The word honesty comes from the Latin honestas meaning an honor received from others, a kind of “standing in honor” before others (honor + stas (to stand)). It’s interesting that most people are willing to be a little phony in order to get vague appreciation or to be thought well of. (The whole cosmetics industry is based on this.) But when one is actually “honored” in a formal way by others, there is an elevated sense that we need to truthfully deserve the honor. And thus honor calls forth honesty.
A similar concept is sincerity. The word sincerity comes from the Latin as well: sine (without) + cera (wax). It seems that sculptors in the ancient world often used a hard, resin-like wax to hide their errors. But every now and then there was the perfect carving, with no wax needed, nothing phony about it, no cover-ups.
I thought about these words as I saw this commercial. In the ad, the “honor” of engagement draws forth honesty and sincerity. The honesty of one person brings forth the honesty of the other and they both end up more relaxed.
The Gospel for today’s Mass shocks most modern readers and perhaps a few ancient ones as well. It is the story of the Syrophoenician woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. But Jesus ignores and then rebuffs her. Our shock says perhaps more about our poor understanding of love than about Jesus’ terse response.
For review, here is the well known passage:
Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone (Mk 7:24-30).
While I have commented on other theories of this story elsewhere (Do Not Pass me By), in this post I want to briefly explore what our shock reveals about our own attitudes.
Briefly said, we tend to equate kindness with love; this is a mistake. Kindness is an aspect of love, but so is rebuke and so is punishment. Mercy and patience are aspects of love, but so are insisting on what is right and setting limits. Very often, true love requires us to be firm and insistent. Sometimes being kind is rather unloving, since that can assist or enable people in doing things that bring them great harm.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, who is God and therefore is love, is for a moment “unkind” to the woman who seeks help for her daughter. He has His reasons for this. And while neither your nor I can read her heart, Jesus can. And it seems that Jesus sees a need to exact greater faith and trust from her. His rebuke challenges her, and challenges met have a way of increasing faith. She could have gone away angry or discouraged. With Jesus’ rebuke, her faith in His goodness is challenged. By staying in the conversation and refusing to give up her hope or faith, both these virtues grow. There is an old expression, “Things do by opposition grow,” and we see that here.
Why would her faith need to grow? I cannot speak for her, but I can speak for myself and from my experiences with others. Many people merely want relief, not healing. Healing is hard; it takes time and effort. Healing usually means that one must reexamine one’s life, thoughts, priorities, and so forth. Healing usually means making changes, some of them significant. It sometimes means giving up pleasures and ending unhealthy relationships.
Do we have the kind of faith that is willing to make the changes that healing often requires, or do we just want relief? I have found that people who have come to me over the years seeking deliverance and help often want a simple blessing or prayer to suffice. They are seeking relief and they want it fast. Some have made the longer journey toward healing, but others have gone away sad, angry, or discouraged.
In my own struggle during my mid-thirties, I think I started just wanting a quick solution to my anxieties; I wanted relief. But I came to discover that it was going to be a long journey to healing. It meant I was going to have to grow in trust by examining some of my controlling tendencies and changing the way I thought and lived.
Many years later, I can say that the healing has come. But it was a long and often difficult journey, during which I felt the way the Syrophoenician woman must have. In my own case, I was shocked by the Lord’s silence. And when I did hear His voice, it seemed only to challenge me. Was the Lord being unkind? Back then, I would have said, “yes.” But I have come to discover that the Lord was doing what was loving, even if at the time it seemed unkind and distant. The Lord was insisting that I come to trust Him more, for my own sake, and He wasn’t just going to keep sending me bromides for relief. His goal was to heal me. That was the loving thing to do.
Kindness has its place, but so does rebuke and so does the refusal to enable us in our sinful and wounded tendencies.
And so it was that a certain Syrophoenician woman experienced a moment of unkindness from Jesus. But she did not fail to receive His love. And while her story is told in a rather quick, focal way, our own stories may extend over a longer period. If we, like her, refuse to give up our hope and faith, if we stay with the Lord allowing Him to work and grow our faith in His work, we, too, will hear those marvelous words of the Lord: For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out.
Most Catholics understandably link the Church, the Papacy, and Rome. We are “Roman” Catholics. The Pope lives in Rome. He is the Bishop of Rome and of the universal Church. Rome, the Papacy, and the Church are solidly linked terms and almost interchangeable. To say, “Rome has spoken … ” is to say the Pope has spoken, the Church has ruled.
But this connection has not always held and the popes, for various reasons, have chosen or been “forced” to live outside of Rome.
Among the lesser known and understood chapters of Church history is the “Avignon Papacy” (1309-1377). During this period, the popes lived outside of Rome, in what is now the French city of Avignon. Even prior to that time, several popes had found it necessary to live elsewhere within Italy due to the chaos, violence, and troubles in Rome.
These were turbulent times in the Church and in Europe. Whatever brief intellectual and cultural unity had come to Europe in the 13th Century (sometimes called the Medieval Synthesis) was breaking down, and a kind of localized anarchy had become the norm.
Large nation-states, as we now call them, were not the norm in the 14th Century, and violence was common between villages and regions. We live in times in which large countries engage in statecraft and, when there is conflict, wage wars between nations and even conduct world wars. The body count can be astonishing in these national and global conflicts.
In the 14th century, however, it was “death by a thousand cuts,” and violence and war were very localized. But the chaos and violence could be very fierce and ugly.
It is important for us to know some of this material. While I am no prophet, something tells me that with the decline of Christian Europe and the rise of a militant version of Islam, it may be important for us to know that Rome has not always been a place where it was possible or reasonable for the popes to live, and to learn what some of the effects of this have been.
The absence of popes from Rome almost always had a deleterious effect and it took quite a bit of pressure, even from saints, to get them to return. I pray that modern popes will always have the courage to face down threats and never relinquish the Holy See. But history provides important models to know and lessons to learn from the Avignon Papacy.
The history is too lengthy and “byzantine” (i.e., complex) to detail here in a mere blog post. But some highlights are helpful to review. Thus, I’d like to present some excerpts from Sigrid Undset’s book St. Catherine of Siena (pp. 126-139), which describe something of this time. Exact quotes from the book are in italics, and some narrative of my own that I weave in (represented in plain text) is drawn from her material.
The general situation – Times were hard … in Italy. Towns and villages lived under the constant threat of being attacked and ravaged by the armies of neighboring republics … despots [or mercenaries] temporarily unemployed and on the lookout for plunder … The vanquished became victims of orgies of senseless bloodlust, torture, massacre and looting. In the wake of the soldiers followed plague and starvation. Men and boys who had grown up in this anarchy [often] took to the woods or mountains and became outlaws, murderers who neither gave nor expected mercy …
The situation in Rome – The restless, self-willed people of Rome were all too ready [to undertake] rioting, and anarchy broke out during papal elections when armed mobs of Romans tried to force Cardinals to choose their candidate. German emperors also [frequently] invaded Rome to force their claim[s] … [This] often forced popes to flee to Naples or Lyons … For several decades popes had preferred to live at Viterbo [or other Italian towns] … to escape the eternal unrest and uncertainty of Rome
The Avignon Papacy [began] when Clement V refused [because of the situation in Rome] to leave his native France to live in Italy … [he settled in Avignon, which, though technically not part of France, was under French influence] At his death Clement V left a fortune of one million florins. His successor [John XXII] also lived in Avignon and continued the building activities of his predecessor, [making] the papal city on the Rhone one of the most strongly fortified and mightiest cities in Europe.
Things just got worse in Rome – In Rome itself [with the pope absent] there was no authority which could control the aggressive members of the great baronial families who continually waged war on each other … They had fortresses inside the city walls … Pilgrims who came to pray at the graves of the apostles were robbed, peasants attacked outside the city walls, women were raped … The Churches were in ruins; in St. Peters and the Lateran, cattle grazed at the foot of altars … As a result of the absence of the popes, war and enmity between small groups flourished unchecked … How deserted the town which was once so full of people, the mistress of the peoples [had] become a widow.
Some attempts were made by Pope Clement VI to restore order there. He sent a legate, and churches were repaired and rebuilt, law and order restored, and pilgrims could return safely. But at length, the Romans turned against the men the Pope had sent and drove them from the city. Chaos returned. It was both disgraceful and discouraging.
Calls for repentance – It took the Black Death, which overran Europe, to put an end to the fiasco. Half of the population of Italy died in the plague. Many felt sure that the plague was a punishment from God on a world that had rejected Him.
A chorus of voices demanded that the world should do penance and the Pope return to the city that was the rightful home of the Holy See … that this return was an essential condition for a re-birth of Christianity.
This view was championed by St. Brigitta of Sweden in the middle years of the 14th Century. She wrote to Pope Clement VI and warned of terrible misfortunes that would come upon him if he failed to return to Rome. While it was said that he was deeply moved by the letter of this holy and influential woman, he cited a “difficult situation” that presently prevented his move.
His successors, Innocent VI and Urban V, also failed to end the Avignon Papacy. (Though Urban did go to Rome for three years, he left, dying shortly afterwards in fulfillment of Brigitta’s prophecy.)
Upon the election of Gregory XI, great hope was raised of a papal return to Rome. Brigitta, however, would not live to see it. It would fall to Catherine of Siena to prevail on Gregory to make the return. She carried on a long correspondence with him and then visited him in Avignon in 1376. While the weight of her influence is a debated topic, some legends have her saying to the Pope in effect, “Go to Rome or go to Hell.” And Gregory, who was a smart man and knew that Catherine said this is out of love for him and the Church, went back to Rome in 1377.
What are some lessons we can learn from this difficult and painful chapter?
While we link the Pope to Rome, and he does carry among his titles that of “Bishop of Rome,” we ought not see this as doctrinally essential to his role as the Successor to Peter. Peter himself began in Jerusalem and then likely moved to Antioch, possibly to Ephesus, and then finally to Rome. His move there made sense since Rome was the hub of the empire they sought to evangelize. But if Rome were to fall into a condition that made it untenable for the Pope to stay, he could fulfill his role elsewhere. He would likely retain his title of Bishop of Rome even if forced to live elsewhere.
We can see how serious the Church’s role is in fostering conversion. All the thousands of European conflicts of this and later periods occurred among Catholics. All claimed to believe in the Lord and to be Catholics, but their politics and national differences trumped their identity as sons and daughters of God. Politics and worldly conquest were more important than the faith. Does this sound familiar? Many today allow the same worldly things to eclipse their faith. Bishops and priests, along with Catholics in general, may seek to avoid conflict now by overlooking this trend, but in the end it would seem it grows only worse until the matter becomes critical.
The Church of that period was seriously compromised by its own involvement in the political and temporal order. Popes were large landowners and rulers in their own right. This both compromised the Church and also dulled her prophetic stance. This state of affairs arose from benign causes. As Rome declined, Europe suffered from barbarian invasions and a leadership gap, and many departed to the east. In a way, only the Pope could have filled this void at first. But power is seldom handed back once acquired. The popes grew rich and powerful, and many became corrupted by it. Today, too, the Church, while not rich or a landowner, must be careful not to align herself too closely with worldly affairs and governments. Some countries (in Europe especially) have concordats that allow lots of tax money to flow to the Church. In America, the bishops must be careful not to allow themselves to become too closely aligned with political parties or views. We also have to be careful not to allow ourselves to become too dependent on our tax-exempt status or on other things that benefit us either financially or in terms of influence, because the “price” of these benefits may become too high. All these sorts of things can bring the Church into conflict and disrepute, dulling our prophetic stance. We must be very careful never to be in a position where we have “too much to lose” by preaching the Gospel.
We are entering an era in which the popes may be pressured to leave Rome. The Christian presence in Italy is steadily eroding through contraception and abortion. The cultural and religious suicide of Christians, coupled with a rather healthy growth of Muslims (whose radical elements are a big growth sector), may cause difficulties for the presence of the Church in Rome. Muslims, especially radicalized ones, are not known for their religious tolerance. If you think I exaggerate or am being polemical, please talk to the Nigerian and Sudanese Catholics who have been suffering church bombings and the death and forced relocation of thousands.
Hagia Sophia in Constantinople became a Mosque. Could the same fate await St. Peter’s? Might this happen in our lifetimes? Where would the Pope and the “Vatican” go? Should the Pope die a martyr or judiciously decide to leave? Should Christians fight to save the Holy See? At what cost? What would a move to another place do to Catholic unity? Would the receiving country gain too much prominence in Church matters? Would others resent this? Such questions cannot be answered now. But as the Avignon Papacy shows, having the popes outside of Rome has a way of causing distress in the wider Church. Most of the early popes were willing to live in a dangerous place and accept martyrdom rather than be “unSEEted.”
I do not write as an alarmist, but rather as one who ponders if history has things to teach us. Difficult days may come for us. How should the Church prepare? Her own history has things to teach.
Sign me up for the path of martyrdom, where popes and many Catholics with him would be willing to suffer and die rather than merely accommodate demographic and political realities and vacate the apostolic see. Step one is to step up our own birthrate and work more vigorously towards winning souls for Christ.
There was movie some years ago that most of you have probably seen called Toy Story. It had a deep impact on me, for it came out at a critical moment in my life.
It was my 33rd year of life and the 6th year of my priesthood. As I have related elsewhere, I had suffered a nervous breakdown that required a week in the hospital and a month off to recuperate. What drove me to that point was being asked to take an assignment I really wasn’t ready for. I was asked to pastor a parish that was in serious financial trouble. The stress nearly finished me.
Invincible? I was a young priest at the time, still emerging from my “invincible” stage when I thought I could do anything. I guess it’s pretty common for men in their twenties to think they can handle anything. During those years, opinions are strong, dreams are still vivid, and hard experience has not always taught its tough lessons yet.
So the young priest had said “yes” to the assignment, even though I had reservations. Soon enough, the panic attacks came, followed by waves of depression, and days when I could barely come out of my room. A week in the hospital for evaluation, a month off to recuperate, and years of good spiritual direction, psychotherapy, and the Sacraments have been God’s way of restoring me to health.
Somewhere in the early stages of all this, I saw the movie Toy Story. And right away, I knew I was Buzz Lightyear. Buzz begins the movie as a brash, would-be hero and savior of the planet. Buzz Lightyear’s tagline is, “To infinity … and beyond!” The only problem is that he seems to have no idea that he is just a toy. He actually thinks he has come from a distant planet to save Earth. He often radios to the mother ship and, hearing nothing, concludes she must be just out of range.
At a critical point in the movie, it begins to dawn on Buzz that he is just a toy and may not be able to save the day. He struggles with this realization and resists it. He tries to leap to the rescue, not knowing he can’t actually fly, and falls from the second floor breaking off his arm (see the second video below). Suddenly, Buzz realizes he’s just a toy, that all his boasting was based on an illusion. He then sinks into a major depression, his sense of himself destroyed.
But God wasn’t done with Buzz Lightyear. In the end, Buzz does save the day, by simply being what he was made to be: a toy. One of the kids in the neighborhood takes him up and attaches a rocket to him. In the end that enables Buzz to fly and save the day at a critical moment. And though the boy meant the rocket to cause harm, God meant it for good. The humiliation Buzz suffered enabled him to conquer his pride and made him able to save the day.
The lesson of the movie is a critical one and certainly the lesson I learned in my own mid-life crisis. And the lesson is that our greatness does not come from our own self-inflated notions, but from God. And God does not need us to pretend to be something we are not. What He needs is for us to be exactly what He made us to be. And it is often in our weakness that He is able to do His greatest work.
Similarly, I have come to realize that I am but a man. I have certain gifts and lack others. Certain doors are open to me and others are not. But when I accept that and come to depend on God to fashion and use me according to His will, then great things are possible. If we go on living in sinful illusion and grandeur, we miss our true calling and place in God’s kingdom. Ultimately, each of us must come to discover the man or woman that God created us to be. That is our true greatness. It is often in our weaknesses and humiliations that we learn this best.
All this from a cartoon.
Here is the clip from Toy Story where Buzz discovers he is just a toy:
And here is the scene where Buzz saves the day, reuniting Woody and himself with Andy, the young boy who loves them. But his ability to do this was made possible because another child had strapped a rocket to him. That child had misused him. But in accepting this humiliation, Buzz found his greatness and saved the day. He did so not by his false pride, but by the very thing that humiliated him. In his weakness and by accepting that he was powerless (for toys do not have power of their own) he became strong and received his ability to go sailing once more.
When we speak of God’s law, there is a danger that we might think of it as we think of any secular law. We usually think of secular law merely as a sort of impersonal code written by nameless legislators or bureaucrats. We have not met them; we do not know them or necessarily love or trust them. In effect, they are an abstraction in our mind called “the government,” or “the man,” or just “they,” as in, “They don’t want you to park here” or “They’ll arrest you for that.”
But God’s Law is personal. When it comes to God’s Law we are dealing with something quite different, something very personal (if we have faith). For God’s law is not given by someone we do not know, love, or trust. If we have faith, God is someone we do in fact know, someone we love and trust. Further, we believe that He loves us and wants what is best for us.
God’s law is not the equivalent of a no-parking sign hung by some nameless, faceless government. Rather, it is a personal exhortation, an instruction and command given by someone we know and who knows and loves us.
Consider an example. Suppose you pull in front of my church to park and you see a no-parking sign. Now suppose further that you decide to ignore it. All right, you have broken a law, not a big one, but a law nonetheless. You’ve chosen to ignore a sign put there by “the government.” But consider another scenario: I, your beloved blogger and the pastor of the Church you are attending or visiting, is standing out there by the curb and I say to you, “Please don’t park here.” Now the situation is very different. I, someone you know and love, 🙂 , am personally requesting that you leave the space open for some reason.
An old rabbinic saying makes this same point:
You want to know why so many of God’s laws end by saying “I am the Lord”? I will tell you! When God says, “I am the Lord,” he is saying, “Now look, I am the one who fished you out of the mud, so come over here and listen to me.”
When you experience the law in this personal way, you are far more likely to follow it, because someone you know and trust is asking and directing you. But what if, despite this, you still choose to ignore the instruction not to park there. Well then, the situation is quite different, because in this case, the law is personal. The refusal to follow it now becomes personal and it is a far more serious situation.
Here are two examples of the “I am the Lord” sayings in Scripture:
“You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor.
You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer.
You shall not curse the deaf,
or put a stumbling block in front of the blind,
but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.
“You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment.
Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty,
but judge your fellow men justly.
You shall not go about spreading slander among your kin;
nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the LORD (Lev 19:11-14).
Note how the litanies of the law each end with, “I am the Lord.” (These are but two of many litanies.) On the one hand it gives solemnity to the pronouncement. But on another level, God is saying, “This is Me talking. It is I who speak to you, I who created you, led you out of slavery, parted the Red Sea for you, dispatched your enemies, fed you in the desert, and gave you drink from the rock. It I, I who love you, I who care for you, I who have given you everything you have, I who want what is best for you, I who have earned your trust. It is I, your Father, speaking to you and giving you this command.”
God’s law is personal. Do we see and experience it this way? This will happen only if we come to know the Lord personally. Otherwise, the danger is that we see the Law of God as merely an impersonal code, an abstract set of rules to follow. They might as well have been issued by the deity, the godhead, or even just the religious leaders of the day.
Hence a gift to pray for in terms of keeping God’s Law, is a closer walk with the Lord and an experience of His love for us. Such an experience is a great help in loving the Law of the Lord. For when we love the Lord, we love His law, seeing it not as an imposition, but as a personal code of love that is meant to protect us. And when we offend against it, either willfully or through weakness, we are able to repent with a more perfect contrition, for we understand that we have offended someone we love and who is deserving of all our love.
Abba – St. Paul indicates that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is that we are able to experience God as Abba. Abba is the Hebrew and Aramaic family word for father. It is translated by some as “Papa,” or “Dad.” But regardless of how it is translated, it indicates a deep love and tender affection for the Father. He is not merely “the Father” in some abstract or merely titular sense. He is someone I experience as my own dear Father, as someone who loves me. It is a personal and family relationship that the Holy Spirit wants to grant us.
This personal relationship brings God’s law alive, makes it personal. And so God says, as He reminds of of His Law, “I am the Lord. This is me talking. It is I, the one who loves you.”
I might add that we also need to experience this with regard to the Church. Many see the Church in an impersonal way, as an institution. But the real gift is to see the Church as Christ’s beloved bride and our Mother. In this sense, we love the Church and grow daily in affection for her, not seeing her “rules” as impersonal, but rather as the guidance and direction of a loving mother.
In this video, Fr. Francis Martin beautifully describes the gift of loving the Father with deep affection:
I wonder if many of us have considered the true cost of the faith that has been delivered to us. We so easily complain if the Church is not air-conditioned, or the P.A. system is poor, or the service too long.
But have you or I ever really considered the difficulties endured by those who went before us and labored to hand down the faith to us? Every time you read the Creed, consider that martyrs died for the truths we so easily declare.
This Sunday, at the Traditional Latin Mass, I celebrated Sexigesma (60 days before Easter) Sunday. And in the epistle, St. Paul listed just some of the hardships he endured to bring the faith to others. Here is an excerpt from Second Corinthians 11:23ff, which I present as a kind of list. Read what St. Paul endured to deliver the Gospel to us and how he described his ministry:
In many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in lashes above measure, often exposed to death:
From the Jews five times I received forty lashes less one.
thrice I was scourged,
once I was stoned,
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was adrift on the sea;
in journeyings often,
perils from floods,
perils from robbers,
perils from my own nation,
perils from the Gentiles,
perils in the city,
perils in the wilderness,
perils in the sea,
perils from false brethren;
in labor and hardships,
in many sleepless nights,
in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness.
Besides those outer things, there is my daily pressing anxiety, the care of all the churches!
Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is made to stumble, and I am not inflamed? (2 Cor 11:23-29)
Such an amazing list! And here I worry if I have too many phone messages! Many of the punishments such as stoning and scourging were not often survivable. But St Paul withstood them more than once. The price of the Gospel we read so effortlessly, and even carelessly, is high!
Add to this the many martyrs who shed their blood along with Paul’s. Add the many efforts of missionaries. Add the sacrifices of peasants down through the centuries who contributed nickels and dimes toward building the great churches, universities, parishes, and parochial schools that we, who are so rich, can no longer “afford.”
Never forget the price of the faith. Every time you walk into a church, recite the Creed, or open a bible or catechism, consider the price of what you now enjoy. Remember the blood, sweat, tears, labors, resources, and money that stand behind every building, book, and proclamation of the Kingdom. Someone paid dearly to give you the faith.
Are you grateful? Am I?
People like to be warned before they watch this video. So consider yourself warned.
Here are the words of the hymn:
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
In life we face many difficulties, and these difficulties challenge not only us, but our faith. Deep struggle can lead us to question God, His love, or even His existence. The readings today speak to us of these sorts of difficulties and prophetically interpret them for us. Let’s take a look at these readings in three stages.
I. The Disillusionment of Deep Despair – The reading from the book of Job articulates clearly the feeling we have all experienced at one time or another. Job spoke, saying: Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? … I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me … then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn. My days … come to an end without hope … I shall not see happiness again.
Job is weary and worried, angry and anxious, depressed and discouraged. We’ve all been there, and although we pray it won’t happen, life sometimes cycles back to difficulties even if times are good now.
Notice Job’s disillusionment. He says, “I shall not see happiness again.” Suffering has a way of drawing us into the illusion that things will never be good again, that we will never again be happy or content. In effect, “My life is over.” Yet Scripture says that troubles don’t last forever, that weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come with the morning light (Psalm 30:5). And even for those of us who are soon to die, even death opens to a new and lasting joy provided we are faithful.
But Job is caught in the illusion that his life is over, that it will never be good again. Those of us who know the story of Job realize that this is not the case and that Job will once again be blessed, blessed with an even greater abundance than he once had.
And we, too, can get lost in illusion when suffering sets in. A thousand questions, usually starting with “why,” beset us. And while the mystery of suffering cannot be fully explained, we ought to remember that God permits some trouble in our life. For by it, certain purposes can be accomplished if we are faithful. God permits trouble to …
DIRECT us – Sometimes God must light a fire under us to get us moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways. Proverbs 20:30 says, blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost being. When our way gets a little too easy, we tend to stray from God.
INSPECT us – Our problems have a way of helping to show what we’re really made of. Through trials and tests in my life, I’ve discovered many strengths I never knew I had. There is a test in every testimony, and trials have a way of purifying and strengthening our faith as well as inspecting it to see whether it is genuine. 1 Peter 1:6 says, Trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure.
CORRECT us – Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. Sometimes we only learn the value of something (health, money, a relationship) by losing it. Psalm 119:71-72 says, It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. And Psalm 119:67 says, Before I was afflicted, I strayed. But now I keep your word.
PROTECT us – A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. It might be as simple as getting stuck in traffic, thereby avoiding a terrible accident had you been in the intersection at your usual time. It might be something more serious like losing your health, but along with it losing your ability to sin so seriously. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
PERFECT us – Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Romans 5:3 says, We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us, they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character. And 1 Peter 1:7 says, You are being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it.
So Job’s disillusionment needs a little correction. God hasn’t given up on Job. There’s no doubt that Job is in trouble, but trouble doesn’t last forever. God is permitting it for a reason and for a season. But seasons change.
II. The Destination of Distressed Disciples – Simply put, when troubles come, run to the Lord in prayer. In today’s Gospel we are told, Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her … Next we are told, When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons.
Note the instinct of the people to turn to the Lord “immediately.” A few old songs come to mind:
I love the Lord, he heard my cry and pitied every groan. Long as I live and troubles rise, I’ll hasten to his throne.
What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.
King Jesus is a-listenin’ all day long to hear some sinner pray.
Indeed, while God may have reasons for permitting us to experience difficulties, it does not mean that He does not want us to ask for grace, strength, and healing. The Book of James says, simply, “Ye have not because ye ask not” (4:2).
In seeking the Lord, we ought to remember that perseverance is also an important aspect of prayer.
Luke 18:1 – Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Luke 11:8 – I tell you, though [the grouchy neighbor] will not get up and give [his neighbor] bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
James 5:16 – The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Here, too, another song comes to mind: If I hold my peace my Jesus will be coming for me one day, King Jesus is a-listenin’ when you pray. Thus, in times of distress and difficulty, the instinct of a true disciple is to hasten to the Lord in prayer, to seek comfort, consolation, healing, and peace.
III. The Doctrine of Divine Decision – We have reviewed two truths that are in some tension: that God sometimes permits trouble for a reason and for a season, and that we ought to run to the Lord in prayer when trouble comes, seeking help and relief. One teaching (understandably) seeks immediate relief. The other teaches that weeping may endure for a night or a season, but always for a reason, a reason deemed by God to be both necessary and productive.
In the end, the “Doctrine of Divine Decision” says that we should accept with trust that God knows what is best. We run to Him for relief and permit Him to say, “now,” or “later,” in answer to our prayers.
In the gospel today, we see both teachings illustrated and held in tension. First, as we saw above, many came to Him for healing, and He healed them all. But then we read further,
Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Therefore, note that although some remained back in the town seeking immediate healing, Jesus chooses to move on. For He is not here simply to be a medical miracle worker, but rather (as he says) to preach the Kingdom and ultimately to die for our real problem: our sin. It may be difficult for us to hear Jesus say “no” to this town and move on. In fact, Peter indicated some frustration at Jesus’ having left the town to pray and then ultimately move on. Nevertheless, for those back in Capernaum, Jesus said to some of them, “now,” and to others, “wait.” This is His decision and He knows what is best.
But consider this: either way we are blessed. Either we experience healing now and then have a testimony to give, or our faith is strengthened because we receive the Good News that Jesus has come to preach that everything is going to be all right. Consider the fact that Scripture says,
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
In other words, even the difficult things in your life, by God’s grace, work unto good. They bring some benefit. God permits the struggle for now because he knows of the benefit. Scripture also says,
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6).
Thus our sufferings have a purpose (as we saw above): to strengthen and purify us.
The Doctrine of Divine Decision leaves things up to God. Whether now or later, everything is going to be all right if we trust in God. If there is a delay, it’s because He has His reasons. And even if these reasons are mysterious and irksome for us, the decision is God’s.
Here, then, are some directions for disciples when dealing with difficulties. Briefly put, reject disillusionment, run to Jesus, and respect His decision.
This song says, “You don’t have to worry, And don’t you be afraid, Joy comes in the morning, Troubles they don’t last always, For there’s a friend in Jesus Who will wipe your tears away. And if your heart is broken, Just lift your hands and say, Oh I know that I can make it; I know that I can stand; No matter what may come my way; My life is in your hands.”
Many years ago, Archbishop Sheen made an insightful point that I am relating to you from memory. I beg your mercy if I do not quote him exactly, but his point related to soteriology, the theology of how we are saved. Now to be clear, we are saved by the obedience of Christ. But not all the consequences of our sinful choice were eliminated by His obedience. The Lord takes up some of these consequences as a means to save us. It is of these consequences that Archbishop Sheen speaks. Again, what I relate is not verbatim, but is as close as I can recall:
Consider if God were conducting a great symphony, a symphony that He Himself composed, one of sublime beauty. Now suppose that he wrote this symphony in the key of A. Having assembled His orchestra, God brings the musicians to attention and begins to conduct the symphony. But suppose that in the front row, the first and second violinists, filled with a sense of rebellion and boredom by the third measure, insist on playing an A-flat, rather than the A-natural called for by the score. This of course creates a terrible dissonance. And so God, the great conductor and composer, brings the orchestra to a halt by tapping his baton. Looking to the first and second violinists, he says, “My symphony has been ruined. I will forgive you, but the note has already sounded and gone forth. It will not be recalled. So, what was that note you played?” The first and second violinists respond, “A-flat.” “Fine then,” says God, “Let us begin our new symphony in the key of A-flat.” And, raising His baton, he begins again …
What is Archbishop Sheen saying here? He is saying that in saving us, God does not merely undo or cancel every effect of our choice. Jesus does obey, saying “yes” to the Father. In contrast, we said, “no” and hence we are saved by Jesus’ obedience. But God does not merely come in and say, “Well, you got that wrong, so I’m just going to reverse everything you did and put it back to the way I want it.” Our all-powerful God has a very deep reverence for our freedom to choose. And so God chooses to write straight with the crooked lines, with the consequences of our sinful choice.
What, then, does God do? Using Sheen’s analogy, He takes our “A-flat” (the consequences of our choice), and uses it as the keynote in a new symphony. In other words, though God had given life and paradise (A natural), Adam and Eve chose the way of suffering and death (A-flat). Hence, rather than merely erase what they had done, God said, “I will come, and, through the suffering and death of my own Son (A-Flat) and by His obedience, compose a new symphony with an even greater ending. The ending is one with humanity not in some mere earthly paradise, but a heavenly one. It is an ending in which humanity is not just humanly perfect, but shares in Divine nature. Yes, my Son will take A-flat and make of it a new song, an even greater song. “O felix culpa, O admirabile commercium (O happy fault, O wondrous exchange)!
Whereas our demise came through a man (Adam), a woman (Eve), and a tree, our redemption, too, would come from a new Adam (Christ), and include a new woman (Mary), and the tree of the Cross. Through the suffering and death of Jesus, the chosen note of Adam and Eve (A-flat) would now be the first note in a new symphony, bringing life and glory, all by God’s grace.
And our suffering and crosses, too, would do the same in this new symphony, this new song. As scripture says, This light, temporary nature of our suffering is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, far beyond any comparison (2 Cor 4:17). Yes, God took our sour note and with it composed a new song, with a greater ending.
And that brings us the video below. Maybe I’m just zany-brainy, but I saw Archbishop Sheen’s soteriological point in, of all places, this car advertisement for the KIA Soul (yes, aptly named). And I realize that what I’m doing is pure eisegesis, that is, reading a meaning into the video that the originator likely never intended. But go with me on this little journey.
As the video opens, a terrible war is raging between two unknown factions. A-flat is in loud evidence. In fact, if you have a good Bose woofer, the pounding A-flat explosions shake the floor. The entire landscape and almost everything in it is in shades of gray; everything is in ruins. Yes, this is the sour note of A-flat, all right: death, violence, and barrenness, not a living thing in sight; even the warring parties are robots.
Suddenly, onto this scene comes a bright green KIA Soul with three occupants. Allow the green to represent life, and the three occupants, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (I know they’re hamsters, but stay with me.)
The warring parties stop, stunned by this bright green car, and aim their weapons at it. From the car emerge the three living creatures, the Trinity, far more alive than any of the fighting robots. A tense moment ensues.
The middle figure is a Christ figure, for he wears purple, a sign of his royalty and his passion.
Suddenly, the Christ figure cries out and all three in the Trinity begin to stomp their feet. It is the same pounding A-flat beat that the robots have been creating by their killing; it is a kind of a sound of death.
But now the Trinity is using the A-flat beat to dance!
One of the robots begins to tap his foot. Other robots quickly join in, and before long, all are dancing. It’s the same A-flat beat, but the Trinity has composed a new symphony around it.
Weapons drop and the dancing continues. Some of the dead robots even come back to life. The former flying war machines emanate rainbow patterns in the background.
In a very symbolic moment, the Christ figure in purple stands atop a concrete circle in the shape of a tree stump, as if Christ on his Cross in triumph dancing to A-flat. The A-flat of suffering that leads only to death is becoming life. A-flat doesn’t need to lead to war. If accepted, it can lead to glory. The Lord teaches them a new song using the same note.
In the final scene, the Trinity drives down a road flanked by enthusiastic praises as the A-flat dance continues. In the distance is the mountain where God dwells on high.
OK, is that too weird? Call me a dreamer, but this is what I see. If all you choose to see is a car commercial, fine. But it never hurts to see Christ wherever we can. Man disobeyed and ushered in an A-flat world of suffering and death. God forgave us and Jesus undid our disobedience. But God, showing a reverence for us even in our struggle, takes our A-flat of suffering and death and makes it a road to glory, the way to Heaven.
The word honesty comes from the Latin honestas meaning an honor received from others, a kind of “standing in honor” before others (honor + stas (to stand)). It’s interesting that most people are willing to be a little phony in order to get vague appreciation or to be thought well of. (The whole cosmetics industry is based on this.) But when one is actually “honored” in a formal way by others, there is an elevated sense that we need to truthfully deserve the honor. And thus honor calls forth honesty.
