Progressing out of our Comfort

I recently heard a talk on the liturgy and there was one thing in particular that the woman said during this talk that I think I will always remember. In relation to the prayers that we pray during the liturgy, which have been the prayers of the Church since the earliest Church recordings of the Mass, there have been different editions of these prayers over the years. The woman took one in particular and read one edition of the prayer side by side with the newest edition. She explained that the newer version of the prayer was truer to the original version of the Early Church, although quite possibly a little harder to understand at first hearing. While the other edition of the prayer was easier to read and lighter to hear, it was also more comforting. The speaker brought to my attention that these two versions evoke very different responses from us. The newer version does more to call us out of ourselves and into action, whether it be to study its meaning or to meditate upon it in prayer. While the other version makes us feel comfortable and thus it does more to keep us right where we are in our journey of faith.

This morning as I was reading the daily readings, I was stopped in my tracks as I read the following verse from the second letter of John. This passage is from the New American Bible Revised Edition.

“Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him in your house or even greet him; for whoever greets him shares in his evil works.”

2 John 9-11 – NAB

Where I was caught off guard was in the use of quotations in this verse with the word progressive. As I began to read this verse over again, I wondered what the Ignatius Bible Edition said for this same verse. The Ignatius Bible or the RSV version of the bible is my favorite version because it is described as a contemporary English translation without dumbing-down the text; it doesn’t put the biblical text through a filter to make it acceptable to current tastes and prejudices. This is the 2 John 9-11 from my Ignatius Bible Edition:

“Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son. If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house or give him any greeting; for he who greets him shares in his wicked ways.”

2 John 9-11 – RSV

When you compare these two versions side by side you can see how the word progressive is pulled out and put into quotes in the NAB version. In the RSV version you see that instead of the word progressive, it says “goes ahead”. In this version the exact usage of the word is being clearly defined, while in the NAB version the word is put in quotations, possibly because the word progressive has multiple meanings. This word in particular for us today carries a whole slew of political connotations and ideologies. The NAB version of this text seems to take that into consideration and thus puts quotations around the word so that the word will not carry the weight of an alternate meaning for us when reading this text. I dare to say that this still leaves us a bit confused. Without the actual meaning, we can take this several different ways instead of reading this passage in the fullness of the Truth.  

The entire second letter of John, from which this verse is taken, is a warning. St John is warning the people he was writing to, as well as all of us today, that we should remain faithful to the doctrine of Christ. In this, he warns that the person who “goes ahead” of the doctrine of Christ leaves God behind in a sense. As St John reminds us to remain steadfast in the Truth of Christ, it’s important to understand where we find these Truths, which can be found in the doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Truth of Christ has already been revealed to us once and for all. There is nothing new that will be revealed. This Truth has been preserved and handed down to us through Tradition and Sacred Scripture. We have both of these sources of revelation as our necessary means of knowing and understanding the fullness of the Word of God who is Jesus Christ.

To “go ahead” of the doctrine of Christ is to progress ahead of the foundation of faith. It is to leave the doctrine of Christ behind and to go beyond the boundaries of the faith of the Catholic Church. Progressiveness is good and useful in the sense that it moves us to action. It doesn’t allow us to stay put in our comfort or to stay put in our faith and not grow in ever-closeness with the Lord. When we are comfortable we don’t want to move. We like where we are and there is no need to make any changes or to live any differently. Our concept of God is there when we need Him, but when everything is good we can sit back and relax and ride on the coattails of our poorly formed faith.

But the Church gives us guardrails, which is her doctrine, in order to keep us in the path of the Truth. So often we can look at a situation and make a leap from what the Church teaches into what it could mean for that particular situation or person. This type of progressiveness is dangerous. When we make a leap outside of the doctrine of the faith and claim that the church is wrong or that she will eventually progress to this understanding, that is heresy. The Church cannot actually change doctrine because it is the deposit of faith already given to us by Jesus Christ himself. There is no progressiveness when it comes to doctrine. This is why Jesus tells us in Scripture that he did not come to abolish the law, but he came to fulfill it. So too today, the doctrine of the Cathoic Church will not be abolished or altered in any way. 

While the teachings of the Church cannot change, our understanding of those teachings can in fact be deepened, which is the fulfillment of the law that Jesus Christ spoke of. Jesus was in fact a progressive, but not in the sense of what we think of today, which is all wrapped up in a political worldview. The progressiveness of Jesus was that his teachings fulfilled the law.  The progress He wants for us is our own sanctification in and through Him. Through his full understanding of the law, Jesus was able to move people beyond their comforts and it is from here that I’d like to explore to two major groups of people mentioned in the Gospel, the Pharisees and the tax collectors and sinners.

When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees he knew they were stuck in the comfortable rigidness of following the rituals of the law, but with an empty heart. They didn’t want to dive deeper into their faith, deeper into relationship with God because that required more of them than the outward following of the law. They were comfortable not revealing their heart to God because it required less of them. To open up to God in a full way and accept his mercy, which was outside of their control, would require them to be open to the purification of their own soul and the acceptance of the mercy of God for their neighbor. The progression that Jesus was asking of the Pharisees was a movement toward repentance and newness of life, which is always a movement toward deeper intimacy and faith in God.

When Jesus spoke to the tax collectors and sinners, he knew they were stuck in their shame and they did not believe they could ever live up to the law of God, so they essentially gave up trying. These people actually found comfort in their shame and it became their image of themselves, to be the victim, to be the oppressed, to be the one that is left out, the unwanted, the unloved. They formed a union amongst one another where they became comfortable in their own sin and the sin of those around them. Before they were found by Jesus, these men and women were stuck in the comfort of not examining their conscience because to do so would require much discomfort. In order to be purified through the mercy of God, they needed to repent and change their life. They needed to let the Lord heal their wounds, which requires much work on their part. This progression that Jesus was asking of them was a movement toward deeper understanding and obedience to God.

Upon exploring the progressiveness of Jesus, it is clear that we must be both aware of the dangers that come with progressing outside of the doctrine of Christ, as well as the importance of examining where we remain comfortable in our faith journey. Where are we not growing in faith or deepening our relationship with Jesus? What are we keeping hidden from Jesus because of shame or guilt? Where we are not letting God into our hearts because we think we can save ourselves? How well are we remaining in the guardrails of the doctrine of Christ that has been handed down through the centuries through the Catholic Church?

Our own progressiveness of faith is important because it keeps us from being stagnant in our comfortableness, but it should never move us outside of the doctrine of Christ. St John warns us in his second letter that we should not go beyond the doctrine of Christ. He even goes so far as to tell us to not even associate with others who attempt to go beyond the doctrine because in doing so we are sharing in their evil works. 

So we all need to ask ourselves a question. Where am I on my own journey of the deepening of my faith? Do I need to share more of my heart with Jesus so that my words and deeds can be done in true charity to God and my neighbor? Do I need to allow Jesus access to the hidden parts of my heart so that he can do the work of purification? Are there doctrines that I don’t understand that I have spoken with the Lord about?  Wherever the Lord is calling us out of our comfortableness, we must follow Jesus, the true progressive, who upholds tradition and fulfills the law.  Jesus is who leads us into a deeper and more full union with our Heavenly Father.