Friday of the Second Week of Easter
In the past month, I’ve found myself reflecting deeply on the nature of the church and what it means to be church. The re-emerging sex abuse scandals have hit me hard, emotionally and intellectually, and they have particularly brought up tough questions like: what does it mean to be in a church that is so patently fallible and yet which claims to be Christ’s body, and an eternal institution? Good and evil, divine and human, fallible and infallible, are all intermixed: how can this be?
In today’s readings, this theme of human versus divine endeavors shining through quite strongly. In the first lesson (Acts 5:34-42), Gamaliel, a Pharisee, is making an argument to the Jewish authorities (he is actually speaking to a group that is more or less the Jewish equivalent to the Roman senate) about what to do with these followers of Jesus. Recall that in most of the Acts texts we’ve read recently, the Jewish authorities are very, very concerned about what to do with this persistent rumor that Jesus is alive. The rumors are frightening and will not be quashed. Part of what Gamaliel seems to be concerned about is that the more Jewish authorities react, the more they only add fuel to this new Christian movement. So Gamaliel suggests the opposite: in his argument he cites revolutionaries whose movements eventually died of their own accord. Gamaliel argues that this Christian movement ought to be allowed to die out, as it will if it is a human endeavor. Gamaliel is wise, though: if this is no human endeavor, but a divine act, the movement will not only not die out, it will be MUCH wiser for these Jewish authorities not to intervene.
Jesus seems to be suggesting similarly in today’s gospel (John 6:1-15). This is the famous “five loaves and two fishes” story, in which people are fed to overflowing because of God’s intervention. But when Jesus hears that the people are about to intervene themselves, and make him a king, he escapes away, alone. Human endeavors to make him a human king, cannot and must not be allowed to go forward. As we Christians know, Jesus is a different kind of king, and we cannot see this difference until we come to know of Jesus’ sacrificial love at the crucifixion, and the glorious “end” to the story in his resurrection.
What, if anything, might this say about my recent reflecting on the church? It makes recall a good friend of mine whose college-aged daughter (several years ago) was struggling with whether to stay Catholic or leave. I remember that she said to her daughter, “Hold on to what is true, because the true things will keep you.” Her daughter ended up eventually getting certified as a nurse midwife and now she and her husband, along with their children, are Catholic missionaries in Haiti (even before January’s earthquake). I think she held on to what is true. What is true? God is still at work in our very human world and every so often I see glimpses of that truth: the Eucharist, the tireless work of priests and nuns and missionaries and ordinary “people in the pew” just keeping on, day after day, in the work of loving and serving God’s people well.
I think the day’s scriptures suggest: we must reject human endeavors that are typically false, sinful and unjust. We can seek God’s endeavors and hold on to what is true – for that is what will keep.
- Jana M. Bennett