25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – September 22, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Psalm 54:3-6, 8; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9:30-37

The Formation We Receive

As we’ve been taking this deeper dive into the Bible over the past several weeks, one thing that I’ve mentioned before (and that I want to go a little deeper into today) is the important of stories. Back when we began this journey through the Bible I brought up how stories shape us, form us. 

What stories do—what they do is they begin to give us a set of lenses, glasses (I’ve used this image before)—the way that we see the world—we see the world through a set of lenses, we interpret the world and we interpret all of reality, we interpret (whether something is good or bad), through these lenses that we’ve been given—typically through stories. And we’re usually not conscious of what those stories are. We just see the world how we see the world.

Just a couple examples to jog your memory—some of the stories that we tell ourselves is the story of “romance”: that if I finally find the love of my life, my life will finally be complete and I will finally be happy. We tell ourselves the story of “achievement”: that if I finally get X, Y and Z degree and get X,Y and Z job, and you know accomplish whatever in my career—or my kids, I help my kids accomplish whatever in their career (state titles, college, whatever it may be), if we finally win three Super Bowls in a row (let’s go Chiefs!)—then I will be happy! That’s all I need. It’s “consumerism”—it’s a story of consumerism: if I have enough stuff, if I finally get a new truck, if I finally get whatever, then I’m going to be happy. And it’s not that any of these things are horrible, awful, terrible sins or something. But when we begin to see the world exclusively through these stories, these lenses, it easily leads us to wreck our life. I’ve given you all of those examples: people that get it all (romance, achievements, stuff)…and they’re still unhappy.

Spiritual Formation: We All Undergo It

This is the moment in life that we feel betrayed, that we begin to get very cynical. Why? Because our entire life, everything in life, our parents, teachers, friends—they’ve told us these stories, they’ve formed us with these stories; they’ve encouraged us, helped us, made sacrifices for us to live out these stories–and we still end up with that feeling of, “There has to be something more. This doesn’t cut it.”

In other words, the formation, the “spiritual formation” that we received throughout our life has been, at the least, incomplete, or, at the most, downright harmful. And spiritual formation isn’t a religious thing or a Christian thing—it’s just a human thing. What I mean by “spiritual formation” isn’t just learning facts or teachings about a certain religion, beginning to pray the Rosary, or to do meditation, no. I just mean our development into this or that kind of person, the formation of our human spirit. And so every human is being spiritually formed all the time. The science is even showing us that while you’re in your mother’s womb, before you’re even born, you are already being formed: psychologically, emotionally, relationally—while you’re still in the womb! In other words, since before you took your first breath—consciously and unconsciously you have been being spiritual formed, formed into the person you are today. Again, what I mean is that Mother Teresa was the product of spiritual formation, and so was Adolf Hitler. We are all the product of our spiritual formation—again, not religious affiliation, or formation in religious ed, no; just baseline, personal spiritual formation. Spiritual formation happens over our whole life due to a million different factors: genetics, family of origin, childhood experiences, education, habits, decisions, relationships, environments. We have all been, we all are, we all will be spiritually formed. Spiritual formation is not optional.

Ok. The issue I’m getting at, though, is this: most of our spiritual formation is unintentional.Let me say that again: the issue, and the issue we need to clue in on today, is that most of our spiritual formation, the formation that has made you and me the people we are today, has been unintentional. No one plans to become a bitter, or angry, or greedy, or impatient person. No one plans to become judgmental, or fearful, or anxious or depressed. No one saw that commercial and signed up, you know, “For only $19.99 a month, you can become a bitter person!” No! No, it just happens—“just” because of how we’ve been formed, spiritually formed.

So what are the factors? What forms a person into the person they are? What are some of those factors that spiritually form, or deform us? All of us have undergone and are undergoing an unintentional spiritual formation through: our habits, our relationships, the environment, the stories we believe, time, and experience. Habits is easy: what we do on a regular basis changes us, whether that’s exercise, reading, eating, worrying—that forms us. Our relationships are also big: we become like the people we spend our time with. Think about your family and friends: odds are, you talk like them, act like them, spend money like them. The environment shapes us: our hometown, our religion, our customs and cultural values. And in this day and age, we have our physical environment, but then our online environment. The stories we believe, then—God wired the human brain to search for meaning, and to form that into a story. Every day, we are exposed to those stories that tell us what the good life is, what will make us happy, what life is all about, what we should do with our life. Again, the common stories now are romance, achievement, consumerism. These stories, and the stories we choose to live by, form us and shape us into the person we become. And then, all of this happen across time and through a billion experiences. And through all of this, the question is not, “Are you becoming someone?” But, “Who or what are you becoming?” All of us are undergoing “spiritual formation.”

Spiritual Formation with Jesus

Ok. So then here it is. For those of us who desire to become formed into the image of Jesus Christ—which, since you’re sitting here today, you probably have at least some desire to be—if we want to become more and more like Jesus, we have to make a fundamental shift. And that is this: we have to shift from unintentional spiritual formation, this formation that just happens, to an intentional spiritual formation. From unintentional to intentional spiritual formation. We have all been de-formed throughout life (by sin, shame, habits, stories)—and so our intentional spiritual formation will be a counter-formation. It will have to be thoughtful, intentional, and conscious in order to counteract the many forces that have de-formed us throughout life.

This is why Jesus invites people to follow him. We heard this last week: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35). Over and over, Jesus invites us to allow him to form us. I mean, we even heard in the Gospel today that while they were “on the way,” Jesus continued “to teach” the disciples. And that word for “teach” isn’t just lecture, or get them ready for an exam, no. It is about forming them, shaping them.

So what does that look like? Well, thanks be to God, that what our faith helps us to do. We just have to be much more conscious about it, engage it, embrace it. For those habits, we need certain practices to counter our formation: habits like prayer, fasting, almsgiving (sound familiar?). For our relationships, we need community in particular the Christian community (notice, Jesus called a community of disciples, not just one). For our environment, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to take charge. And for those stories we believe, we need the teachings of Jesus and his Church, we need to fill our mind with the truths of Jesus Christ instead of the wisdom of the world. All of this will happen over time, it’s not something that happens overnight. And it will involve suffering. Yeah. The key to remember is this: We are going to be formed. Will we consciously be formed by Jesus, or allow the world around us to continue to form us?

So in particular, those stories: If the stories we believe are forming us, if we’re being formed more so by cultural narratives that come to us from social media, Hollywood, educational system, more than we are being formed by the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church, how do we become more intentional about the stories we come to believe? We fill our mind with teachings, with Truth. One element of what Jesus did was to teach us to see reality correctly. Take the Gospel today—classic example. The disciples are arguing about who is the greatest—again, a classic story told to us by the world: whoever has the most money, status, education, whatever is the greatest. To this point, their “spiritual formation” has led them seek greatness through status and power. Ok. But what does Jesus do? What is his teaching? “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” And then he takes a child—a child! A child, who at that time in history, was a non-person; a child did not have any rights; a child was, legally, the same as a servant. But Jesus places a child in their midst and holds up a child as the measure of greatness. So notice: the teachings of Jesus are meant to help us to see correctly, to form us, to counteract the stories that we have been told. Jesus is spiritually forming us.

Here’s my point, my big point for the day: Jesus’ invitation to be his disciple—it involves more than just going to Mass, praying, following commandments. Jesus’ invitation to be his disciples is an invitation to engage him in a complete, life-changing, life-altering spiritual formation, a counter formation to the one that we have unintentionally allowed to shape us our whole life. And one of those ways is through changing the stories we believe. From the story of, “A person is worth more the more that they do,” to, “You are infinitely worthwhile. There are no unimportant people in the world”—you are worth just as much as Patrick Mahomes. From the story of, “Power will lead to change,” to, “Self-giving love changes the world”—think of Mother Teresa. From the story of, “This life is all there is. You do you! YOLO,” to, “The world as we know it is passing away”—St. Paul tells us this. On and on and on.

Lectio Divina: He Continues to Teach His Disciples

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “What does this have to do with the Bible?? I thought we were taking a deeper dive into the Bible!” If we are going to allow Jesus Christ to teach us, to shape us, to form us—in particular, if we’re going to allow Jesus to change the stories that we believe—like I said, we need to fill our minds with His teachings, the truths He reveals to us. And there are a lot of ways this happens: through the teachings of the Church, through the preaching you hear at Mass, through reading good books on theology, good podcasts. But one thing that I would encourage is an ancient practice called Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is just Latin for “Divine Reading,” and it’s the name of a practice of reading and praying with Scripture, with the Bible. And I’ve left some nice guides out beneath the TV, and we’ll talk about this more.

But in Lectio Divina you take 5, 10, 15 minutes and pray with Scripture. And you allow Scripture, the truth of Scripture, the words of Jesus himself to form you and shape you. All of us listen to talking head on the news, on TikTok, on YouTube, our friends—we listen to this for hours and hours a day. And it forms us, it shapes us! We are undergoing spiritual formation all the time. The question is: am I allowing Jesus Christ to form me, to shape my thoughts, to teach me the truth? When we begin to shape our lives by different stories than the ones that have unintentionally shaped us our whole life; when we begin to allow ourselves to be shaped by the truths of the gospel, by the words of Jesus Christ, by the revelation from the One God—everything changes. Everything changes. Just as the Church calls us to this Eucharistic feast each week, She also calls us to listen and meditate and be formed by the Word of God. Maybe, just maybe, things could change if we listen to God speak to us, and allow ourselves to be formed by the story He tells us, the truth that He loving reveals to us.