Monday's Reflection, July 28, 2008: The Need for a Balanced Diet

Today's readings are from Jeremiah 13: 1-11; Deuteronomy 32: 17-19, 20, 21; and Matthew 13: 31-35.

Interesting set of passages, don't you think? Definitely not the ones you choose yourself to cheer you up or give that positive mental attitude. Thank God for Mother Church, though, who has the wisdom to know the balanced diet we need to live a life of continuous faith.

In Jeremiah, the Lord shows his displeasure in Israel by comparing them in their arrogant unbelief to rotting underwear...completely useless. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus teaches in parables so that those who hear these parables, will not understand what they mean; what a horrific judgment! The passage in Deuteronomy is interesting as well, and serves to glue the Old Testament reading to the reading in today's Gospel. This passage is a lament by the Lord given to the people of Israel prior to their entering the promised land for the first time. The Lord's lament is in response to an oath Israel made to the Lord, promising that they would always obey His law and serve Him and Him alone. In response, the Lord told them that He knows they will forget Him and His law and seek other gods instead. And as it played out, Jeremiah was just one of many prophets who condemned Israel's constant unbelief and idolatry.

Today's readings can be a bit unsettling, but serves to warn us of the immoral nature of unbelief. This is really healthy for us to be warned. Unbelief is not just a simple act of not believing something. It is immoral; a corruption of trust; it absolutely has no justification at all. Unbelief is a refusal to accept the possibility that God exists and that He has any claim on us. Unbelief is really belief in reverse...in something contrary to what God has revealed. In all cases, we value our own judgments or judgments of others over the the judgments and declarations by God. We become gods and believe our interpretations against the interpretations of God.

We all have a natural inclination to LOVE self-interpretation; we LOVE the final say of what is; we love to determine what is good, true and beautiful. We love to rule ourselves. If we relinquish our supposed "right" to self-interpret, we can no longer rule ourselves. Because of this, we will adopt any belief or fallacious reasoning just to maintain this self-interpretation/self-rule. We will even invent a Jesus who "promotes and protects" self-interpretation! To break free from this type of unbelief requires an act nothing short of conversion.

Another scripture that comes to mind is from St. Paul, who says to us in Romans 11: 22: 'See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but kindness to you, provided you remain in His kindness; otherwise, you too will be be cut off." We? Cut off? gulp.

Some anti-Catholic Christians I run into are usually Calvinists who see our salvation in terms of an event or decision made in the past. According to them, the effects of this "salvation event", or becoming "born again", is irreversible and remains so unto eternity. To them, there is really no "cutting off." This is only for those who are not "saved." When reading the above passages, it is impossible to think that this "once saved always saved" notion is true unless we deliberately ignore the above passages. As my brother-in-law says, there is such a thing as a "Sharpie Bible:" you know, the one that allows you use a "Sharpie" pen to blacken the scriptures you disagree with.

The Catholic Church's teaching on salvation values conversion, and even presses us in our evangelization to promote the conversion of others. However, She never emphasizes the date and time of one's conversion over and above completing our conversion to the time of our death. We still have free will. Of course, the scriptures state that when we believe, we will be saved. However, we are provisionally saved, meaning there is criteria that must be fulfilled to attain salvation. We must continue to grow in the grace of Christ and build Christ's virtues into our lives unto the very end. The Catholic Church from the beginning never taught "once saved always saved." This is counter-intuitive, counter traditional, counter-scriptural, counter-Word of God. Knowing the goodness and severity of God motivates us to this end.

In light of this, hold fast, my dear family, and do not let the arrogance of unbelief capture your souls. Keep holding and nurturing Catholic faith, the faith that "believes all that the Catholic Church teaches without doubt. For it is impossible for God to be deceived or deceive." Avoid self-interpretation like the plague. It is a sophisticated and deadly form of unbelief that can go undetected. See, then, the goodness and severity of God!