George Carlin once made an interesting commentary on why he turned from his Catholic faith. He in his usual humor style cited his understanding of an angry God who was also vengeful, ready to cast us into Hell for the slightest infraction, but did it because He loves us.

Unfortunately, many people, like Carlin, embraced this concept of God. However, it is a concept that is millenia from the truth. Today’s second reading from Hebrews highlights this.

We are looking at two understandings of Salvation. First, that concept that was not far from Carlin’s that rooted itself in the law. Here we see a strict comprehension of our relationship with God who develops a discipline among His followers that essentially let them know that He is God and we are not.

What we are seeing is that harsh concept opened the door for people to turn to God under the force of the law. Today, we have evolved in our faith through Jesus and now what has happened is that this first discipline of God turned us away from the world and to the Kingdom of God. It was a strict time in order that we would not follow our desires or the enslaving philosophies of others to go out into the harsh wilderness of disaster. Instead, God led us to the Kingdom in Jesus Christ. Now our salvation is through Jesus. What this means is that all our efforts to save ourselves are for naught. Instead, we respond to Christ, who saves us and He it is who enlightens us with His wisdom and leads us to the Kingdom. Here is the problem. If we turn from Christ, then we, like before, turn to the wilderness that seeks only our destruction. The result is the same.

These are important words for us, because in our Church right now we are going through a battle that is highlighted in these concepts.

We have a battle between people who use an ancient form of teaching rooted in Hell and fire and brimstone in order to lead us to live moral lives. We have another who call us to live our lives as we feel is best and to reject the old fire and brimstone ideas. The problem is that both approaches are wrong.

St. Paul repeatedly warned against living our faith based on the law. He was referring to the Jewish law, but living our faith based on any form of law and punishment is going to make you a slave to it. You will transform yourself to follow the law out of fear of punishment and will fail miserably and then fall into discouragement. Finally you will abandon the whole enterprise. Remember, there is no being in the world more legalistic than the Devil, any exorcist will tell you that.

The author of Hebrews would warn us to instead to focus on Christ. We bring our realities to Christ and call Him to transform us. We bring to Him our faults and failings and ask Him to transform us. We experience His love and mercy in our lives and in the lives of those around us. This is a totally different focus and it is the one that Christ calls us to.

The root of this is understanding not only that Christ is our king and we are his subjects, but that Christ is the one who infuses us with His wisdom and love. If we follow him we grow into his way of holiness, however, if we reject Him, we are on his own.

The best example of this is in Psalm 23, though I walk through the Valley of Death, I fear no evil for you are with me with your rod and your staff. If you turn from Christ where are you, in the Valley of Death. If you listen to anyone but Christ, where will they lead you? into the valley of death. What do you find in the Valley of death? Death! Hence the name.

We can see this battle happen around us on several fronts. The most common form is through ordained and laity preaching that Catholics who do not make their voice heard in the political sphere are going to Hell. This country, they will tell you, is embracing policies that reject Christ. Honestly, our culture is clearly doing that and is doing that openly. However, the problem is not the policies the country embraces; it is that our culture has rejected Christ. The policies and laws are the symptoms of the real problem, turning from Christ. Remember if we are following him through the Valley of Death and we turn from Him, we are then in the Valley of Death on our own. Anyone who is with us is also just as much vulnerable to the wiles in the valley of death as we are.

What is our response. Make our voice be heard in the political sphere? Obviously, in our democracy that is always an option, but if we are not embracing Christ and leading people to Him, then I am not so sure beating people over the head with our morality is the right thing to do or even the appropriate thing to do.

The problems and issues in our culture come from rejecting Christ, the solution is to embrace Christ and that is only done when we choose to live Christ.

The writer in Hebrews calls us to do that by deepening our relationship with Christ. That is always our task. It is also our call at Baptism to evangelize others and to evangelize the culture. We do that by living our faith at an evangelical level. We live our faith as Christ calls us and we respond to Him. We live our vocation and we respond to Him. This is our call as Christians.

You may never be able to change the wave of secularism that is coming over our country, but you can change the hearts of those around us. You do that by living your faith. You pick up your cross and follow Christ, staying close to the sacraments and being people who not only pray, but express the fruit of their prayer in their lives.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J. Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog.

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Bottom: Canção Nova