Pope meeting with young people from Belgium on March 31st, 2014
Last week, the Pope met with 4 Belgian youths -3 believers, one atheist- who were brought to the
Vatican to speak to the pope, and ask him questions. It was part of a Belgian
documentary, where these young people interested in Francis could get to know
him a little better. After a series of simple but important questions, they
finished the session with him with an unorthodox question: ‘ Do you have any
questions for us?’ I'm not sure what they expected him to do, but I'm sure they didn't expect his response:
“… Where is your
treasure? That’s my question. Where do you keep your treasure? On what treasure
does your heart rest? Because your life will be where your treasure is kept…. ”
As good as the question is, it’s the phrase “Your
life will be where your treasure is kept” that we really should pay attention
to. It sets the stage very nicely for today’s entry which will focus on the
theme of our mission (which is in a way, the treasure we offer the Church), and
how it is embodied within our human limits. It’s not a theme Francis will spend
a lot of time on (5 paragraphs), but it’s a meaningful one for us. Many
Catholics I speak to, worry about how
they can live up to what they feel God is calling them to do (if they even know what they’re called to. Many do not!). I realize when listening to them
that I’m no different. I have my moments of fear when I believe that ' my mission’ will never quite live up to
whatever ideals I have of what I think it should be (or what I think God is
asking it to be). Some of us will think ' Perhaps my nature is just too imperfect, too weak
to live up the call to live like a Saint or a true disciple’. Those limitations are indeed there, but we
are unnecessarily hard on ourselves by saying such things. And yet many of us cling to these ideals as if they were sent to us from God on Mount Horeb, as if they could be the perfect incarnation of our holiness before God. What do you think Jesus would say about these 'ideals' of ours? For me, his words come loud and clear: "you’re not going to
live out any ideal dear Brother, but you are going to live out your mission, no matter how
imperfect that may be’. There’s a certain poverty and humility in that, which
is not always easy to accept.
Yet it’s
important we accept it, because as Francis says, the task at hand for all the
faithful today, is to deepen our own personal understanding of the truth of the
Bible, and to help the Universal Church deepen Hers as well. (EG 40). We see this goal at work in the way that the Church is now
trying to deal with many issues which will be explored by new, and different
perspectives (40). The emphasis here is that, our contributions, no
matter how small, can help the Church grow (40). As long as our efforts are ‘reconciled
with the Spirit in respect and love’ (Ibid), they will be able to fruitfully work for
the improvement of the Church and of the world.
This
picture Francis paints, where it seems that everyone comes to the Church with her and his own gifts and is
able to influence the growth of individual parishes, may sound incredibly
chaotic to some. They may say ‘ We can’t possibly take everyone’s contributions
and throw that into the Church. There is a body of doctrine in our Church that
must shape everyone who becomes Catholic. It ought to influence whatever contribution individuals
may have to offer, not the other way around.” This image of ‘conform to the
Doctrine, or leave’ is often the image that non Catholics have of the Church, but it
does not necessarily correspond to the the current reality of this Church, with more than 1.2 Billion faithful spread out over many different cultures and languages in the world. Perhaps it’s
for that reason that Francis introduces the notion of variety, saying that “it serves to bring out and develop
different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel” (40) It’s rather
symbolic, and perhaps a little controversial that he is saying that the riches
of the Gospels will be better developed by the diversity of experiences with
which the teachings are received in the world, than by our dogma and theology.
That being said, as we’ve already seen in this
document, he’s not dismissing the importance of the Church traditions and
dogmas in their ability to help us understand the Gospels better. All he’s
really saying here, is that the cultural changes in our world demands that we
always continue seeking new ways of expressing our unchanging truths… (41) His concern is with the way many people respond to dogma
in our Church. Quoting John XXIII, he says “The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it is expressed is another.” Meaning?
Oh don’t worry. Francis is not a man who minces
words or beats around the bush. He makes himself perfectly clear: Some Christians have a tendency to focus so
much on our traditions and dogma, that they speak to the world with a language
that is hostile, aggressive, judgmental, (my words, not his) and let’s be honest, utterly alien to
the authentic Gospel of Jesus ‘because that language is alien to (our) own way
of speaking to and understanding one another’ (41). Their desire to speak of
God’s truth is there, but their interpretation of that truth, or even their way
of speaking about it, and to create a human ideal (or false God) around it is
unfortunately, un Christian.
So you'll notice that there are two levels of 'the ideal' that I've discussed here. Francis only focuses on the one where people create ideals around Dogma and traditions, but I believe the ideals we create around mission are just as unhealthy. This is why I find this concept of the human ideal of God’s
truth as being a false God, both extremely complicated, and very liberating. I struggle with my own ideals a bit more now, but I also feel more free to listen to to what is the substance of the teachings of the Church. Quoting JPII, Francis reminds us that the most important aspect of our faith is how we can express our truths in
different forms, forms that need renewal every once in a while. By doing this,
we ensure that the unchanging meaning of the Gospel remains transmittable to
the future generations of people all over the world. The emphasis I see here is
that, before we can hope to bring God’s word to the ends of the earth, we must
be able to learn to communicate to our brothers and sisters with a love that understands and respects them. I feel that it's this love, which above all will shape any mission we may have rather than the ideals we create around it. I also feel that that love can become an ideal of its own. What a complicated path we've embarked upon, but one where I know God is smiling upon every little effort we give to draw closer to the Gospel and to God's Kingdom of Justice and Peace.
Have a blessed Palm Sunday this weekend!
40. The
Church is herself a missionary disciple; she needs to grow in her
interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of truth. It is
the task of exegetes and theologians to help “the judgment of the Church to
mature”.[42]The
other sciences also help to accomplish this, each in its own way. With
reference to the social sciences, for example, John Paul II said that the
Church values their research, which helps her “to derive concrete indications
helpful for her magisterial mission”.[43] Within
the Church countless issues are being studied and reflected upon with great
freedom. Differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral
practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can
enable the Church to grow, since all of them help to express more clearly the
immense riches of God’s word. For those who long for a monolithic body of
doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as
undesirable and leading to confusion. But in fact such variety serves to bring
out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel.[44]
41. At
the same time, today’s vast and rapid cultural changes demand that we
constantly seek ways of expressing unchanging truths in a language which brings
out their abiding newness. “The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it
is expressed is another”.[45] There
are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take
away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that
language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one
another. With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God and
humanity, we sometimes give them a false god or a human ideal which is not
really Christian. In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to
convey its substance. This is the greatest danger. Let us never forget that
“the expression of truth can take different forms. The renewal of these forms
of expression becomes necessary for the sake of transmitting to the people of
today the Gospel message in its unchanging meaning”.[46]
