31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Knights of Columbus Mid-Year Meeting
Denver, Colorado
November 5, 2023
Notional Faith vs. Real Faith
In his book, The Grammer of Assent, St. John Henry Newman speaks about “the apostolate of personal influence” as a way of spreading the Gospel. We can influence one another by the persuasive power of our good example. We can lead family, friends, and colleagues to reconsider their lack of faith or their loss of faith by living differently – by manifesting the joy of believing, the joy that comes with hope, the joy that comes when we are imbued with the charity of Christ.
Being that way and living that way, our own life of faith deepens. Instead of having an abstract, “notional” faith that remains a set of ideas and rules, we move to a real faith, a faith anchored in the fact of Jesus Christ, anchored in his flesh and blood, anchored in the truth and reality of his saving love, a faith that penetrates to the core of our being and transforms us from the inside out. When those around us see what is truly the treasure of our hearts, they may not immediately repent and believe, but they may well reconsider.
The Bad Example of the Pharisees
There is another side to this coin. Over against the persuasive force of one’s good example, there is the pervasive power of one’s bad example. This is what Jesus encountered and condemned in the Pharisees, and let us notice what he says: “They have taken the seat of Moses (that is to say, they teach with the presumed authority of Moses), so do what they tell you but do not follow their example.” … Simply put, ‘Do what they say, not what they do.’
Here Jesus is pointing to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the gap between what those teachers of the law said and what they did. They spoke constantly of God’s law, interpreting it with a fine-tooth comb, while living corruptly, looking down on others, and glorifying themselves. Even if their teaching was technically correct, they did not possess the spirit and genius of Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Indeed, God gave the law through Moses as a sign of love for his people, so that “they could worship him without fear, and be holy and righteous in his sight…” At the hands of the Pharisees, the law became a yoke of slavery for God’s people and a way for the Pharisees to assert their own importance. So Jesus tells his audience, not to ignore or dispute what the Pharisees say, but rather to pattern their lives according to what God teaches in the law and prophets. The Lord who said this was the One Teacher, in whom the law & prophets were fulfilled.
A Clerical Occupational Hazard
When the evangelists recorded Jesus’ condemnation of the hypocritical Pharisees, I don’t think that the intent was merely to memorialize for all times the corruption of a little group of first century Jewish teachers. Like everything in the Gospels, we ourselves are the intended audience. And this Gospel in particular is for me like a heat-seeking missile!
For not unlike the Pharisees, I am an official teacher of the Roman Catholic Church. As priest and bishop, I teach in the Person of Christ and in the Name of the Church. Acting in the Person of Christ, I mediate and make present in the power of the Spirit, the mysteries of Christ: his words, his deeds, his life, his death, and resurrection. But only in Jesus is there no gap between words and deeds. In my life and in the life of every priest, there is a gap, and sometimes, sadly, a chasm… as we have so tragically witnessed in the scandals that have beset our beloved Church. I am saved from hypocrisy only by acknowledging my unworthiness – not paralyzing guilt but rather a realistic sense of my need for God’s mercy dispensed for me regularly by a holy confessor in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
And how wise and loving the Lord is! For he will not allow the unworthiness of any priest to invalidate his sacraments. Whether celebrated by a St. John Vianney or the Whisky Priest of Graham Greene, the sacraments of the Church remain effective signs of God’s grace, and the Eucharist remains the true and substantial presence of the Redeemer. This is something of a “life insurance policy” that the Lord provided for his Church. But this dispenses neither me nor any other priest from our bounden duty to “believe what [we] read, teach what [we] believe, and practice what [we] teach.” When you pray for your bishops and priests (as I know that you do), may I ask you to pray that we will be credible witnesses to the Lord whom we proclaim and whose mysteries we celebrate … pray that ‘we will believe what we read, teach what we believe, and practice what we teach,’ words found in the Ordination Ritual and ascribed to St. Francis of Assisi.
An Occupational Hazard for Leadership in the Order
Ah, but today’s Gospel passage is an equal opportunity disruptor. Yes, it applies to me and to my brother bishops and priests, but if I may dare to say so, it applies to all of us who are in leadership in the Order. We use the term “worthy” to describe various offices in the Order, a term which we can only strive to live up to, for only One is worthy, the Lord himself. When we were installed in the offices to which we were elected, we promised that, in fulfilling our responsibilities, we would give good example to our brother knights and indeed to any and all who know us to be leaders in the Order. And when we feel like we’re rolling a rock up a hill (and it keeps rolling back at us), or when some vexing situation arises in our spheres of responsibility, well, then, giving good example is not always easy. But it’s when the chips are down that one’s true character is revealed.
Thus, the importance of daily prayer, frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, Mass at the center of our lives, and a daily examination of conscience. If you’re like me, you’ll have no shortage of things to discuss with your confessor. But you will also find in those sacramental encounters the joy of discovering anew that we are not the sum of our sins and that we are precious in the sight of God. This is pivotal (as I said at the outset) in moving from a faith that is merely notional, that is to say, unconnected with our daily flesh and blood existence, to a real faith, a faith rooted in the fact of Jesus Christ, a faith that permeates our lives and the lives of those around us. This is why we do core conversations, engage in Eucharistic adoration, pray the Rosary, and reach out to the poor and needy, who do us a favor by cutting through the pretense that so easily creeps into our lives.
Through the intercession of Blessed Michael McGivney, may we be, as he was, credible witnesses to the Lord of love and life, to whom be glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving – now and forever. Amen.