Walk the Walk... With Jesus

Often, when I read and reflect on the scriptures for Sunday Mass, I often find it difficult to find a common theme between the readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Gospel, but not always. The scripture readings of Isaiah 50:5-9, Psalm 116, James 2:14-18, and Mark 8: 27-35 are giving us a strong and clear message and, in fact, a challenge that none of us as Christians can avoid.  

The message is obedience to God and the challenge being issued to all of us as Catholic Christians is, “Are we going to just talk the talk or are we going to walk the walk?”  

Are we going to go through life giving God just a small portion of ourselves, being obedient to his call only when it’s convenient for us, or are we going to give God everything we are, body, mind, and soul?

Now, before we get too deep into today’s scriptures let’s talk for a minute about what obedience to God is and what obedience to God is not.  You wouldn’t think this would be something that would need a lot of definition but as it is with most everything, our human opinions, biases, and weaknesses make it necessary.  The "me, myself, and I" culture we live in can give us a distorted or even a negative view of obedience. That makes it important that we truly understand what it is versus what we might think it is.  

For example, one of my best friends from diaconate formation is a gentleman from Vietnam.  He grew up there, but as a young adult miraculously escaped from that communist country.  Vietnam has a strong Asian culture in which obedience to authority, be it civil, cultural, or spiritual authority, is very important.  Because of his life experiences, my friend has a very strong sense of obedience.  Quite often, if I was complaining to him about something our formators or instructors were asking us to do that didn’t seem to make much sense he would say to me, “Obedience, brother. You must be obedient.”  After telling me this time and time again, I finally questioned him about his stance on obedience.  I said, "of course, I’m going to do what those in authority who are guiding us through formation ask me to do. But let me ask you a question Mr. Obedience.  After you’re ordained a deacon, what would you do if your pastor or maybe even the bishop asked you to do something that was sinful?"  He replied, “Neither my pastor nor the bishop would ever do that.”  I said, “I hope they wouldn’t but what if they did? Would you be obedient, Mr. Obedience?”  I was giving my friend a hard time, but I was serious about the question.

After some discussion, we both agreed that while obedience to those in authority over us is important, discernment is an important part of obedience.  We should never blindly follow anyone.  Our unwavering obedience should be to God alone, recognizing that we are all sinners and that even our priests, bishops, and the pope are susceptible to falling to the ways of the world and could lead us to do something that is against the Gospel of Jesus and the teachings of his Church.     

God, however, being pure love and perfectly holy can’t and won’t ever lead us into sin.  That would be totally against his nature.  

So, if we ever find ourselves in a situation where something we are involved in is clearly against the teachings of God and his Church, yet we still think that this is what God is calling us to do, it’s not God calling, it’s the enemy.  The problem is that unfortunately, the enemy knows us intimately.  He knows our weaknesses, he knows where the cracks in our spiritual armor lie, and when you combine that with our fallen nature and tendency to want to do things our way instead of God’s way, if our relationship with God is weak, we can easily fall to his lies.  Over time, we can even convince ourselves that something we are involved in that is very sinful or even downright evil is actually virtuous and good.  I know that sounds crazy, but I would be willing to bet that every one of us has been there at some point in our life and knows someone who is there right now. 

Now that we have a fairly clear understanding of what obedience is both to those humans in authority over us and most importantly to God, let’s take a look at the book of Isaiah.  How did Isaiah respond when God called?  Earlier in the book, he had encountered God in a dream in which God said, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”  Isaiah responded, “Here I am, send me!”, and God sent him to be his servant and a prophet to his people.  Years later, Isaiah acknowledged that being obedient to God’s call hadn’t been easy and that he had been tortured, ridiculed, and even spit upon, but still remained true to spreading God’s message.  He never turned his back on God.  Isaiah didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk, in all circumstances.  

Our second example is from the book of James.  I love the book of James because it’s one of those rare books in the Bible that is very direct.  James doesn’t mince words, making it very easy to understand.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes when studying Scripture, I need that. I appreciate a clear message, and St. James delivers.  He challenges us right from the start, telling us that faith without the fruit of actions or “works” that should flow from our faith is worthless, it’s just window dressing, it’s just a lot of nice talk.  Saying, that if we claim to have faith in Jesus, but don’t have a strong enough relationship with him to be obedient to the things he calls us to do, what’s the point? It can’t save us.  

This type of faith is nothing but lip service and can’t save us because as St. James says, it’s dead, only operating on a very superficial or surface level.  Our faith or at least knowledge of the faith may be in our head, but it has not yet settled in our heart, where Jesus wants it to be.  If this is how we are living our faith, we are not being obedient to God’s call, because he is calling all of us, all the time, to a true relationship with him, which should foster and influence every decision and action we make in life.  But we must have ears to hear and a heart to act.  

If this is our life, if this is how we are living our faith, we need to change that!  Because we have either tuned God out on purpose so that we can do things our way or have become so immersed in the noise of the world that we can’t hear him and may have even concluded that God is not us calling at all.  

I believe this issue is an epidemic in our society today, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of, because this is our daily fight with the enemy and our weak human nature. The good news is that we can change that, or I should say Jesus can change that, and he will, if we only come to him in humility and surrender ourselves to his love.  We have nothing to lose and nothing to fear, but everything to gain.  We must, however, keep in mind, and not be discouraged, that even when we devote ourselves to the Lord there will still be times when we will fail to love him as we should.  We will still sin and while that’s not ok, we must recognize that we are weak, and it is understandable and normal.  

Just look at St. Peter in the Gospels, specifically Matthew’s Gospel because it gives more detail.  We’re told that the people had different ideas as to just who Jesus was.  Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.  But my heavenly Father.  And so I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Here’s Peter. Jesus had just changed his name, made him the foundation of his church for all time, given him the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, and given him the power to loose and bind sins.  Jesus had praised him and blessed him with gifts greater than anyone before him or after him would ever receive.  St. Peter was at the height of his faith and relationship with Jesus! Then just a short time later, he falls back into his worldly way of thinking and after all the praise he had received, what does Jesus tell him?  “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

My friends, that’s us!  And we all know that it’s not the last time Peter failed Jesus.  But just as he did with Peter, no matter how far or hard we fall, Jesus will always be there to pick us up.  There may be times in our life when we give up on Jesus, but Jesus will never give up on us.  I understand that living a life focused on Jesus where he is the center of everything we do, where he is the most important person in our life, can seem daunting, if not impossible.  In all honestly, if we keep thinking as human beings do and not as God does, it is!  We are all a work in progress and will always be so. 

So, what can we do?  How can we live obedient to God and the life he is calling us to live?  How do we discern who is calling, the culture, the enemy, or God?  There’s no caller ID, so how do we know for sure who’s calling?  

There’s only one way.  

We have to come to know Jesus.  We have to build and foster a close personal relationship with Jesus.  

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.” There are many ways to grow closer to Jesus, but we have to start somewhere, so here are a couple of ways that have made the biggest difference in my walk with Jesus and took the least amount of time and effort.  

First, take a look at the daily Mass schedule for our parish and all the parishes in our area and arrange your schedule so that you can go to daily Mass at least once a week.  This was a game-changer for me!  Mass is the perfect prayer; it’s covered in Scripture and is the only place you can have a close personal encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist every time you attend.  

The second thing is, do whatever it takes to go to the sacrament of Confession once a month.  This sets the foundation for not only a great experience at Mass, but also the grace we receive strengthens us to be able to live more fully our Act of Contrition to sin no more and avoid the near occasion of sin.  I know the Church only asks that we go at least once a year, but for me personally just to maintain my relationship with the Lord, I need this sacrament more than that.  Going regularly also helps us grow in our relationship with the Lord because then we don’t have to carry around that heavy load of sin that builds up over time, that separates us from him.  Sin, even if it is just venial sin, gets between us and Jesus.  It’s not like mortal sin that totally breaks our relationship with him, but it still puts a barrier between us.  In addition, over the last few years, I have had several experiences in Confession that have literally changed my life! 

Brothers and sisters, as our creator, Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ knows every fiber of our being.  He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly in us and he wants us to know him, love him, and serve him, but he won’t force us to do so.  

My friends, Jesus is calling every one of us.  Let us open our hearts to his love.  Let us not just talk the talk but let us walk the walk…with Jesus.

Amen