Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
Just Who do you Think You are?
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, July/August 2002
A few years ago, a common quip among Roman Catholics was, "The
trouble with John Paul II is that he thinks he's the Pope." The
joke was a way of acknowledging that even though they were a little
uncomfortable with some of his positions, they respected the fact
that the Pope knows who and what he is and takes clear stands accordingly.
At the beginning of his public life, Jesus went into the synagogue
in his home town, and read from Isaiah the promise of a restored
time when there would be healing, peace, freedom, and even joy.
He then told the congregation that at that very moment they were
seeing the promise fulfilled.
That announcement was not well received, but Jesus knew who he
was and what he was here for, and acted accordingly. It was to
cost him everything, but he stayed true to his identity and his
mission.
Just who do you think you are? is indeed a put-down in our society
when people act as though they are different, and it is not a helpful
one. We tend to resent or squash anyone with a strong sense of
identity and purpose, as though they think too highly of themselves.
The truth is that when people are driven by a vision or sense of
purpose, their activities are not about themselves, but about the
vision or the purpose. Who they think they are is servants to a
truth or a goal. We tend to dismiss them as weird.
Sometimes we exact a high price from visionaries. Peacemakers
are murdered, as the history of our time repeatedly shows. Sometimes
the price is paid less quickly.
The first doctor to suggest that fewer women would die in childbirth
if physicians washed their hands was treated as crazy - he eventually
was driven mad in fact, and died in an asylum for the insane.
He could have quit at any time, but he knew that lives were at
stake. The price does not matter to people who have identity and
purpose.
Who do you think you are? is a question we all need to ask more
frequently. Purposeless existence leaves us open to the real opiate
of the masses: blind consumption of goods and services while much
of the world suffers. Purposeless existence defines the value of
everything and of every person one meets as based on how they make
us feel or how different they may be.
It could be argued that life really has no purpose other than
consumption and reproduction. Work hard, raise your children, have
a few laughs, retire, and die - if you are lucky enough to get
through the whole cycle. In this view, humans are just another
species of mammal, inconvenienced only by knowing that about themselves.
It takes thirty seconds to understand Christianity's teaching
about the afterlife: because Jesus lives, so will you and I. It
takes considerably more effort to understand Christianity's teaching
about this life, especially as Jesus is proclaimed as bringing "abundant" life.
Who do you think you are? is the question the baptismal liturgy
is meant to answer. As one pages through it the themes of identity
and purpose become increasingly clear.
First is the Creed, what God has done. We are God's creatures,
loved so much that God's Son took our flesh, died and rose so that
death need never terrorize us. We are made part of God's people,
sharing the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.
Life is what we do in response to that gift. What we are asked
to do is within the abilities of everybody and still limitless
- it challenges - you cannot graduate from Christian discipleship.
The baptismal covenant commits us to prayer and fellowship, to
repentance, renewal, and witness; this is what most people would
call being religious.
In the next breath we commit to seeking Christ in each person
we meet (no matter how attractive or annoying) and to making this
a better and more just world. People of six or sixty years of age
will find that enough of a challenge to make each day interesting.
The baptismal covenant is about the truth that every moment can
count, every encounter can mean something good, if we will let
it be so.
For us serious types who might confuse earnestness with holiness,
however, the baptismal liturgy has one final prayer that always
unsettles me. Among the things the Holy Spirit is asked to do in
the life of the baptized is give them "a sense of joy and wonder."
Most of us who bother to read this paper are committed to following
Jesus. I wonder if I would not pass the test if the question were, "Did
you allow yourself to feel joy and wonder in God's creation today?" We
have a great deal we can do in and for the world, but we are not
called to a life of grim determination.
Towards the end of his long struggle with cancer, my brother put
in a pond, complete with ecosystem. He knew he did not have long
to live, but he never fell out of love with creation or the Creator.
I have seen that love and joy repeatedly in encounters with dying
Christians, who sense the value of what they are leaving. It would
be a shame if it took a fatal disease for us to cherish the joy
or immerse ourselves in wonder of creation.
"Who do you think you are?" God's creature, God's beloved, God's
agent, and not too serious so as to miss the joy. Now if only,
like the Pope, each of us could concentrate on being who we think
we are. What a world there would be!
(return to Bishop Paul's Columns
Index)
Please direct any
questions or comments to the webmaster@diobeth.org
