Since his early days, John was determined to reach the top level as a football player. He trained hard, and spent many hours a day in the gym, sculpting his body to look like a top player. He kicked the ball around in his garden and learnt a variety of tricks and techniques with the ball. In all his efforts he was backed and encouraged by his parents. Eventually, he approached a football team he wanted to play with. John showed the manager his skills and tricks with the ball and impressed him rather well. John was invited to a training session with other players. That was a disaster! He wasn’t used to team-play; over-confident in his skills and self-centred, he was unable to cooperate with other players nor did he listen to the coach’s instructions. He was sent home and told the immortal ‘we’ll call you.’ He didn’t notice that nobody had asked for his phone number…
This made-up story rather imperfectly reflects a misbelief which is surprisingly common among some Catholics. It’s surprising because it’s not grounded in the Scriptures and with some variants, it edges on contradicting the word of God. The parable in today’s gospel might be particularly harsh to listen because it doesn’t leave much room for misinterpretation. When we look closer at the scene of the final judgment we see that the only benchmark is practical, compassionate, charitable love of neighbour, demonstrated in various active forms: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink…’ and so on. There are no queries regarding ethnicity, nationality, political views, religious beliefs or practices or affiliation. At the end of the day, nothing else matters. That’s what makes some of our fellow believers cringe because it looks like I reject religious practices as unimportant and insignificant. Which would be particularly weird as I preside over many of them. Please rest assured that I neither deny nor downplay religious practices; on the contrary, I believe they play an indispensably vital role.
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’ was Jesus’ opening salvo at the beginning of his public ministry as testified by St Matthew (4:17). Often, we understand ‘repentance’ as a one-off act of turning from evil to good; which can be true as an initial first step towards full repentance. What do I mean? The clue is in the meaning of the original Greek word metanoia which can be descriptively translated as changing your mindset or in other words, the way you think, perceive and interpret the world around you. Understood in this way, repentance is a life-long project, a process that should never stop. When it does stop, it goes into a gradual, initially imperceptible reversal. Religious practices play a vital role in supporting our personal and spiritual development. By the sacrament of baptism, each one of us got an exclusive membership of the best spiritual gym in the world, offering the best spiritual equipment, namely the Catholic Church. The Eucharist is the best food supplement, the sacrament of Confirmation provides the best personal trainer, the Holy Spirit. The sacrament of Reconciliation is our best spiritual physio when we hurt ourselves and others, while the sacrament of the Sick strengthens us when we become weak. The sacrament of Matrimony teaches us teamwork, while the sacrament of Orders (priesthood) gives us support team members. But attending this spiritual gym is not an end in itself. It serves the second part of Jesus’ manifesto: ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’
‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For the kingdom of God is among you.’ (Luke 17:20-21) The entire New Testament essentially teaches that we love God and His commandments by loving our neighbour. This is the way Jesus ‘might present to the immensity of [God’s] majesty an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.’ Being a Catholic provides us with the best spiritual environment to grow in faith that the kingdom of God is possible; to grow in hope that the kingdom of God will be realised among us; to grow in love to make the kingdom of God present. ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.’ (John 13:34-35)
Image by Sabine Mondestin from Pixabay