Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

We gave you strict orders did we not,

to stop teaching in that name.
Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,
“We must obey God rather than men.

In today’s first reading, it is painful to watch the growing tension between the leaders of Jerusalem and the apostles. In retrospect it seems inevitable; it was the same tension that developed around Jesus and his ministry. But sin is not, and never was, inevitable. It is a decision we make repeatedly, obstinately and with varying levels of intentionality.

I find it painful to watch the birther movement growing in the United States. It is not simply an attack upon the President; it is a serious and deliberate threat to democracy. It is fair warning to anyone of African or Asian descent that he or she should not seek the Presidency and, by extension, any public office. Those who do will suffer constant, pernicious harassment. Birthers will no more listen to reason than the Sanhedrin of ancient Jerusalem; and they will wrap themselves in the same cloak of religious righteousness.

How does one confront the self-righteous? It is not hard to challenge the irreligious. They curse, swear, avoid church, consume excessive alcohol, smoke and habitually destroy relationships. For the most part they don’t even vote; and when they do, they vote only for those who promise lower taxes, regardless of the consequences.

But what can our religion say to the self-righteous? They have trained themselves to outward conformity so well they believe they have inwardly conformed. And yet they are deeply committed to falsehood. They do not know God.

What they do know are their own opinions, feelings and convictions. If they feel it must be right, then they suppose it is right. Those who disagree with them, they feel, are liars. This moral certainty about matters of opinion has appeared in this post-Christian, post-scientific era when many people doubt the existence of Truth. They are more attuned to opinion polls and rumors. Saint Paul said of such people:

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.

The Catholic faith is not based on feelings or opinions. We do not suppose we are saved because we feel we are saved. We claim neither a "spiritual awakening" nor a "baptism of the spirit" as our assurance of faith. Rather, our faith is based on the revelation of God. He has shown us his son Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit has kept that vision alive through the mediation of one generation after another of faithful Christians. We call them "the Church." 

Our faith is reasonable as truth is reasonable, and that truth is accessible to people of good will who honestly search for the truth. Clearly those who have an investment in falsehood, be they powerful Sanhedrin or racist birthers, cannot welcome the Truth.