Catholic and Enjoying It!
Here is one of the highlights, his speech to the World Meeting of Families. What a lovely man:
Had an interesting conversation with Sherry Weddell on “Connecting the Dots” last week and she remarked that Francis’ peculiar gift from the Holy Spirit seems to be a charism for building bridges of trust (as a Pontifex should be expected to do).
That really seems to sum up what Francis did and did extremely well. The fruit is popping out all over. And the fruit is, as it should be, a bridge of trust toward Christ.
It’s not, of course, the end of the story. Trust is just a very beginning stage. As Sherry has pointed out, people on the way to intentional discipleship typically pass through five stages and trust is only the start. Spiritual curiosity, openness, and seeking all come next before a follower really arrives at intentional discipleship to Jesus Christ.
Initial trust
In the parable of the sower (Mt 13:3-23), Jesus stresses the liberality of God’s grace. God, like the sower in ancient Near Eastern agriculture “broadcasts” his seed, flinging it far and wide and with no concern about focus-grouping or efficiency or target audiences. Some of the seed lands on good soil, some does not. As Jesus says, God “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:45-46). Likewise, Jesus was indiscriminate in his willingness to associate with anybody — friend, foe, rich, poor, Jew, Gentile, man, woman, young, old. We are likewise called to be generous and consistent in love in the hope that in imitating Christ, we too will fling the seed of the word far and wide.
Spiritual curiosity
The initial trust inspired by the encounter with Christians living lives of consistent and generous authenticity often leads one to spiritual curiosity. In a two-faced world where people so often make everything, including the things of God, a means for exploiting others, Christians of generosity and integrity can arouse profound curiosity. As Weddell says, “When we live lives that are inexplicable apart from the grace and power of the Gospel, we will often find that curiosity is sparked among people who were formerly hostile to the Faith. To be a witness does not consist in engaging propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.”
We see this as the “initial trust” response of the crowds to Jesus’ preaching — “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mk 1:22) — ripens into the spiritual curiosity: “Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?” (Lk 8:25).
Spiritual openness
To those who were spiritually open, Jesus is often very direct. The early disciples in John’s Gospel receive the essence of Jesus’ invitation: “Come, and you will see” (John 1:39).
The paradox of Jesus’ call is that it is wide open to anybody, but minces no words about the fact that the Gospel to which we open ourselves is going to make profound demands upon us. We will be asked to love him more than father, mother, wife, husband, children, brothers, sisters and, indeed, our very lives (Lk 14:26). He warns us to “calculate the cost” (Lk 14:28), to beware of letting the cares of this world choke the seed of the word (cf. Mt 13:22), to not put our hand to the plow and look back (cf. Lk 9:62). To the mere dilettante rich young man, he issues the challenge to sell all he has, give to the poor and then follow him (cf. Mt 19:16-30).
Again and again, Jesus pays the spiritually open person the supreme compliment of being absolutely straight with him about the fact that the life of a disciple of Christ will require everything of him or her. And the response is, as history demonstrates, volcanic. Nobody is ever bored by Jesus — galvanized, thrilled, passionately devoted, repelled, terrified, offended, but never bored. The real call to Christian discipleship always has that effect.
Spiritual seeking
The great watchword of the spiritual seeker is summed up in Christ’s great instruction, “Seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you” (Mt 6:33). The seeker is abandoning the false notion that God stands in the way of freedom and happiness, and realizing that God is the good he or she has sought all his life in his pursuit of the shadows and copies of beauty that are mere earthly beauties.
He or she is turning away from idols and coming to see the goods of this world as sacramentals pointing to God, not as ends in themselves. Like John the Baptist, he is asking “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Lk 7:20). And he now is expecting an answer from God.
Intentional discipleship
The intentional disciple has made a searching and deliberate act of the will to follow Jesus. It is as far from passivity, indifference, cultural Catholicism or vague and formless pop “spirituality” as you can get. The intentional disciple is now actively cultivating the habit of subordinating all his needs, wants, desires, plans and earthly loves to the God who is love, incarnate, crucified and risen in the person of Jesus Christ. Like Thomas, confronted with the risen Christ, his response is “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). Like the disciples on the Emmaus road, the intentional disciple’s heart burns within him (cf. Lk 24:32). Like Paul, the intentional disciple cries, “For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:14-15).
It will be up to us, not the Pope, to help people through these stages. But it’s still a good start.
I’m grateful to God for the gift of this Pope through Christ our Lord.
Oh, and if you haven’t read it yet, do check out Forming Intentional Disciples.
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