20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – October 27, 204

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126:1-6; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

The Church (Revisited)

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been taking a dive into this simple phrase—simple, yet profound phrase. Every week we stand up and say, “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” But what does that mean? As we’ve talked, “church” is more than just a building, or an event that we can attend on the weekend, or different flavors of Jesus lovin’ people. The Church (capital “t” capital “c,” The Church) is one, holy, catholic and apostolic—what we call the “four marks” of the Church, the four “essential features of the Church and her mission” (CCC 811). The Church is ONE: in other words, it is the one people of God that live in this new covenant, this marriage bond with God; Jesus is the bridegroom, we are the bride. And just like in marriage “the two become one flesh,” so too the Church is the one body of Christ. The Church is also APOSTOLIC: it’s not just each one of us doing our own thing, however we see fit; it is guided and governed by the apostles and their successors; in other words, we entrust ourselves to the visible Church that is led by the successors of the apostles, the bishops. Very essential. The Church is also CATHOLIC: this word means “according to the whole,” and in the first generation of Christians this was the word they chose in order to describe the one, apostolic church that Jesus himself had founded. Why? Because other groups were living not “according to the whole” of what Jesus gave to us: some didn’t believe he was God, others didn’t believe that the Eucharist was his body and blood, others didn’t believe the bishops were true successors to the apostles. And so, in the first generation, the One, Apostolic Church said, “We are the Church that believes according to the whole of what was given to us by Jesus, we are the Catholic Church.” Ok.

Today, though, we want to look at one last mark: the Church is HOLY. The obvious critique is, “The Church clearly isn’t holy. Look around: it is full of sinners!” Today, the Church is attacked for her lack of holiness: the scandals and shortcomings of her members get plastered all over the news. But to say it very simply, we can say this: the Church is holy because Jesus is holy, but also because each and every single one of us is called to holiness, to a life of holiness.

What Is “Holiness”? What Does It Mean That Jesus Is “Holy”?

Like the other marks, the first question we have to ask is, “What does ‘holy’ mean?” Think, what comes to your mind? Usually, we think about it as some kind of moral purity, living a morally pure life. But “holy,” the word kadosh in Hebrew, hagios in Greek—“holy” means “set apart” or “unique.” That’s it. God is holy—“holy, holy, holy” as we pray—because he is utterly and totally “set apart,” totally “unique.” Do you know what the first thing to be called “holy” in the Bible is? The 7th day, the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day—that day is “holy,” set apart, unique. It’s not “morally pure,” it’s “set apart.” God’s presence is also called “holy.” Think about Moses and the burning bush: “the ground you stand on is holy,” in other words, unique, set apart. 

In the life of the Jews, there was one place that was holy, it was their Temple, the “hot spot” of God’s presence. This is where the Old Testament also helps us understand other elements of “holiness,” namely, that God’s holiness can be dangerous, but it can also be transformative and life-giving. For example, one day a priest waltzes into the Temple when he should’t, just waltzes into God’s holy presence—and he dies. It’s dangerous. But also, think of the prophet Jeremiah: he had a vision of being in the Temple, and just when he thought he was going to die, a burning coal was taken from the altar, touched to his lips—and he was given a new life, his life was transformed! So holiness is a dangerous power, but also a transformative and life-giving power. 

And this is precisely why Jesus is holy! Think about Jesus’ life. Jesus begins a ministry where he goes out and people are? Given new life, transformed, healed. Look no further than our gospel reading today: Bartimaeus is given a new life, transformed! What the Gospel writers are pointing out is that Jesus—the God-man, the very presence of God in the flesh, the same holy presence that dwelt in the Temple—from Jesus is flowing this transformative, life-giving power!

The Church is holy because Christ is holy. The Church is the body of Christ. Great! But what about us? We are “christ-ians,” little christs. But we are a mess. This, then—this is where the rubber meets the road! When people come in contact with us it should be a transformative, life-giving, healing encounter. When we go out into the world, our very presence should be the source of a transformative, life-giving, healing power. But is that what people experience? Holiness is our vocation, the call of each and every single one of us. But do we live it?

What Does Holiness Look Like?

Again, stop: usually, the idea that comes to mind when we talk about being “holy” is “moral purity,” a “puritanism.” And I’m not saying that moral purity is bad, but “holy” is so much more! Being “holy” means that what we are something unique in the world, set apart from the norm! Why? Because we were transformed and given a new life by Jesus Christ! In other words, it is about who we are. First and foremost, being holy is how we exist, how we operate.

A misconception out there is that as “The Church,” our job is to police holiness, or to stand up for holiness. In other words, our job is to police traditional Christian values, to stand up when people start tearing down these values. But here’s the thing: the days where everyone is on board (more or less) with Jesus are gone, and they’ve been gone for a while. Like I keep saying (and our bishop says), our time is an apostolic time, a time more like 2,000 years ago with the apostles than even just 100 years ago. 2,000 years ago the apostles weren’t policing and standing up for Christian values, no. They were a holy people, a unique people, a people transformed by the holiness of Jesus Christ, and living his gospel message radically and self-sacrificially.

In other words, they didn’t sit round asking the question, “How do we change them?” But, “How do we be who we are called to be?” Not, “How do we change those politics?” But, “How do we be a politic, a different people, a unique and set apart people” They didn’t ask, “How can we change the world?” They asked. “How can we be faithful to a holy, unique, set apart way of life?” Holiness was the focus, not go police and stand up for our values.

For example, even today—we can think and brainstorm with some of our values— what if racism and prejudice among groups were completely eradicated from social institutions? Or, what if abortion was abolished? What if marriage and family life were given better legal protections? What if everything were closed on Sundays? Ok: would everything finally be fixed? No. Why? Because Christians are seen spouting off racist and prejudicial things just as quickly as anyone else. According to the most recent data, America is 66% Christian, 20% Catholic—but 70% of people who get an abortion are Christian, 25% of them are Catholic. In other words, Christians and Catholics are doing more than their share of abortions. The data also says that 75% of Catholics believe abortion should be legal, at least in some cases. Take family life and marriage: Christians and Catholics get divorced at the exact same rate as everyone else, have broken and fatherless homes just like everyone else. And as for Sundays, think: during COVID, Christians and Catholics were more upset that football was cancelled than Masses and Sunday services. Ok. Take these examples and ask: we have a lot of values we claim to stand for, but does all of that data sound like a unique people, a people set apart? OR, does it sound like we blend in with everyone else? In other words, we are failing in our call to holiness not because we aren’t morally pure enough, but because we are just like everyone else. We’re no different. We aren’t a “holy” people, we’re just “normal” people. We’re not unique.

The Universal Call to Holiness: The “Unexploded Dynamite” of the Church

Have you ever heard of Dorothy Day? Her cause for canonization is up right now. But Dorothy, along with Peter Maurin, founded what’s called the Catholic Worker Movement. They both lived during the 1900’s, contemporaries of John Paul II and Mother Teresa. Dorothy Day said that the reason the Church is so ineffective, so tame, is because we haven’t taken our call to holiness seriously. She called this the “unexploded dynamite” in the Church. In other words, we are no different than society at large. And we comfort one another by saying that, “Oh, well it’s because the world no longer believes in traditional Christian values”—which is true—but then we forget that we don’t seem to believe in them either, we don’t live them. If we, if the Church were to live this call to holiness, Dorothy said, there would be an explosion! 

The Fathers of the Church loved to use the image of Noah’s ark as a symbol of the Church—that’s one of the reasons our churches look like great ships, the central section here is called the nave, the navus, the boat—Noah’s ark where God’s good order and life is preserved and protected, but then the doors are opened to let out the life! The Church, the Mass, our teachings—this is where God’s good order is preserved, life grow, but then it is meant to be let out! “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” “Go!” If we “go” and be who we are meant to be—think how the world would be transformed! What if, overnight, all Catholics or all Christians, 20% or 66% of the country started living a life of holiness?

What does this look like for us? Well, Dorothy was also famous for saying that it’s not just about following the commandments and going to Mass on Sundays. She loved to point to what’s called the “three evangelical counsels” of poverty, chastity and obedience—these vows that religious make. She didn’t think they were just for the religious, or the “spiritual elite,” bishops and priests and nuns; she said they are for everyone. Now, you would live them different than a professed religious. But think, for example, of living poverty. Not destitution, but poverty: being detached from the material goods of this world. And be concrete about it! How detached are you? I like the biblical category of the tithe, of 10%. “I’m detached from my money, Father!” “Really? Show me.” Pope Leo XIII said this, “When the demands of necessity and propriety have been met in your life, the rest of your possessions belong to the poor.” Think about that: you pay your bills, feed your family, “necessity and propriety”—but then the rest is for the poor. Next, think of chastity: what if, overnight, every Catholic and Christian chose to live chastely? In other words, they chose to live their sexual life in the way Jesus and the Church teaches us? Again, don’t think of upholding “Christian values,” think about your own life? What would happen if we waited until marriage? Only 3-5% abstain from sex until marriage. What would happen to our marriages if people stopped using contraception, one of the biggest predictors of divorce by the way? (Again, survey says that Catholic married couples use contraception and get vasectomies at the exact same rate as everyone else.) What would happen if we lived as the Church teaches? What would happen to the prevalence of pornography? (That is an industry that generates more revenue than the NFL, NBA and MLB put together! In other words, think about how much attention and time people give to watching the NFL, the NBA and the MLB—buying tickets, jersey’s, commercials—and this industry is more popular than that. It’s hidden in shadows, and yet more prevalent.) Now, again, don’t hear this as a sexual purity cult, but as placing our sexual life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Ok, last one: obedience. Now, the obedience I live, the promise I made to the bishop, is one thing. But all of us are called to live in obedience to God. And more than just following the commandments. Your life is not about you; your life is meant to serve God’s purposes. This is where we need to take a lot more time in prayer and listen to God. A great practice for this is the Holy Hour, spending an hour in adoration. There, we can ask that fundamental question: “Lord, what do you want from me? How can my life serve your purposes?” And just as a bonus, Sunday: are we keeping Sunday holy? Think how easily your Sunday looks like everyone else. Sports, work, no rest, busy, just another day of the week. What if, overnight, every Catholic, every Christian decided to keep Sunday holy, to “reclaim Sunday” as a day that is unique, set apart?

Holiness: Our Call

Ok. This is the thing: the world was transformed by the Apostles not because they lobbied the Roman senate or strategically put their members in positions of power, no. It was transformed because they lived a holy life, a life completely different, unique, set apart. And they were persecuted for it! They were not popular! And yet, this life exploded with a transformative, life-giving power! When we begin to be who we are (not just tell people who they should be, but be who we are called to be) then we will be a leaven in society, a transformative force—NOT because we “stand up” for the right things and “traditional values” but because we actually live them. Holiness: that is our vocation, that is our call. That is what it means to be the Church.