Homily

I was reading an article by one of my favorite religious reporters this week, and he quoted a sociologist named Christian Smith who teaches at Notre Dame University. Mr. Smith believes that many young people in the U.S. are believers in God, along with their parents, and they have put together, with the help of many people, a new kind of belief system during the past 20 years. Smith calls this belief system, "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." Others have called it the "Gospel of Oprah."

This belief system is not limited to those whose parents or grandparents are/were Christian. It can be used by Jews and Hindus as well. "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" has five main beliefs:

1) There is a god who exists, who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth
2) God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as is taught in the Bible and by most world religions
3) The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself
4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to fix a problem.
5) Good people go to heaven when they die.

Smith came up with these beliefs from interviews with about 3,000 teenagers. He and his co-author, Melinda Denton, write that main goal of this religious system is to provide therapeutic benefits to people. What is it not about? It's not about "repentance from sin, keeping the Sabbath, living as a servant of a sovereign divine being, being faithful to one's prayers, observing holy days or building character through suffering." It's not about anything like that.

They go on to say that under this type of religious belief, God is "something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist; he's always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process." So the Gospel of Oprah really has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it carries no good news, it is unable to answer the deepest questions about our lives, it has no power to transform us and elevate us and, because it's a religion of our own making, it provides us with a god of our own making, not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Moral Therapeutic Deism is nothing more than a man-made religion with a man-made god. But such types of religion are nothing new. It's the constant temptation of every time and every age to fulfill our spiritual hunger not by seeking the truth, not by believing in the truth that has been revealed to us, but instead to believe in a god that suits our desires in a way we find attractive. It's as old as the Tower of Babel. It's as shocking as the golden calf created by the Israelites in the desert who weren't satisfied with the way the Lord their God was treating them. Sure, he delivered them out of Egypt and slavery through a miraculous crossing through the Red Sea, but what had he done for them lately? So they made up their own religion and built an idol because it suited them to have a deity they could see and touch rather than the God Who is the "I am."

On Wednesday morning we just started reading the first letter of St. John and what do we find? Only decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, there are Christians who have come to believe that Jesus was not truly God, but rather he became a Son of God when he received the Holy Spirit at His baptism. They too became sons of God at their own baptisms by the power of the Spirit, so they were the same as Jesus. Oh, and since they were anointed by the Spirit, they had no need for church authority or sacraments, and they were no longer able to sin. St. John writes his letters to oppose these false beliefs and to make the teaching of the Church clear to all who wanted to hear it.

The same old story repeated again and again—we will fashion a god of our own making and we will pay homage to him in the way we choose to do, which is usually easy, enjoyable, undemanding and convenient because the gods we create are nothing more than the reflections of our own egos, and what is easier to serve than to serve myself? Why should I submit to a revelation of the truth if I don't like it? Why should I believe something that causes me difficulty? How can any authority be more important than my own judgment? I always love the words, "I can't believe in a god who would ..." because I know whatever follows those words is not going to be a description of the God Who Is, but rather of the person who is speaking—the god in their own image and likeness. And who are you to say differently?

In every time and every age, we are tempted to create our own god and our own religion. That doesn't mean that we admit necessarily that we are doing that. There are, of course plenty of people who call themselves Catholic, but they describe their faith by what they don't believe in, and by what they are not willing to do to live it out. The people who profess, "I am Catholic, but ..." belong to an interesting religion, but it's the same type of false religion that tempts us in every age. It's "god the way I like him—and I like him easy and convenient." The god who reflects my own ego is the god I love best, and the only god for me.

We see it in today's parable. "The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself..." Now the text means that he prayed silently, but I think there is also a hint of something more—he really was praying to himself! We can picture him standing upright there, eyes raised to heaven, certain that his religion is true and his faith is pure. Then we are presented with the tax collector whose head is bowed down before the Lord, recognizes his need for divine mercy and help because he is a sinner. He judges himself not by his ego, but rather by the commandments of God. He seeks change in his life not by his own designs but rather due to the mercy of God in which he believes because of the Law and the Prophets.

I love the line in the Liturgy at the Little Entrance: "Come and let us worship and bow before Christ..." We come to worship, and bowing is a great sign of that worship and a very counter-cultural expression of our belief. No whooping and hollering, no shouting and clapping, no "High Fives" to point out how extraordinary we are; instead we bow to Him Who upholds the entire universe by His command, the heavens and the earth and all it contains. Instead we bow to Him Who has not only given us life but also a share in His own divine life because that life is love, and a love He wishes for us to embrace. Instead we bow to Him Who cares for us more than we can care for ourselves because we know how many times we have brought bad things upon ourselves through our ignorance and wrong desires, while He has never done us anything other than good. We bow our heads in worship as did the tax collector. We bow our heads as he did to ask for mercy. We bow our heads because the Lord is God and we will serve no other than Him. Soon we will not only be bowing our heads but on our hands and knees we will touch our head to the ground in a physical declaration of Who is God and who is not.

It's a physical sign that though I am unworthy to be in His presence—and I want to repeat that—although I am unworthy to be in His presence, He has made me worthy. And that prostration is a sign to myself and for myself that even though I often live as though God is on vacation, the Lord is always near; He not only bids me to live a great life, He promises to help me to do it, if I will allow Him.

So when we bow our heads here in Church today, let us do it with a greater sense of why we bow them, and quite contrary to the way we hear this word used all the time, there is only One Who is awesome—and He is the Lord.