Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Intuitively, we believe that it is important for the church, and especially for our witness to Christ, that we make use of contemporary culture for witnessing to Christ. We know that different people like different kinds of music, for example, and so our parish has masses that make use of a variety of musical styles in order to help people worship. Other, more controversial topics relate to this too: use of medical technology at the end of life, birth control, gay marriage.
At heart, the basic question is how to let Jesus speak in peoples’ own languages and customs so that they find a genuine relationship with him, and yet how to maintain the tradition Jesus himself handed on to his apostles. Today’s scriptures ask us to consider this question carefully.
The first reading (Second John 4-9) is addressed to a “Lady” and her children, which Biblical scholars typically see as referring to a Christian community. This letter of John’s is concerned with conflict in church teaching: there are those who see themselves as so “progressive” that they deny that Jesus came to earth as a real human being. John admonishes the community, though, to hold on to what the apostles have handed down, namely that Jesus is a real human being and through him, we can know God the Father. In doing so, they will maintain unity with his own community.
The Gospel reading (Luke 17:26-37) shows people who are concerned with the “wrong” kinds of traditions and so miss the importance of Jesus. They live “business as usual” but even their happy business is full of anger and chaos. If we were to look at the original text of Noah and the flood that Jesus mentions here, for instance, we would find that the people in Noah’s time were violent and wicked, according to God (Genesis 6). Ultimately, Jesus says pretty starkly that our own “traditions” that make reference only to us and our happiness, without reference to what Jesus might be doing in our lives, won’t be sufficient for life with God.
The common feature in both of these is the need to focus on the person of Jesus: there should not be empty tradition without first knowing whether that tradition stands up to the mystery and truth of Jesus. There should likewise not be meaningless “progressiveness” unless it, too, can stand up to the mystery and truth of Jesus. How can we know which is which? Jesus suggests that in this life, we may not actually fully know: the vultures will be right there beside the Body of Christ; of two seemingly identical workers, one will be left behind and the other will see Jesus.
So Christians go with what we know and we do the best we can with the rest, always testing this with Jesus. We know that Jesus said Peter was the rock on which his church would be built and that we therefore believe he is the first pope; we know that the scriptures and sacraments we have are handed down to us from the earliest Christian traditions. We also know that Jesus tended to mess with mere human “traditions” and assumptions about the poor, women, and others. So, we live in tension, always seeking to be faithful.
Today, let us focus on the ways Jesus is calling us to a traditional, yet progressive, faithfulness and love of him.
- Jana M. Bennett