23rd Sunday of Ordinary
Time Year A 2017:
We get an
interesting gospel this week for our reflection. Jesus is giving us some down to earth
concrete suggestions on how to deal with some daily issues and problems. For example, what do you do when there is
division or disagreement within the community?
What do you do when someone sins against you?
This is
down-to-earth practical advice. And that
got me thinking a little bit. One of the
problems what we face in trying to live out our faith in these modern times is
the problem of thinking about faith and religion as something that shouldn’t
affect our practical down-to-earth lives.
I’m sure no one here would literally say: My faith will not affect my
daily life. But, our culture really sets
things up in such a way that we are discouraged from living out our faith in
the public square. It’s perfectly fine
to be a Catholic, to be a Christian; but, it better not affect how we vote, how
we participate in civil government, how we carry out our civil responsibilities. How many times do we hear: “personally I’m
opposed to something, but I won’t let my faith tell other people what to do.” This leads to a separation between our life
of faith and our daily lives which can really be problematic. Our faith is not a part of our lives, it is a
part of everything in our lives. We
should always ask Christ for guidance in all our actions and decisions.
Someone sent me a
clip this week of Senator Diane Feinstein who was questioning Amy Barrett, who
was nominated for an appeals court position.
The Senator says: when reading your writings and speeches you get the sense
that the dogma lives loudly within you, which is a concern.” Wow.
What prejudice! This made me
think two things. First, could we really
say “the dogma lives loudly in me.” That’s
one of the best compliments anyone could every give me or any Catholic. I really hope it lives loudly in me. Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. I’m one of his followers, his believers. I hope that his truth lives loudly in
me. Second, what kind of weird world do
we live in that having the faith live loudly inside of us is a “concern.”
We all need to
recognize that our culture is subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, trying to
get us to divorce our life of faith from our daily lives. That’s why it’s important for us to be
committed to Christ every day of our lives.
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