Tough words from Jesus
by Robert Fontana
As one writer put it, “Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” I must consider myself one of the “comfortable” – good health; strong marriage and family; reasonable income to provide for our needs; wonderful living arrangements in a quiet and safe neighborhood; excellent Catholic parish and Cenacle prayer community; all situated in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest.
It’s easy to confuse “comfort” and the practice of religion with healthy spirituality. And, of course, there is truth in recognizing that God has blessed us with so many positive material blessings. However, there is the risk that we, or let me say, “I” become the pharisee from the parable of the tax collector and pharisee praying in the temple. The pharisee prayed in acknowledgement of all the good he was doing – tithing, following the commandments, etc. while praying,
“O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.” (Luke 18:11)
My goodness, how I have acted like the pharisee! Jesus has no patience with people who present themselves as deeply religious but do not live an authentic life of faith:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,* but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
This reading has challenged me over the many years I have been an adult follower of Jesus, and one who works in ministry. Early on in my faith journey I discovered that I had “spiritual blinders,” some from the culture in which I was raised, some learned from the Catholic faith that shaped my childhood.
The world I knew as a young man was “Catholics are the best! America is the best! John Wayne is the best! Charismatics are better Catholics than non-Charismatics, etc.” These were my blinders. I wore them too tightly around my “spiritual eyes.”
For example, after high school I worked at a mission in New Mexico. We were there to evangelize the Navajo people, and we were competing with the Pentecostals, Lutherans, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. I was told by a Navajo woman, “STOP! We’ve been ‘do-good’ to death. Why don’t you and others listen to us before you ever open your mouth.” I realized that my enthusiasm for my faith prevented me from honoring this woman with respect, building a friendship with her, and learning her story before I ever shared mine. I thought I was bringing God to her, but God was already there. I missed a chance to listen and meet a beautiful person from an ancient culture. I was another “do-gooder,” steamrolling her with my good intentions and “Catholics are the Best” world view.
I have other examples of how I wore my cultural blinders: I flew a Confederate flag with no awareness of what it meant for my African American fellow students at my school. I supported American military power, right or wrong. I advocated for the unborn with no understanding of the many extreme challenges for women experiencing a crisis pregnancy. But I didn’t have only cultural blinders; I had added layers of self-protective behaviors that I learned to survive and thrive in the family and community in which I was raised. For example, having 5 older brothers, I learned how to avoid conflict. I didn’t want to get smacked! I learned how to hide hurt feelings when I was rejected by a girl I liked.
As I matured, I began to see that it wasn’t enough to participate in Church and Bible study and do acts of service. I needed to enter the “spiritual journey,” to look deep inside me to name the unhealthy biases, attachments, and identities that kept me ensnared as a “Catholic Christian pharisee” looking at anyone or anything different from me with “eyes of judgement.” Either I was judging or was afraid of being judged.
These layers of spiritual blinders and self-protective patterns not only keep me from fully loving others, they keep me from fully knowing how much I am loved by God. They keep me from knowing the deepest truth about me: I am God’s beloved son, made in God’s image and likeness and absolutely loved!
Jesus called this process of removing one’s spiritual blinders and self-protective patterns as “taking the log out of one’s eye before taking the splinter out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)
Some spiritual writers like Thomas Merton call these layers that we wrap around our True Self, the “False Self.” I prefer to call this part of me the “Protective Self.” It’s the image of me that I want the world to see so that I will be loved, admired, affirmed, etc. The Protective Self in Robert does whatever it can, positive or negative, to avoid pain and win approval. It’s the part of me that finds my identity in titles (Director of Evangelization), associations including religion (Roman Catholic), money (no problem for me), possessions (I LOVE MY BIKE!), privileges (great education), sports teams (Geaux, Tigers!), and whatever.
All these things have a proper place in life, but what many of us do is hide our True Self behind our activities, possessions, opinions, and attachments. Ultimately, we hide from God. Religious people do this all the time.
These tough words from Jesus have been good for me. They move me forward on a spiritual journey of removing the “log” out of my own eye so I can truly know who I am – God’s beloved son – and live out of that identity within the events and circumstances of my daily life.
