Homily

I have been reading a book written by Pope Benedict, entitled "Truth and Tolerance—Christian Belief and World Religions." The first part of the book is about the nature of the religions of mankind, and he divides the response of people to the mystery of life into three categories. The first category he calls "mysticism"—that is a form of religion which relies on some kind of personal, mystical experience which reveals truth to the believer. It's not mysticism as Christians would use that term. It's a radical form of personal experience, which leads a person to see the unity of all things and denies the reality of a personal God or gods. We ourselves are a part of the godliness of all things.

Another category that Benedict writes of is "enlightenment," which basically got its start in ancient Greece. Enlightenment is not really a category of religious belief in the usual sense of that term, because it declares that there is no supernatural truth, or any reality beyond the physical world. The absolute value is rational, scientific knowledge and nothing else. Religion and religious values are meaningless. The only value religion might have is to help form public or political ceremonial functions, such as we saw in the Soviet Union where the state created civil ceremonies that imitated the sacraments.

The third category of religious belief is "monotheism," the belief in one God. But it is not just about a belief in one God, it is about a God Who intervenes in human history in a definite, decisive way, revealing Himself to mankind through a prophet or prophets. Man has nothing to do with it except to answer God with a yes or a no, for it is God alone Who can make Himself known to us.

It's interesting, I think, to see where we are among these three categories as a culture. Certainly we can see that the model of "enlightenment" is embraced by a fair number of people on a regular basis. What matters here is science and the technology that comes from science. This is often considered the only real mode for sophisticated and educated and indeed "enlightened" people who have no need for childish and outdated divinities in order to understand themselves and the world. The powers of rational thought and scientific method are the only means we have to discover the truth—and the truth can only be found in the material world because nothing else exists beyond the material world. Now most people in the USA would not accept this philosophy as their own basic world view. Most Americans believe in God (although that number is gradually slipping.) But how many people, in their regular day-to-day activities, ACT as though this scientific model is true? How many live as though this material world is all that exists, at least for the most part? Isn't it strange that in Communist cultures the public schools taught that God did not exist and that He was the product of human imagination, but in our public schools today there can be no mention of God because we believe in religious freedom? I think it's strange.

In the second category, "mysticism," I think we can see that if people who are, on a practical level, acting as materialists most of the time, need a religious belief at certain points in their lives, it's very popular, and becoming more popular all the time, to speak in terms of your own personal experience and belief that is not depending on any outside source, but only on my own authority. Indeed people may accept general Christian beliefs and principles but not necessarily because they are true in themselves, but because I validate them to be true, based on my own experience. And then we all have heard of people who say that they are "spiritual, but not religious." They refuse to accept any authority for the truth except for their own authority. And, many times we find that if you try to argue that there is an authority, a truth, that is outside, that exists outside of themselves people may even take it as a personal insult and attack. The numbers of people who fall into this category are also slowly but surely growing. It may be more difficult to see sometimes because many of them adopt elements of Christian belief even if they do not hold themselves to following any specific Christian tradition.

We are not materialists, nor are we the people who trust only in our own personal authority. We believe in God the Father, as He is revealed to us by God the Son, and we believe in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, True God. We believe in the truth that has been given to us, and we believe it in faith. But let's not fail to see that we are often tempted. We're tempted to think and to act as though this world is all there is, and to cling to it and pursue it as our only hope. and we're tempted to trust in our own authority sometimes when it comes to matters of truth, tempted to believe that we have to decide for ourselves rather than accepting the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which has been handed down to us from the apostles.

I suggest that we might be a lot like Peter stepping out of the boat onto the waters. We see Jesus, we want to go to Him, we believe in Him, we want to be His disciples, to grow closer to Him. But we look to the left and we see all the cares and concerns and temptations of this physical life in this material world calling out to us. When we turn to the right we hear the voices of other people urging us to follow our own path, decide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong because nobody can tell there is an absolute truth. We all have our own truth. It's hard not to look to the left, and it's hard not to turn to the right, and if we spend much time in either direction, we will certainly end up afraid, in danger of drowning. It's only if we keep our focus on Jesus, ever moving closer to Him, focusing on His voice, submitting ourselves to His teaching, placing our wills under His guidance and protection, trusting our very lives into His loving care that we need not be afraid. If He is our goal then we shall be safe. If He is our Master, then we can serve Him with joy. If He is our life then truly we shall live, both now and forever. Amen.