Musings: When the "Spiritual But Not Religious" Crowd Asks Oprah the Big Questions

So, I'm home on a cold Saturday night, recovering from a foot injury, with a little extra time on my hands when I happen to check something on Amazon. I discover I can read some magazines for free as a Prime member, so I decide to see what's up in O Magazine from Oprah - just because it's free and because I haven't looked in a while.

Every month this year, Oprah will be soliciting answers to a question from readers. I was stunned by this:

With the exception of the question about James Cameron and Avatar sequels, these are, at heart, all spiritual questions. These are the cries of the heart that at least some people are hungry to learn answers for. Yet all of these can be answered in the teachings of Jesus Christ in Scripture - and through what the Church teaches about them and through our practices of the faith (i.e.,"religion"). 

Will anyone ever look at me the way my dog does?   God does. 

How can I best honor my friend's memory?  Pray for his/her eternal salvation and remember him/her at Mass... and never not know that he/she is still present. (Communion of Saints)

Why can't Democrats and Republicans think of us instead of just themselves when it comes to healthcare?  Multiple answers:  Catholic social teaching, Jesus' teachings about being merciful and his example as a healer without judgment against the poor and sinners, and for Catholics, going to Mass regularly to receive the Eucharist worthily in the quest of becoming a person of self-giving love like Jesus...

How can we make war obsolete? See some of the answers to the previous, but learning to love is a basic. So are Jesus's teachings about non-violence. Trusting that there will come a day when swords will be beaten into plowshares at the end of time may be our best hope here, but it's at least a hope. 

How does one learn to give unconditional love in a world that judges everything about you?  Look at how God loves us -everything in scripture points to his faithfulness to his half of the Covenant, no matter who we are.

Who hurt you so bad that you need to do the same to others?  A truly sad question, but one rooted in a lack of understanding of mercy and the difficulty of humans living according to "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." 

Hello, God. Are you there?  A question even the faithful will occasionally ask, but one that begs for evangelization, catechesis, spiritual accompaniment and the support of a faith community. 

If these are the questions the "spiritual but not religious" people are asking, the mission fields are out there, people. We just have to learn how to approach them as Jesus did, where they are, instead of coming on as Church Triumphant or as Church Judgmental.  These folks have, for the most part, rejected "religion" - so we need to understand that the encounter with Jesus Christ has to come first. "Religion" is, after all, how we live faith. It is not, itself, faith. 

Nevertheless She Persisted: St. Martha's Profession of Faith

Today is the feast of St. Martha, that woman so often maligned as NOT having "chosen the better part" because she insisted on the tasks of hospitality while Jesus was in her home. She is portrayed in Luke 10:38-42 as a querulous, busy woman, who complained that her sister Mary was not helping with the tasks of serving the 13 guests who had suddenly appeared in their home.

But that is not all we know of Martha in scripture. In John 11:19-27, the first choice for today's Gospel at Mass, she runs to meet Jesus, who has finally come to see Lazarus, having learned he has died.

First, she scolds the Lord with "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."  However, she continues with "But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." She is setting the stage for the possibility that Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead. Why? Because she believes.

After an exchange during which she assures him she believes that Lazarus will rise on the last day, Jesus says to her:

"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"

Never one to hold back, Martha replies with a strong and unequivocal profession of faith: "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,  the one who is coming into the world."  Recognize the words of this exchange? They are paraphrased in the final two verses of the popular hymn by Suzanne Toolan, "I am the Bread of Life."

It's no wonder the Church chooses this reading for the Third Scrutiny for those entering the Church as catechumens. This is not just about the raising of Lazarus, but about the power of faith in Jesus Christ.

It's time we rehabilitated our vision of Martha and realized that to see her as the too-busy complaining sister is reductive of her significance. She was a woman unafraid to step out of her culture's preferred subservient role for women to confront a man when she felt it was warranted. Indeed, she is the poster-child for today's "Nevertheless she persisted" meme.

In the medieval world, she was portrayed as the saint of Christian service, but also as a strong force in defense of truth, sometimes shown with holy water and an aspergillium. The French legend still celebrated in Provencal today that she tamed the man-eating dragon Tarasque, which she then led around on a thin chain like a pet, is a vision of a woman of power. Legend even has it that Jesus Christ himself came down to celebrate her funeral Mass.  

Today, on her memorial, remember the woman who stood up to Jesus and boldly told him it was his fault her brother had died, but that she believed Jesus could do anything. What a model of faith - and persistence - for today's doubtful world!

Choose Your Advent Attitude: RESOLVE to Run to Meet Christ

In the Collect for today's Mass we heard - for the 5th year in a row - words which are by now becoming familiar:

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom."

The key to all this is that we are asking God for something called "resolve." Just what IS that?

According to the Miriam Webster Thesaurus, resolve is

firm or unwavering adherence to one's purpose
Synonyms decidedness, decision, decisiveness, determinedness, firmness, granite, purposefulness, resoluteness, resolution, resolve, stick-to-itiveness
Related Words doggedness, obduracy, obdurateness, obstinacy, obstinateness, perseverance, persistence, persistency, stubbornness, tenaciousness, tenacity; certainty, certitude, confidence, sureness; alacrity, eagerness, gameness, readiness; backbone, fortitude, grit, iron, pluck, sand
Near Antonyms doubt, incertitude, indetermination, uncertainty; aversion, disinclination, indisposition, reluctance, unwillingness
Antonyms hesitation, indecision, indecisiveness, irresoluteness, irresolution, vacillation

This is a great summary of what we are asking of God. We want to avoid all doubt and uncertainty, but instead to have the firmness of purpose to be ready to be ready for Christ, no matter what happens. In a world torn by conflict, hatred, bigotry and war, this is a pretty tall order. We are really asking for the same kind of certainty that recent Christian martyrs slain by ISIS have had. They died rather than deny Christ. Could we?

Not without the grace of faith. In the end, it is this for which we ask. Faith is not something we decide we will have. So, we ask God to send us the sort of confidence, that dispels the darkness of a world in a nighttime of fear and uncertainty, We ask this at Mass, because it is through the Eucharist that we can be transformed from people of fear to people of faith, from people of hesitation to people of eagerness.

We need Advent light now more than ever: to stand on tiptoe in anticipation of the dawn of what Jesus and the Prophets called "The Day of the Lord." This Advent, don't slump with fear and uncertainty. Instead, as we heard in today's Gospel reading, "stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand." (Luke 21:28) This should be your Advent attitude.  Raise your heads and look for the dawn.