14th Sunday: Two options for disciples who want to tread on serpents and scorpions

The Readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 


 
People asked the great Catholic author Flannery O'Connor what religion she would join if she was not a Roman Catholic. They thought she would say Episcopalian. Instead, as usual, she replied in a surprising way, "I would be a snake handling Pentecostal." The fundamentalists who take everything in scripture literally may make errors, but clearly they belive !n the Lord.

Treading on serpents, scorpions and the full power of the enemy? Perhaps a hostile culture like Rome and the Western World. The Gospel of Luke is the story of how Jesus prepares his disciples for mission. Acts of the Apostles, the sequel to Luke, offers an account of how the early Church lived the mission for which Jesus trained them. In today’s gospel, Jesus sent out seventy-two disciples to cure the sick, cast out demons and bring God’s people back into relationship with the Father. So what did Jesus mean when we told his disciples that they would have the power to tread on serpents, scorpions and the “full force of the enemy” and nothing will harm you? Serpents, scorpions and the enemy are the toxic power of human culture to destroy the soul.  In our critique of culture, we must avoid the extremes. [i] We don’t run away from the culture, because if we do, we cannot transform the culture. We don’t surrender to the culture, because if we do, we lose our way.  How did Jesus train [ii] those that he sent to evangelize? That is the whole of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. When Jesus sent the seventy-two out, two by two, they were sent into a violent, pagan world.
 
Two Options for today’s disciples
The Benedict Option
What is the Benedict option? St. Benedict founded monasteries that kept alive both the best of Classical Culture and the Christian intellectual heritage. Europe was overrun by tribes whose moral and belief systems were radically harmful to the Gospel. The Benedict Option is a call to hospitality and to hunker down; both really, at different times. Dr. Alasdair MacIntyre Ph.D., a moral philosopher from Notre Dame, argued in After Virtue, his justly influential book, that Western Culture has come unmoored from the Judeo-Christian tradition and was returning to its pagan roots. He wrote:

 “What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. (Referring to, among other things, the horrors of the 20^th Century and our own) And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot, ( Samuel Beckett’s existentialist play, Waiting for Godot, exploring the meaninglessness of life) but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict.” MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue (p. 263). University of Notre Dame Press. Kindle Edition. [iii]

 In short, the family and Christian community should protect itself from the darker influences of culture, as did the Benedictine Monastery. Cultivate good Christian friends and community. Exercise discretion as to what you allow into your eyes and ears and those of your children from social media, cable and video games. Intentionally practice Christian virtues.

The Benedict Option, plays an important role, but is not the mission of the Church. The Church is not a fort, but a call to enter the culture and not be of it. The Benedict Option makes sense if the purpose is to protect yourself and your children from being sucked into the emptiness of consumerism, pornography and radical individualism. It is, however, counter-productive if children, once they grow to adulthood and leave the home, are not prepared for life in the world.
 
The Aquinas Option
St. Thomas Aquinas, OP lived centuries after St. Benedict.  The cultural situation was very different. Europe was nominally a Catholic culture. St. Thomas, was not afraid of those who disagreed with Catholicism but was open to the best of pagan and Muslim culture. In his writing he relied on, albeit critically, Aristotle, the Fourth Century pagan, Greek philosopher. Aquinas disagreed with Aristotle on some very fundamental metaphysical issues. Still, in his writings, as he built on Aristotle’s insights, he always referred to the pagan great as, “The Philosopher.” That is, the ‘lover of wisdom.’ Likewise, Aquinas drew on the work of the influential Muslim philosopher Averroes.  ( Ibn Rushd) He was a Muslim Andalusian philosopher and thinker who based his philosophy on Aristotle also. Aquinas referred to him favorably as, “The Commentator.” St. Thomas was neither a pagan nor a Muslim but could reach out into cultures very different from his and take what was good, true and beautiful and use it to preach the Gospel.
 
Read American culture critically, through the lens of the Gospel. In conversation, demonstrate how tendencies in American culture point towards God. For instance, Americans have a passion for morality, although in some important respects, distorted. But even the importance of choice in our cultural lexicon should alert us to the true nature of freedom that is necessary for a choice to have any meaning. The firm belief that some things are dreadfully wrong, at all places and at all times, evidences a true source of our moral concern. The human person is made in the image and likeness of God and that image is present in American culture.
 
Pope Francis’ dream: The Joy of the Gospel
Pope Francis, from the beginning of his pontificate, has urged, as did St. John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI before him, the evangelization of our neighbors.

I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of Oceania: “All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.  – The Joy of the Gospel, par.  27

 God sent Jesus all the way down to us to send the disciples out to teach, baptize and bear fruit; not to start an exclusive club.
 
Memento Mori
Your last act as a Christian will be your funeral mass and burial in consecrated ground. What is the point? It is a statement to your children and grandchildren about your deepest beliefs. Pick the readings with them and the music. Let them know what is important to you as you prepare to meet your maker. You may not see the fruits of your preaching. But remember, the Church grew because of the manner in which Jesus died and the disciples hope in him. Your death also testifies to what you believe about your life.