The Scandal of Faith

Up front, I must say that I'm inspired by something Mark Shea proposed in the book The Church and the New Media. It's something to the effect that when one enters into the dialogue of faith, one enters into scandal. I've been meditating about that a little bit. It really is true. Now, I don't think Mr. Shea would claim that it advocates sin, nor would he assume that 'faith admits doubt'. I think what our bearded apologist friend is getting at that engaging in dialogue with others about what they might believe can be difficult because there is such diversity (sadly) in what even people believe, especially among Christians. I saw a prime example while going to the cathedral today for the Mass for Life. Along the half mile or so until the cathedral, there are more churches than I can count. Every time I go up to the cathedral, I get a little sad. I ask myself, "Why are there so many churches? Why can't we all just gather in One Church?" There has to be plenty of room in the cathedral, for as big and beautiful as it is. Plus, it houses the Real Presence of Christ... or in other words, it "is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Tim 3:15).

Moreover, even as I write this, I think even as I type above, scandalous faith shines through my words, exemplifying better Shea's implication. As Christians, we are all capable of making some almost outrageous claims about what we believe. After all, it was Lewis who proposed the notion that Christ Himself is either lying, a crazy person, or actually telling the truth about Who He claims To Be. Yet, as Catholics, we can make more totally bodacious claims that are ironically 100% True. “The world’s greatest love story is contained in a tiny, white host.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that about the Eucharist. It IS the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When He said 4 times that His Body was real food and His Blood real drink in John chapter 6, I think He meant it. When He said, in all of the Gospels, that this, the bread, was His Body, and the wine was His Blood, and that we should take and eat it and drink it… well I’m pretty sure that’s what He wanted us to do. I mean if this man, who most of us can agree that he wasn’t lying nor was he crazy, and he’s gotta more than just some wise prophet, well He has to be telling the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. If the God of the universe can become a small baby boy who grew up to die and to save every other person who would walk on the face of the planet, why can't He also become bread and wine and make it Himself?

Now, my goal in this post is not meant to be a defense of the Eucharist. My point is that, just like Fr. Barron suggests in his chapter of the same book mentioned above, we have to make truth claims, and we have to be bold. We really ought to scandalize people into believing the Truth. Right now, the whole world is being fed lies. It’s going to take scandal for their worlds to be shattered. Let’s face it, most cradle Catholics have already been taught in religion classes by coloring books and we see how well that’s worked out.

This year, I’ve been charged with running our Sunday night program in which we go deeper in aspects of the Faith. Guess what we call it? Going Deeper. Sweet, huh? Anyway, I’ve already got plans in the works to find out what the students want to learn… but I think I’m going to take a new turn with this program. Yes, we will go deeper… but I don’t want this to be like just another class the students sit through and they take notes, watching a PowerPoint dance. I tried that last semester and I was told that I lost a lot of students present. They just stopped paying attention to my presentation. Granted, it was hot and I can get a bit long winded, but I was still disappointed that I didn’t reach some of the students as I’d hoped. This year, it’s going to be different. I want to challenge the students. I want to rock their worlds. I want them to ask questions. I want them to be scandalized.

I’ve tasted it. Last year, during bible study, I simply presented a little bit on divinization… not psychic stunts, like tea leaves or tarot cards; that's divination. Divinization is kind of summed up in the idea that God became man so that man could become God, so that man can become holy and perfect, attributes about God that were exclusive to Him…until Christ came, suffered, died, and rose from the dead, tearing the veil, giving human beings divine access. Of course, man is not God and will never be in the sense that God is sovereign over all and we cannot hope to take his place, to do his job. Sorry Bruce. Yet, through Christ, God the Father calls each and every one of us to become more divine. And how is that done? Through the EUCHARIST!! This post just comes full circle!

As if I hadn’t made my point, this year, I want to scandalize students into faith. Again, don’t take me wrong; I don’t want to lead them into sin… but sometimes it’s going to take quite a bit help these students become good soil and be receptive to the seed of faith.