When we hear this scribe asking Jesus
this question about which is the greatest commandment of all, we are probably
thinking: Well, Jesus has 10 commandments to choose from, so this doesn’t seem
like such a difficult question. However,
according to Jewish tradition, there are 613 mitzvot or commandments in their
Holy Scriptures, so this question is actually a lot more difficult than it
seems on the surface to us. And when you
think of how the scribes and Pharisees were obsessed in their observance of the
law, Jesus is indeed faced with a very challenging proposition.
This question is posed to by the scribe
in the Gospel of Mark, after this scribe hears Jesus having an intense
discussion with some Pharisees and Herodians.
These Pharisees and Herodians were asking Jesus a bunch of questions in
order to try to trap him and get him in trouble with the chief priests and the
Jewish elders. All of this got me
thinking about the questions that we ask.
Sometimes we are afraid to ask
questions, aren’t we? Maybe we think our
question is silly, that we should already know the answer. Maybe we are afraid of embarrassing
ourselves. We often see the disciples in
the Gospels being very hesitant to ask any questions at all; perhaps they are
afraid of the answers they will get from Jesus.
We see the Pharisees ask a lot of questions in the Gospels, but as we
know, they used their questions to push Jesus into a corner. In fact, we can see a lot of people in our
society who use questions in a sarcastic and mean-spirited way, using questions
as weapons that will harm or injure.
This is certainly not the way we are called to asked questions in our
lives of faith.
Sometimes we have a lot of questions in our minds, but the
answers we seek are not so clear-cut and are not so easy to understand. I remember that when I went off to be a missionary
in Canada and in South America, I had a lot of questions that I thought would
be answered through my missionary work.
I wondered about the best approach to help people in a country that is
surrounded with poverty, with corruption and violence that seemed
overwhelming. I brought my questions and
my wonderings to my missionary work with a very idealistic and positive
attitude, or so I thought. I spent 8
years as a missionary, and I returned from those experiences with even more
questions and not a lot of answers. And
perhaps I lost a lot of idealism along the way as well.
In our society, perhaps we think that
asking questions is a sign of weakness.
There are a lot of religions out there that try to answer every question
with a very precise, confident answer. Yet,
in our Catholic faith, we are not afraid to say that we do not have all of the
answers. We are not afraid to admit that
there is a sense of mystery to our faith, that there will always be some aspect
of the divine that is beyond our human comprehension. Sometimes someone comes to me as a priest
thinking I will give them an authoritative answer to their questions and tell
them exactly what they should do and what they should know. However, I think that a more appropriate role
for me as their priest is to help them find the answers for themselves, to give
them the tools to live out their faith, and to help them understand what the
Church teaches so that they can make an informed decision for themselves.
Look at the twists and turns our lives
of faith can take as we travel along our journey. Sometimes in our journey of faith and in our
search for meaning in life, our questions can turn into doubts that end up
having us question our very faith. But
asking questions, struggling with our doubts and our unbelief, will make us all
the more stronger. A searching,
inquisitive faith is far better than a faith that is lazy and complacent. I remember that one of my advisors in
seminary challenged me with a couple of really provocative questions that
really made me think. He asked me:
“Lincoln, what kind of priest do you want to be? What kind of priest are you going to choose
to be?” At first I thought: What kind of
questions are these? What is he really
asking me? Can’t I be the kind of priest
that everyone needs me to be? Well, of
course the answer to that question is certainly no – I certainly can’t be
everything to everyone. Those questions
really have me thinking, and I still wonder what kind of priest God wants me to
be, that God is calling me to be. I
wondering what kind of priest my parishioners need me to be.
So I might ask all of you a couple of
questions in light of todays Gospel and todays homily: How is God calling you to live out your
Christian faith? What kind of questions
do you need to ask in order to grow and develop as a follower of Christ? Are there are questions that you are afraid
to ask? And if you have a question where
there is no easy answer, are you willing to wrestle and struggle with that
question, and try to find some sort of meaning without any easy resolution?
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