There is a pretty hard sentence written by Saint Paul in his second epistle to the Thessalonians. He says that we should “shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the Tradition.” So many people don’t want to take that sort of advice. Using the example of Jesus eating and drinking with sinners, they justify any relationship regardless of the effects it has on their lives. So how do we understand this? How do we apply this to our lives? In order to do so, we need to talk about covenant relationships. Marriage. Bride and groom.
When I first got married to Julie, I had an online friend named Jill. Jill and I had been friends for quite some time. She had met someone in Chicago that knew Julie. Jill called me up and asked me to come over to hang out with all of them, but informed me that I couldn’t bring Julie. I was kind of floored. This was my wife she was talking about. I told her that wasn’t how life worked, that wasn’t how marriage worked! Julie is a part of me, she is my better half (in every way.) I told her that if she wanted me around, then Julie had to be a part of that. Jill hasn’t spoken to me since. Our friendship ended that day.
This is an example of what Paul is talking about. We are in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. The Sacred Scriptures express that as a marriage. He is the groom, we are the bride. Our relationships with others should reflect this. Jesus is a part of our lives. That should be evident. That should not change based on who we are around and what we are doing. We should be taking Him with us everywhere we go and only doing things that are appropriate for ‘married’ individuals. That means our very actions should have the integrity of one in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We should look like Christians, we should act like Christians. St. Paul tells us that means we should be following the Traditions that were handed to us by the Apostles.
Jesus warns us, in very graphic language, in today’s Gospel of the state of our souls when we don’t really change. It’s supposed to be an internal change, not just an external one. A popular song calls it “going through the motions.” We should go through the motions, but not only through them, but let them inform what we believe. Let what we believe also inform our mind to the meaning of the motions. In the theological world, we say “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi.” That fancy Latin phrase just means that how we pray influences what we believe, and what we believe should influence how we live, and so forth. Simply put: we should look like Catholics, act like Catholics, talk like Catholics, and pray like Catholics. Not just on the outside, but inside as well!
What it also means is that if we find something or someone who is hampering us from being who we are called to be, sometimes that means cutting them out of our lives. That’s not a popular message in today’s society where everyone wants to say “I have my truth, and you have yours.” Rather, we want God’s truth and only God’s truth. It’s not easy to do that. The simple fact is if we truly love God with all our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls… then we would do whatever it takes to draw closer to Him. Anything less is just going through the motions.
A reflection on the readings for Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time: August 26, 2020