Your Crazy Catholic Question column has been a tad boring for a few months now. What’s the scoop?
This question was lovingly submitted by my husband who, frankly, even on my best day, finds my column “too Catholic” for his taste. I’m lucky (and annoyed) to have such a straightforward, “borderline-heathen” critic in my own home. But, he does keeps me honest.
So my aim is to retire my CCQ column for a bit and explore with you in my little 600 words in the bulletin each week something that very few Christians find any relevance in for their lives, but yet we claim is at the very center of our faith. Something that in years past, debate and disagreement about has sparked wars and schisms in our church, but now is hardly ever talked about at weekly bible studies, book discussions, or faith formation classes. Even our beloved CGS (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) does not have a lesson on it! What am I talking about? The Trinity. For the next six weeks of Lent, Let’s Talk Trinity.
And here is why I think “Talking Trinity” might be helpful. Because we need to face the facts: Jesus has officially been confiscated. His teachings have been twisted by corrupt politicians and wayward religious leaders with the result that there is an enormous amount of errant teaching being attributed to him. Good people (especially young people) immediately recognize questionable integrity and statements void of truth – even (and maybe especially) those that are spoken by our so-called “leaders” who profess to believe and serve Jesus.
As a result, even the utterance of the name “Jesus” in any public forum is often received with disdain; perceived by most as distasteful and inappropriate; sometimes even more offensive than the strongest of curse words. Even I – your Director of Religious Education – sometimes find discussion about “religion” repellant! Me!! Someone whose work it is to draw people together at church, finds talk of church off-putting! Quite a conundrum I’d say.
Case in point - the other night on my commute home I was flipping through the radio stations and landed on the judgmental churchy jargon of some evangelist and seriously, it turned my stomach. It made me want to run as fast as I possibly could in the other direction from the “Jesus” he was laying down. The dominant “Jesus and Me” theology is ideal for the children in our atria but is woefully inadequate for the challenges that we are facing as adults in our society. Even the most nominal believer recognizes how this theology can arrest our development and lead us in the wrong direction; away from effective collaboration as the body of Christ toward more isolation…away from respectful dialogue and toward more individual opinions and ideology…in essence away from the mystery of the “God who in Godself is a community of persons” to the impossible task of being a Christian alone.
In short - Jesus, a hero by any measure (even for those who do not recognize him as God), is badly in need of a new Public Relations manager. The true beauty and force of his teaching is either being romanticized, tamed and individualized to the point where it has no punch OR being blatantly misrepresented and misappropriated in today’s sometimes vacuous culture of tidal-wave force.
Perhaps the seed of well-received discussion about Jesus has died. And maybe, just maybe, God wants to grow something new from the death of this seed. At the very least, I think we need a little subterfuge. So this week I have outlined some of our challenges, but in the weeks to come I hope we can explore together some possible avenues that can lead to more fruitful dialogue about where God may be drawing us and inviting us to grow.
Respectfully submitted by Lisa Brown, comments welcome at dre@ctredeemer.org.
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