Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 401

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.

He spoke to them only in parables,

to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation 
of the world.

In his Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis writes:

(43.) It is not easy to grasp the truth that we have received from the Lord. And it is even more difficult to express it. So we cannot claim that our way of understanding this truth authorizes us to exercise a strict supervision over others’ lives. Here I would note that in the Church there legitimately coexist different ways of interpreting many aspects of doctrine and Christian life; in their variety, they “help to express more clearly the immense riches of God’s word”.

That's why Jesus spoke in parables; that's why Jeremiah walked around in public in rotting underwear. Some things cannot be explained in so many words. Indeed, if there are not infinite interpretations of God's word, there are as many interpretations as there are people to receive it.

Often in conversation with my friend John he will stop me in my tracks with a question that seems ridiculous and totally irrelevant, and I realize his mind does not function as mine does. We speak the same language, grew up in the same city, and were educated in the same school but we operate on different wave lengths. Whatever he hears me saying seems not closely related to my understanding. I'm on the golf course and he's in the football stadium. So I back up and start over. Or, more often, decide it's not that important.

Jesus announced in parables what had "lain hidden from the foundation of the world," and remains hidden to many people. The allusion is to gems, those peculiar rocks formed by the explosion of a distant, long-dead star, that turn up in various parts of our world. But do you need to recognize that "mental link" to gemstones to understand the teaching?

The Holy Father wrote the above in his essay about Gnosticism, a pre-Christian philosophy that still threatens to undermine the Gospel. Gnostics believe they "own" certain knowledge which assures them of their personal salvation. During the first century, Gnostics formed secret societies to share their mysteries. These clandestine groups still exist; you may join one if you've got the dough-re-mi. Because the apostles announced a gospel "hidden since the foundation of the world," people supposed they were Gnostics.

But practical experience tells us a master's degree or PHD in theology is no assurance of salvation. As Pope Francis says,

A dangerous confusion can arise. We can think that because we know something, or are able to explain it in certain terms, we are already saints, perfect and better than the “ignorant masses”. Saint John Paul II warned of the temptation on the part of those in the Church who are more highly educated “to feel somehow superior to other members of the faithful”.[41] In point of fact, what we think we know should always motivate us to respond more fully to God’s love. Indeed, “you learn so as to live: theology and holiness are inseparable”

If your learning does not drive you to works of mercy, it means nothing. Saint Paul explained that a long time ago:

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

Pope Francis is not writing in a vacuum. There are political forces in the Church that would shore up their Catholic privilege with special doctrines. They believe they have the understanding that everyone else should have; and those who don't (i.e. Protestants) must remain outside. One group​ has effectively separated themselves from the Church and is waiting for the rest of us to come around to their point of view. Until then they remain partly-outside and partly-inside in their smug self-assurance.

In his ratty underwear Jeremiah taunted the bigots of his time. Their corruption was obvious to everyone but themselves; their privilege would collapse with the city walls when the Babylonian army arrived. Better to show mercy now and risk the loss of this world's treasure, than to squander your opportunity for salvation.