Don’t be scandalized by me

THAT’S what Christ told his disciples. When John the

Baptist heard of what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask

Christ if he (Christ) was the one John told them was to come or should

they expect someone else.

            The response of Christ was very telling. “Go and show John

again those things which you hear and see,” he said. “The blind see,

the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead

are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And

blessed is he who is not scandalized by me.” (Mt 11,4-6)

            Other versions of the same gospel passage render Christ’s

response as “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me,”

“Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me,” or

“Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

            They all mean the same thing—that they, and we, should not

be scandalized by some of the moves, the bold, unexpected moves that

may break some waivable protocols or human molds that Christ did in

order to reach out to the sick, the weak, the dead and those in the

peripherals who to us should not be taken in the literal and physical

sense only but more so in the moral and spiritual sense.

            I thought this consideration is most relevant these days

when we see many so-called good and conservative Catholics scandalized

by what Pope Francis is doing to reach out to what he regards as the

peripherals in society.

            These peripherals can be those in some irregular situation

like the divorced and remarried, the separated, or the gays, those

still in some tribal cultures with pagan beliefs and practices, those

whose ideologies are opposed to the Christian faith, etc.

            In another sense, the peripherals can also be those in the

mainstream not only in society but also in the Church itself who need

to be constantly converted, since everyone of us, whether we like to

admit it or not, is a sinner. (cfr. 1 Jn 1,8)

            These latter can be the more difficult cases to

Christianize, since they can be so trapped in their self-righteousness

that they can sound and act more popish than the Pope, more Catholic

than the Pope, even more strict than God himself.

            They can be like the Pharisees of old that could not see

the Redeemer when in fact the Redeemer was right in front of them.

Instead they clung to their own laws, traditions and ideas. Worse,

they always tried to find fault in Christ until they finally managed

to deliver him to death on the cross. Their idea of God and the

Redeemer is strictly according to their own making.

            We have to be most careful with this very subtle danger

that is so common nowadays. Many good people fall for it. In their

ardent desire and effort to be good and holy, they end up making

themselves their own god, their own redeemer, such that they could not

stand anyone or anything that is not like them.

  

            They would regard dealing with the peripherals as a waste

of time, since these cases, so unlike them, are already consigned by

them to the category of the completely lost, hopeless and

irredeemable.

            Instead, we should try to be always open to everyone, and

in fact give some special attention, like what Christ did, to the

difficult cases, the lost sheep, lost coin and the prodigal son. We

should try to foster relationship with others, trying to be always

engaging, so that with friendliness and cordial treatment, we can

manage to clarify things and hopefully motivate people toward

conversion.

            For this, we truly have to be mature both in the human and

Christian sense, vitally united with Christ and keenly discerning of

what the Holy Spirit is prompting us.