ALL the Church teaches? That can be answered only by each
individual. The Creed we profess on
Sunday is one thing but how that teaching is applied and explained is another
for many. With the newly professed we
too are asked to make that same statement as we live out our faith with all of
its beauty and radical call for conversion - "love your enemies, forgive
those who do you wrong, turn the other cheek, the last will come first and the
first will come last" is among the most daring of Jesus' teaching. So it is the morality which Jesus taught and
the number of doctrines and dogmas held by the Church.
In our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus prays in gratitude for those
who have embraced his teaching and been consistent as his followers. It strikes as a kind of come away and rest
invitation from our Lord. A kind of
let’s take a “time out” and relax together.
In ear shot of his disciples he prays to his Father in heaven:
“. . . for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones . . . for my yoke is easy and my burden
light.” Who are the “little ones” –
children? Certainly Jesus showed tenderness toward children but more so
consider the crowds who truly hung on his word, witnessed his miracles and came
to him for healing as they expressed their faith in him – those on the borders,
the “sinners,” the outcast, the rejected, the simple folks of the country side,
those without any influence on society, the poor and forgotten.
The words of Jesus are more understandable in light of where
Matthew places them in his Gospel. The
passage we hear this Sunday comes at the end of Jesus’ own rejection
experience. He strongly rebukes the
cities around the Galilee region which rejected him. Although they had
witnessed his great wonders, they rejected his teaching. Even his own home town of Nazareth called him
to task and drove him out of the town.
As a human being, despite his divine nature, Jesus must have felt the
pain of rejection and personal judgement.
We also know that the “learned and clever,” the leaders of the
Jewish faith as Pharisees and others, were hostile and resistant to him due to
their stubborn and closed minds. So,
where does he go and to whom does he preach the good news with success? To the
“little ones” who perhaps at first with some surprise on Jesus’ part, received
him with great hope and gratitude. To
those who were learned in so much more, their minds and hearts were fixed on
narrow things.
So, this brings us back to the original statement about
embracing “all” that the Church teaches. If those who accepted Jesus’ teaching
and responded with faith were among the lowly and simple what might this say
about our own attitude? In the case of
our newly accepted in the faith, it is a moment of joy but also a time to
continue the journey. To “believe and
profess” all the Church teaches is to embrace Christ and his Church in spite of
our full lack of understanding.
Christianity is not a test we pass or fail but a call to conversion and
a new way of life.
Paul in our second reading from Romans reminds us that we are
in the spirit and that we must live not by the flesh (material world only) but
by the Spirit that we have received from God in baptism and beyond. That means that we open our hearts to a new
reality, a new vision about who we are and who God is. We see life somewhat
differently than purely secular values which basically expel God from its
teaching and strongly present a clear morality based in what’s good for me rather
than what is good for the whole. I can
be the sole determiner of my personal morality; there is no objective truth but
rather each person determines according to their own vision, what is true for
them: subjective morality.
That being said, rather than reject the teaching of the Church,
we are invited to embrace it and question our own limitation and lack of
understanding. Why does the Church, for
example, teach that artificial birth control is wrong? Why does it so strongly speak out against a
woman’s “right” to seek an abortion?
What about marriage? Why does it
clearly reject what our society has embraced and redefined in light of present
day experience that a “marriage” is defined as between two loving persons
regardless of gender?
This is the “all” that many find controversial. We don’t so
much concern ourselves today with the two natures of Jesus Christ which so
bound Christianity for its early centuries but it is the social things, those
human experiences that our Church so radically touches and that a good number
have either out right rejected it or not very enthusiastically embraced it at
best.
What the Church proposes to us is not the freedom to reject
simply through disagreement which leaves us in ignorance but rather to explore,
question, pray over, and seek understanding.
While I may not agree with the Church’s teaching on this or that issue
yet I have not closed my mind to its’ truth – that I may be wrong.
If I can come to a point where I am willing to even accept what
I don’t fully understand but am always open to more, to live by the Spirit of
God who is the ultimate teacher of the faith in and through the Church, then my
walk with the Lord is graced. Along the spectrum of understanding we also must
know that to live with some mystery and walk the way of faith. The gradual
acceptance of certain teachings and the willingness to not close off the
possibility of grace is how we may accept “all” the Church proposes.
There is a reason why our Lord reminded us that we must be like
a child to understand the mysteries of God.
My academic degrees and skills and professional expertise all have great
value of course. And we should use them
for the common good of all.
We have role models that can teach us much about the core of
the Gospel message: St. Francis of Assisi and St. Teresa of Calcutta come to
mind. Here are two radical Christians
centuries apart but in the same spirit of the Gospel. Mother Teresa and her present day Sisters who
reach out without distinction to the suffering and rejected. Francis whose radical life-style of
simplicity and love may question our own sense of what we think will change
society for the better. It shows us, I
think, that what will really change the world is love, compassion, mercy all
after the example of Christ himself. If
we can take our knowledge and skill acquired through learning and important
resources and apply that with the human spiritual force of God’s love, then I
think we may indeed have an unbeatable team.
God in his Son has given us much; a treasure that we may not
completely understand but even the most brilliant scientists live with a sense
of mystery as they explore how things are.
Our Eucharist is likely the most mysterious of all our Sacraments yet we
know by faith, and have most likely witnessed, the power it gives us to unite
with Christ our head.
Sometimes we must just follow the lead of our Lord and his
Church and trust that all will be well. “My yoke is easy, and my burden
light.”
O God, who in the abasement of your Son
have raised up a fallen world
fill your faithful with holy joy,
for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin
you bestow eternal gladness.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(Collect for Sunday)
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