Of Humility, Exaltation, and Mercy

(Image from patrickcomerford)

The specific details of the Pharisee-tax collector passage from Luke aren't as well-remembered as the more famous parables, but the theme is very familiar: [bold added]

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."----Luke 18:10-14

When we plead our case before earthly tribunals, we are allowed to make the case for ourselves. Just like the Pharisee touted his good deeds, we can cite ours, how we have never run afoul before, etc. But it is all for nought with the implacable Judge, whose Law is immutable and who has perfect knowledge of both our deeds and what is in our hearts.

If we are lucky enough to be granted time to ready ourselves for the next world, we must forsake what makes us virtuous in the eyes of our fellow man and ask for God's mercy.

Walking the Walk

Guillaume Bodinier, The Good Samaritan,
1826 (Wikimedia Commons)

Today's Gospel lesson from Luke 10 was about the Good Samaritan:

But wanting to justify himself, [the lawyer] asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Comments:
1) In Sunday School we learned the simple version of the story, that Samaritans were not expected to behave honorably but in Jesus' parable the Samaritan was the only one who helped the wounded man. The Samaritan was the good guy.
2) The enmity between Jews and Samaritans dated back centuries, with the Samaritans ignoring Jewish laws, dietary customs, and social norms.
3) Jesus emphasized the principle that it is not social status or speech that matters but how one behaves.
4) Signalling real virtue comes at a cost in time and money, not on a bumper sticker or a social media post or sign posted on one's lawn (note: I haven't done the research about whether these examples existed in Jesus's time).

But I'm Not Going to Correct Them

I think this is me.

Man Unsure If He’s Becoming More Virtuous With Age Or Just Too Tired To Sin https://t.co/shJFS7afwZ pic.twitter.com/uVwxHUDMEK

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 31, 2024

Doing, Not Just Believing, Is Important, Too

Going up for Communion in person.

Northeastern psychology professor David DeSteno ("How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion”) says that ethical behavior is not dependent on theology as much as regular attendance: [bold added]

when it comes to morality, the power of religion is more in the doing than in the believing. Studies of religion and health show that identifying with a religion—saying you believe in God or going to worship once a year on Easter or Yom Kippur—means very little. Epidemiological research shows that it is people who live their faith, regularly going to services and engaging in their religion’s rituals, who tend to live longer, healthier and happier lives.

...doing religion helps. During a moment of temptation, belief that God is watching you is difficult to ignore when you’ve been regularly reminded of this fact through prayers and rituals. That’s why people who believe in God often work harder to resist temptation the more they practice their faith.

I am acquainted with people who describe themselves as "religious" but eschew Sunday worship because they purportedly are turned off by organized religion. The science of psychology suggests that group worship does have benefits that can improve individuals' ethical behavior and spirit of charity.

It seems that there is no harm and much to gain by visiting the local churches, synagogues, or temples for a little while to test Dr. DeSteno's hypothesis, but that's just me.

Prodigal Wisdom

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt
c. 1661, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32, see below the jump break) is a favorite in Sunday School. The younger of two sons demands his inheritance, "squanders his wealth in wild living," endures hard times, then sorrowfully returns to his father and asks to work as a hired hand. ("I am no longer worthy to be called your son.")

The father rejoices and throws a party. The lesson for kids of all ages is that no matter how much we mess up, God will forgive us and welcome us back.

Sermons for grownup listeners focus on the elder son. He was obedient to his father all his life and resented the attention paid to the wastrel brother upon the latter's return.

"I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends."

The older brother must put aside pride, envy, and anger. Compared to the saving of his younger brother, on a cosmic scale his feelings are unimportant. The Prodigal Son can be a lesson for Christians who identify with the "good" son.

The above are the normal interpretations of the Parable, ones that I have listened to for decades.

In a novel suggestion the priest asked the congregation not to look at the parable from the point of view of either brother but from God's.

God does not act as we would act; God rewards each son despite one being far better behaved than the other. Earlier in Luke 15 a shepherd leaves his 99 sheep to retrieve one lost sheep, and a woman celebrates the finding of a silver coin when she has nine others. In his sermon the priest speculated that the woman may even have thrown a party that cost at least as much as the coin that was found.

Though we think we know God's thinking in many cases we do not.

The more we know, the more we realize we don't know.

Everything is Easier Today....Unless You Want to be a Saint

Baltimore Archbishop Lewandowski with pictures
of Black candidates for sainthood. (WSJ photo)

There has never been a Black Catholic saint from the United States: [bold added]

[In November] at a church in Baltimore, a group of Catholics launched a campaign calling on Pope Francis to name six men and women the first Black Catholic saints from the U.S...The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, responded that investigations are under way of all six proposed saints and in some cases their “heroic virtues” have been officially acknowledged. But the Vatican’s rules for canonization—the formal declaration by the pope that someone is a saint—ordinarily require at least one verified miracle attributed to the proposed saint’s intercession, something that has not yet occurred for any of the six Black Americans.

The intercession occurs after the candidate's death, i.e., supplicants pray to the proposed candidate for a miraculous healing:

theologians must decide whether the healing was due to the intercession of the candidate for canonization, which means that those who prayed for his or her help did so at the time of the healing and that they prayed only to the proposed saint and no one else. Additional prayers to the Virgin Mary, whom Catholics consider the pre-eminent intercessor, or Jesus himself aren’t considered disqualifying.

Comments:
1) Racism is not the reason that there are no Black Catholic American saints:

There are a number of canonized Black saints, most of them from Africa, but including the Peruvian St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639), who cared for orphans, the poor and the sick.

2) It will become tougher to qualify for sainthood as advancing technology will be identified as the cause of what used to be called medical miracles.

3) Technology will also produce much more documentation--text, video, audio, data from instruments--that will scrutinize "miracles" more closely and likely raise the bar higher.

4) Worshippers have to pray to the candidate after he or she dies, whereupon a subsequent miracle occurs that proves that the candidate, now in heaven, interceded with God. That's a tall order--it took Mother Teresa 19 years after death to be canonised in 2016.

5) This non-Catholic hopes that at least one American Black Catholic saint will be canonized. What counts for this humble blogger is not that miracles be documented but that he, she, or they help to model selflessness, faith, and service for Black Catholics--or all Christians for that matter.

Make America Virtuous Again?

At one point in high school someone told me that character is destiny, which at the time seemed profound. (The quote is attributed to Heraclitus, who is also famous for "you can't step into the same river twice," but I digress.)

After a few years under their belt, most people come to realize that being of good character does not guarantee secular success. Bad things happen to good people, and bad people can be found at the pinnacle of government, business, entertainment, sports, law, media, and even churches and other non-profits. However, the importance of good character still persisted in a society that believed in an after-life when Final Judgment would be rendered.

When fewer people believe in a Deity, and fewer are members of an organized religion, does virtue have relevance, especially since virtue may be the only reward?

Answering in the affirmative, Harvard history professor James Hankins sees similarities in today's predicaments to 14th century Italy, when the philosopher-poet Petrarch saw virtue as the solution:

it was precisely the collapse of institutions and the twin diseases of violent partisanship and tyranny that drove the great political thinkers of the Renaissance to invent a new instrument of statecraft. They called it the studia humanitatis, or the humanities...

Italy was recovering from the Black Death and the collapse of its financial system. The Catholic Church was divided and corrupt, the Holy Roman Empire was fatally weakened and the Ottoman Turks were knocking at the door of Constantinople...These leaders were ignorant of the past, unable to express themselves truthfully or decently, and driven by their unbridled lust for power and riches to neglect the common good. Feared and hated by their subjects, they were unable to inspire loyalty.

Petrarch’s solution was a new kind of politics: virtue politics...Following Plato, the humanists defined tyranny as the absence of good character, so the ruler who lacked good character could by definition be considered a tyrant. Those who possessed political power by hereditary right didn’t deserve that power unless they were also virtuous—that is, unless they possessed moral excellence and practical wisdom. Virtue was made a necessary condition of legitimate rule, and virtue could be taught and learned—through an education in the humanities.

Your humble blogger buys into much of what Professor Hankins advocates, that widespread education in the humanities is a societal good. However, with regard to the humanities I am referring to the canon as it was 50 years ago, not that which prevails today with restrictions on speech and thought, promulgation of "social justice" through an expansion of State power, and tribal politics that sees everyone through the prism of group identity.

But...teaching men to be virtuous will not make them so. One of the major premises of American constitutional government is that individuals cannot be trusted with too much power, hence the system of checks and balances. That system, while infuriatingly slow at times, has proved to be remarkably stable regardless of the character of those who inhabit political office.

Also, virtue isn't everything. One of the least successful Presidents of the 20th century--but arguably the most virtuous--was Jimmy Carter.

Success in the sacred does not make one successful in the profane. We can support Donald Trump or Bill Clinton for their effectiveness, not their saintliness.

While we wish that our leaders would be both, they are rarely so.

Fool's Gold

Virtue Signaling:

To take a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else.

The opposite of the Biblical admonition to be virtuous in secret, virtue-signalers crave social approbation by being visible: [bold added]

In 2011, the economists behind Freakonomics ran a story about the research of Steve and Alison Sexton. They wondered why it was that the Toyota Prius was designed to be such a distinctive-looking automobile. As it turns out, the unique look was no accident. The Sextons found that, in particularly conservation-conscious areas of the country, people were willing to pay as much as $4200 more for a recognizably “green” car.

"Hybrid"; barely noticeable

When we were shopping for a fuel-efficient vehicle last year, we did look at the Prius. It was too small for our needs, but the negative deciding factor was that being seen in one is strongly suggestive of agreeing with the dominant group's politics in the Bay Area.

We settled on a RAV4 Hybrid, which looks the same as a regular RAV4 save for the small sign in the rear. We're averaging 30+ MPG overall and are very happy with the purchase.

While I was working, it was sometimes necessary to make purchases solely to keep up appearances. No longer--trying to win others' approval through their notions of virtuosity is Fool's Gold.