22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time- Sunday, 30th August 2015
‘Living witnesses to a living faith’ – Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
During the recent summer festival I spoke with a visitor, he was probably in his late thirties or early forties. He was Irish and had been raised a Catholic. He had received all the sacraments of initiation, baptism, eucharist and confirmation. As a child he had gone to Mass with his parents every Sunday but had given that up as a teenager. He had never been to a Youth 2000 event before and he was truly surprised by what he experienced. he said to me that for the first time in his life he had realised that Catholicism is a religion.
Up until the summer festival he tended to see Catholicism as some kind of a cultural expression of Irishness. He never saw it as anything to do with God and a relationship with a living God. His basic understanding of Irish Catholicism was as a power struggle between the Church and the state, between the future and the past, between progress and the forces of the Church wanting to keep society in the dark ages. There was no concept whatsoever of the offer of life in Christ, the joy of the Gospel and the basic reality of being loved. I was amazed as he spoke with me. Image being a Catholic and not realising it had anything to do with the divine reality that is Jesus and his offer of life and joy!
I think we see the same dynamic in this Sunday’s Gospel. Religion is seen as some formal acts but without any life. It is in some sense seen as being cultural. Jesus calls all of us to a deeper appreciation of our faith. It is not about winning this cultural battle or other, it is not about this or that referendum. Our faith is about living life with Christ, it is about experiencing his divine love for us, freeing us from a false sense of ourselves and being transformed into the person God has called us to be.
Your example of living faith during the summer festival was a living testimony to that young man, witnessing to him that the Christian faith is not about rules and regulations but about having a relationship with the living God in Christ Jesus. I bet you didn’t even know what a powerful witness you were giving to Christ!
Fr. John Harris OP