FAITH CHALLENGING

"He was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mk 1:6)

A

Christian woman who did a lot of traveling for her business always took her bible with her to read on the planes to help her relax. One time she was sitting next to a man who gave a little chuckle when he saw her pull out her Bible. After a while, he turned to her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in there, do you?"
The woman replied, "Of course I do. It is the Bible."
He said, "Well, what about that guy who was swallowed by that whale?"
She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that. It is in the Bible.
He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"
The woman said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven I will ask him."
"What if he isn't in heaven?" the man asked sarcastically.
"Then you can ask him," The woman replied.

Rebels Against God

On this Independent Day Weekend, we celebrate the Birthday of our nation. This nation was founded under God. Its beginning was very religious oriented. Our founders never intended to seek and lead the Nation independent from God. Every new U. S. president and government official, when takes office, has to take the oath and invoke God's help. Today, however, there are people working tirelessly and intentionally to distance our nation from God.

For example, a Federal appeals court ruled last Tuesday that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore must remove a granite Ten Commandments memorial from the lobby of the state Judicial Building. "Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Alabama attorneys who said they had to walk past the monument every time they entered the court building and that it infringed on their First amendment rights."

I wonder if these three lawyers and the Civil right groups felt infringed on their First Amendment rights when they look at the words "In God We Trust" clearly printed on the U. S. dollar bills. Surely they love the U. S. dollars. They work hard everyday to earn more. They save their U. S. dollars in the banks. They keep their money in safe box at home. They carry them everyday in their pockets. Why don't they feel offended?

Jo-Dean Greenlee, Huffman wrote in the Houston Chronicle's Viewpoints:

"Aren't all the laws in the world based on the Ten Commandments? I thought all civilizations based their laws on them. To call these commandments religious is totally dumb. People go to jail for killings their parents, people kill, steal, commit adultery and lie all the time. Newspapers and TV programs are full of these. It takes shelves and shelves of law books to say the same thing the Ten Commandments say.

To fight against these fundamental values is to rebel against God. Christian values teach us to respect every human being because everyone is created by God and in the image of God. Based on this Christian principle value, we set the slaves free. We treat every human being equal. We open the door to allow people from other nations to become U. S. citizens. What would happen if we compromise the vision of our founders, the core values in our Constitution and allow the atheists and the non-believers to dictate, control and push God further away from our nation?

In the first reading, we heard God's words to the prophet Ezekiel. God sent Ezekiel to speak to his people. "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you."

We have rebels and people with hard face and obstinate of heart in our society. God is sending us to speak to them. Our mission is to speak on God's behalf, to make God known to others. And as the responsorial psalm says, "Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy."

Behind the Ordinariness of the Messengers

We are not saints. We are not super human beings. We are ordinary people. We have our baggage to carry, but we are believers and God is sending us into the world. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy on us and on others.

Ezekiel was just a Son of man, which means an ordinary human being. He was not different from other people around him. But God chose him to speak on His behalf. Some listened to his message and believe; others did not.

The same thing happened to Jesus. The people of his hometown saw him too familiar:
- "Isn't this the carpenter?"
- "Don't we know his family and relatives?"

They reacted with:
- Astonishment (verse 2)
- Offense (verse 3)
- Unbelief (verse 6)

Most of Jesus' contemporaries found him quite unimpressive. It was true then. It remains true today. Jesus no longer comes to people in his human body. Since his resurrection and ascension, Jesus comes to people through his Mystical Body, the Church. People encounter and judge Jesus today through us who have become members of his body in baptism. He has no other but us. We however, also know that we are ordinary people. The Church is made up of ordinary people.

Many people today say they accept Jesus Christ, but want nothing to do with his Church. They complain that the church is full of hypocrites, people who are no better than anyone else. Other people find the Church too remote. They say it is hopelessly out of date. They complain that the Church's teachings on birth control, respect life, homosexual activities are irrelevant and lack of compassion to the needs of people in the modern world. Others find the church too weak to command their respect. Sexual scandals in the Church and mistakes made by some Church leaders make them believe that the Church is no better than any other institution.

These people are scandalized by the Church for reasons very similar to those that caused Jesus' contemporaries to be scandalized at him. Many people today seek a "pure" church: One that is not ordinary, not remote, not weak, not making any mistake. Some believe they have found this purity in a congregation of "born again Christians" that deliberately excludes the lax and lukewarm. Others find the purity they are seeking in the electronic church. On television, the worshipers are all squeaky clean. The preacher always has a polished and uplifting message. The singing is always fervent and on key. How many Catholic parishes can compete with that?

The Catholic Church does not even try to compete. The Catholic Church is human, as Jesus was human. It is ordinary, as Jesus was ordinary. It can seem remote, as Jesus sometimes seemed remote. It is often weak, as Jesus was weak. Hidden behind this ordinariness and remoteness and weakness, however, is all the power and the compassion of God through Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, who came in fiery tongues on the first Pentecost to kindle a fire that is still burning.

We cannot and should not allow the ordinariness of the Church and the weakness of some members of the Church to keep us from believing in Jesus Christ and His Church.

Rev. Tran, John Kha
Houston, TX