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Take the prophet Isaiah in the first reading telling the Israelites how their God would reveal his glory to pagan nations, even making some of them priests, and Jesus in today’s Gospel talking about people coming from the four points of the compass and reclining at table in the kingdom of God with Israelites’ patriarchs and prophets. These were challenging words at the time, but they’re easy for us to hear, aren’t they? Isaiah and Jesus are talking about us, right? We are the Gentiles whom God has gathered from the whole world through the good news of Jesus and the Catholic Church, making some of us priests (and deacons)! And when Jesus talks about those who ate and drank in his company being cast out, wailing and grinding their teeth, well, that’s not us! That’s the Jewish people who rejected Jesus … right?
Well … Jesus has come to open the kingdom of God to the whole world—to you and me. And he does directly confront his Jewish hearers with the possibility of not being found among the saved on the last day. Whoever it was that said to Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”—if they were assuming that they were among the blessed few, the sting of the Lord’s words must have been like a slap in the face.
Did you notice how Jesus keeps addressing his hearers in the second person as “you”? In Matthew’s Gospel, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’” But here the words Luke reports are just brutal:
You will stand outside knocking … and he will say to you in reply, “I do not know where you are from.” And you will say, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” Then he will say to you, “Depart from me, all you evildoers!” And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see [the patriarchs] and prophets in the kingdom and you yourselves cast out.
Do we feel the sting of these words, the slap in the face? This warning isn’t just for “them,” whoever “them” is. There is no “us” and “them” here. Pope Benedict XVI, commenting on this passage, said:
The temptation to interpret religious practice as a source of privileges or security is always lying in wait. Actually, Christ’s message goes in exactly the opposite direction: everyone may enter life, but the door is “narrow” for all. We are not privileged.
We are not privileged. Our religious practice is not a source of privileges or security. “Lord, we went to Mass every Sunday in your name.” “We prayed the Rosary and did Eucharistic adoration in your name.” “We did all the right things, believed all the right things, associated with the right people, voted the right way…” Fill in the blank however you want, it is still possible to hear the words, “I do not know you. Depart from me, all you evildoers.”
These dreadful words of Jesus were preserved by St. Luke, and read aloud in the Church from New Testament times to today, for the benefit (that is, for the discomfort) of believers like me and you.
***
What is striking to me about the MAGA antichrist cult is how it increasingly reads the cautionary passages in Scripture, not as warnings to their Perfect Selves, but with relish and anticipation for what they hunger for their victims. Like all victims of Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, they appear to have zero awareness that the New Testament is written, not to Those People Over There, but to the household of Faith and above all to ever person who claims to follow Jesus, most especially those who swan around claiming to be the Greatest Christians of All Time, chosen by God to kick the rest of us vermin out of the Church, out of America, and out of Heaven.
One of the things that is most noticeable about Jesus teaching style is that he virtually never gives a straight answer to a straight question. He is not here to engage in a college bull session, to keep things, abstract, or to indulge in speculation or satisfy idle curiosity. He relentless makes everything personal and forces us to think about ourselves in relation to his Father. So, asked, “Will many be saved or few?” he simply tosses the question aside tells us “Strive to enter by the narrow way”. The goal is to get us to think about our position before God right this very second. Ours. Not That Guy over There.
The paradox is that the gospel is all about flinging the doors of Heaven wide open to every last human being on earth without any exception whatsoever. God, in Christ, is inviting the whole world to the Wedding Banquet. But the terms of the invitation are that we must welcome to the Banquet all those we hate, loathe, despise, and want to see punished. Our very response to the catholicity of the invitation is precisely what narrows or even closes the Narrow Way to us. Can we endure to be as loving as Christ is? So it is that many are called, but few are chosen: for many opt out rather than love those Christ loves.
The fantasy is that Christ, who flings open the doors of Heaven to all, also schizophrenically then makes it impossible for most to be saved. The reality is that he is calling us to relationship with himself and, through himself, to all whom he loves–which is All. That’s way more than we bargain for and growing into such love is the work of eternity. He doesn’t expect Rome to be built in a day. But he does expect us to try and take a step toward growing a little bit in love, one step at a time, each day. And he promises we will get there with his help.
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4 Responses
The issue of deportation of illegal aliens is somewhat debatable, but their humane treatment is not. To see MAGA people happy about immigrants being roughed up by ICE, tearful family separation, and detainees having to sleep on concrete floors is hardly Christian. MAGA people were even joking about throwing immigrants to alligators. How Christian.
Good take. I have argued elsewhere that those who come here illegally should pay a small fine or do some community service, BUT then be offered a path to citizenship if they are non violent.
I think you’ve touched on a key feature of so much of archconservative Catholicism: the projection of a subset of sin on to others, which I am called upon to name – oh so reluctantly, believe me! – while curiously none of the so-called non-negotiables seem to apply to me. So very convenient. You – over there – need to stop the offending behavior (contraception, anything other than heteronormativism, all the pelvic things), but me, I don’t engage in any of that, so I’m all good.
I would say that’s a symptom of barbarization of modern civilization.
Bread and games! Entertain us! Bread and games!
The very same people who protest rough deportations take perverse delight in hearing about or seeing inmates convicted of some felonies suffer assault at the hands of other prisoners.
When people protest this inhumane treatment of prisoners; when people point out that the penal code does not include any provisions for cruelty; when people point out that their sentence did not include being subjected to torture with guards turning a blind eye to it — they are called cold legalists who are insensitive to suffering.
People who protest death penalty for murder, citing false convictions and arguing that it won’t bring back the victim’s life, the very same people will admit it for sexual assault, especially against minors, arguing that retribution is needed and that it might bring closure to the victim. And they don’t care about false convictions and specifics of a case — they will loudly proclaim them to be minor legalities and loopholes and demand justice. And when they demand death penalty, they want it to be as painful and cruel as possible.
Whenever you have somebody guilty of inexcusable sin du jour, they’re free game. People don’t want to satisfy their sense of justice. No, they’re out for blood. They want the guilty one to suffer. The more, the better. They want to satisfy their desire for the grotesque.
And it applies to Catholics just as much as everyone else.
There’s a fairly recent case concerning Father Carlo Alberto Capella, a Vatican official who served a 5 year prison sentence for possession and distribution of child pornography with the aggravating circumstance of its large quantity.
He’s out of prison and now working in the Vatican Secretariat of State, the diplomatic department.
Sure, foot in mouth moment, maybe they shouldn’t have listed his name in the official documents. But the Gospel authors didn’t redact the names of Judas, Peter, Thomas, all the other Apostles who fled like cowards, Peter, John and James who went to sleep in the Olive Garden instead of praying, or John and James who wanted elevated positions of honor in the Kingdom of God.
Doesn’t matter. The priest went on trial, received a sentence, served it and is now rehabilitated, but is not going to work in a parish or directly minister to vulnerable people.
NOT ENOUGH! He should have been defrocked! He should have been kicked out of the Vatican. He should have never been allowed to work anywhere again! He should have been excommunicated!!!
Best if he just becomes homeless and turns to life of crime and this will prove that he’s an evil person who will never get salvation.
My comment that this is not what the Church teaches, sits with negative votes on the Catholicism subreddit, where I expect it was downvoted by Catholics. Somebody put a comment from his priest, who pointed out that this was an act of mercy and that measures were taken to prevent him from hurting others. Got voted down.
Calvinist ideals in the hearts of Catholics sprinkled with traces of Pelagianism. People want the faith to be so pure that every sinner needs to be cast out immediately, never to return. The ideal is the perfect Church of God that has zero members that would soil it.