Through the incarnation

We all need to make a special effort to be more specific about our faith, says James Preece

Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour? You could be forgiven for thinking that the idea of personal faith belongs to Evangelical Protestants and Depeche Mode. Your own personal Jesus, someone to hear your prayers, someone who cares. Catholics, you may think, don’t really go in for that kind of thing. Especially not traditional ones.

Catholics seem to be more about institutions, rituals and outward appearances. The most important thing is to be a member of the correct Church and go to the correct Mass (in the correct language of course) and tick the right boxes. Gotta tick those boxes. The great thing about rules is finding a way to be technically righteous without having to be actually righteous. Prayer is nice I’m sure but… Why do I need to talk to God when I can get a Priest to do it for me?

I’m kidding of course, but this idea of traditional Catholicism as a ‘Revenge of the Sith’ Pharisee comeback is quite common. I once heard a homily where the Priest explained that Jesus had got rid of the Pharisees but in the Middle Ages the Pharisees ‘got back in again’ – fortunately, he explained, the Second Vatican Council kicked them back out. Not the same literal Pharisees you understand, he’s talking about metaphorical Pharisees. It’s code for ‘people who want the Church to uphold some teaching I disagree with’.

Our Lord’s problem with the Pharisees of course wasn’t that they followed the Old Testament law. God gave Moses the law and following it was quite obviously what people were supposed to do No, His problem with the Pharisees was that they followed the literal letter of the law where they had to but took full advantage of any loopholes to live however they wanted. They didn’t actually love God. They had found a way to ‘play the system’ to their own advantage.

I’m sure some traditional Catholics fall into this way of thinking, but it ’s a problem that goes way beyond traditional Catholicism. We’ve all got lapsed relatives who say things like, ‘I’m sure if God loves me so much He won’t mind if I skip Mass’ – a kind of novus Phariseeism – a plan to get into heaven on a technicality while essentially being free to do whatever I like.

Before we get too smug, we should remember how high the bar is set. Let’s say you have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries and knowledge, have the faith to move mountains, give away all of your goods to feed the poor and give up your body to be burned. St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has news for you: If you do all that stuff but have not love, you a re nothing.

So, it ’s all well and good saying, ‘if God loves me, He’ll let me in to heaven,’ but the more relevant question is going to be – do you love God?

You may be tempted to answer in the affirmative, but don’t be so hasty. What does it even mean to love an infinite, all powerful, omnipotent God? How ca n you love a God you ca n barely even comprehend? That is why the traditional follow up question is - do you know God? Fortunately, Our Lord did not remain in the abstract. Through the incarnation God became man - or rather, one specific man: Jesus Christ who told us, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’.

It’s interesting to notice this pattern of God’s action in the world. God never seems content to remain general but always more specific, individual, personal.

Hearing about a man who lived 2000 years ago could seem a bit remote – so the next question becomes, ‘Do you love your neighbour? If you do not love your brother who you ca n see, how ca n you love God who you cannot see?’ See how it gets ever more specific? It’s not enough to love ‘people’; you have to love the person in front of you.

So, I think we all need to make a special effort to be more specific about our faith. It’s good that you care about the poor, but what about that guy who is always begging outside the local corner shop? It’s good that you want to do something for the young people in the parish, but do you know their names? It’s good that I want to evangelise but it would help if I actually told some specific person something specific about Jesus. You get the idea. But it ’s ha rd. Well yes, there is that. Sorr y. Did you think getting to heaven was going to be easy?