People who take Christ seriously as their example for living doubtless look to him for guidance as they prepare themselves to meet the most important challenges of their lives. At the beginning of some great endeavor they refresh their remembrance of how Christ behaved at the beginning of the work by which he fulfilled God’s will for the salvation of humanity.
Unlike the self-made idols of human salvation, whose rites of worship have plagued humanity in our times, Christ’s vocation did not begin with bright promises. It began, like the United States, with words that presumed the sovereignty of God. He called upon his listeners to turn back to God: “Repent you, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then, in token of his agency from God, Christ went about “healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people,” so that “there followed him great multitudes.”
Though many were drawn to him by God’s power, evident in his words and actions, it makes sense to assume that there were obdurate hearts who felt the reproachful sting of his call to repentance, and pridefully or ashamedly turned away. Yet when he opened his mouth to teach those who were disposed to listen, he still did not beguile them with rosy promises, and titillating visions of the sensational things in store for those who followed him.
Rather he challenged them with words that evoked virtues and deeds that merited God’s blessing: humility, mourning, and meekness. He spoke not of the body’s needs, but of the righteous spirit’s hunger and thirst for justice. He spoke of mercy, of purity of heart and the disposition to wage peace instead of war. And, finally, he presented a litany of ills awaiting those who acted in pursuance of this blessedness: the reproaches, persecution and slander to come for those who acted in his name, and for his sake.
These days many people, including not a few who profess to cherish Christ’s example, seek inspiration and unity in the kind of “sales puffery” that lures adherents with bright images of things to come. Thus do the wicked use toys and bright baubles to lure children to their doom. Christ promised his audience that they could be called children of God, but he spoke to them as responsible men and women; called to live in the image and likeness of God, and be subject therefore to the pain and suffering evil ones inflict on all who will not abandon the brand of the author of their being.
Christ did not call people to unite with him in easy comfort, yoked by nothing but their own satisfied will and desires. He called them to respect God’s rule, and the laws made pursuant to His will. He called them to do right, with a righteousness beyond the fastidious appearance of those who act for themselves alone, and not for the sake of God. In this respect, he challenged his listeners, from the very beginning of his ministry, with edicts that required them to live beyond their own satisfaction, in order to satisfy the heart and spirit of God.
You have heard that it was said to them of old-time, You shall not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.: but I say unto you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother “You worthless dog” shall be in danger of the Sanhedrin; and whosoever shall say “You moron” shall be in danger of Hell’s fire. (Matthew 5:21-24)
In respect of God’s rule, Christ enjoined his listeners rather to be blinded, maimed and married in this life to discontent, than made whole and content by means that divide people from God. He evoked the high standard of God, and rebuked the falsely comforting lie that evil and good can be united in love.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
Some years ago, I read of an interview in which Cardinal Walter Kasper argued in favor of allowing people to receive communion even if they engaged in sexual relations disapproved as extra-marital. “To live together as brother and sister? Of course, I have high respect for those who are doing this… But it’s an heroic act, and heroism is not for the average Christian.”
An average mingles together numbers, high and low, that mask this difference in order to represent them as a whole. But where obedience to God is concerned, Christ rejected imprecise representation, because the perfection of God cannot be served in tandem with things mistakenly worshipped along with Him. Moreover, Christ proclaimed his rejection of this possibility to people who could not yet be properly identified as Christians.
Apparently Cardinal Kasper rejects Christ’s standard as impossible for many if not most Christians. But if it is so hard for two people who are sexually drawn to one another to “live together as brother and sister” without sexual intercourse, what are we to make of those who have done so throughout human history? Even without the Grace of God released by Christ’s perfect sacrifice, people in every place, time and era of human experience have achieved what the Cardinal professes to be “an heroic act… not for the average Christian.”
It would appear that, contrary to Cardinal Kasper’s assertion, such heroism is commonplace. And given this fact, the contention he and others like him deploy is a slanderous lie. It invites ordinary people (an expression that refers precisely to their inclination to follow the ordinances, to live within the bounds of law) to degrade themselves below the level of their natural capacities. And it belies the word “Christian,” a word that connotes a relationship with Christ that offers Grace beyond the “law in our members,” which Grace the love of God in Christ may impart to those who believe in him.
Even before he was born, Christ’s presence conveyed this sense of respect for the heroism God’s Providence makes possible. Mary, the Mother of Christ, spoke of God’s will to this effect
…He has looked upon the low estate of His handmaid…He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted them of low degree. The hungry He has filled with good things; and the rich He has sent away empty.
As someone who has spent most of his adult life thinking about human government and politics, I thank God that America’s founders were willing to see the human capacity for right doing in the context of the gift of God in Jesus Christ. They did not shrink from challenging Americans to acknowledge God’s standard for justice. Our history has long been a struggle between the worship of God and that of Mammon. But because our founders emphasized God’s bequest of right to humanity, that struggle took place in a context that inspired and emboldened Americans blessed with the hunger and thirst for justice.
They were imbued with the determination to satisfy those spiritual needs in a way that encouraged peace and right union amongst us, and all people of good will. So, people already willing to do the little deeds of heroism that can make them good parents, good siblings, good neighbors and good friends, simply kept to that habit when their little victories, for God’s sake, led to the places of hardship and great sacrifice (including battlefields knee-deep in blood), as Christ truthfully led them to expect it would.
Thus, by His Providence, did God exalt people the world despised as of “low degree.” He was willing for their hunger and thirst for justice to raise America to a pinnacle of achievement worthy of His greatness. All because, in truth, there are no “average Christians”; only people willing in their everyday affairs to rise to the heroic challenges of ordinary (law-abiding) virtue; humble enough to let God lift them when they fall short; and honest enough to remember the high standard of their Lord and God, even though this means they must mourn and lament their own sinful failings. So, they trust in the truth of Christ, who has and always will stand ready to help them. For when it comes to the heavy lifting, Christ has prepared himself for our choice. He offers the way to walk humbly with God, and thereby serve and dwell with Him, now and forever.