James, from our second reading today, asks a question that unfortunately needs to be asked in every generation.
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
James gives us a place to start:
Beloved: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.
Conflict and division come from the disordering of our thoughts, desires, passions, words, and actions. There is something a bit off kilter with us. This disorder or dis-orientation is caused when we choose our self over God. Turning in upon ourselves, saying we are the center of the universe and all is to revolve around us comes from the condition of Original Sin which weakens and wounds our human nature. This condition is made worse by the belief that we can save ourselves.
We seek the truth, to be happy, and to be fulfilled but we follow false promises, substitutes, and apparent goods that appeal to our egotism, our pride, and our fear. St Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth century Dominican doctor of the Church, categorizes four substitutes or temptations that lead us astray from our proper orientation to God:
Pleasure, Wealth, Power and Honor
In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these, but when we make any or all of them into an idol, our primary focus, when we pursue them to provide our stability, satisfaction and fulfillment, we will be led astray.
Pleasure feels good and it brings us instant gratification. The problem is that once the external agent or stimulus of the pleasure ends, so does the experience, and it leaves us empty and wanting more.
Wealth promises us that if we just have enough money, we can get whatever we want, do whatever we want, we believe that we can also be safe and secure. But again, we will still experience that deep hunger within us that cannot be fed by that which is finite or material.
Power offers the promise of access, of controlling the unpredictability of life’s challenges, yet, as the Catholic historian and moralist, Lord Acton, wrote: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Honor, closely linked with power, we see played out in our present day through the cult of celebrity that is sown into the very fabric of our society. So many seek their fifteen minutes of fame, too many not caring how they can get it.
We witness the Apostles in today’s Gospel, the closest to Jesus and his teaching, falling for the temptations of power and honor as they argue among themselves who is to be the greatest among them. The deeper sadness of their debate is that they are engaged in it just after Jesus has explained to them that he will be handed over and killed. The Apostles are so ensnared in the hierarchical structure of the society of their time that they fail to have the empathy and compassion to be present to Jesus as he shares with them his horrific fate.
We witness time and again, from the ancient times to today, the effects of Original Sin. The English convert to Catholicism, GK Chesterton, wrote that, “original sin… is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” (Orthodoxy). We can see it in the streets, we in the news, as well as looking back at us in the mirror, for we too fall into indifference, lack of empathy, and resist slowing down enough to be present and accompany others.
We perpetuate the condition of Original Sin when we choose to put ourselves in the center where God belongs. We must resist its lure and acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves, we cannot find happiness, security, joy and/or fulfillment in any finite or material pursuit. While at the same time, we can also acknowledge that even though Original Sin is real, even though we have been wounded and battered by its effects, we have not been overcome, we are not totally corrupt or destroyed by it.
We have been created good by God, and the embers of that goodness remain in each and every one of us. Even if the embers are only a smolder, they are just awaiting to be stoked and set ablaze. God has created us as a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and each other and this is true for the atheist and the mystic alike.
The antidote to the poison of Original Sin is Jesus the Christ. He, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. In our Baptism, we are cleansed from this condition of Original Sin and are indelibly marked, we are conformed to the very being of Jesus. We become part of his Body.
Yet, while freed from the bondage of Original Sin by our Baptism, we are still tempted to return to the place of our slavery, like the Hebrew slaves yearning for Egypt, like Lot’s wife looking back to Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to keep our eyes focused on looking ahead, to that which is above. Jesus shares with his Apostles in today’s Gospel that we are to turn the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, power, and honor on its head when he states that: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Only a relationship with God will bring us happiness and fulfillment.
We begin our path of walking as disciples by becoming like the small child that Jesus brought into their midst. The child in ancient Palestine was nothing. He had no status, no significance, no wealth, power, or honor. Each child was completely dependent on their parents. This is to be our starting point in being a disciple. We need to reject the notion outright that we can heal ourselves and admit that we need Jesus to restore us to our relationship with our Father and place our sole dependence in him for everything. God, not self, is to be our end goal.
As James wrote, “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”
May we receive and live by this wisdom from God and accompany one another as we seek to deepen our journey with Jesus. May we be willing to serve, to give of our time, talent and treasure to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth. May we be willing to seek out and invite others to share in our journey, so that we can feel support and encouragement and realize that we do not have to walk alone. May we be open to pray to the one who created us, read the Bible and ponder on the living word of God, and experience the lives of those who have walked before us in their encounters with God, and read the lives of the saints, those who are now where we seek to one day be! May we participate regularly in the sacraments, our deepest encounters with Jesus this side of heaven.
We are one Body in Christ. All of us seek happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in our lives, to belong and to be a part of something greater than ourselves. This is who God has created us to be. St Augustine realized this when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O God, and we are restless until we rest in you.” It is never too late to come to realize that God loves us more than we can ever mess up and more than we can ever imagine. God is our hope, our ultimate goal, and the answer to our deepest desire.
Let us renounce all jealousy, fear, pride, and selfish ambition, and instead surrender our hearts, minds and souls to Jesus in our time of meditation, prayer, service, in his very real presence in the Eucharist celebrated today at Mass, so to be forgiven, healed, renewed, reconnected, and in so doing, find the fulfillment we have been created for.
Once we receive and experience God’s unconditional love, may the embers of our soul ignite with the flame of his love such that we can recognize and distinguish between the voice and enticement of the enemy who seeks to destroy us and the voice of the Good Shepherd who seeks to give us life and life to the full. For in experiencing the life of Jesus, we experience the infinite we have been created for.
Photo: Sometimes taking the time to get outside and look up and beyond helps us to get in touch with the reality that we are physical as well as spiritual beings, not either/or but both/and.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 