In daily Mass we are following the missionary journeys of St. Paul. Yesterday we heard of his going over to Macedonia and of the baptism of the first “European” converts: Lydia of Thyatira and her family.
Unfortunately, in today’s reading (Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter) important lines are cut out that describe why Sts. Paul and Silas were in jail. The whole story serves as a metaphor for the radical nature of true Christianity and explains why it so perturbs many in this world. The Christian faith, its message, and the transformation it can effect can be very unsettling to a world that literally and figuratively “banks on” sin. Let’s consider this lesser-known story of Paul and see what it ought to mean for us if we take the Christian faith seriously and do not try to “tame” it. We pick up the story just after the baptism of Lydia, when Sts. Paul and Silas encounter a possessed slave girl, whom tradition sometimes calls “Pythonissa the Soothsayer.”
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:16-24).
Note the heart of the problem: St. Paul, in setting the slave girl free of her demon, has deprived her “owners” of the income they were deriving from her sad state. They were banking on her sad condition and profiting from her trouble. In the name and power of Jesus Christ, St. Paul sets her free. His action draws deep anger from the “owners.” He has rocked their world and touched their pocketbooks. They see the Christian message as revolutionary, disconcerting, threatening, and deeply unsettling.
It is a threat not only to profit but to power. In having Paul arrested, they stir up the hatred and fear of others as well, indicating that Paul is not merely preaching some “strange new religion” but is advocating customs forbidden to Romans. The word “customs” here in Greek is ἐθη (ethe) and refers to “religious rites or forms of worship.” Cicero, in De Legibus ii. 8, wrote, “No person shall have any separate gods, or new ones; nor shall he privately worship any strange gods, unless they be publicly allowed.” While the Romans often overlooked the private worship of unapproved gods, they were strictly forbidden from publicly proclaiming new and unapproved deities, as this provided an occasion for dissension and controversy.
And, frankly, the charges against Paul and Silas were true enough. In the healing they brought about, they hindered profit. Further, they were openly proclaiming that Jesus was Lord. To our ears that is a religious proclamation, but to Roman ears it was a provocative and revolutionary statement. It was directly contrary to their proclamation that Caesar was Lord. Yes, Paul, Silas, Luke, and the others were shaking the ground in Philippi. While they were not advocating the overthrow of any government, they were announcing a power greater than Caesar, a higher King who demanded first loyalty: Jesus!
This is not the tame and domesticated proclamation of the faith that is so common today. This is not the faith that is trimmed to fit into worldly categories and to be tucked under political, philosophical, and moral preferences. This is the faith that shakes the world and brings a revolutionary challenge to the world’s priorities. Yes, Paul and Silas were a serious threat.
And what of us today? We have gone through a long period during which the faith could be lived quietly and generally fit quite well into the world in which we lived. Harmony and “getting along” were highly prized. Particularly here in America, Catholics wanted to reassure the general populace that our faith in no way hindered us from being full participants in the American scene and that we could fit right in and be just like everyone else. With the election of the first Catholic president back in 1960, we could say that we had finally made it and had been fully accepted. Finally we fit in.
Of course the culture was not in such disrepair in those days and there was a fairly wide moral consensus rooted in the Judeo-Christian vision. Now that we have finally “made it,” the fire of our distinctively Catholic culture seems to have faded away. At the same time, Western culture has also largely died. (Is it a coincidence?)
In recent years, so-called Catholic universities and other institutions have been caving in to pressure. They are affording marriage benefits to same-sex bedfellows and succumbing to the HHS mandates to provide contraceptives and abortifacients. This is sad, pathetic, wrong, and cowardly—hardly the revolutionary faith that got Paul arrested.
And now we are coming full circle. We must rediscover how revolutionary our Catholic faith truly is to this world gone mad. And as we proclaim healing and profess an allegiance to something other than this world, we will become increasingly repugnant to the world around us.
Let’s consider more thoroughly the two offenses for which Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned:
1. They ate into profits. Paul drove a terrible demon out of a slave girl, a demon that afflicted her but profited her “owners.” In this world today there is a lot of trafficking in sin and addiction. Terrible demons afflict many people in the areas of sexuality, drugs, and alcohol. But there’s a lot of money to be made. Sex sells. Hollywood movie producers, pornographers, purveyors of contraceptives, pimps, escort services, abortionists, and even traffickers in the sex-slave industry feed at the trough. Drugs and alcohol are big money-makers as well. Huge numbers of products are sold using the demon of fear that says things like, “You’re not pretty enough,” “You’re not healthy enough,” “You’re getting old,” “You don’t drive the right car,” “You haven’t impressed your friends enough,” “You need to buy our product right away so you’re not so pathetic.” And thus the demon of fear and low self-esteem is exploited along with the demon of greed.
But what would happen if the Church were to start preaching unabridged Christianity effectively? You don’t need to be afraid of your health, your age, or what people think of you. You can find serenity in Christ so that you won’t need all that extra alcohol and those drugs. You can be set free from your enslavement to sex. You can take authority over your passions and discover the beauty of traditional marriage. What if we got back in the business of driving out demons?
Of course the answer is that we, like Paul, would be (and are) under attack. We are especially hated by the sex industry and the abortionists since those are hot-button issues these days. To them we are public enemy number one. We threaten the vision, the addiction, and the despair that fills their coffers. If we are too successful (and for now our successes are meager) their profits may go away. Yes, we must be dealt with.
But we will only be effective if we preach the unabridged faith, not the faith that is tailored and tucked under worldly priorities, not the faith that insists on being “realistic,” not the faith that makes endless apologies to the inevitable objections of the world no matter how much we water things down. The true faith is revolutionary in the freedom it offers from sin and demons.
Paul and Silas didn’t end up in prison by preaching a watered-down, tamed moral vision. They unabashedly drove out a demon that was afflicting a girl and in so doing they engaged in a revolutionary threat to a world that profits from sin.
2. They threatened power. Calling Jesus, “Lord,” was a revolutionary threat to incumbent power, which demands full loyalty. And thus today, many strive to make Catholics fit into neat little political categories. Both Republicans and Democrats want the Church to fit into their narrow little categories and to march in lockstep with their party platform. Even many Catholics want the Church to conform. Many Catholics in fact are more loyal to their party than to the Church and are more passionate about their political views than their faith. If there is a conflict between a Church teaching and the party line, guess which one usually gives way!
But in the end, the Church will not fit into some neat and tidy political category. The true faith is too revolutionary to fit into some worldly box.
And thus there is a lot of hatred and anger directed at the Church. Republicans say we’re too liberal; Democrats say we’re too conservative. More and more we are being kicked to the curb; our very right to religious liberty is being threatened. Religious exemptions to increasingly pernicious laws are slowly being removed and the number of lawsuits against Catholic institutions is increasing. And it will surely get worse as secular systems demand increasing loyalty. The Church must refuse that loyalty.
Jesus is Lord; the government is not. Jesus is not Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. He is God, and the faith He announces cannot be watered down or compromised to fit into a friendship with the world.
Tame, domesticated Christianity will not threaten or change this world. When Paul preached, the people rioted. Modern preaching too often incites only yawns and indifference.
What should we learn from St. Paul’s arrest at Philippi? That the true faith is revolutionary and hits the world right where it hurts: in the profit and power centers. As the world becomes increasingly secular, the revolutionary aspect of the faith will become more evident.
Are you ready?
Photo Credit: The Bible in Pictures
In this video Fr. Barron comments on the movie “The Matrix,” which depicts an interesting Christian motif. The Matrix is a machine from which people need liberation. The solution can only happen when someone from outside the Matrix (Neo) enters in and announces liberty, dies, rises, and defeats the Matrix.
More and more, CHRISTians will be persecuted at the rate of secularization of the world especially in Europe and North America. We will be tested, we will be imprisoned, we will be debased and we will be crucified maybe not in the very near future but it will come as we see now in Middle East. All the places St. Paul had evangelized are now in the hands of the Muslim except Rome. The west is too materialistic and hedonistic, it won’t even budge on its indolence, slothfulness and lethargy to lift its hands against those persecuting the faithful in ME, for it too despises CHRISTianity. LORD, when the time comes, give us strength of Spirit and let YOUR Love remain in us that we can become worthy of YOUR Kingdom. YESHUA HA MASHIACH!
Greece is not in the hands of the Muslims. Nor is Macedonia, where this occurred.
Msgr., very powerful once again. Yes, I’m ready! This is why I became a Catholic. I want to hear and follow those that will preach true Catholicism. Less than a week ago, you politely told me that I was too absolute, then you post these 3 posts. Well, these were pretty close to absolute. You seem to get it.
Now I have a few questions for you, and other priests and bishops. Please understand that I have never been in your shoes or have any understanding of what it means to be obedient to a bishop. But, when are you going to preach or post an article that causes a riot? Of course, to do so will oppose Pope Francis, who preaches mercy to all. It’s so bleak out here. So much is upside down, and no one is saying or doing anything to help. Liberation Theology, you’ve got to be kidding me. Georgetown Univ. covering all crucifixes for Obama, come on. Are homosexual acts going to be kicked under the rug as was contraception? Are you ready to upset the apple cart? Ready to quit going along to get along? Please, we need voices within the Church that are willing to point out good bishops and priests, and to tell us why. We need voices willing to cause a mess, as Pope Francis said. We are screaming for priests that are worthy of going to jail with! Or being martyred with!
Thank you, and may God continue to bless you.
The goal is not to cause a riot. The goal is to courageously preach. As we go into deeper darkness as a culture the kinds of things Paul and Silas experienced are going to happen here more. Already in Canada two bishops are facing charges for “hate crimes” merely because they referenced the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Homosexual acts. Same in Europe. It is coming here as “hate crime” legislation continues to erode First Amendment rights.
I think you generalize about priests and bishops. Some are too anxious not too offend. But many do have courage. Affirm were you can, critique where you must, but distinguish.
The Georgetown situation was a disgrace and I wrote about at the time (some 6 years ago now). I think it is fair to say that Georgetown is not a Catholic College. There are Catholics a Georgetown who occasionally do Catholic things. But the stance of the overall situation at the college is that it is secular and has no king but Caesar.
As for you Steve, I like your zeal but am not sure all of it is healthy. Be very careful, for too easily our zeal to preach the gospel becomes unmoored from the other virtues that must surround it.
I agree that Georgetown lost its claim to being Catholic years ago.
I also read recently of a professor at GW suing Catholic University for basically being Catholic and “forcing Muslim students to worship in its chapels”. This is a direct attack on our faith and religion. When will we wake from our stupor and realize that our fate will soon be no different than the fate of the Middle East Christians and Yazidis? This Holy war has reached our shores and we at no longer immune or isolated from it. We must wake up to our “New World Order” if we wish to get through this.
I pray for the courage to proclaim the Good News boldly in the face of dissent (or worse).
Msgr., thank you. “The goal is to courageously preach.” Agree. A little story. Fr. Jay Scott Newman told his parishioners almost 7 years ago, that if they voted for Obama (because of his stance on abortion), they should come to confession before they received the Eucharist again. I would call this courageous preaching. It made the news. It seemed to cause a riot in the offices of the diocese of Charleston because the next week all priests had to read a letter from the Administrator (we were between bishops) that basically pulled the rug from under Fr. Newman. Now, what I was waiting on, and was sure to happen, was for at least some priests to support Fr. Newman. Well, not even one had the courage. He might have received support privately, but none did so, so we could hear, cheer, and support. And guess what, yes, you are correct! Not a bishop in the country said a word. Why? Can you tell me why?
Msgr., I truly believe civil disobedience is the only way out of all the messes, but we need a Catholic voice in the public square to follow. Not just at Mass.
Thank you again.
Msgr., this is another example of what I would call courageous preaching. And I believe it’s safe to say that it will cause a riot in some circles of Catholicism. I’m sure others will be talking about Fr. Clovis and I wanted to be sure you saw it. Thank you.
http://www.onepeterfive.com/leading-pro-life-priest-laments-the-francis-effect/
Steve,
The Gospel is often being preached but the people, including many Catholics, don’t want to follow hard teachings and are turning their backs on Christ. This is nothing new. See John 6:60, for example. What’s perhaps different today than fifty years ago is that there is no longer the social pressure to keep up good appearances, since many more sins bring worldly glory instead of shame/dishonor.
Good point Nate. And you are correct, there is no shame.
I think you aptly described the culture we find ourselves in. With secular relativism run amok the only avenue I can see for myself is an embracing of orthodoxy. Half measures at this point will not reap much in the way of protection from this onslaught for lack of a better term, demonic activity.
There are a million culturally approved subtle ways it can entrap one and exert an influence that is not appropriate. For example, I love to read, but am becoming aware that a lot of the fiction I find interesting is bad. So, I have some adjustments to make in what I read. Sounds simple but for one who has read hundreds if not thousands of books it will take at least a moderate amount of self restraint. Again, orthodoxy, meat on the bones Catholicism will help in this shortcoming and others I may have.
I often have similar concerns about some of the music that I listen, not all of it, but some of it. Sometimes, I think the Hitler of the second half of the twentieth century was the electric guitar, the loudest musical instrument in the history of the world and one of the easiest to play.
One member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy that has entered the “lion’s den,” so to speak, is Archbishop Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco. He shepherds a diocese that is located in in one of the most liberal areas of the country, backing and enforcing traditional Catholic doctrines. He is being lambasted from all over including influential Roman Catholics in his city. He deserves our prayerful help.
I live in the Bay Area and I can tell you that even though Archbishop Cordileone is being sorely criticized, by Catholics, unbelievably, he is also supported by the faithful. Considering this post by Monsignor Pope, the Archbishop ignited this controversy by simply asking Catholic educators to live Catholic lives. He is asking nothing of non-Catholics, unless they teach at a Catholic school. I’m sure that he knew what was coming his way, but I am very surprised at the outrage that has surfaced. Those who are willing to live truly faithful Catholic lives are rare. I am a regular reader of Monsignor Pope’s blog and I consider it to be an excellent source of Catholic teaching and inspiration. Through it I have found ways to more often conform my life to my faith rather than the opposite. His post from a few days ago about joy coming from the commandments made some important connections for me because that is the actual truth. We all fight it and resist it so hard, though. I’m learning, and loving, to give it all to God and follow his lead. I wish (and pray) that more people could find that truth. Thanks, Monsignor!
Msgr., this post makes me think of an event coming up at a nearby parish. It’s basically a host of talks by mortgage guys, cpa’s, investment specialists, etc. on how to handle money in a Catholic way, including how to have a “God forbid fund.” It strikes me as worldly, especially considering that to try to make money “fecund” is a form of usury (cf. http://www.waragainstbeing.com/partiv)
Msgr., I agree that the Church will never fit well into a particular political box. However, at this point, It is the Democrats and the left that are trying to force Catholic sisters into violating their consciences, threatening the religious freedom of believers who do not accept gay marriage, using public funds for abortion and portraying those that refuse to join the mayhem as extremists. The Church needs to ask itself if it should cooperate with a Party that pursues such objectives even when pursuing goals that the Church has deemed worthy for years- e.g. universal health care. It seems to me when when the Bishops backed the Affordable Health care Act we enabled our hangmen.
Go to that passage again, I noticed that the charge brought against Paul and Silas is that they were Jews. The Jews accused the early Christ and the early Christians of being demonic, or at least wanting to upset Jewish customs and laws. The pagans accused the early Christians of being Jews.
Wow, such a timely article. The devil and his human agents are the masters of sabotage. I hate to say it, but TWITTER is sabotaging my effort to evangelize. Just the other day, I was blocked from Twitter for no apparent reason (they gave a phony excuse that I was a robot or a spammer). Perhaps tweeting out theology that Twitter doesn’t like, or because I blocked out too many Porn followers from following me, or because I tweeted out the support Archbishop Cordileone funding campaign against lawsuits.
Twitter doesn’t block Porno people from tweeting out pornographic photos, nor does it block foul mouth people from blaspheming God. However, here we here today, Twitter blocked me from evangelizing.
If you don’t believe me check it out: FROM EDEN on twitter.
The devil and his human agents are on to my game!
I hope that I am wrong, but I believe that it won’t be long before the power of the state block the whole Internet.