Community in Mission

The epistle in the Extraordinary Form this past Sunday (21^st Sunday after Pentecost) was particularly appropriate for our times. The Holy Spirit, writing through St. Paul, gives us important reminders of how to live and fight as true soldiers of Christ in a world increasingly gripped by satanic darkness. Let’s examine the whole passage and then reflect on its teachings:

Be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of His power. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high. Therefore, take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of justice, and having your feet shod with the readiness of the Gospel of peace, in all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God (Ephesians 6:10-17).

I. The Required Resources – The text says that this is no ordinary human conflict and so mere human solutions and tactics will not solve it. We are enduring an orchestrated attack by Satan, the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. He has devoted all his resources and cunning to dividing and conquering us, to sowing darkness, moral confusion, and deception. He wants to destroy every vestige of godliness and order within us and to make us lower than the beasts.

Sadly, too many people are more than willing to connive and cooperate with him. But given the satanic origins of the meltdown of our culture, no mere human solution will win the day.

Thus the text bids us to [b]e strengthened in the Lord and in the might of His power. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. … Therefore, take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect.

Yes, the battle is the Lord’s; it must be. Without Him, we are doomed. With Him, we have the strength to endure and to save others from Satan’s deceptions and cunning.

II. The Real Rival – In war it is important to know your true enemy. It sometimes happens in the “fog of war” that we attack the wrong targets and lash out indiscriminately. The Holy Spirit, through St. Paul, cautions and reminds us that our true enemy is not our fellow human beings (flesh and blood), but rather Satanic powers and fallen angels in high and influential places: For our contention is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.

There is a satanic cause to this world’s woes. Although Satan has enlisted conniving human beings in his service, he and his minions of darkness are the true source of evil. In attacking one other, we only serve his ends.

When some of our brethren take up the cause of the devil, remember that they have been deceived. Our job is not to hate them, but rather to convert them and call them back. Our goal is to understand the true source of the problem and to direct our retaliation there, but only by God’s power.

III. The Rich Resources – The Holy Spirit, through St. Paul, shows us the true arms on which we rely. Notice that the verb forms used in most of the instructions in this epistle are aorist participles in the middle voice. In other words, the qualities described, having been attained in the past by cooperation with grace, are active and ongoing. The individuals are portrayed as having girded their loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, etc. So these are ongoing qualities, attained in the past, but operative now in the properly equipped warrior of God’s army.

Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, – We are to stand, not crouch in hiding.

Girding the loins is the ancient equivalent of rolling up your sleeves. In other words, we are to be ready for work! In the ancient world, the loins of the garment referred to whatever was below the waist. Because long garments were easily tangled in the legs, one would pull up one’s garment and tie one’s belt (girdle) tight to secure them, thus freeing the legs and helping to avoid tripping. This permitted unrestricted work. Thus we are to roll up our sleeves and be ready for work.

But our work must be conformed to God’s truth, not merely to our worldly and political opinions. Too many Catholics permit politics and/or the culture and the world to govern their views. This will never win the day. The only winning strategy is to actively work to promote God’s truth. Yes, God’s truth will win, not my view or opinion. We must be rooted in the truth of God’s whole counsel, His full teaching. Partial or selective truth will not prevail; neither will lies or modern views. Only having girded our loins with God’s full truth can we hope to win the day.

and having put on the breastplate of justice, – We moderns usually think of justice in terms of laws, but the ancient Greek and scriptural view is more relational. The Greek word used here is δικαιοσύνης (dikaiosynes), which means to be in a right relationship with God. Thus, those who would be soldiers in the army of the Lord must have on the breastplate of a right relationship with Him. They must be free of mortal sin through frequent, regular confession.

The breastplate protected the heart and torso, which were vulnerable to attack. If we are not protected by the breastplate of a right relationship with God, we are vulnerable to the retaliations of the evil one, who will not appreciate our work to free souls from his grip.

Frequent confession and daily repentance help to keep us in a right relationship with God: a relationship untainted by serious sin, pride, anger, hatred, and so forth. Without this right relationship, we are an easy target and we risk mortal wounding from the battle against the powers of darkness.

and having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, – What is peace? It is the presence within the relationship of everything that should be there. It is more than just the fact that we are not angry with one another or that do not seek to kill one another. It is the capacity that Gospel gives us to love one another, even those who are opposed to us. Instead of seeing enemies, we see brothers and sisters who have been deceived. Our goal is not to destroy them, but to win them back, to correct them and call them to saving repentance.

in all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. – In addition to a breastplate, we need a shield. The errors and lies of the evil one are the fiery darts from which we must be shielded.

How can we protect ourselves from the erroneous views of the world (which are inspired by demonic forces) except with a shield of faith, through which we know what God teaches and can distinguish it from the errors, illusions, and deceptions of the world? Steeped in the truth of God, we are able to see modern errors for the deceptions and darkness they are. Thus, we can without doubt say, “That is not the mind of God!”

But too many today are poorly catechized and, having exposed themselves repeatedly to the errors and foolishness of this world, are lost in its deceptions and empty promises.

Only the shield of faith can protect us and keep us grounded enough to wage the battle to which we are called. Faith will help us to quench the fiery darts of Satan’s error.

And take unto you the helmet of salvation – We must protect our minds against the widely promulgated errors of our day. The evil one targets our minds, wanting to sow error and rebellion there. (I have written more on this problem here: The Battleground of the Mind.)

There is just too much confusion and error today for us to assume that our minds are going to be anything but polluted and possessed by the all the wrong priorities if we do not regularly cleanse ourselves with a dose of God’s Word. His Word is like a helmet that protects our mind!

and the sword of the spirit, that is, the word of God. – The Word of God is also our sword. Scripture says elsewhere, For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb 4:12-13).

Thus the Word of God must be at the heart of our rebuff of error and evil, not human views, opinions, or political theories. When tempted by the devil in the desert, Jesus responded with Scripture. We must always have recourse to Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which emerge from the same font.

We are not going to win a battle with the world by using worldly arguments. The world is better at using its own views than we will ever be. We are soldiers in the army of the Lord and our chief weapon must be the Gospel.

While recourse to Natural Law has its place (as a kind of preparation for the Gospel), it is going to take the Word of God to bring about true conversion. St. Paul instructed Timothy, Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction (2 Tim 4:2). Yes, the Word of God is both shield and sword.

Take up your sword and shield! Likewise, be protected by the breastplate of a right relationship with God and the helmet that protects your mind from error. Peacefully and confidently refute errors with the Gospel, which bestows that very peace and confidence.

In times like these, be a solider in the army of the Lord.

In today’s Gospel the Lord says, This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah (Lk 11:30). So what is the sign of Jonah and does it apply today?

The Gospels (Matthew and Luke) present two signs of Jonah, one of which particularly concerns us here.

1. First Sign: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus invokes Jonah in a twofold way: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40). In this image, Jonah’s descent into the belly of the whale is a sign of the Lord’s descent to Sheol. For the sake of brevity, I would like to set aside this first sign and go on to discuss the second sign of Jonah. (Matthew’s Gospel sets this second sign forth in essentially the same way as the Lucan version we heard today at Mass.)
2. Second Sign: In the Lucan version, read at today’s Mass, the mention of the whale is omitted and only this second sign is declared: This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here (Luke 11:29-32).

But the question remains, what exactly is this (second) sign of Jonah? On one level, the text seems to spell it out rather clearly. Jonah had gone to the Ninevites with this message: Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed (Jonah 3:3). In response, the Ninevites (led by their King) repented, fasted, and prayed. Seeing their actions, God relented and did not destroy them. So on one level the sign of Jonah is the message “Repent or die.” Just as the Ninevites heard Jonah’s warning, put faith in it, and were spared, so the people of Jesus’ time should put faith in His warning to repent and believe the Good News. If they do not, they will meet with great disaster.

What would cause this disaster? The description of the sign of Jonah taps into the historical context of Jonah’s ministry, but applied to the people of Jesus’ time it has a polemical tone. Let’s consider why.

1. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, he resisted. He must have thought that it was a no-win situation for him: either they would rebuff his prophecy (and likely kill him) or they would heed his message and grow stronger. (Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the mortal enemy of Israel, and Jonah had no interest in seeing them strengthened.)
2. When Jonah makes his announcement of imminent destruction, Assyria does In their strength they would become a rod in God’s hand to punish Israel. Isaiah the Prophet had well described Israel’s crimes and said that punishment would surely come upon her from Assyria. God would use Assyria to humble and punish His people, Israel. Here is a key passage in which Assyria is described in this way: … Assyria, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets (Isaiah 10:5-6).

Here, then, is a deeper meaning of the sign of Jonah: if Israel will not repent, then God will take their power and strength and give it to a foreign land that knows Him not. These foreigners will shame and humiliate Israel, inflicting God’s punishment on them.

This is humiliating to Israel on two levels. First, a pagan country would repent while God’s own people would not. Second, they are conquered by a foreign and unbelieving people. The destruction by Assyria was a devastating blow to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and resulted in the loss of the ten tribes living there. They became the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” Only Judah and the Levites were left in the South as a remnant.

Let’s apply this understanding of the sign of Jonah, first to Jesus’ time and then to our own.

1. In Jesus’ time the sign of Jonah meant that if Israel would not repent and accept the Gospel, God would take it from them and give it to the Gentiles. Jesus says elsewhere to his fellow Jews, Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit (Matt 21:43). Just as ancient Israel’s refusal to repent led to its destruction by the Assyrians, so Israel’s refusal to repent in Jesus’ time would mean destruction by the Romans (in 70 A.D.). This was prophesied by Jesus in the Mount Olivet discourse (Matthew 24:1 – 25:46, Mark 13:1-37, and Luke 21:5-36). According to Josephus, more than a million Jews were lost in this horrible war.
2. In our time, I suggest that the sign of Jonah may be active. I know that this may be controversial, but it seems to me that many Christians and Catholics in the decadent West have stopped loving life. Birth rates have dropped dramatically and are well below replacement level. We are on our way to aborting and contracepting ourselves right out of existence. God has loosed judgment on us in the form of the sign of Jonah. He seems to be saying this to us: “Fine, if you do not love life and are not zealous for the faith I have given you, then disaster is upon you. Others still do appreciate larger families and are zealous for their faith. And even if, like the Assyrians of old, they are not my people as you are, I will use them to humble and punish you. They will grow and increase while you decrease. Perhaps when you are punished by a people who do not respect your religious liberty, you who remain will repent and begin to love life.”

In the European Union today, the birth rate is about 1.6 children per woman. Globally, Muslim women average 3.1 children. Do the math and realize that Europe as we have known it is coming to an end. In the United States the birth rate is higher, but still only about 1.9 children per woman. In general, the Catholic world is in decline, both in terms of our birth rates and our zeal for the faith. We are surely being diminished by our culture of death and decadent sloth.

Is it the sign of Jonah? You decide.

One of the great human inadequacies is our inability to give proper and adequate thanks to God. Perhaps the biggest problem is that we don’t even realize the vast majority of what He does for us; it is hidden from our eyes. 

A further problem is that in our fallen condition we seem to be wired to magnify our problems and minimize or discount the enormous blessings of each moment. God sustains every fiber of our being and every atom of creation. God’s blessings are countless and yet we get angry if our iPhone malfunctions or if a few of His myriad blessings are withdrawn.

An old gospel song says it well:

I’ve got so much to thank God for; So many wonderful blessings and so many open doors. A brand new mercy along with each new day. That’s why I praise You and for this I give You praise. For waking me up this morning, For starting me on my way, For letting me see the sunshine, of a brand new day. That’s why I praise You and for this I give You praise. So many times You´ve met my needs, So many times You rescued me. That’s why I praise You.

For every mountain You brought me over, For every trial you’ve seen me through, For every blessing, For this I give You praise.

Fundamental Question – The question at the heart of today’s Gospel is best expressed in the Book of Psalms: What return shall I make to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The same psalm goes on to answer the question in this way: The cup of salvation I will take up and call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:12).

The Mass is signified – Indeed, how can I possibly thank the Lord for all the good He has done for me? Notice that the psalm points to the Eucharist in saying, The cup of salvation I will take up …” As you know, the word “Eucharist” is a Greek word meaning “thanksgiving.” We cannot thank God our Father adequately, but Jesus can. In every Mass, we join our meager thanksgiving to His perfect thanksgiving. Through the priest, Jesus takes up the cup of salvation and shows it to us at every Mass. This is the perfect and superabundant thanks to the Father that only Jesus can offer. In every Mass, Jesus joins us to His perfect sacrifice of thanks. That is how we give thanks in a way commensurate with the manifold blessings we have received. 

Hidden Mass! – The Gospel for today makes the point that the Mass is the perfect offering of thanks to the Father in a remarkable and almost hidden way. But for Catholics, it is right there for us to see if we have eyes to see it. Today’s Gospel contains all the essential elements of Holy Mass. It is about giving thanks and reminds us once again that it is the Mass that is the perfect thanksgiving, the perfect “Eucharist.”

Let’s look and see how it is a Mass:

1. Gathering – Ten lepers (symbolizing us) have gathered and Jesus comes near as He passes on His way. We do this in every Mass: we gather and the Lord draws near. In the person of the priest, who is the sacrament, the sign of His presence, Jesus walks the aisle of our church just as He walked those ancient roads.

2. Kyrie – The lepers cry out for mercy, just as we do at every Mass. Lord, have mercy! Jesus, Master, have pity on us!

3. Liturgy of the Word – Jesus quotes Scripture and then applies it to their lives, just as He does for us at every Mass. (In saying, “Go show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus is referencing Leviticus 13, which gives detailed instructions on how the priests of old were to diagnose leprosy or its having been cured.) Yes, this is what we do at every Mass: we listen to the Lord Jesus, through the priest or deacon, proclaiming God’s Word and then applying it to our lives.

4. Liturgy of the Eucharist – The Gospel relates that one of them fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. This is what we do during the Eucharistic prayer: we kneel and thank Jesus, and along with Him, give thanks to the Father. As we have noted, the word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek and means “thanksgiving.” Here is the perfect thanks rendered to the Father. Those who claim that they can stay home and give adequate thanks to God should be rebuked for being prideful. Only Jesus can give perfect thanks to the Father, and we can only give adequate thanks by following Jesus’ command to “Do this in memory of me.” We have to be at Mass.

5. Ite, missa est – Finally, Jesus sends the thankful leper on his way, saying, Stand up and go; your faith has saved you. We, too, are sent forth by Jesus at the end of every Mass, when He speaks through the priest or deacon: “The Mass is ended, go in peace.”

So, there it is. Within this Gospel, which very clearly instructs us to give thanks to God, is the very structure of the Mass. If you want to give proper thanks to God, the right place to do it is at Mass. Only at Mass is perfect and proper thanks given to God.

It was all prefigured in the psalm long ago: What return shall I make to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up and call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:12). Yes, it is the very cup of salvation, the chalice containing Christ’s blood, that is held up at every Mass. It is the perfect sacrifice of thanks. It is the prescribed sacrifice of praise. It is the proper sacrifice of praise.

In the arena of the world, the flesh, and the devil, pleasure comes first and the bill comes later. But they don’t want you to think about that bill right now. If the thought occurs to us, “Gee, this indulgence or sin might have a cost,” the response is “Don’t worry; charge it!” But of course the bill does come due one day. The damage caused by sinful excess cannot be staved off forever.

The commercial below shows that indulgence has a cost. In this case, there is an offer to watch unlimited TV on your mobile device—without using up any of your data! Sure … until the “limited time offer” expires, by which time you’ll have acquired an expensive new habit that you think you can’t live without.

The problem isn’t merely money, as the commercial would suggest. The problem is a life wasted on mere diversions, a life spent staring at a screen instead of with people you love, a life centered on trivialities instead of on things that really matter.

Remember, fellow Christians, pleasure is the Devil’s bait; he wants to reel you in. Be careful. Count the cost. Ponder the consequences of: “Free!” “Charge it!” and “Limited time offer!”

The Collect (Opening Prayer) for this coming Sunday (27^th Week of the Year), though directed to God, teaches us that our prayer is not always about things with which we are comfortable. Prayer sometimes leads us to look into areas of our life where we struggle with sin or we struggle to desire to be free of sin. Here is the prayer:

Almighty ever-living God,
who in the abundance of your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,
pour out your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

After asking for God’s mercy and acknowledging that God is offering more than our minds can grasp, we make the following two requests:

1. [May you] pardon what conscience dreads.
2. [May you] give what prayer does not dare to ask.

Let’s look at each.

[May you] pardon what conscience dreads.

The Catechism states the following regarding our conscience:

Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths (# 1776).

Our conscience is not merely what we think or what it pleases us to think; it is the voice of God echoing in our depths. Whatever rationalizations we may wish to assemble in an attempt to suppress the conscience, there is still, deep within, that voice of God that is calling us. Deep down, we know what we are doing and we know when it is wrong. No matter how many “teachers” we assemble to tell us what our ears want to hear, that voice is still there.

I suspect that this is why the world and its devotees are so angry at the Catholic Church for reminding us what God says. If our teachings and corrections were merely regarded as outdated opinions, the world would not hate us, would not be at war with us. No matter how emphatically people deny that their consciences trouble them, deep down inside they know better. The louder these denials, the less we should be convinced. Why are they forever insisting that the Church change her teachings? If we’re just a pathetic and outdated institution, why do they care what we teach? Again, because deep down they know that we are right; they know what is right and do not like to be reminded of it.

Our words, the words of Christ, touch something; they “prick” the conscience and remind people of things they know inside but would rather forget. The voice of God echoes within, convicting them and inciting a godly dread of sin and its ultimate consequences.

And this is true for believers as well, who, though not intensely hostile, would still prefer to avoid the voice of their conscience and do not enjoy the holy dread of sin it incites. It is true that not all sorrow for sin is from God. St. Paul distinguishes godly sorrow (which draws one to God for healing) from worldly sorrow (which deflates the sinner and has him despair of being able to change or of God’s healing love). The proper dread that conscience incites is always a call of love from God, who bids us to repent and return to Him.

Still, we avoid what conscience dreads. Who likes to experience fear or negative feelings?

But prayer must often ask us to look honestly at the less pleasing and consoling things in our life. This prayer bids us to listen to the dread of conscience (dread of the sin and of its due punishments) and to seek pardon.

[May you] give what prayer does not dare to ask.

Some argue that the translation of this clause is not very exact. The Latin is quod oratio non praesumit. Some prefer a softer translation in which the phrase asks God to give us the things that we are not worthy of requesting, things we do not presume to ask for because it would be too bold for us to do so. Such a translation does not offend the Latin text, but does seem to miss the overall context of the prayer, which is asking God to help us to overcome personal resistance.

We have already seen how and why many of us resist what conscience dreads and would rather be done with the voice of God echoing in their depths. But consider that we resist asking for many things out of fear.

The classic example of this is St. Augustine’s stance when he asked God to make him chaste … but not yet! Though he could see the value of chastity, Augustine enjoyed his promiscuity and was fearful in asking the Lord to remove something that he liked.

And thus there are many things we dare not ask for because we fear actually getting them. The attitude is “Ask not, lest ye be answered”! Many are not ready to forgive, to be chaste, or to be more generous; they fear the changes that such things would bring.

Perhaps here one can at least pray, “Lord, at least give me the desire to be chaste if I don’t even have that.” “Give me the desire to share with and love the poor, which I don’t currently have.”

If we begin to desire what God is offering, we are more chaste, generous, and forgiving because we want to be. And thus the fear of what prayer does not dare to ask abates. Then we are ready to ask God for what He really wants to give us.

The prayer is asking us to look at our resistance and fear and to pray out of that very experience rather than seeking to suppress or deny it.

Consider well, then, the beautiful, though difficult and daring invitation of this prayer. Though directed to God, it also bids us to look within and to admit our fears and resistance.