Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Lectionary: 301

"His accusers stood around him,
but did not charge him with any of the crimes I suspected. Instead they had some issues with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died but who Paul claimed was alive."

A 21st century secular society will have sympathy for the Judean procurator, Festus. Like his Roman colleagues, he could not take his state sponsored religion seriously. He conformed to its external rites but it meant nothing to his heart. "So why," he might have wondered, "do these Jews get so upset about their religion and its sects, factions, and parties? So what if some people say a crucified fellow isn't dead after all? How does that change anything? He'll just die again!"

But the Jews and their opponents, the Christians, knew that this question was huge. It was life and death! Or more than that; it was blessed salvation versus eternal damnation. As Saint Paul would say in his letter to the Corinthians, 

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.

And if our faith is empty, we have nothing to live for. As atheist philosophers of the twentieth century would ask, "Why should I not commit suicide?" 

Festus was not given to asking such questions. He busied himself about surviving in the rat race of Roman politics and never asked himself, "Given that I will die anyway, why do I want to live?" 

Many Christians today, including seminarians for the priesthood, wonder the same thing as they study heresies of the early Church. Why did the "Fathers of the Church" pronounce anathema on heretics? Why were some Catholics willing to suffer martyrdom while their heretical opponents stood by and watched? Why was there bloodshed between Arians and Catholics? 

We could answer the Catholics had the Spirit, but that would not satisfy our questioning minds. The Catholic bishops knew that the unity of the Church rested on the Truth as revealed by Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Apostolic Tradition. Heretics, freed of obedience and conformity, could believe anything they liked. Their opinions suited their tastes. If they disagreed they agreed to disagree for there was no real truth to believe in the first place. 

But Catholic knew the Gospel demands obedience and a willingness to surrender and submit one's mind, will, and heart. 

The Catholic belief which was, in fact, widely accepted by the apostolic churches from India to Spain, recognized that Jesus must be entirely human and absolutely divine. And he must remain fully human after his resurrection, although we cannot fathom what his glorified body might look like. If he is not human his divine compassion cannot touch our human misery. If he is not divine, he has no authority to speak to our innermost hearts; he can only lord it over us. We will not be saved by someone who dominates us, no matter how friendly they might seem. Our apparent obedience to benevolent oppression will be rank hypocrisy. 

The Holy Spirit moved in those bishops, clergy, and faithful who kept the faith, enabling them both to withstand persecution and to defy the complaisance of heretical Christians.

As the Church today faces a polarized world and condemns racism from the left and abortion from the right; we can expect opposition, contempt, and violence. Some definitions of our human nature do not allow for grace, redemption, and salvation. We cannot condone or ignore those shallow estimates. A human being is not a consumer to fit a consumerist economy, nor a commodity to be used and wasted. Today's controversies are at least as bewildering as those of the ancient past, and we must listen to the Church's Magisterium as we deal with them. 

And always we must keep our attention fixed on Jesus, the Leader and perfecter of our faith.