Community in Mission

In yesterday’s post, we discussed the theological virtue of hope. This is the supernatural virtue whereby we confidently expect God’s help in attaining eternal life. The object of hope is not earthly things (e.g., better health, a higher-paying job), but rather God and the things awaiting us in Heaven. Hope pertains to things that are difficult but not impossible; we do not really need to hope for things that are at hand or easily obtained.

Today, let’s ponder briefly some sins against hope. Expectation of God’s help must be confident and vigorous, but not overly so; careful balance is necessary. Both St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catechism of the Catholic Church identify two sins against hope: despair and presumption.

Despair – By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice—for the Lord is faithful to his promises—and to his mercy (CCC # 2091).

While despair may have many complicated psychological motives, those falling into it ultimately conclude that God cannot or will not save them or give them the graces necessary to obtain the life He offers.

Despair is common today, when we too easily conclude that it is not possible live the holy life to which God summons us. Our modern world considers things like chastity, forgiveness, and self-control to be unrealistic, if not impossible. This is a form of despair because it denies that God’s grace can equip, empower, and enable people to live holy lives.

Hope confidently expects from God the graces necessary to attain to eternal life. Hence this type of despair is a sin against hope.

St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica, also links despair to the capital sins of lust and sloth:

Lust is linked to despair because bodily pleasures and preoccupations often cause a distaste for spiritual goods. Lust interacts with the flesh and causes us to pines for and prefer bodily goods. It even causes us to perceive that spiritual goods are in competition with bodily pleasures because they setting limits on their satisfaction. Due to lust, we increasingly stop hoping for spiritual goods, despairing of them as problematic or even threatening.

Sloth is linked to despair because there are some who, seeing that something is possible but arduous, become downcast because of the significant effort required to effect change. In this case, they despair through sloth (cf ST II IIae 20.4).

Presumption – There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit) (CCC # 2092).

The second form of presumption is evident among many in the house of faith (both Protestant and Catholic). I have written at great length about the common presumption that just about everyone goes to Heaven. At too many funerals, bold “canonizations” take place.

Confident expectation of God’s help is essential to hope, but presumption sins against hope by claiming to have already “in the bag” what God offers us on condition. We must freely accept His transformative grace and by it, attain to the holiness without which no one will see God (Heb 12:14). This requires a profound work of God to take place within us. It is freely and unconditionally offered, but we must fully accept it. Our acceptance will lead to changes that many resist and that God will not force.

Presumption rejects the arduousness of achieving what we hope for by claiming to already “have” what is offered. In this way, presumption sins against hope. Once one has what one hopes for, hope ceases. As St. Paul said, who hopes for what he already has? (Rom 8:24)

Clearly, balance is required. Confidence of salvation, yes; current possession or possession without condition, no. Here is one of the best Scriptures against presumption:

Rely not on your strength in following the desires of your heart. Say not: “Who can prevail against me?” for the LORD will exact the punishment. Say not: “I have sinned, yet what has befallen me?” for the LORD bides his time. Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not: “Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.” For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath. Delay not your conversion to the LORD, put it not off from day to day; For suddenly his wrath flames forth; at the time of vengeance, you will be destroyed. Rely not upon deceitful wealth, for it will be no help on the day of wrath (Sirach 5:1-10).

Here is the Act of Hope, a traditional Catholic prayer:

O God,
relying on Your almighty power
and infinite mercy and promises,
I hope to obtain
pardon for my sins,
the help of Your grace,
and life everlasting,
through the merits of Jesus Christ,
my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Hope (like love) is a word that needs to be rescued from a world that has overused and misused it for so long that its original meaning has been nearly lost. Hope has come to imply more of a vague wish for something. Sometimes it’s used as a substitute for the word “maybe.” For example, if a person says, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” he likely means “I wish it wouldn’t rain” or “It’ll probably rain but it sure would be nice if it didn’t.” Here is another example: If a person is asked, “Will you be at the meeting tomorrow?” and responds, “I hope so,” he probably means “Maybe I’ll be there.”

In both examples, doubt surrounds the situation and the desired result seems improbable. While the word hope is not used only in situations like this, too often it merely represents wishing for an unlikely outcome.

I cannot set forth an entire treatise on hope here, but I would like to try to rescue it from its secular meaning, or at least to distinguish the theological virtue of hope from secular hope.

The theological virtue of hope is confident expectation. The theological meaning of the word hope has a much more vigorous quality. The definition of theological hope that I memorized back in Seminary is the older one, which was in use prior to the current Catechism.

Hope is the Theological Virtue wherein one confidently expects God’s help in attaining eternal salvation.

The current Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hope in this way:

The theological virtue by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to attain it (Glossary, cf # 1817).

Notice how much more vigorous hope is in these definitions. Hope is a confident expectation. The Catechism (# 1817) quotes from the letter to the Hebrews, which says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful (Heb 10:23).

This is more than a vague wish for something that is unlikely. This is more than saying “maybe God will save us.” It is vigorous because He who has promised is trustworthy, true, and able. It is also vigorous because true hope is a theological virtue. That is to say, it is infused into the soul of the believer by God Himself. Hence, although it interacts with our human nature and builds upon it, it does not wholly depend on our mood or temperament.

The theological virtue of hope has God for its proper object. St. Thomas Aquinas made it very clear that eternal happiness with God is the true and proper purpose of hope:

The hope of which we now speak attains God by leaning on his help … [and] the good which we ought to hope for from God properly and chiefly is the infinite good … For we should hope from Him nothing less than Himself … Therefore the proper and principle object of hope is eternal happiness (Summa Theologica II, IIae, 17.2).

St. Thomas also taught that hope concerns things that, though difficult, are possible with God’s help. This is why we need hope. Life has its challenges and there will be obstacles and discouragements. But hope summons us to persevere, not losing sight of our goal.

Therefore, hope is a vigorous and necessary theological virtue. It bestows a kind a confidence and ability to persevere.

The theological virtue of hope pertains to what we do not yet fully see or possess. Although hope is confident expectation, it is not absolute fact or current possession that some of our Protestant brethren assert when they claim “Once saved, always saved.” St. Paul wrote of hope in this way: For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Rom 8:24-25).

In other words, if I were to say, “I hope I find my Bible” and then proceed to find it, hope vanishes. One doesn’t hope for what one already has. Hope pertains only to what one does not currently have or fully possess. When I hope for something, I confidently expect that I will one day possess it because God has promised it. I am not already saved (as some Protestants assert) but am justified through the Blood of Christ and am being saved as long as I hold on to God’s unchanging hand by His Grace. Hence, hope is confident expectation, but not possession.

We can thus see that the word “hope” has suffered the same fate as the word “love.” Too often people say, “I Love God,” or “I love my wife,” or “I love my new car.” Love has lost its meaning through overuse and misuse. So it is also with hope. We say, “I hope in God and to be with him eternally,” and then follow right up with, “I hope it doesn’t rain.” Theologically hope does not pertain to things like rain, the outcome of football games, getting a raise.

In theology, hope always has God and the things of God as its object. I have no delusions that we will ever get the words “love” and “hope” back to their proper objects and context, but I wanted to present their origin so that we can all understand that when the Church and Scripture use these words, they do not mean them in the flat and often vacuous way that the world does.

Tomorrow we will look at some sins against hope. Or at least I “hope” so.

Welcome to the wearing of the green, green vestments that is. The weeks of the year outside of seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter are termed “ordinary time.” It’s a rather dull-sounding description, isn’t it? “Ordinary” time, hmm …

But in this case, the word “ordinary” does not refer to its typical meaning, “common, usual, or unremarkable.” Instead, it comes from the English word “ordinal” meaning “relating to a thing’s position in a series.” Some examples of ordinal numbers are “first,” “second,” and “third.” Thus ordinary time refers to weeks/Sundays that are numbered (e.g., 15^th Week/Sunday in Ordinary Time).

The Latin description for this time is Tempus per annum (time through the year). Each week is merely designated as “Hebdomada # x” (Week # x).

These terms or titles seem somewhat uninspiring. This is especially the case when we consider that the old calendar (replaced in 1970, but still used in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass) numbered these Sundays and weeks in reference to Epiphany or Pentecost (e.g., Third Sunday after Epiphany, or Fourth Sunday after Pentecost). The pivotal events of Epiphany and Pentecost therefore set the tone for the following weeks e.g., “This is Third Sunday since our Lord was manifested to us,” or “This is the Fourth week since the Holy Spirit was granted to us for our mission.”

Alas, we are not likely to see the current calendar replaced any time soon, so welcome to Ordinary Time, and more specifically to the First Week of the Year!

But maybe there is some inspiration here after all. The faith is not just something reserved for extraordinary moments and seasons. It is meant to be lived in all the ordinary moments of life, too; it is meant to be lived throughout the year.

The liturgical readings and prayers of Ordinary Time emphasize discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in matters involving money, time, priorities, etc.? How do we encounter the Kingdom of God and perceive it in our daily lives? What are the conditions of discipleship? How will we ultimately be judged? These are some of the themes of Ordinary Time.

So encounter God in the “ordinary,” in the time throughout the year, even when on vacation this coming summer. There is no vacation from our vocation. Do not miss what God is doing, even in the ordinary.

One of the greatest and most painful of mysteries is the problem of suffering and the broader problem of evil in the world. I was meditating with my Sunday School parents this past weekend on the Old Testament Patriarch Joseph. That story is rich with lessons about family struggles, envy, jealousy, pride, mercy and forgiveness. But the story also has a lot to say about suffering and the way that God can use it to bring blessings.

Lets take a moment and consider the problem of suffering and see what Joseph’s life has to teach us. But first we ought to begin with some background.

I. Prequel – God had set forth a vision for us; let’s call it “Plan A” also known as paradise. But of course that plan came at the “price” of a an intimate relationship with God the Father. Man would  not be at the center; God would be.

God also asked Adam and Eve to trust him in an important matter. And that matter was both symbolized and focused on a tree called “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

The word “knowledge”  is key here. In scripture,  to “know” almost never means simple intellectual knowing. Rather, it means to know something by experience. In effect, the title of the tree teaches that God did not want Adam and Eve to know what was good and evil by experience. Rather, he wished them simply to trust Him to be their teacher, to be their Father who would guide them in these matters.

But as we know, Adam and Eve gave way to the temptation of the devil yielded to pride. They insisted on “knowing” good, and, more problematically, evil by experience. In effect, their decision amounted to saying,

“I will not be told what to do. I will decide what I want to do and  I will decide whether it is right or wrong. I will conduct experiments in this way for myself because I do not trust God to act in my interest, or to teach me accurately.”

The Catechism says Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. (# 397)

Thus, they would not trust God to teach them what was good and not. They insisted on knowing and deciding for themselves. Adam and Eve wanted a “better deal” than paradise. So welcome to the better deal.

We live now in Paradise Lost, a world where the imperial autonomous self creates a kind of hellish existence often marked with great suffering and, ultimately, death. In wanting to know, that is experience, evil we sadly got what we wanted: sin  and evil, sorrow and death as our daily fare.  And this is the first Biblical explanation of the problem of evil.

But why was the tree there in the first place? Simply put, it had to be. Without choice, there can be no freedom, and without freedom, there can be no love.   God wants his human children to be lovers, not slaves or instinct-driven animals but rather, children who can freely choose to love God or not. God is very serious about our freedom. Our “yes” is of no real meaning if our capacity to say “no” is not also very real.

II. Prescription –  What then is God to do? If He simply canceled our choice, or the consequences associated with it, could we really say that he is serious about our freedom? No. So working within the parameters of our decision, a decision that included the experiencing of evil, suffering and death, God chose to make those consequences the very path of our healing and salvation if we will walk with him in these.

Thus Christ came and endured the full fury of evil and suffering unleashed by that ancient tree in the garden, and He now mounts another tree of the cross in a place called “the skull.”

Now suffering and death provide a way back. And by his suffering and death Jesus sets us free and, still respectful of the choice we have made, Jesus bids us to follow him in the way of the cross.

So, as we’ve seen, God has entered our broken world, and made this brokenness a pathway by God’s grace. Suffering often produces glory and refines us so that we are pure gold. Through suffering, grants us wisdom and helps us to learn new skills, new insights.

III. Picture Perhaps the story of saint of Joseph in the Old Testament helps illustrate a lot of this. While are many layers to the story, both personal and communal, it is clear that God often allows great injustice and suffering, only to produce great glory and healing on account of it. Lets weave the story with some basic teachings about suffering.

A. Structures of Sin bring suffering  – The story of Joseph begins in the dysfunctionality of Jacob’s household. Jacob had two wives (Leah and Rachel) and 12 sons in different combinations with them and their maids (Zilpah and Bilhah).  Now polygamy, and adultery is not God’s plan! And, to be out of God’s will is always to ask for trouble. And having sons by four different women produces no end of internecine conflicts. Sure enough Jacobs sons all vie for power and have divided loyalties because they have different mothers.

And in this matter we see that a lot of suffering is ushered in by human sinfulness. When we are out of God’s will we invite trouble. Sadly, the trouble does not affect merely the sinners, it also affects many others.

Thus the sons of Jacob have been born into a mess, and into what moralists describe as the “structures of sin.” In these broken situations of structural sin, sin and suffering multiply.

And it is often the children who suffer. They themselves, inheriting a mess begin to act badly an disdainfully. Suffering and evil grow rapidly in these settings.

In the world today, it is probably not an exaggeration that 80% of our suffering would go away at once, if we all kept the Commandments. But sadly we do not repent, individually or collectively.

And thus the first answer to why there is suffering, is sin. Original Sin ended paradise, and individual sin brings dysfunction and a host of social ills and the sins that go with it. And while this does not explain all suffering (e.g. natural disasters etc) is does explain a lot of suffering.

Thus we see Joseph is about to suffer on account of a structurally sinful situation brought about by Jacob and his wives and mistresses and contributed to all the members of the household. It’s not his fault but he will suffer.

B. Suffering can bring purification and humility – Though the brothers of Joseph all fought among themselves, all of them agreed on one thing, Jacob’s youngest son Joseph had to go. Jacob’s favorite wife was Rachel and when she finally had a son, Joseph, he became Jacob’s favorite son. Jacob doted on him, praised him, and even gave him a beautiful coat that enraged his brothers with jealousy. They were also enraged and envious because Joseph had many gifts. He was a natural leader, and had the special gift to be able to interpret dreams. Joseph had the kind of self-esteem that perhaps too boldly celebrated his own gifts. Among the dreams that he had and articulated was if he would one day rule over his brothers. This was altogether too much for them. Even Jacob at the school Joseph for speaking in this manner.

Here we see a possible flaw or character defect in Joseph. It is hard to know if Joseph actually crossed the line. His dreams after all, were true. He was a gifted young man and would one day rule his brothers. Some one once said, “It’s not boasting if its true.”

And while this has some validity, it is possible for us to conclude that Joseph was awfully self assured and may have lacked the kind of humility that required purification.

Surely as a young man he also had a lot to learn, and suffering has a way of both purifying us and granting us humility and wisdom. If Joseph is going to be a great leader, he like Moses, needs some time in the desert of suffering.  And thus we sense God permitting trials for him to prepare him for wise, effective and compassionate leadership.

And so too for us. Trials and sufferings prepare us for greater things and purify us of pride and self-reliance. Woe to the man who has not suffered, who is unbroken. Thus God permits us trials and difficulties that help us hone our skills, know our limits, grow in wisdom and develop compassion and trust.

C. Suffering Opens Doors – On account of all of this is brothers plotted to kill him. But figuring they could make money on the deal, they instead sold him to the Ishmaelites as a slave. He ends up in Egypt, in the house of Potiphar. His natural leadership skills earned him quick promotions and he soon came to manage the household of this very wealthy man.

It is true that Joseph has had a disaster befall him. He was sold into slavery. It is hard to imagine a worse fate. Yet strangely God permits it to open a door. Now on his way off to Egypt in chains  it would hard to convince  Joseph that his life was anything but a disaster. Yet, God was up to something good.

And within months Joseph was in a good spot, working for a wealthy man as a trusted adviser and manager. As we shall see, more will be required for Joseph to be prepared for his ultimate work.

But for now, the lesson is clear enough, God permits some sufferings to get us to move to the next stage. He closes one door to open another. There is pain in the closing of the door to the familiar, but there is greater joy beyond in the door He opens.

How about for you? What doors has God closed in your life, only to open something better? At the time a door closes we may suffer, and wonder if God cares. But later we see what God was doing. For the new door opens to things far greater.

D. Suffering helps summon courage – In a tragic way, sorrow was again to come to Joseph.  For Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph and sought to seduce him. Joseph refused her advances out of fear of God, and respect for Potiphar. But in her scorn she falsely accused Joseph of having made advances on her, and Joseph lands in jail! More misery, more suffering, and on account of the sins of others, not his own! Joseph is suffering for doing what is right!

One of the great virtues that we must all have, and see developed, is the virtue of courage. In a world steeped in sin, it takes great courage to resist the tide.

But courage, like any virtue cannot simply be developed in the abstract. Rather, it is developed and refined quite often in the crucible of opposition and persecution.

And thus we see how God helps Joseph develop his courage and trust by permitting this trial. Jesus would say many centuries later, In this world you shall have tribulation, but have confidence, I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33) He also said, Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs (Matt 5:10).

As for Joseph, so also for us. If  we are going to make it through this sinful world with our soul intact, we are going to need a lot of courage. The Lord often develops his courage in the crucible, asking us to trust him that we will be vindicated, whether in this world or the next.

E. Suffering builds trust –  Joseph just happened to meet to prisoners from Pharaoh’s household, the Cup-bearer, and the Baker. In prison, they experience Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, and observe his natural leadership skills. In accordance with a prophecy given by Joseph, the cup-bearer was restored to Pharaoh’s service who then reported Joseph’s skills to Pharaoh who just happened to be having dreams that troubled him.

God humbles us, only to exalt us. As Joseph has already learned, God can make a way out of no way. He can do anything but fail, and he writes straight with crooked lines.

Sure enough, in jail Joseph has his trust confirmed. Through his connections in jail, of all places, he will rise to become the prime minister of all Egypt. Having come through the crucible, Joseph is now ready for the main work that God has for him.

Consider how in your life, God’s providence has prepared you for something that an earlier stage in your life you couldn’t handle. Surely he prepared you in many ways; but among those ways was the way of humility and suffering. Setbacks or failures have a way of teaching us and preparing us for some of the greatest things that we enjoy. And in our struggles we learn the essential truth and we must come to trust and depend on God who knows what we need, what is best for us, and who knows how to prepare us for the works he expects of us.

F. Suffering produces wisdom. –   Joseph is brought to Pharaoh and he so powerfully interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, not only as to their meaning, but even as to a 14-year plan that will lead them through a looming crisis. Pharaoh was impressed, and Joseph is appointed to the equivalent of prime minister of all Egypt.

Joseph is able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. But he doesn’t simply interpret what it means, he also sets forth a wise plan. He explains to Pharaoh that the next fourteen years will have its ups and downs. Where might Joseph have learned this truth? Of course we know, in the crucible of his own life.

There’s a great wisdom in grasping that what is seen and experienced in this world is transitory. And thus we do well to listen to the Lord’s wisdom which is eternal.

Centuries later, the Lord spoke a parable of the certain wealthy man who had a great harvest and thought he was forever set. Lord called him a fool for thinking this way. Our abundance is not meant to be hoarded for ourselves. Excess food is not to be stored for myself, but rather stored in the stomachs of the poor and the hungry.

And thus Joseph, has been prepared for this moment by God, and he’s no fool. He has learned God’s wisdom and direction. Whatever abundance occurs in the next seven years must be set aside for those who will be hungry in the years that follow.

His wisdom is no accident, no mere hunch. It has come from the crucible of suffering. Suffering does that, it helps us become wise, get our priorities straight, and in this case, understand that our wealth depends on the Commonwealth. We cannot live merely for ourselves. That is foolishness, we are called to live for others.

What wisdom has God taught you through suffering? How has suffering helped you to get your priorities straight; to see the passing quality of life in this world, and to set your sights on the world it is to come and on the judgment awaits you? On the day of judgment will God call you a fool or a wise person? And if you are wise how did you get there?

G. In our suffering, we learn that our lives are not about us. – Joseph had predicted seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine. Hence, under Joseph’s direction during the years of plenty, grain was stored in abundance. So abundant was the harvest that with the grain stored, not only was Egypt saved from the famine, but also many neighboring lands. In a twist, Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt seeking food. And he is able to save the very brothers who thought to kill him. To his anxious brothers, who recognizing him fear for their lives, Joseph reassured them by saying you intended for evil, but God intended for good.

Yes, in our suffering, we learn that our lives are not about us. Joseph was not purified and prepared for this moment simply for his own sake, but even more, for the sake of others. God has led Joseph, often through terrible suffering to prepare him to help save others.

God did not simply prepare him to be a big cheese. God did not prepared him for glorious leadership for his own sake, but for the sake of others.

One of the lessons that we learn in Joseph’s story is that our life is interconnected with many other members of the Body of Christ, all of whom are precious and important to God.

God had to put Joseph through a lot to prepare him for his role of helping others. We are not called to live only for our self. God loves us individually, he also loves others through us; and he loves them enough that sometimes he is willing to make us wait, for their sake, or to cause us to suffer in order to groom us to help them. And the same is true of them toward us. All of us have received from the sacrifices of others, and are called to make sacrifices for others.

It is a hard truth, but true nonetheless, that God sometimes asks us to accept suffering for the sake of others, even as we are blessed by the sufferings of others who made many sacrifices for the things we enjoy.

This is the communal dimension of suffering. How is God prepared you through sufferings today to be able to help others?

Biblical stories have a wonderful way of teaching truth, and about our own life. And thus the Patriarch Joseph speaks to us from antiquity, and the pages of God’s holy Word. And somehow, I can hear Joseph saying that God can make a way out of no way. Somehow I hear him calling us to courage in our sufferings, and to perspective. Somehow I can hear him singing an old gospel hymn “God never fails. He abides in me, give me the victory for God never fails!”

What do shots in the game of Pong have to do with holiness? Very little! But what if holiness isn’t so impossible after all and what it really takes is grace interacting with some practice and perseverance? Maybe then the seemingly impossible would be seen by our very eyes.

Think about it and get started. No, not with practicing Pong, but with virtue.

It’s amazing what daily practice and steady effort can produce. I marvel at what the Lord has done for me over the years I’ve practiced the sure and steady discipline of prayer, sacraments, Scripture, and fellowship (cf Acts 2:42). Day by day, my growth has been almost imperceptible and there have even been setbacks, but looking back over the past twenty-plus years, I’m astonished at what the Lord has done.

As you watch this video, consider that these young men did not just wake up one day and film this in one take. I’m sure their skill took years to develop. And while we may wish that they had spent their time on something more noble, the principle still applies: consistent, persistent practice produces can produce wonders.

Saints can be daring in their words. For example, St Athanasius said that God became man so that man might become God (De inarnationis c. 54, 3). And St. Thomas Aquinas said that pride is such a serious sin that, as a remedy for it, God permits other sins to humble us (Summa Theologica II IIae, 162,6).

These are daring—even dangerous—assertions if they are not properly understood. And of course they can be properly understood. We do not become gods, but we do share in the divine nature by God’s gift. God may permit our sins, but He does not cause them and we have no right to indulge them on the pretext that it will help to humble us.

But I suspect that saints, having mastered certain topics, state their case quickly so as to move on to other subjects. I suppose they trust the Holy Spirit, working through Scripture and the Magisterium, to supply what their brevity points to but does not develop. Good teachers do not answer every question; they inspire a thirst in their students to further ponder mysteries and seek deeper answers and understanding.

In the Office of Readings this week St. Maximus the Confessor supplies what I would call a daring image. It is daring not so much doctrinally as in terms of piety. He compares the sacred humanity of Christ to bait that has been set out by a fisherman or hunter. Consider his words and marvel at the insight:

Here is the reason why God became a perfect man, changing nothing of human nature, except to take away sin (which was never natural anyway). His flesh was set before that voracious, gaping dragon as bait to provoke him: flesh that would be deadly for the dragon, for it would utterly destroy him by the power of the Godhead hidden within it. For human nature, however, his flesh would restore human nature to its original grace.

Just as the devil had poisoned the tree of knowledge and spoiled our nature by its taste, so too, in presuming to devour the Lord’s flesh he himself is corrupted and is completely destroyed by the power of the Godhead hidden within it.

(From the Five Hundred Chapters by Saint Maximus the Confessor, abbot (Centuria 1, 8-13: PG 90, 1182-1186))

Over the years, I have found that some (though not all) of the faithful are shocked or offended by daring images, humor about divine or sacred things, or the discussion of the flaws of saints and biblical figures. An old Latin phrase speaks of certain things that are offensiva pii aurium (offensive to pious ears). There are surely limits that should not be transgressed, but reasonable people differ on the exact location of those lines.

I call this image provided by St. Maximum daring because bait is a lowly and even gruesome image: a worm or fly on a hook, bloody chum cast on the water to attract fish, or a piece of meat thrown on the ground to attract a predator. This is not my first way of thinking of the sacred humanity of Christ on the cross: the cross as the hook and Jesus as the bait?

How bold and yet how true. Perhaps it should offend our sensibilities. For what is more offensive than the Son of God nailed by us to a piece of wood, bloody and dying outside the city gates of Jerusalem, the Holy City?

St. Maximus takes up this bloody, horrible theme and reminds us that God has always been in control. He was baiting and luring Satan all the while, defeating him through his own lust for blood and death. No sooner did Satan draw near and lay hold of this prey than the Lord defeated him. By dying He destroyed our death and in rising He restored our life.

It is bold, daring, and true.