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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By + George Pell We now know that the universe is immense and has been expanding, probably for 18 billion years. Most scientists believe it began with the big bang; a fact which some of them, including Einstein, were reluctant to accept because it strengthened the case for a Creator God. The alternative is that the universe has always existed. Our planet is like a grain of sand on the beach of the universe; there are billions of stars like our sun. No wonder the Old Testament psalmist wrote "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars . . . what is man that you are mindful of him?" If we are important, it is not because of our size! The second puzzle is religious. Over thousands of years of civilization and human history there have been billions of individuals, most of them closed off from one another by different languages, the absence of modern means of communication and different cultures. Our claim is that a poor young man, crucified for his pains, who lived in a troublesome province of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, was not only a heavenly messenger but the only Son of God. What an extraordinary claim! It is nearly as strange as finding life on this tiny planet of earth. Let me spell out another puzzle for the followers of Christ, especially for those of us in the Catholic tradition who accept Catholic truth claims. We do not believe that Christianity is only a human invention, paralleled by equally good, or at least similar social constructs in other civilizations, like Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. While we believe God loves everyone and these other traditions are part of God's extended plan; we also believe that Catholic truth claims have an exclusive authority, a unique access to truth and grace. Not too many of us came to faith through adult searching, although most of us have to decide to remain; especially today, when the pressures which downgrade or sideline Christianity are so strong. Most of us were born into Catholic families and caught our religion from our parents, or perhaps our teachers. We did nothing to deserve this advantage. You might say it was the luck of the draw, or more accurately it was the mysterious workings of God's plan. God does not work only through Jews and Christians; but there is no doubt that he continues to choose a special people for himself and within these communities he calls every individual to some particular task. So we talk of vocations; God's calling which is not restricted to priests and religious. The Old Testament author today felt his people had been made glorious by their Godly calling and they expected God to take vengeance on their foes. Is there any price to be paid for these wonderful advantages? Perhaps it is not an advantage, and we would have a happier, easier life if we did not know Christ and his teaching? The unhappiness and evil around us, so often generated by sin (sometimes committed in honest ignorance) has convinced me at least that I would have been much worse off without knowing Christ. Let us agree, for the sake of the argument at least, that it is an advantage to know Christ's teaching, to know what is important on earth and in heaven. Are we simply lucky? Like winners of a lottery? How could God justify his generosity to me in being born into a Catholic family, when many other and better people were not born into families of faith? The answer comes at the end of the longer version of today's gospel, when Our Lord explains, "when a man has had a great deal given to him, a great deal will be demanded of him." In another place Jesus gave us the parable of the talents. Some receive ten talents, some five, some one or two. For Our Lord what is important is how we use the talents or blessings we have received; not whether we are champions, or in the middle of the field or disadvantaged. With the faith come added responsibilities. Those of us who know Christ, have known the strengths of Christian community, had the Church's teachings explained to us, been strengthened by other Christians, are not expected to sink to the lowest level among those who surround us. God's generosity is justified by the duties we have, that are not equally shared by unbelievers and the disadvantaged. The advantages we are describing are not simply a good upbringing in the differences between right and wrong, good moral example from our family, but the gift of faith, of believing in God's goodness and his love. Faith is not a mathematical equation, where everything is crystal clear, able to be demonstrated to the incredulous. My two examples from science and religion show this. To learn to believe in a loving environment is a marvellous start, but as adults we have to decide for ourselves. There is a dimension of unknowing, sometimes uncertainly. As Abraham headed for the Promised Land he didn't know where he was going. Sarah, being old, didn't know how she would conceive, but she did and we are part of her spiritual inheritance nearly 4000 years later. We should not be afraid of the unbelief around us, of the forces opposed to us. On many occasions Our Lord told us not to be afraid, but to do our duty as it has been taught to us. This is a requirement, not an option without consequences. Our Lord could come at any time to ask us to give an account of how we have used our gifts. Please God when that time comes, we shall have laid up treasures in the next life and not simply in this life. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
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