WHAT IT MEANS TO BELIEVE
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
May 03, 2020
The late Catholic German Theologian Fr. Johann Baptist Metz
once coined a phrase that I have always appreciated. Metz was often critical of
what he thought to be the so-called “bourgeois Christianity” that was in place in
the mid-20th century Europe, Germany to be particular. It was a
version of the gospel that had become so main stream, so ordinary, and so
thoughtless that it could allow the Holocaust of the Jewish people to take
place right in the heart of a supposedly Christian continent. That kind of
Christianity, he said, could somehow come to terms with the regime of Adolph
Hitler for years without much prophetic pushback.
Metz saw that as a basic perversion of the witness of Jesus
Christ, who was executed in large part because he was regarded as dangerous to
people in authority.
That didn’t include every Christian of course – there were
courageous heroes and martyrs throughout World War II, but it was evidence to
Metz that the broad arc of the Christian religion had been reduced to a kind of
“ho-hum.” And the phrase he wrote was this: “Jesus Christ must always be thought
about in such a way that he can never be merely thought about.” Let me say it
again, “Jesus Christ must always be thought about in such a way that he can never
be merely thought about.”
The point was clear, namely that belief in the savior is not
just a kind of concept or theory to file away in our brains to be recited if
asked. It is a summons to a radical new life, a radical new way of being in the
in this world, so that the answer to the question, “Do you believe in Jesus
Christ?” can never be a simple, “yup” and let it rest with that. Nor can it
suffice to repeat the creed or to quote the Catechism. That’s all fine and even
important, but it isn’t nearly enough – because it requires so little of us. Knowing
correct things about Christian history or teaching is not even close to
adequate discipleship or to what it means truly to “believe.” That’s what Metz
meant by “bourgeois Christianity,” – the kind that believes that faith is
something that can merely be “thought about.”
And all that is why today’s first reading from Acts tells us
that when St. Peter proclaimed to his audience that “God has made both Lord and
Christ this Jesus whom you crucified” their response was not merely “oh, that’s
interesting” or “yeah I can believe that.” Instead the reading tells us that
the people were “cut to the heart,” and that their immediate question in return
was not “how should I think about this?” or “what should I believe?” No, it was
more urgent than that: “What are we to do?” Real Easter faith in the real God
requires that we get out of religion class and begin to engage the world and
our communities differently. It actually requires some effort on our part, and that’s
harder and riskier, because it can sometimes turn us believers into perceived
trouble-makers when we insist that our patterns of living together must change,
become less selfish, and less oppressive and unjust for the most vulnerable
around us.
This COVID-19 virus has been reminding us for weeks now that
the poor almost always suffer more when danger looms, and it’s our task to point
that out and work to change it… not only to think about it. But our task begins
not by doubling down and toiling harder. It begins, as St. Peter says today, by
“saving ourselves.” That’s actually a paradoxical command because we don’t and
can’t “save ourselves.” Only God does that, and our first responsibility is to
begin to act as if we actually believe that. It’s to stop thinking only about
ourselves when we feel threatened or hurt or angry, and to recognize that we
are bound to every other creature on the planet. That’s not only a claim of
faith, or a theological idea. It’s a fact of our existence, as perhaps we’ve
never seen quite so clearly before now. It’s not something only to be thought
about. It’s something to be done.
We begin to “save ourselves” the moment we recognize our
utter need for a savior who is not ourselves, but who calls us out of ourselves
for the sake of others who are in greater peril. So many are doing just that
right now.
In today’s gospel Jesus is beckoning us to understand that,
and not only to think about it, but to follow where he leads. To follow is to
act, and sometimes to act courageously, or contrarily, or even heroically.
Jesus the Good Shepherd leads his flock. The gate of which he speaks swings
both ways, which is why he not only keeps us safe when we are together at home
but also compels us to follow him “out”.
To where and whom he is leading you, leading us right now,
as people suffer? It’s not up to us to fix everything, but it most certainly is
up to us to discern his true voice and to follow where we are led. “Jesus
Christ must be thought about in such a way that he can never be merely thought
about.” Amen Johann Baptist Metz!
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