IT IS NECESSARY
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
May 19, 2019
I am often
aware that I live one of the most easy Catholic lives of anybody that I
know. And the reason is simple: I spend
almost all day, every day, being among people who are, more or less, just like
me. They are people who take faith in
God for granted. They are people who
simply presume that things like compassion, solidarity, kindness, generosity
and forgiveness are just things that real human beings are required to do: It
is rare that I am made to be with people who don’t accept those things as a
baseline for what it means to be a competent, decent person. But that’s not where most people live. In that sense, I am privileged—and isolated.
I remember
when I moved from my Catholic grade school to my public middle school when I
was about 13 years old. Through my first
6 grades I was made to learn (from the nuns) that compassion and mercy were
basic expectations of living together with other people. Then I discovered in my new environment that
this was not necessarily to be presumed. I learned that being mean and self-centered and rude and abusive were
actually things that some of my peers believed were acceptable, presumably
because their parents also thought so. It was life-changing. I remember
when I was in 7th grade a couple of boys at school stole the watch
that I kept in my locker. They wanted me
to pay a ransom in order for them to give it back. What?!
I went to
the school counselor to report all this, and he actually sat these boys down
with me in an attempt to have a conversation about it. At the time I was too young and stupid simply
to say, “No! I get the watch back!” It’s probably not an accident that I recall
this after 45 years.
But it all
goes to the heart of today’s 1st reading from the earliest church,
which finds the apostles Paul and Barnabas preaching to the new Christians that
“it is necessary to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”
That’s quite
a bit stronger language than merely to say that the gospel requires some
self-discipline and some humility on our own part. No, it implies that there is often the need
to confront bad behavior on the part of ignorant or malevolent people and to
say out loud, “No, you don’t get to do that.” The gospel requires us, at least every so often, to name that which is
wrong, and sinful, and evil, and selfish, and greedy, and awful—and to say that
to individuals and to groups and clubs and politicians who may have no sense of
what it means to be otherwise. No you
don’t get to steal my watch and then to have a sober conversation with me about
what conditions should result in its return. And if the middle school counselor won’t call that out, I will.
The reading
today does not tell us that it is possible or that it is risky that we may
undergo hardships in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. No, it says that it is necessary in the job
description of any disciple…as it was for Jesus. To say it another way, if our commitment to
Christ does not ever bring us into conflict with people and values that promote
something else, we are probably in need of re-evaluating our way of being in
those situations.
The purpose
of the gospel, of course, is not conflict. But the purpose is to proclaim a way of being together that is quite
distinct from the brute forces of bullying and lying and cheating and
exploiting and money-making that can be so much a part of what a lot of us
confront every day. As I say, I don’t
confront it all the time because I’m usually at church and among churchy
people. This is primarily your job, and
it’s not an easy one. You are the ones
who have to take this outside.
“It is
necessary,” says our Sacred Scriptures, “to undergo many hardships to enter the
Kingdom of God.” So if your experience
of the Christian life is devoid of hardships, it might be very useful to ask
why that is.
Do I let
greed and the pursuit of money coexist with my professed faith?
Do I let the poor not be of a concern in my prayer?
Do I align myself with causes that
oppress aliens and strangers?
Do I allow myself to be satisfied while
others struggle to survive?
Do my profession of religion and my
status in life co-exist a little too easily?
It is
necessary, we are taught. It is
necessary.
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