At first glance, the readings for mass today are very simple. There is no need to think about them more in depth. This is part of the problem with Christians of all denominations though. We pick apart the scriptures and look at them, and think about them from a thousand angles. An onion is just an onion though. It’s pretty simple. You can only dice it up so many ways. There are some other Christian denominations that will pick up a line or two of scripture and base their entire belief system and way of life on it, in the same way that a cook might pick up a single piece of diced onion.
Our Catholic Faith is a lot richer than that. It’s like a whole onion. The Catholic church is 2,014 years old and has learned a great deal about the bible and Christianity during that time. The very first Protestant church did not even exist until the year 1,593. The Catholic church existed for 1,593 years before the first Protestant church was ever formed. The oldest Protestant religion there is was only formed 400 years ago. Some denominations of Christianity have only existed for 50 years or less. There are new Protestant churches being formed every year. That one splinter that occurred 400 years ago, has now multiplied into thousands of other splinters of our Christian faith.
Before we dismiss all of the Protestant denominations though, we should realize that each one does have a splinter of the truth, but the Catholic church contains the fullness of the whole truth. The Catholic church is the whole onion, so to speak, and the Protestant denominations are pieces of this onion.
The reason this subject was brought up today, is because today’s first reading for mass talks about faith verses works. Many Protestant denominations believe that we are justified by “faith alone”. It is a sticking point between our Catholic beliefs and many Protestant denominations. Today’s scriptures spell it out pretty clear in the first reading for mass, though. Saint James wrote the entire first reading to explain why faith is useless without works. He wrote, “See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” We don’t have to be a theologian to understand this. To struggle any further with these verses in scripture is to discount a saint’s words and we are not saints.
Saint James knew what he was talking about. Sometimes an onion is just an onion. He said “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?”
Catholics sometimes take the scriptures out of context too, especially when it comes to embracing our crosses. Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Catholics historically have taken the meaning of this verse to the extreme, and have applied it to far too many circumstances in life. Not every negative thing that comes along in our lives should just be accepted as “our cross”. Far too many Catholics believe this about situations that could be addressed and dealt with, in order to help bring about a better outcome. Many would rather than resign themselves to the fact that nothing can be done about the situation, embrace this cross in their lives and just live with it.
This is wrong. The cross actually demonstrates “doing something about it”. God didn’t resign himself to mankind’s sins. He sent his son into the world as a remedy for this situation. Jesus also didn’t resign himself to the negativity and self righteous judgement from the Pharisees, embrace this cross and do what they wanted in order to “keep the peace”. Jesus willingly took on the cross for the salvation of mankind. The cross is not a passive thing. The cross is when we embrace and engage life and it’s problems by doing something about them. Resignation is passive. The cross was a conscience choice that Jesus made, to act in accordance with his Father’s will, out of love for us and for our salvation.
To take up your cross and follow in Christ’s footsteps, is to act in accordance with God’s will. The cross itself may have been passive, but many generations of people acted according to God’s will for their lives for this to happen. They didn’t sit on the sidelines, but actively engaged life and did God’s will. Jesus was born from King David’s lineage and Jesus’ entire life from the moment of his conception, led up to the final moment of passivity on the cross. Time stood still only for a brief moment during Christ’s dying process on the cross. He was busy paying the price for our sins, even then.
This is what we could take with us about today’s readings for mass. Love in action is a beautiful thing. It engages life, and creates a better world for all of us to live in.
Daily Mass Readings:
Jas 2: 14-24, 26 / Ps 112: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 / Mk 8: 27-33
