Word to the Wise
Friday, August 5, 2011 - Friday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Deut 4:32-40 and Matt 16:24-28,1035]Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
Hardship for the sake of the gospel is not something we in America often experience! At least, we don't experience what Christians experience in the Middle East, where being a Christian may result of death from a bomb at one's church. Or, at times, in Latin America, when one speaks as a matter of faith against economic, religious and political oppression. In general, we Americans do not like "inconvenient" religious requirements! Mass schedules or religious education programs that conflict with social or athletic events or other lifestyle appetites may represent the major challenge!!!! Yes, there are "life and death" decisions made every day in our country, but these are rarely a direct choice between belief and non-belief, between being faithful or unfaithful - at least on the individual level. On a broader social level, I think there are major decisions to be made that we American Catholics need to pay closer attention to!
Jesus is warning the disciples to expect that their faith will mean hardship and that it has to be worth their life to follow him. How much hardship is one willing to endure for the sake of the gospel? What is meant by a "life?" What do we mean when we say to a person, often sarcastically, "Get a life!" Do we become silent any time our Catholic faith and values are attacked in the press for fear we may be accused of being "un-American?" This is one of the oldest problems of the Catholic church in this country. At present, in the name of constitutional rights, our own beliefs in the value of human life or the meaning of marriage, or the dignity of those seeking to have a decent standard of living, are being eroded by secular economic and social interests. We have to live in a "pluralistic" society, but we do not have to be silent!
It is not easy to weigh "the American way of life" alongside the gospel. We don't want to see the "dissonance" that is there. Recognizing that conflict might mean hardship in our "lives." Jesus is asking all of us to think about what kind of "life" we want, and is our current "life" one that will lead to an eternal life? What is it "worth" to us? AMEN
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