Jesus said in today’s gospel, “Remain in me as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”
We have so many choices today, when it comes to religion. Society treats religion like a grocery store. We can simply walk through the aisles and examine all the different kinds of spiritual foods, until we find one that appeals to us. If you don’t want this element, or that element of religion that’s ok, because you can look for a religion that offers you the things that you personally believe in. Religion has become a personal choice, based on your own individual preferences. If you don’t like one, then try another until you find the right one that fits with your personal beliefs.
For many people, the truth is based upon what we think, or want, or it’s based on our own life experiences, or point of view. Our personal truth can be one thing when we are a teenager or young adult, and change when we get married, or start raising a family. It can change again if our marriage ends, a child reveals that they have same sex attraction, or a teenage daughter tells her parents she is pregnant. Also, in many protestant religions, if a congregation doesn’t particularly like their pastor’s sermons, they can fire him and get another one that they like better.
Is there really such a thing as truth? Or is everything subjective to our own opinions?
King Henry couldn’t accept the fact the Catholic church would not grant him an annulment, so he split off and formed his own religion so he could get a divorce and remarry. However, King Henry still wasn’t satisfied with his second wife and went on to marry a total of six wives. He committed adultery against the first wife and had two of his wives beheaded. An entire religion was founded on him though. What kind of foundation was this?
Martin Luther was rightfully upset with the church over the paid indulgences. If he had stayed in the Catholic church and fought for the right thing though, instead of leaving and forming his own church, he would have been canonized a saint in the Catholic church today. Instead, he left, formed his own religion, and removed seven books of our bible that he did not personally agree with.
This leads us into today’s first reading for mass today. There was a major disagreement in the early church, when the new Christians who used to be Jews, thought that the Gentiles should be circumcised too, if they wanted to be followers of Christ. This was a major rift and it wasn’t easily resolved. The Apostles and presbyters of the church met to decide the matter. In tomorrow’s reading for Mass, this matter was decided by the leadership of the early Christian church – and the people accepted it. Acceptance is the key to remaining in the truth of Jesus Christ and his holy church.
Pride is the root that causes many people to leave the church and pursue their own personal beliefs. Women disagree that they can not be priests, so they leave and become a protestant minister instead of finding their own unique role in the Catholic church. Many leave the church after they get a divorce. Those with same sex attraction leave to find a church that will marry them. Catholics who believe abortion is ok often do not leave the church, but cause much division and disunity in the Body of Christ by remaining with us, in spite of the fact they disagree with our teaching on the sanctity of life.
These are very explosive subjects, for all of us. We’ve all been affected by them. But, wouldn’t it be better if we could either agree on what we do believe, or leave it up to the leadership in the Catholic church to decide the right thing, and then accept their decision, the same way the early Christians did in today’s first reading for mass?
Pride stands in the way of the acceptance of the truth of the gospel, the deposit of faith, that the Catholic church has worked diligently to preserve for over 2,000 years. We’ve only been alive a few decades, and many churches have only existed a few decades too. Compare a few decades of this knowledge, to the 2,000 years of accumulated knowledge, study and faith that was handed down to us directly from Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
Before any of us ever run away from the Catholic church, perhaps we should look at what we are running toward. Catholics respect all religions because they contain rays of the truth. We respect those rays of Christ’s light. But if we are seeking the fullness of faith, we might re-examine ourselves to see if it is the Catholic church, or ourselves that we are running from?
Daily Mass Readings:
Acts 15: 1-6 / Psalm 122: 1-5 / John 15: 1-8
