We should have the mindset of belongingmore to the Church than a political party
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“Now I begin.” This is one of the famous sayings of Blessed Bruno Lanteri (1759-1830), founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.
It’s a great saying for us this week. We begin the month of September, we begin reading from the Gospel of Luke and we hear about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. All around us, too, things are beginning: the season of fall, the professional and college football seasons, the real playoff drive in professional baseball and so on.
As we think about beginnings, I propose two things for our attention.
First: One of the great themes this week is belonging. In fact, some form of the word “belong” appears seven times in the readings on Thursday! And it’s a theme, in various ways, all week long.
The world is enamored of the question of identity — who am I? But the readings this week invite us to focus on the question of belonging — whose am I? That’s an important spiritual question. But it also has practical consequences as we head into an election season. It’s a good time to ask ourselves: Do I belong more to a political party than I do to the Gospel and the Church? If so, then we might heed Blessed Bruno’s words this way: Now I begin to put on another mindset about belonging, about whose I am, first and foremost.
Second: We hear two great episodes in the Gospel of Luke this week that highlight people’s reactions.
In the first episode, Jesus begins His public ministry by preaching in Nazareth (Luke 4). Luke records the first reaction of the people to His preaching: “All spoke highly of Him.” After some further words from Jesus, however, we see a second reaction: “They were all filled with fury.” The question is: Which reaction will they go with?
In the second episode, Jesus gets into the boat of Simon Peter and brings about a miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5). Peter’s first reaction to the miracle is to say: “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” After some further words from Jesus, however, we see a second reaction from him and his brother: “They left everything and followed Him.” The question is, again: Which reaction did they go with?
These episodes draw our attention to an important question as we begin to be bombarded by political advertising: Which reaction will we go with? I’m not saying we should go with our first reaction; I’m not saying we should go with our second reaction. As we see in the Gospel passages, sometimes the first reaction is better, and sometimes the second.
Political ads are made to provoke a strong emotional reaction. My counsel is this: It’s time to begin taking ownership of our reactions and thinking them through carefully. Here, too, we might heed Blessed Bruno’s words: Now I begin to make a conscious, deliberate, Gospel-based decision about which of my reactions to go with.
