A Homily that Is Not about Who Can Be Blessed
2nd Sunday of the Year
Here is your question for today: Is your knowledge of truth making you a better follower of Christ?
The Gospel for today gives us the first witness of three apostles—Andrew and Peter, for sure, and the third is probably John, author of the Gospel—and these three men make the choice to follow Christ while knowing nothing of who the man is or what he will mean for their lives. Following Christ is not first a matter of knowledge but a matter of relationship. The life of discipleship requires a fundamental holding onto Christ. You hold onto Christ and in time you will come to a deeper understanding of the truth. That is the life of discipleship. Andrew, Peter, and John did not come to a deeper understanding of the truth until the day of Pentecost, and yet these men followed Christ.
Maybe you have not thought of this reality before, but we living today possess a deeper understanding of the truth about Christ and the Christian life than any of the apostles. We possess more knowledge of the truth now than at any point in Christian history. I imagine that Andrew, Peter, and John might have wept in those first years of personal discipleship if given a copy of the Catechism with its cohesive vision of Christian reality. We possess more knowledge of the truth now than at any point in Christian history. And yet: Is our knowledge of truth making us better followers of Christ? Is our knowledge of Christ motivating us to live lives of profound charity? Is our knowledge of the Christian life motivating us to bring the joy of the Gospel to those who do not know Christ or do not care to know him?
When you look out at the life of the Church today, you see plenty of fighting about the truth. There is no doubt that people care a great deal about the truth. But when you look out at the life of the Church today, especially in the Western world, you also see a Church that fails at the work of charity and evangelization. The work of charity becomes a part of the Christian life for many people, maybe, something like a virtuous hobby, but rarely is charity the kind of totalizing reality grounding Christian existence the way that Christ describes the work of love in the Gospel.
And evangelization? Who, really, is evangelizing? I will admit to you now that I am not great at the work of evangelization. Formation in the faith? That is no problem for me. But to go out into the world and proclaim Christ to those who do not know him? I am not great at the work of evangelization. How about you?
I think what has happened is that forming ourselves in the truth and caring about the truth to the point of defending the truth or advocating for the truth has become a safe space for us in the Church today. You can study the truth or argue about the truth with friends or even defend the truth to people who reject it without ever needing to really go outside of your comfort zones. Knowledge of the truth and concern for the truth can fit just fine into our ordinary lives.
The problem is that the ordinary life for a Christian should really be quite extraordinary. We get to know Christ personally in our lives—through the sacraments, through liturgy and tradition, through prayer, through the community of the Church. We possess today a knowledge of Christ and the Christian life that far exceeds what the apostles knew of Christ and the life he was calling them to live. But is our knowledge of the truth making us better followers of Christ? Better at the life of charity? Better at the work of evangelization?
The apostles possessed less knowledge about Christ and the Christian life than we do but lived lives completely given over to the work of charity and evangelization. How is that possible and how might that kind of life become possible for us?
You could probably put together a couple of books working out an answer to those questions.
Maybe one way forward for us is simply a matter of balance and proportion: spend as much time evangelizing and living a life of charity as you spend learning about the truth or arguing about the truth with friends or defending the truth to someone who disagrees with you.
The Vatican released just before Christmas a document on the pastoral meaning of blessings that is rightfully a source of controversy and discussion in the Church today. The document is worth reading within our traditional teaching on blessings—which requires even more reading—and worth discussing with friends about its merits. I would even say that the document is worth reading about—it isn’t always helpful to read commentary on Church affairs but in the case of Fiducia Supplicans I think reading commentary is justified. Taking the document seriously is worth your time.
And yet: I wish I knew how many hours worldwide have been spent reading the document, reading for the document, reading about the document, writing about the document, discussing the document, and arguing about the document. There is no way to know. And there is nothing new here. Evangelium Vitae from 1995, Humanae Vitae from 1968, Pascendi Dominici Gregis from 1907, Rerum Novarum from 1891, Quanta Cura from 1864—the life of the Church is consumed decade to decade, document to document, with controversy and discussion about the truth.
My guess is that in the last month I have spent at least 10 or 15 hours engaged with Fiducia Supplicans in one way or another. Maybe more. And I am trying to imagine what my life would look like if for those 10 or 15 hours I have spent trying to sort out the truth about a Vatican document I also spent 10 or 15 hours serving the poor or visiting the sick or burying the dead and talking about Christ to someone who does not really know him. Imagine what the world might look like if each member of the body of Christ lived a life of a life of balance and proportion in the ways of truth and charity and evangelization.
More and more I think we are turned inward as a Church. We have been for some time. We are closed in on ourselves trying to sort out the truth of whatever moral or social or liturgical issue. These issues matter because the truth matters because the Truth, ultimately, is Christ. So, we need to love the Truth.
We need to love the truth but if our love for the truth is not motivating us to get out of the Church and into the streets, we should probably get concerned about how we are living. Following Christ—the life of real discipleship—means living a life of charity and evangelization. Peter and Andrew and John knew little of Christ compared to us and yet they made the choice to follow him.
How about us? Is our knowledge of truth making us better at following Christ?
Homily preached on January 14th, 2024 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary