October 11, 2005
For all of our readers who may be described as “religious”, “devout” or “churchgoers”, get ready because for you and me, a professional in the Church – this is our week. This is the week we may find ourselves squirming a bit during the reading of the Gospel. This is the week we’re in the ring with Jesus – and He’s not pulling any punches!
For the next number of days, we will be reading and listening to the Gospel in which Jesus goes toe to toe with those who thought themselves to be the pillars of the temple; “professional” people who gave religion a bad name because they suffered from a spiritual disease called “hypocrisy”. Now no doubt, every world religion has such people, as they have those who “opt out” because of them. How often have we heard, “I don’t go to my church any more – they’re all hypocrites!” Yet, one could ask the question: “If hypocrites need conversion, isn’t church the best place they can be?”
I suspect from the very beginning of religion there were those who rejected the notion that any organization made up of mere mortals should tell them what to believe, how to worship, and how to behave. They distrust authority, feel hemmed in by law, and see little value in religious traditions. Interestingly enough, there are even some Christians who see themselves as independent – thinking that religious structure is sinful. These should consider that Our Lord Himself, Who was a Jew – and a very good one I might add, was dedicated at the Temple as an infant and buried in a tomb – all according to Jewish customs and religious law.
In an effort to get away from the hype and hypocrisy of organized religion and an institutional church, some people simply organize their own. They become pope and priest, canon lawyer and scholar – a veritable one-man ecclesiastical band that marches in circles to its own music. Yet there is no escaping the dreaded disease of hypocrisy because it follows them as it follows us – like a shadow on a sunny day. A church does not produce hypocrites, it possesses them. To leave a parish because of the apparent faults of a few is like leaving your house because cockroaches live in the cracks.
Yet under it all may be the simple fact that few people actually enjoy being told what to do. They feel terribly constrained by the rules and regulations, violations and stipulations which exist in organized religion. Yet, interestingly enough, if you simply suggested that these rules be lightened or lessened in society – and even in sports – well, now you’re crazy! Whether it’s in the stock market or on the playing field, when someone steps one foot over the line, they jump up and cry “foul!” yet with ethics and morality, silence reigns when people are well over the edge.
I often find it funny when people speak of the Catholic Church as “organized religion”. In fact, it is evident to all that it is far from organized, that is, “neat and with everything in good order”. The reason being the Church is not a machine or some spiritual mechanism; it is, rather, a family. Families, especially if they’re very big, cannot avoid having their share of headaches and heartaches. If all of us knew everything about our family tree, we would all lop off a branch or two. Every tree bears some bad apples; welcome to life!
I don’t belong to the Catholic Church because it’s the best church, but because it’s the Church. It does not claim to be the home of just the sanctified, but also the sinner. It does not cast out the hypocrite, but rather keeps them; for this I am eternally grateful because there’s no other place I could really call home. This is why although I’m a “professional”, I consider myself a practicing Catholic, since I have not yet mastered even the basics like love and forgiveness and sacrifice. I don’t belong to an institution, but to a family which this week will show me not only who I really am, but help me to become what I am called to be.
Fr. Glenn Sudano, CFR
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