The Gospel of Jesus... Nice?
Following my entry into the Catholic Church at the Easter
Vigil as a young man nearly two decades ago, I was bewildered. Much of what I
heard in catechesis seemed saturated in a banal sentimentality
that presented Jesus as more of a sort of Deepak Chopra figure than the
revolutionary Son of the Most High God who said, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how
I wish it were already blazing!” (Luke 12:49, NABRE)
What I first experienced on the road to Rome had been a
radical (at the roots) confrontation of my own poverty and sin by the truth and
ineffable mercy of God. In reading the Gospels and the lives of the saints---
this reading was the meat of my nourishment in the beginning stages of my conversion---
I was brought into the presence of a Truth, Goodness, and Beauty that left me
literally breathless.
Jesus Christ and his most radical followers thoroughly
astonished me.
His words and deeds shattered idols I had clung to for
years.
The Jesus I heard proclaimed in many homilies and faith formation
classes often seemed to be a different person than the One I encountered in the
Bible, Church teachings as articulated through the Catechism and the
encyclicals, and the lives of the saints.
Sometimes it seemed we were hearing about a fellow named Jesus Nice, not Jesus Christ.
We Catholics seemed more focused on programs and policies
than we did on proclaiming and living the radicalism of the Gospel, which
seemed more a call to get dirty and die than to start yet another parish
committee.
To be clear: What I found within the walls of the Church was
beautiful in its own way. I entered a Church populated by a people who cared, and that is no small thing. Catholics cared for others and demonstrated their concern
through generosity and a commitment to the poor and disheartened. And, in contrast to the world from which I had been
rescued, a relativistic quagmire of narcissistic pursuits, that was impressive.
And there were saints among us who truly lived the Gospel according to their state of life.
And admittedly, part of my perception of a toothless catechesis may have been colored by my new convert zeal. Like a freshly recovered alcoholic who speaks of
nothing but his recovery, the new Catholic convert can be over the top in his
enthusiasm for all things Church, which may be more reflective of emotionalism
than true conversion.
But I think there was some truth in my observations, as
well.
Was the Church embarrassed by her own message?
Even Pope Emeritus Benedict, when he was Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger, asked the tough question in the preface to the 2000 edition of his
seminal work, Introduction to
Christianity, “Has not Christian consciousness acquiesced to a great
extent--- without being aware of it---- in the attitude that faith in God is
something subjective, which belongs in the private realm and not in the common
activities of public life where, in order to be able to get along, we all have
to behave now etsi Deus non daretur (as
if there were no God).”
It isn’t that I naively expected a Church made up of a
billion Mother Teresas in the gutters.
But I certainly didn’t expect so many so-called “practicing”
Catholics to be skipping Mass, contracepting, cohabitating, divorcing, and turning a
blind eye to abortion when voting, using the “seamless garment” justification
(which really seemed an excuse for voting for pro-choice politicians) just like
the rest of the world.
I guess what I expected when I walked in the door as one of
the baptized was to find a Church that was bold and daring and took to heart
Dietrich Bonheoffer’s famous and eerily prophetic line: “When Christ calls a
man, he bids him, come and die.” That included, at its roots, living out
obedience to Church teachings no matter how unpopular they were with society.
Many in the Church I experienced did seem intent on just "getting along" with everybody. “Let’s play nice” seemed its favorite Proverb (you won’t find
that one in the Bible, by the way). Jesus didn’t play nice with me when he confronted my pre-conversion
pro-choice attitude. He loved me too much to let me wallow in that moral
cowardice.
Like a red-faced bride at her wedding reception, apologizing for the behavior of her loud, intoxicated groom, it
seemed that the Bride of Christ was embarrassed by the things her Bridegroom
was saying and doing in front of the guests (the world).
There are always those who will try to domesticate God, I
suppose. We all do to some extent, myself included. I'm always asking the Lord to shatter my idols, which include false impressions of Him.
The problem with the gospel of Jesus Nice is simply
this: It isn’t the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It just isn’t.
Identity Crisis
I believe it was Fr. Robert Barron who said that for a
long period after the Second Vatican Council, the Church experienced an
identity crisis.
An identity crisis isn’t always a bad thing. It can be an
opportunity for self-examination and deepening conversion. But excessive
self-examination may lead to a delay in the maturity process. One must say
after a period of appropriate introspection, “This is who I am.”
Under the leadership of our recent holy popes, the Church has
demonstrated a renewed sense of identity.
There cannot be a sense of mission without a sense of
identity. When the Church knows who she
is and why she exists (to evangelize, incidentally), she makes
the world take notice. The world may rail against her, or allow itself to be
converted, but either way, the Church is taken seriously when she speaks the
truth boldly and with a sincere charity.
The Good News
The Church today has a different look and feel from the
Church I entered in nineteen ninety-four. It is encouraging to see the young adults
of the Church today who have embraced the Church’s teachings on sexual
morality, openness to life, and the call to the spiritual as well as the corporal works of mercy. They see that it is an act of mercy to speak and teach the truth, even when it hurts or offends. They see the blessing of rightly ordered love and the sacramentality of marriage. They get the Gospel. They see that in
obedience to the Lord and His call to radical holiness is found the fullness of
freedom.
There is a sense of mission in the young Church of America
that I didn’t see twenty years ago, though Blessed John Paul II was planting the
seeds at World Youth Day in Denver.
It cannot be denied that the gospel of Jesus Nice is still
being proclaimed within and outside the Church. It undermines the true Gospel
of Jesus Christ, who said, quite plainly, and not nicely at all: “Do not think
that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace,
but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter
against her mother… and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who
loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not
take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will
lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 10:34-39, RSV).
Jesus loves us too much to be nice to us. His kindness is
demonstrated in His willingness to confront us and show us the Way to become
what He calls us to be. “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with
pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a
shepherd” (Matt 9:36, NABRE).
The Lord loves us so much that he calls us not to bland niceness, but to heroic
sanctity.
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