14th Sunday after Pentecost 6.9.09 Full confidence
Some bet cautiously, just two dollars a year on a major horse race. It is better to be cautious and we don’t want a gambling addiction. But the language at least of gambling can be helpful to our faith.
The same sort of caution does not apply to the faith. Don’t put all your house on one race, but if you are to be a disciple of Christ you should put the whole house on Him, and the whole life too.
With misplaced caution some have just a little interest in religion. They smooth out the faith to an average level where they are indistinguishable from their neighbours. ‘Religion is all very well as far as it goes. But you don’t want to be going to Mass every day or saying rosaries etc.’
Granted, balance and wisdom are necessary, but people will think you are a religious fanatic if you show any signs of piety. We can’t be following every vision or being obsessed with our sins, but we should be enthusiastic about our faith. Praying more rather than less.
Our trust in God should be boundless, putting everything into God’s hands. So many places in the Scriptures tell us this (and today’s Gospel).
In betting terms it is All or Nothing. Not only we should put everything we have on Jesus Christ, but we must.
The reason we don’t put all our money on something is we might lose it all.
So with our religion we might have doubts: What if this is the wrong religion? What if there is no life after death? There are plenty of people to tell me these things are not true.
So I will just put my toe in the water; do the minimum, hoping to survive if it is all true. If it is not true then I have not missed out! This is an each-way bet.
The Church in her history has always seen a minority of committed, really committed people. The great bulk have been middling, mediocre. This is why we have so few saints in proportion to the total.
It is always easy to be the same as the majority. But in this case we should be like the disciples in the early Church, enthusiastic enough to share their possessions, or even to die for their faith.
The more mediocre we are the less convincing the Church’s witness, and this is why the gospel is easily rejected.
So we reach a state of affairs where people think it makes no difference whether one is Christian or not. As long as we are generally nice people it does not matter what creed we hold (they say).
If the Gospel were written by these people we would have Our Lord saying, Verily, I say to you you should go to Mass occasionally, give a few dollars every now and then to charity; be friendly to everyone – but nothing about renouncing our life, forgiving our enemies, giving without counting the cost, and so on.
I cannot wait for others to commit; I must start myself. It begins with me (and you).
The specific course of actions required for each person may vary according to vocation and situation, but all without exception are called to wholehearted trust and commitment.
We can build up to the required level of commitment. We will not be all-or-nothing saints in one day, but we can increase commmitment over time. We can strengthen the fortress with more consistent prayer, more discipline, more generosity etc.
All the time we will have to overcome the temptation to have misplaced caution. Imagine if at Pentecost the apostles had stayed inside just to think about it. They would have lost the momentum.
There would be no martyrs or missionaries ever. Everyone would stay home and stay inside.
We see that somebody has to take a risk.
At the very least give more room to God, asking to be built up in faith and fervour, and see the good fruits emerge (as listed in today’s epistle).
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