Trust in God

Homily
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
13/14 February 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
Year for Priests

For daily readings, click here

Even though I'm only at KU part time, I get a number of emails and calls from parents whose children go to KU, and are slowly but surely losing their Catholic faith. For all those whose faith is growing stronger through the ministry of the St. Lawrence Center, and there is always much to celebrate, there are many others who are drifting from the Church, most of them unintentionally. I get calls and emails from moms mostly, and occasionally from a dad, worrying about their sons and daughters, and desperate to find a way to keep them going to Church. Well, I have some ideas about what can be done to keep Catholics going to Church, but I think this weekend's readings invite us to think about the false assumptions that produce a culture in which it is tempting for young Catholics not to go to Church.

Notwithstanding the laziness and selfishness and mediocrity and reaction against any and all authority, that lies at the heart of why students stop practicing their faith, there is also the toxic idea all around that you don't have to go to Church in order to be a good person. To put it another way, you don't have to believe in heaven in order to believe in yourself and in other people, or to make a difference. The agnostic idea is this: going to Church doesn't make you a good person, and isn't it more authentic to be a good person for goodness' sake rather than because you believe Jesus is truly risen from the dead, and may reward you for your goodness with eternal life? If you are going to believe in something, isn't it better to believe in the neighbor you can see than in the God that you can't see? Finally, the idea is that people who do good without expecting a reward from God are actually better than people who do good because they expect eventually to be repaid. This destructive agnostic idea applies to today's Gospel. Agnostics would agree with Jesus' teaching in the beatitudes that woe is in store for those who put their trust in wealth and in health, for these things will pass away. But they would disagree that men need the promise of heaven in order to be good. Even as they acknowledge Jesus as a good moral teacher, they would say that His resurrection and ascension are mythologies, not historical truths, and the Church who preaches His resurrection is a source of evil, deception, and hypocritical authority. With these false assumptions which are easy to find at KU, KU students today are challenged to see their faith not as a great gift that they have received, a faith to be deepened and purified within the context of the university, but as an unnecessary burden that should be discarded as fast as possible. If you are giong to put your trust in Jesus, trust him because He was a good man, and be good for goodness' sake, not because He was God, and promises you the illusory reward of eternal life.

Well, not withstanding the fact that goodness is a transcendental reality, not confined to time and space and matter but pertaining to what is spiritual and eternal, and so forcing a philosophical decision as to where goodness ultimately comes from, there is the choice before us always whether to ultimately trust in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, if we are going to trust in goodness at all. This is the choice between the agnostic and the theist. But the choice, while important, is not as either/or as the false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe. Although we must ultimately decide whether we trust more in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, there is nothing that says definitively that we can't trust both. The false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe that loving God or loving man is mutually exclusive, like loving KU and Missouri, whereas the truth is that loving God or loving man is more like loving KU basketball or KU football. The reality is that it is possible to love both. It is preferable to trust both. If you are a real KU fan, it follows that you love both KU basketball and KU football. It is good to be optimistic about both. Although it is possible that you love one and not the other, and if pressed, most of us would have to admit we have more trust in KU basketball than KU football, the reality is makes little sense to love one without loving the other. The false assumptions of agnosticism try to get us to either stop believing in God or in man, but they never tell us why we must do so. Jesus in revealing who God is, makes it possible for us to trust in God, and Jesus, in becoming one of us and revealing who man really is, makes it possible for us to keep believing in man. Jesus is both God and man. That is our theology, and if we know it, the false assumptions of agnosticism will not tempt us to stop practicing our faith. We are disciples of Jesus because he brings love of God and love of man in perfect relationship. His perfect commandment is to love one another as He loves us. It has been the great Christian tradition to do exactly what the false assumptions of agnosticism accuse us of not doing. St. John reminds us that although we are obliged as Christians to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, it is not permissible for us to love the God we cannot see while ignoring our brother whom we can see. We are to love both, and we not only can, we should. That is our tradition, and the false assumptions of agnosticism should not rob us of it.

St. Paul reminds us however, that a choice is ultimately necessary for us who come to Mass. It is not the choice forced upon KU students by the false assumptions of agnosticism, but a choice as to whether we truly believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This faith, attested to in history and passed down faithfully by those who have gone before us, proposes Jesus to be more than the thousands of inspirational heroes of yesterday and today who teach us how to truly live in this world. Jesus, while doing this perfectly, also came to reveal to us that God who created everything out of nothing because He is love, is not done loving, nor is he done creating, and just as we all have received life in this world as a gift, so we are to look forward in hope to the gifts of the world to come. We receive this gift of eternal life, not because we earned it, but because we have become someone who enjoys receiving whatever gifts God wants to give to us. Agnostics should not get Christians to say they must either hope for a good season for KU or a national championship. It is good to hope for both. It is right to hope for both. It is good to become a person who is ready for both. That is who we are as Christians! St. Paul reminds us not to follow Jesus because he was only a good man, but because He is truly God, for if for this life only we have believed in Christ, St. Paul reminds us that we are the most pitiable people of all. Being in friendship with Christ, and meditating on the mystery of his suffering, death and resurrection reminds us as many times as we need reminding that even though we do not understand God, we can trust Him, and indeed, without trusting each other any less, we believe it is better to trust God than to trust in man. Jesus says that those of us who love God will find strength to love our neighbor even when they become our enemies and let us down time and time again. Jeremiah prophesies that those of us who ultimately put our trust in God will not help this world any less, but will help it more while at the same time growing stronger and younger, and more hopeful and loving, even as the world around us passes away.