The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to contemplate the path we are following to live Jesus Way to fullness of life.
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| The path to truth, beauty, goodness |
The reading from the Letter of James is a reminder to his people that faith without works is dead.
* [2:14–26] The theme of these verses is the relationship of faith and works (deeds). It has been argued that the teaching here contradicts that of Paul (see especially Rom 4:5–6). The problem can only be understood if the different viewpoints of the two authors are seen. Paul argues against those who claim to participate in God’s salvation because of their good deeds as well as because they have committed themselves to trust in God through Jesus Christ (Paul’s concept of faith). Paul certainly understands, however, the implications of true faith for a life of love and generosity (see Gal 5:6, 13–15). The author of James is well aware that proper conduct can only come about with an authentic commitment to God in faith (Jas 2:18, 26). Many think he was seeking to correct a misunderstanding of Paul’s view.1
Psalm 112 details the blessings received by those who remain close to God by obedience to the commandments. Among their blessings are children and wealth that enables them to be magnanimous.
* [Psalm 112] An acrostic poem detailing the blessings received by those who remain close to God by obedience to the commandments. Among their blessings are children (Ps 112:2), wealth that enables them to be magnanimous (Ps 112:3, 5, 9), and virtue by which they encourage others (Ps 112:4). The just person is an affront to the wicked, whose hopes remain unfulfilled (Ps 112:10). The logic resembles Ps 1; 111.2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus lays out the conditions of discipleship.
* [8:34–35] This utterance of Jesus challenges all believers to authentic discipleship and total commitment to himself through self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of suffering, even to the sacrifice of life itself. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it…will save it: an expression of the ambivalence of life and its contrasting destiny. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life.3
Mark Latta declares that today’s readings offer Christian believers clear and unambiguous guidance in our spiritual lives. They however are challenging in many ways to our ways of living and looking at the world.
James is not suggesting we use works instead of faith in Christ, or even the we do works in addition to faith in Christ. His assumption is that we will do works for the benefit of others because of our faith in Christ. James is sharing his conviction that we are responsible for caring for each other as believers in Jesus Christ. And our belief must lead to decisions for practical action.
This decision to act includes the call to follow Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel Christ makes the choice very clear in His call to follow Him: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” So today, as we follow our faith and the call Jesus has for us, what practical action is the Holy Spirit presenting to us to serve God’s Kingdom?4
Don Schwager quotes “Would you follow Christ?,” by Caesarius of Arles, 470-542 A.D.
"When the Lord tells us in the Gospel that anyone who wants to be his follower must renounce himself, the injunction seems harsh; we think he is imposing a burden on us (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). But an order is no burden when it is given by one who helps in carrying it out. To what place are we to follow Christ if not where he has already gone? We know that he has risen and ascended into heaven; there, then, we must follow him. There is no cause for despair - by ourselves we can do nothing, but we have Christ’s promise... "One who claims to abide in Christ ought to walk as he walked. Would you follow Christ? Then be humble as he was humble. Do not scorn his lowliness if you want to reach his exaltation. Human sin made the road rough. Christ’s resurrection leveled it. By passing over it himself, he transformed the narrowest of tracks into a royal highway. Two feet are needed to run along this highway; they are humility and charity. Everyone wants to get to the top - well, the first step to take is humility. Why take strides that are too big for you - do you want to fall instead of going up? Begin with the first step, humility, and you will already be climbing." (excerpt from SERMONS 159, 1.4–6)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on James 2:14-24, 26 asks are we really justified by faith alone? Or does faith need to manifest itself in actions?
James wasn’t embroiled in such theological difficulties when he wrote this letter. He was simply responding like a good pastor. He saw members of his church failing to live out what they claimed to believe. They assumed that since they had faith, they didn’t need to push themselves to help the people around them. So James wrote this letter to shake up his readers.
You might have heard the saying “Love is a verb.” Love is expressed in action, not just in feeling. James is pointing out that faith is a “verb” too. Faith has to be expressed in action. Believing in Jesus changes our thoughts, yes, but it also changes what we do. It changes how we spend our money and our time. It changes the way we speak and the way we listen.
Jesus makes a similar point in today’s Gospel. If we want to follow him, we need to follow his example—in our actions. That’s what he means when he tells us to deny ourselves and take up our crosses.6
Friar Jude Winkler comments that James emphasizes that faith needs to be lived out in everyday life. Paul and James both cite the experience of Abraham and Isaac. Friar Jude reminds us that the cross was widely used by the Romans in Jesus time for capital punishment.
A post from Franciscan Media reflects on the work of Saint Peter Damian, Saint of the Day for February 21, He was a reformer and if he were alive today would no doubt encourage the renewal started by Vatican II. He would also applaud the greater emphasis on prayer that is shown by the growing number of priests, religious, and laypersons who gather regularly for prayer, as well as the special houses of prayer recently established by many religious communities.
Finally, Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He worked hard to wipe out simony—the buying of church offices–and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and urged even the diocesan clergy to live together and maintain scheduled prayer and religious observance. He wished to restore primitive discipline among religious and priests, warning against needless travel, violations of poverty, and too comfortable living. He even wrote to the bishop of Besancon complaining that the canons there sat down when they were singing the psalms in the Divine Office.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the first principle of great spiritual teachers is rather constant: only Love can be entrusted with Wisdom or Big Truth. All other attitudes will murder, mangle, and manipulate truth for their own ego purposes. Humans must first find the unified field of love and then start their thinking and perceiving from that point. This is the challenging insight of mature religion.
All prayer disciplines are somehow trying to get mind, heart, and body to work as one, which entirely changes one’s consciousness. “The concentration of attention in the heart—this is the starting point of all true prayer,” wrote St. Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894), a Russian monk, bishop, and mystic. [1] Apart from Love, any other “handler” of your experience, including the rational mind or merely intellectual theology, eventually distorts and destroys the beauty and healing power of Wisdom.
The second principle is that truth is on some level always beautiful—and healing—to those who honestly want it. Big Truth cannot be angry, antagonistic, or forced on anyone, or it will inherently distort the message (as the common belief in a punitive God has done for centuries). The good, the true, and the beautiful are their own best argument for themselves, by themselves, and in themselves. Such deep inner knowing evokes the soul and pulls the soul into All Oneness. Incarnation is beauty, and beauty needs to be incarnate—that is specific, concrete, particular. We need to experience very particular, soul-evoking goodness in order to be shaken into what many call “realization.” It is often a momentary shock where we know we have been moved to a different plane of awareness.
This is precisely how transformation differs from simply acquiring facts and information. Whereas information will often inflate the ego, transformation utterly humbles us. In that moment, we know how much we have not known up to now, and still surely do not know! Such humility is a good and probably necessary starting place and, I would say, the very seat of Wisdom.8
In Love, our living faith and works is the path to truth, goodness and beauty in relationship with Jesus on the Way.
References
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