Tag Archives: self-renunciation

Have this mind in you

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The second chapter of Philippians is a mountain peak of Christian thought, describing the almost incomprehensible humility of Jesus in becoming human – and urging us to have that same humility.  Can St. Paul really be serious?  Sure, Jesus is my example in all things, yet how can I even hope to imitate the super-human humility of Jesus?  I can’t even imagine imitating Mary, much less the very Son of God she bore.

Let’s look in detail at Philippians 2

Here is a link to the whole second chapter of Philippians.

Since the context is the humility of Jesus, here is a post I wrote a few days ago that I hope will illuminate what Jesus’ humility is.

The first few verses of Philippians 2 are St. Paul’s detailed instructions in how a Christian can imitate the humility of Jesus.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.  Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.  Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 2:1-5

 

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy

St. Paul doesn’t say “if” in the sense of maybe-so-maybe-not.  He says “if” in the sense that when you examine your experience as a Christian, you do find these things present.  He reminds us that these are, in fact, the things that we receive both from God and from Christian fellowship in Christ.  If these things are present (encouragement and comfort and working in partnership with God and the fruit of Christian love), then there is no doubt we are in the Church and thus in Christ.

These become our motive to greater perfections, including the humility he is about to bring up in the passage.

complete my joy

Paul speaks as the spiritual leader of these people.  He is an apostle.  He teaches with authority.  He was the founder of the Church in Philippi and suffered deeply and physically for these people and for Jesus.  It is no small thing that the Philippians “complete his joy”.  Yet, this urging by Paul goes deeper – it fits in perfectly with the instructions he is about to give, instructions that help to define two things.  First, what he urges defines what it means to be “church”.  Second, it’s a definition of what it means to be humble.

by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing

I know a priest whose constant theme is to warn against what he calls “rampant individualism” both in society and in the Church.  Part of what he means is the attitude that no one can tell me what to think, I don’t need to fit in with anybody unless it suits me to do so – the attitude that somehow it is noble and strong always to chart one’s course independent of the thinking of others.

But that’s not how Christians do things.  According to Paul in this passage, unity and cohesion and agreement are highly important aspects of Christianity.  “I did it my way” has no place in the Church.

If you think about it, there’s a simple reason Paul has to be right.  Our goal as Christians is to imitate Jesus.  If we each come to resemble Jesus – if we try to make his motives our own, as well as his behavior – then it has to be that we will be of the “same mind” and the “same love”.  How could two people imitate Jesus and not end up similar to each other?

It is the essence of Christian humility to bow before Jesus, wanting nothing more than to obey and imitate him.  This is how we play our part in making the Church “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”.  To be a good Christian, I must consciously refuse to insist on my way of thinking as the best way.  How do I do that?  How do I understand what it means to imitate and obey Jesus?  I do it by studying and obeying God’s word and the Sacred Tradition, by knowing the Church’s magisterial teaching and honoring it with my assent and my behavior.  This doesn’t mean I am a robot – it means I am a brother or sister of Jesus doing my best to bring Christ to the world around me.

Know what they call that?  Humility.

Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.

Here’s the part about humility.  The post I put up earlier this week, and cited above, argues that what Paul describes here as always doing and being for others and for God is humility.  This is how Jesus lived his life, never varying from this wonderful focus on other people and on God the Father.

Jesus says to us “it is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher” (Matthew 10:25).  So do you want to know when you have done and been and thought “enough” for God?  It is when you imitate Jesus.  And Paul is telling us to imitate Jesus in the way we conduct ourselves in Church.  We must always be looking out for the other person, not for ourselves.  We must never cause trouble or dissension in the Church, unless somehow there is evil within the Church.  And even if we do find evil to oppose within the Church, our motive must continue to be the benefit of other people and the glory of God.

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus.

The “same attitude” Paul refers to is humility.  Paul goes on in the next six verses in the chapter to describe how God the Son lived his humility in ever-increasing degrees – how that humility played its crucial role in our salvation – and how that humility in the end resulted in an unimaginable degree of glory conferred on the god-man Jesus Christ.  He was glorified because of his humility.

If we imitate Jesus in the matter of humility, doing the best we can to obey and love (they are the same thing), then we also will inherit from this same Jesus a degree of glory beyond our imagining.

Ironic, isn’t it?  God rewards humility with glory.  Thanks be to God!

Nothing that has cursed mankind shall exist any longer; the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be within the city. His servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name will be upon their foreheads. Night shall be no more; they have no more need for either lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shed his light upon them and they shall reign as kings for timeless ages.   Revelation 22:3-5

Imitate Jesus in humility in all things, but especially within the Church.

Always act with the benefit of others and of God as your motive.

Humble yourself and you will reign for timeless ages.  That’s a promise.

Is Jesus humble?

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CS Lewis observed an odd thing about the reaction people have to Jesus.  Even people who do not have faith in Jesus almost always believe that Jesus is humble, yet Jesus says seemingly outrageous things like “he who loves mother or father more than me, is not worthy of me” and “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me”.  If a guy at the office said something like that, I sure would not jump to the conclusion he is humble! 

So what’s going on?  Is Jesus humble?

How can anyone who thinks he should be more important to me than my mother be humble? 

This post will list 11 characteristics that seem to me to answer that riddle.  I put them in the deadly-boring bullet point format just to keep the post from being a mile long.  Every point is directly from the Gospels.

  • Jesus was poor, despite the fact he had extraordinary powers.  He had everything it takes to have plenty of money.  How many brilliant, charismatic people who have the ability to perform miracles can you think of who choose to be poor?  I can think of only one.  One time, a fellow came to Jesus and offered to be his disciple.  Before accepting him as a disciple, Jesus told the man that he was himself homeless.  He said birds have nests and foxes have holes, but Jesus says he has nowhere to lay his head.  Luke 9:58
  • Jesus never retaliates.  Even though he knows he is the salvation of the world and that what he says is the standard by which souls will be judged, literally.  Yet when people oppose him, he does not strike out.  In Luke 9:51-56 two of his most prominent disciples ask him to destroy some people with fire because they rejected Jesus – instead, Jesus rebukes the disciples. 
  • He points people away from himself and toward the Father, even at the same time he claims to be the only access to the Father.  It’s odd.  He says things like “the Father and I are one” in John 10 (they try to kill him for saying this) and “no one comes to the Father except through me” in John 14, while at the same time he says other things like “Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone” in Luke 18.  Somehow the overall impression is that Jesus directs seekers to God the Father, even as he calls them to be his disciple.
  • He is willing to suffer.  Obviously dying on a Roman cross is the ultimate example of this willingness, but it’s there in smaller things, too.  The authorities are trying to kill him (Matthew 12:14), people chase him out of town because he scares them (Luke 8:37), his own friends in his hometown tried to kill him (Luke 4:28-30), he fasts willingly for 40 days before he begins his preaching ministry.  There is suffering in these things, suffering accepted willingly for other people.
  • The demands Jesus puts on people never serve Jesus in a selfish way.  Jesus puts demands only on people who would find the Father, only on those who would enter the kingdom of God.  These demands are on people who first come to him, not on people he singles out himself.  Even the ones who eventually form the 12 apostles seem to be those who first sought him.  Look at John 1:35ff and at what I posted a few days ago.  The demands of Jesus lead to the Father. 
  • When he rebukes people (which he is quite willing to do when it’s called for), the rebuke is because of some offense given to the Father or to other people.  It’s not because of personal disrespect done to Jesus.  Matthew 23 opens with blistering rebukes to prominent Jewish figures, but not one of these rebukes is for something they did to Jesus.
  • When people reject him, it breaks his heart for their sake, not for his own.  In that same Matthew 23 passage, he tears into the hypocrites, then he expresses the great sorrow of his soul.  His regret is that those same people would not let him heal and comfort them.   “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”  A proud man would rail.  Jesus mourns.
  • Jesus shows no sinful pride in dealing with friends.  Jesus has to jump Peter’s case several times and can get rough with him.  He even calls him “Satan” in Matthew 16:23 (whoa!), yet it isn’t personal.  He directs Peter’s attention to God and to the will of God.
  • Here’s one I can’t quite put my finger on, but I’m sure it’s right.  Jesus does all these miracles and yet I never get the impression he wants to call attention to himself.  Occasionally he instructs people not to tell anyone about the miracle, but even when he doesn’t do that, the distinct impression is that each miracle is for the sake of other people, not for the sake of Jesus himself.  He never comes off as a show-off.  For that matter, when Satan is tempting Jesus in the wilderness before he begins his public preaching, the first thing Satan tries to get Jesus to do is perform a miracle for his own personal appetite (to avoid starvation) and Jesus refuses.  The miracles are for other people, not Jesus, and that’s humble.
  • John 6 is another one I can’t quite figure out, but I still know it has humility all over it.  This is the passage where Jesus says outrageous things about eating his body and drinking his blood – says these things repeatedly and as the chapter goes on, he says them with increasing confrontation and even with graphic emphasis – he must have seemed insane to the people who heard him, since pretty much everybody abandoned him after this.  Yet… even in this strangest of passages so centered on physical aspects of Jesus, he is concerned only with the benefit of the people who are listening to him.  Even when he talks about himself, he is talking about the benefit of other people and that is remarkable.  He wants to provide these people (and us) with protection from our greatest enemy, death.
  • I end with a quote.  John 5:30.  “I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

 These 11 points center in on the answer to CS Lewis’s point and my question

So how can people think Jesus is humble?  They believe Jesus is humble because everything he does, he does for other people, never for himself.  Read the list again and you’ll get the point.  Jesus knows he is the Son of God and the Savior of the world and the Lamb of God and the centerpiece of God’s entire history with humanity.  He knows this, he never denies this.  Yet what he says and does is not about him.  It is about the Father and about the people around him.  When he gets mad, it’s about the people who have been hurt or the Father who has been disrespected.  Miracles?  They are for mercy and faith-building in other people and to bring glory to the Father.  His sermons?  Even when they are about Jesus himself, his purpose is to serve other people.

 Jesus is the perfect embodiment of love for the Father and love for neighbor.  And that makes him humble at exactly the same time he is God.

 It awes me and moves me to understand that the being who created the universe is willing to humble himself, to humiliate himself, because he wants so much to benefit me.

 And humility is not limited only to what Jesus does.  Humility is part of the very nature of Jesus, it is part of his being, not just his behavior.

 I wish I were humble

I have spent the last two Lents and the last two Advents trying to understand what humility is.  I spent a lot of time trying to engender humility in myself.  I haven’t been casual about this.  I have to a considerable extent during these times set aside my regular prayer and study, all in an attempt to cure a serious fault in me and replace it with humility.  Maybe after two years, I’m making some progress.

 I think this eleven-item explanation of Lewis’s point about Jesus seeming humble, I think this has helped me understand what humility is.  Humility is doing (even existing) for the sake of other people and for God.  If deeds of humility draw attention to me (and sometimes they will), then I must use whatever virtue and strength I have to turn the attention to God or to the person I tried to benefit.  When a thought comes to me that (1) I could do this-or-that in order (2) that people will notice and think better of me, then I must shun that thought, must even undertake the good deed in secret as a discipline on my motives.  When I look for practical ways to live the Gospel, I must not look only at public ways.     When I thank God for the chance to do some corporal act of mercy or spiritual act of mercy, my thanks should be entirely for whatever glory was given to God or benefit received by my neighbor.

Jesus always tried to obey the Father and benefit other people.

Even when the attention was on him, it was because Jesus was obeying God or benefitting other people.

This is humility.  I can do it, too, I can live it with God’s help and my resolution.

Why do I have to do that?

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It’s Lent and just about everybody offers a Communal Penance service to their parishioners.  Most parishes also extend the scheduled hours for Confession during Lent.  In homilies and Sunday announcements, folks are urged to take advantage of the graces in this sacrament.  Yet, strictly speaking, the only time the sacrament is required is in cases of mortal sin and also for those who are being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil.

I go to Communal Penance at Lent and I’ll tell who comes to the service in my area.  Sweet little old Catholics over 70 and the people who are completely involved in the life of the parish.  Of course, I don’t know their minds and lives, yet it seems unlikely many of them harbor secret mortal sins.  It reminds me of how Bishop Fulton Sheen described hearing a nun’s confession: “It’s like being stoned to death by popcorn.”

So why should I have to go to Communal Penance when the non-mortal sins I have to confess have already been dealt with at Mass and in prayer?

First, an analogy

The question of why I should go to confession starts with how people conduct relationships.  For instance, in marriage there are a set of requirements that most people would agree apply to a good marriage.  Being gentle and encouraging, sexually faithful, honest about money and time, respectful of personal “space”, that sort of thing.

But no one who is in love with their spouse would make some list of minimum requirements for the marriage and inform their spouse “this far and no more”.  No one would take the attitude that I don’t have to do any more than this list, so I’m not going to.    Somehow just writing out a list like that would be evidence that love and commitment are missing.

Or what if you made up a list of the minimum duties you think you owe your children.  Then each time one of your children comes to you for help or affection or simply for your companionship, you get out the list and ask them to read it with you.  If what they want is on the list… bingo!  But if it’s not on the list, well then, that’s not something that you have to do… so, sorry Charlie.

An attitude of just doing what you have to do, just doing your minimum duty, is not love and everybody knows it.

I won’t labor the point any further except to say that even relationships that don’t depend on love —  social groups, governments, work places  –  would not work very well if everybody had a list of minimum requirements and used that list to limit their behavior.

In the case of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it’s not just about “church”

When the Catholic Church urges me to confess venial, non-mortal sins, it’s not about the church trying to boss me around.  It’s not about checklists, nor is it a way for priests nose around in my business.

It’s about sin.  And therefore it’s about my relationship with God.

Sin is serious.  It’s dangerous whether it is mortal or venial.  Mortal sin destroys love, it separates a person from the grace of God.  Obviously, that’s a big deal.  But venial sin is serious, too.  Venial sin in the words of the Catechism allows love to subsist, but it offends and wounds it.  And that is serious.  It really is.

The great command in Christianity is to love God with everything I have.  The second command is that I love the people around me the way I love myself.  Anything, anything that wounds my ability to love means that my relation to God is also wounded.  Ditto for my neighbor.  So I must take venial sin seriously.

The way to take sin seriously is to take love seriously.   That means I do not make lists of minimum duties and then refuse to do anything that’s not on the list.  Whenever I find something that strengthens my ability to love, then that is something I want to do.  Addressing my sin with serious intent strengthens my ability to love.  Examining my conscience carefully and honestly, then discussing the results with a priest is a wonderful exercise in self-renunciation and in purification.  It is exactly what being a disciple means.  Here is how St. Augustine put it:

Whoever confesses his sins . . . is already working with God. God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear “man” – this is what God has made; when you hear “sinner” – this is what man himself has made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made. . . . When you begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the light.

 

Please don’t look at Reconciliation as something you “don’t have to do”, as if you keep a list of minimum duties.  Take the advice of the Church of Christ and confess your sins to a priest this Lent.  It really is a part of love.

Love does not look for the least it can do.

Love looks for ways to deepen and strengthen relationships.

Purifying myself of sin increases my ability to love.

St Peter and fishing and Lent

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The day after Jesus was baptized (literally the first full day of his preaching ministry), he met several of the apostles.  That was quick!  The first chapter of John’s gospel says that Jesus walked near John the Baptist that day and John proclaimed the words we hear at every Mass “Behold the Lamb of God”.  Andrew heard these words – he went and found his brother Simon Peter to bring him to Jesus.  The next day Philip and Nathanael joined Jesus.  John 1:43 may indicate that it was with these four that Jesus started his preaching in Galilee.  Jesus invites them to follow him.

It is this initial meeting when Jesus changes Simon’s name to Cephas or Peter.  In the Bible, when God changes somebody’s name it is always an important moment and that means the invitation to “follow” was also a serious invitation.

Now fast forward a little.  All three synoptic gospels record another invitation from Jesus to Simon Peter (and James and John, too) to follow him.  This time Jesus invites them to become “fishers of men”.  Luke 5 records quite a bit of detail.

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.  Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.  After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”  Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”  When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.  They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.    Luke 5:1-11

Simon Peter’s odd reaction to Jesus’ miracle

Why would Simon Peter tell Jesus to leave “for I am a sinful man”?  That’s sort of an odd reaction after Jesus delivers all those fish, isn’t it?

My guess (and it’s actually the only explanation I can think of…) is that between the first meeting in John chapter 1 and this meeting in Luke chapter 5, Simon Peter has stopped following Jesus, despite the endorsement he heard from John the Baptist.  Peter is ashamed and a little scared that he had in some sense abandoned Jesus – now when he sees an undeniable display of God-like power, his first reaction is to just want Jesus to leave because of his sin.  So I’m thinking the situation is just like it looks in Luke 5.  Simon Peter left Jesus and went back to his fishing business.

This also makes sense out of why Jesus makes such an extravagant show of generosity and power.  He wants to prove to Simon Peter and the others that if they follow him, they are not risking starvation or bankruptcy.  One way or another (and the way will be chosen by Jesus and will always be according to God’s will), they will be able to live if they choose Jesus.

The reaction of these men who will one day be the Lord’s apostles on whom he will found his church (Rev. 21:14) is exactly the right reaction.  This time, they left everything and followed him.

Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus would make our living for us?

So if I’m reading this thing correctly, Jesus has proven with an extravagant gesture that he can take care of these men on a fulltime basis.  What do you think?  Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus would just dump a huge pile of fish on us (figuratively speaking, of course!!), so we would know our living is taken care of?

In a way, he actually does promise to do that.

The thing to remember is that the vocation to which he was calling these men was a special one, that of apostleship.  He must have them fulltime, so he shows his power to provide.  And they leave everything to follow him.  They accept the vocation.

The matter of vocation is critical here.  Jesus hasn’t called you or me to be apostles.

More than likely, he has called us either to married life or single life as a faithful Christian.  A description of our role in the “living” we make to feed and support ourselves is this:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.    I Thessalonians 4:11,12

This meshes perfectly with what Jesus promises in the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus tells us (the ones called to the vocations of married life and single life) that God will take care of us, too.  He says he will take care of us the way he does birds and grass.  Birds have to fly around and get food, sometimes they have to migrate, maybe they eat different things at different times.  But it’s not like birds just sit on a branch and God has worms delivered each day.  The birds have to participate in God’s nature.  Grass is the same way – the grass has a role to play in its livelihood, too.  Here is how he puts it:

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  …Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these.     Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.    Matthew 6:26,28,29

So the bottom line is that Simon Peter and the other apostles got the support they needed to be apostles.  And we get the support we need to carry out the vocations to which we are called.  Jesus promises it.

What in the world does this have to do with Lent?

Just this.  Lent calls us to renounce self and follow Jesus.  We are called to trust him by yielding our life to him.  But a reason some people refuse to do that is money.  Despite what Jesus says about birds and grass, the thing they want is a big 401(k), and a lovely house, and nice shopping and all the rest of the things you see in ads.  They spend their life’s energy pursuing money and what it can buy and almost none of their time dedicating themselves to Jesus.  An hour at Mass once a week is what Jesus gets.  Maybe a prayer every so often while doing something else at the same time.  Rather than maximize their dedication to God’s righteousness like Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, they maximize their income.

But if we Christians will just do what Jesus says to do – “seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness” – then he will take care of our physical needs as we “attend to our business and work with our hands” like St. Paul commands.  No particular reason to expect to be rich, but if I really love God and his righteousness with all my being, then “rich” has nothing to do with money.  “Rich” has everything to do with knowing Jesus.

God will take care of us like he did Peter and James and John.  I should renounce myself and trust God.

 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare

 and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

I Timothy 6:8,9

Love and a runaway slave

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St. Paul converted a runaway slave who belonged to one of Paul’s friends.  This put Paul in a delicate situation.  He ended up persuading the slave to go back to his owner, even though the slave might face horrifying punishments.  Which clearly put the slave in a tough situation, too.

And when you think about it, the slave owner was in a delicate situation.  He, too, was a Christian.  He was rich.  His friends and business associates who owned slaves would expect him to punish the runaway severely; the economy and the political system depended on slavery, so to leave the runaway unpunished would risk both prosperity and stability.  Paul tells the slave owner to love the slave and, beyond that, he gives him no further instructions.

Imagine the scene when the runaway slave shows up

The slave’s name is Onesimus.  The slave owner is Philemon.  The New Testament includes the short letter that St. Paul wrote to Philemon.  It has 25 verses and you can read it here at the Catholic bishops’ website.

Now imagine when Philemon first sees Onesimus.  Everything in Philemon’s experience probably tells him that he is the one who has been wronged, that this slave has harmed him and must be punished.  Everything in Onesimus’ experience probably tells him it is crazy to go back, that he may end up in a situation literally worse than death.  So Onesimus shows up and hands Philemon the letter from Paul.

In that letter, Paul only tells Philemon to do one thing.  He does not tell Philemon to set Onesimus free.  Nor does he tell Philemon to send Onesimus back to Paul, even though Paul would very much like for that to happen.  He simply tells Philemon to love Onesimus the way he loves Paul himself, because now that he is a Christian, Onesimus is Philemon’s brother in Christ as well as his slave.

As simple as that.  Paul tells these two Christians that love is more important than physical safety, more important than legal rights, more important than the accepted political and economic opinions of Philemon or his friends and business associates.

This is self-renunciation of the highest order

A few days ago, I wrote about loving what God loves.  The point I wanted to make in that post was that loving what God loves is just about the only way you can give God anything.  And that adopting what God loves as my own is part of what it means to renounce self, the thing Jesus says we must do if we want to follow him and the thing that Lent calls us to.

Now this story about the runaway slave takes what I wrote about a step further.  Loving what God loves is radical – it could even be scary.  Loving what God loves probably will not mesh with culture or politics or economics.

In this situation with the runaway slave, if Philemon loves what God loves (namely his slave Onesimus), then everything, I mean everything, will change in how he treats a runaway slave.  Yes, Onesimus broke the law (Paul knows that; Paul upholds the authority of law; ready the first verses of Romans 13) and yes Philemon has been harmed economically.  Paul doesn’t even deny that Onesimus is property.  But, Paul says the thing to do is to love the runaway as a fellow human, especially since he is now Philemon’s brother in Christ.

If Onesimus loves what God loves (namely if he loves Philemon, a good man whom Paul loves, a man who is good to the church), then Onesimus will trust his owner to “do the Christian thing” and not just knee-jerk react with his legal right or his political and economic interests.  Onesimus will have this trust even though if he is wrong, there will be terrible consequences.

These are huge self-renunciations, full of risk, but oh so full of potential!  Really loving what God loves, not just with words, but also with deeds, is radical.

What this might mean for us today

We must be very careful that what we love is what God loves.  We must be careful not to confuse our own economic interests at a personal level or at a class or national level with what God cares about.  We must be careful not to confuse the interests of our party or class or country with those of God.  We must never allow legal rights or any kind of politics to obscure the humanity of another person or group of persons.

Philemon and Onesimus were called to look beyond personal safety and economics and legal rights. 

They were called to look beyond the accepted culture and social structure of their time.

They were called to love the way God loves.

Love is sometimes dangerous to the status quo.  It trumps everything.

Background noise

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Everybody has a set of thoughts that sort of “run in the background” of their mind all the time.  Thoughts that are never far from the surface, thoughts that can pop up repeatedly and unexpectedly.  Thoughts that last for years.

I call this background noise.  Recently, I mentioned this to several friends and they all agree it happens.  Is it a threat?  Can it be made to serve God?  How does a person’s background noise change?

Obviously, different people have different background noise.  Even when it’s not consciously in your mind, it’s still there.  A person with a cancer diagnosis – or somebody aching to be married – or a family in Afghanistan vulnerable to war.  These will all have different sets of background noise in their minds that could last for years and could very well color everything else in their life.

Here is the background noise that’s been in my mind for years

Here is my own background noise.  I tell you this to explain what I’m talking about when I say “background noise”.  I have three sets of thoughts in my mind seemingly without interruption.  One seems dangerous.  Another is perhaps neutral.  The third is good and I’m glad it’s there.

This is the one that seems neutral.  Eight years ago I lost a business I founded.  For nine years, I poured all my energy and a lot of money into that business.  Eventually it cost me almost every dollar I had.  I was able to shut down without owing anybody any money, so in that sense the loss was not dishonorable.  Yet eight years later, I can’t go more than a few hours without thinking of that business, its failure, and my one-time hopes.

Here’s the one that seems dangerous.  I have an inordinate appetite for attention and recognition.  It seems like I can’t stop thinking about ways to get noticed.  Everything at church, everything in my private devotions and good works, generates background noise hoping somebody notices and says something to me.  This is dangerous because Jesus issues a strict warning at the first of Matthew 6 against practicing religion “to be seen of men”.

Here’s the background noise that is the good one.  It is a grace I’ve been given and I’m so thankful for it.  I cannot get the Mass out of my mind.  I get to be at Mass three times a week.  I have almost constant thoughts that either anticipate the liturgy or recall it.  The beauty and power and transcendence of Catholic liturgy haunt me.  I suppose it’s impossible to know how this “noise”, this habit of thought, protects me as well.

Here’s a little Bible… then a very important conclusion

The closing words of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

 

This is the middle of the letter to the Colossians, again St. Paul.  This seems to me the central point in the letter.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

Here’s a third one.  This is Jesus in Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’  All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.  Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

An important conclusion

It is tempting (but wrong) to consider myself as “a given”.  It’s tempting to act as if nothing can be done about the background noise in my mind, to conclude (along with the great philosopher Popeye the Sailor Man) that “I am what I am”.  One reason this is tempting is that it’s less effort if I can just treat “me” as something “I” have been saddled with.  After all, if nothing can be done, then there’s no reason for me to spend effort and discipline and frustration.

A related reason tempting me to treat the background noise as something I cannot change is that this assumption lets me avoid the messy, difficult project of self-renunciation — the project to which we are called in Christianity in general and in Lent in particular.  I can’t renounce myself if I can’t even change myself, so I can just stay little ole me and figure maybe it will all take care of itself in Purgatory.

 

But those Bible verses above won’t let me do that.  They mean that I do have power over the background noise in my mind.  A real exercise in self-renunciation is to do my best to make the background noise in my mind wholesome and useful and centered somehow on God.  Jesus and St. Paul would never tell me to do something impossible.  If my background noise is constant worry… well, Jesus says to stop it.  If my background noise is repeated selfish thoughts… well, St. Paul tells me to move my mind higher.  If every time I turn around, I’m thinking about sex… well, quit it!

I should pray for help, remembering that God and Mary and the saints are all on my side.

I should do what I can to discipline my mind to shut out the bad background noise.

I should conscientiously seek good background noise to supplant the bad.

I should discuss my background noise with a priest, maybe in confession.

And always, I should look for chances to practice love, to engage in corporal and spiritual acts of mercy.

With time and application, I can change the background noise in my mind.

With God’s help, I can put my mind on things above, where Christ is.

I can use the things of earth to learn to love the things of heaven.

A present for Queen Elizabeth?

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Let’s say I want to “do something” for Queen Elizabeth, something that would mean a lot to her, that would somehow make her better off.   She’s one of the richest people in the world and doesn’t exactly have any shortages.  What would I give her?  She likes purses and those hats… but there’s not much point to give her another purse.  A knick-knack?  Probably not.  Maybe I stop by the palace and wash a couple of cars for her?  Honestly, what do I give Queen Elizabeth?  She’s got everything.

The question is not entirely irrelevant.  As a Christian, I am called to serve God and give gifts to him, especially at Lent.  If it’s hard to know what to give Queen Elizabeth, then what in the world can I do for God that will mean anything to him?

It would help to know what she loves

If I know what Queen Elizabeth loves, then it will be easier to decide what to give her or do for her.  Is there a group of people she really loves?  If I could do something for them, then that would benefit her, too.   Here’s one.  She is patroness of a charity called Friends of the Elderly.  Looks like a cool place and if I were to dig in and help that charity, then I really have done something for the Queen of England.  If she found out, of course she would be grateful.  Because I love what she loves.

It goes without saying that if one of her children or grandchildren were in trouble, and I was able to solve the problem, then the Queen would take notice.  I would have done something for her, as well as for her child, because I have aided what she loves.

For that matter, she’s got those dogs.  Is there a charity that looks out for that kind of dog?  If there is, then if I could do something for that kind of dog, I have also done something for Queen Elizabeth, something that really would make a difference to her, not just the dogs.  Again, it’s because I love what she loves.

The principle here is that even if I am in no position to make a given person any better off, yet if I love and work for what that person loves, then I have really and honestly benefitted the individual, too.  Loving what they love is a real gift to them.

It’s pretty obvious how this ties into God

As a Christian, I want to make God happy.  I want to give him something, I want to do him a favor.  But if it’s even hard to do something for Queen Elizabeth, good grief it might be even harder to do something for God.

Yet I know what God loves, because he told me.  Here’s some of what he said.

Romans 5:8  God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  God loves people that are estranged from him.  So… if I will love the people around me enough to live the truth and share the truth with them – if I will find ways to bring the Gospel to them because I love them, then I have given God something he wants, something that actually pleases the Creator of everything.  I love what God loves and that’s about all I can do for him.

Psalm 146:8  The Lord loves the righteous.  God loves the Church.  He loves the people whose lives are hidden in Christ and who obey him.  So… if I will find ways to help the Church prosper in her mission and ways to become more pure in her service to God, then I have given God something he wants.  Since I benefit what he loves, then I have come to his attention in a good way.

Isaiah 58:6,7   Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?  Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  God loves poor people.  It’s impossible to read the Bible and not come to the conclusion God has a soft spot in his heart for poor people.  So…  if I do something for somebody poor, then I help somebody God cares about.  The Isaiah 58 passage even goes on to say that God will extravagantly bless me if I help poor people and those who suffer unjustly.  I love what God loves and he makes good things happen for me, too.

Matthew 5:44,45   Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  God loves his enemies.  Amazing.  At the end of his life, Jesus talks about people who stone the prophets and kill God’s messengers, yet Jesus says he would gladly have “gathered them together like a hen does her chicks”.  Jesus loved God’s enemies.  So… if I, too, will love God’s enemies (which will obviously include my enemies and that’s where it gets hard), then I’m doing something for the people God loves.  I’m doing something for God, giving him something he appreciates, because I love what he loves.

If you want to do something for God, then love what he loves.

It is a way to imitate God without “playing God”.

Use the things of this world to learn to love the things of heaven.