The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, December 6th: Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6)

2ND SUNDAY OF ADVENT: TIME FOR BASIC KNOWLEDGE

This week is the second Sunday of Advent. In the gospel reading John the Baptist “went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

John’s main message was, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” John told the people that the Lord was on His way, and it was time to get ready. This is what we’re suppose to be doing during Advent. The celebration of the Lord’s coming, the Incarnation, is just a few weeks away, and it’s time to get ready.

In this week’s second reading, St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “This is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”

Notice that when St. Paul spoke of love, he emphasized knowledge and perception and discernment. He did not mention feelings. There certainly are a lot of emotional aspects of Christianity: joy, happiness, relief, enthusiasm, etc. But at the most fundamental level, Christianity is a religion of facts and information. The core doctrines of the faith are not based on personal feelings or spiritual experiences. The core doctrines are firm declarations about objective reality: God is real; Jesus is His only begotten Son; Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for mankind’s sins; He rose from the dead three days later; and we can enter into Heaven for eternity if we put our faith in Him.

These basic beliefs of Christianity have nothing to do with how we feel about them. They are either true or false, and feelings and emotions are secondary. Of course, we hope that if we understand the facts of Christianity and put our faith in Christ, we will experience joy and happiness and contentment as byproducts of knowing the truth. And most of the time this is the case.

But in reality, there are many faithful, holy Christians who quite often feel lousy. Just as there are many people who quite often feel wonderful, but they are worshipping trees or rainbows or Al Gore—in other words, despite their positive emotions, they have the facts all wrong.

So, before we can grow and mature as Christians, it is imperative that we have a good knowledge of the basic doctrines of the faith. How are we doing these days? Last week I quoted from Dr. Peter Kreeft’s book, Jesus-Shock. This week I found some more awesome quotes from the book I’d like to share. Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College, discusses the knowledge of Christian doctrine among American Catholics:

The last generation’s theological knowledge has almost been abolished: college graduates know less theology today than fifth graders knew fifty years ago. Literally. I know. I teach them. I do not exaggerate. Not one in fifty Catholic college students has ever even heard that Christ is one person with two natures, or that the Trinity means that God is one in nature and three in persons. Most are amazed that anyone ever tried to prove the existence of God by philosophical reasoning. Worst of all, when asked why they expect God to accept them into Heaven when they die, only one in twenty even mentions Jesus Christ. (This is not an estimate. This is a statistic, based on hundreds of questionnaires.) Can there be any possible educational scandal worse than that?

Kreeft goes on to lament that since Vatican II in the mid-1960s there has been a wholesale “rejection of solid, full texts like the Baltimore Catechism or the St. Joseph Catechism.” In their place we now use “impossibly insipid CCD texts…that dress up vacuity and vagueness in the prose of pop-psychology platitudes and bureaucratic banalities.”

Kreeft then warns that Jesus Himself clearly told us what His reaction will be to such vapid silliness. Jesus used “a strikingly concrete verb in Rev. 3:16. Look it up. Read His whole letter, substituting ‘Europe and America’ for ‘Laodicea.’ Put the two things side by side. See how they fit.”

In case you don’t know, the early chapters of Revelation have letters written by Jesus to various churches. In His letter to the church at Laodicea (Europe and America?), Jesus says, “You are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16).

Modern Bible translations use the verb “spit.” Older translations quote Jesus, more accurately, as saying, “I will spew you out of my mouth,” or, “I will vomit you out of my mouth.”

In other words, Jesus is saying to the weak and wimpy church—the church that focuses on niceness and happy thoughts while ignoring core doctrines and fundamental theological knowledge: “You guys make me wanna puke!” (OK, I admit, that’s my personal translation, but I think it’s right on the money.)

Here’s a novel idea: during this second week of Advent, as we are doing what John the Baptist says, getting prepared for the coming of the Lord, why don’t we try to LEARN a little bit about Jesus? There are unlimited resources available, the Bible, for one. Or the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Or anything written by Kreeft or, say, Charles Colson. Search online. Go to Kreeft’s website: peterkreeft.com, and download his mp3 lectures to your iPod. Just do SOMETHING, for God’s sake.

If we learn more about the basics of the faith, as St. Paul said, our love will increase as our knowledge increases. And if we do that, we just might stop being so lukewarm, a “vacuity and vagueness” that literally causes Jesus to want to hurl.

©2009