Split-Level Christianity

Fr. Mark Link, S.J. tells the story of a 30-second homily. It’s the story of an old priest, who in a retreat was deeply struck by three things, which he had been aware of before, but never considered seriously: First, there are millions of people in the world who are homeless and go to bed hungry.  Second, he had spent his entire priestly life living in a comfortable rectory and preaching comfortable sermons to comfortable people.  Third, he had bent over backward to avoid disturbing or alienating his parishioners.

He was reminded of a new pastor assigned to a church in Kentucky, not far from Churchill Downs, which was famous for its racetrack. The first Sunday, the pastor preached on the evil of gambling and how this bad habit had caused so much pain and suffering in so many families.

After his sermon the president of the parish council called and reminded him that many parishioners who generously supported the church made their living off horse racing and gambling.

The second Sunday, the pastor preached on the evil of smoking and how this bad habit had cause so much pain and suffering from lung cancer and premature death.

Again, the president of the parish council called and reminded him that many parishioners who generously supported the church made their living by growing tobacco, for which Kentucky was famous.

The third Sunday, the pastor preached on the evils of alcohol and how this bad habit had caused so much pain and suffering from drunk driving and broken homes.

Again, the president of the parish council called to remind him that many parishioners who supported the church made their living by working in distilleries, for which Kentucky was even more famous.

“Well, what can I preach on?” said the new pastor in desperation. 

“Preach against war mongers and crooked politicians,” said the president.  “We don’t have any of them in the parish.”

The week after his eye-opening retreat, the old priest looked up the readings for the following Sunday.  These words from the Gospel stared him in the eye: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

The old priest resolved then and there that he was going to share his soul-searching with his parishioners.  So he began his homily by saying, “My homily this morning will be exactly 30 seconds long.  That’s the shortest homily that I’ve ever preached in my life, but it’s also going to be the most important homily I’ll ever preach.”

With that attention-grabbing introduction, the old priest gave his 30-second homily.  He said, “I want to make just three points.  First, millions of people in the world are hungry and homeless.

Second, most people in the world don’t give a damn about that. Third, many of you are more disturbed by the fact that I just said ‘damn’ in the pulpit than by the fact that I said that there are millions of hungry and homeless people in the world.” With that, the old priest made the sign of the cross and sat down.

The story of the old priest and today’s Gospel reading make the same point.  Religion is not something we do on Sunday.  It is not primarily observing certain laws, and saying certain prayers, or performing certain rituals. 

That’s what Jesus tries to point out to the people of his time that the Scribes and Pharisees have turned religion into the external observances of rules, rituals, and laws. To observe these rituals was to please God.  Not to observe them was to sin. In short, observing rituals became identified with being religious.

What would Jesus say to us today?  There is a story about some hold-uppers in a bus. 

While they were divesting the passengers of their valuables, the bus passed by a church. 

The hold-uppers paused to make the sign of the cross.

When one of them saw a priest among the passengers, he respectfully said, “Excuse me Father, you are exempted. We are Catholics. We go to Mass regularly.”

Perhaps, you may think that this story is a bit farfetched. But how about those who would make a novena, or offer Mass intentions so that they could win at the casino or win the grand prize in the lotto?

The older generation used to recount how the men would go out of the church during the sermon to smoke their cigarettes or cigars and share jokes. It is not uncommon to find people, who would go to Mass every day and receive Holy Communion; but once the Mass is over, they unleash slander and poisonous gossip from their hearts and tongues.  When they reach home, they curse and shout at their house-helps and drivers.

Today, you would often find people at the back of the church, or in the parking lot chatting and playing while “attending Mass.” Often during Mass, cell phones would ring and people would rush out of the church to answer their phone calls, as if someone more important than God was calling.

A priest tells the example of a young girl at the communion line, who right after receiving the sacred Host, turns around and starts texting obviously oblivious of whom she had just received. 

She may have been physically present at Mass, but her heart and soul were not.

Often people would call to ask, “How late can I be before I’m considered missing Mass?” For them the Eucharist is a burden, an obligation they grudgingly have to comply with. Then there are those who come to Mass to be entertained by the homilies of the priests, not to listen to the word of God.

  They complain when the priest explains the Scripture readings and draws lessons from them. 

They are pleased when the priest just cracks jokes and sings during homilies.  They get entertained.

I often wonder how come the Philippines, the only Catholic country in Asia, with 80 to 90 percent of the people baptized as Catholics, is the country so full of graft and corruption in government, so full of violence and crimes, of pornography, scams and scandals, of dishonesty and selfishness.  We practice what psychologists call “split-level Christianity.”

Today’s Scripture readings invite us to look into our hearts and to ask ourselves as to what extent the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading apply to us:  “This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.”

They invite us to look into our own hearts and ask ourselves to what extent the words of James in today’s second reading apply to us: “Act on [God’s] word.  If all you do is listen to it, you are deceiving yourselves.”

Let’s close by prayerfully re-reading Paul’s famous words on love in his First Letter to the Corinthians: “I may be able to speak the language of men and even of angels. But if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong… I may have all the faith needed to move mountains – but if I have no love,  I am nothing.

“I may give away everything I have… But if I have no love, this does me no good… It is love, then, that you should strive for.”