First Base in Christian Life
According to the Wikipedia baseball is the national sport of the United States of America. It has been known traditionally as "America's Pastime". In popularity though it is only second to football. Only nearly half of Americans are baseball fans. It is estimated that an average of 3.5 million view per game of baseball through personal attendance and through television. It is a very popular game indeed.
Not many of us know that baseball has a very relevant bearing on our Christian life. It has rules which can be used to illustrate what happens in our Christian life.
In today's Gospel reading Jesus tells us about the first requirement if we are going to live the Christian life, a life of following Jesus. In baseball we need to step on first base before we can go on to second base, third base and the home run. This first requirement is most necessary in both the baseball game and in our Christian life. Without following this first requirement there can be no home run, there can be no real Christian life.
This is what Jesus says in our Gospel reading today: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."
For Jesus the first thing we are to do if we want to come after him, to be a Christian, is to deny ourselves.
Self-denial is the first base in Christianity. Without self-denial we cannot go to second base, we cannot do properly, genuinely and fruitfully the other activities of a Christian. Without self-denial all our so-called Christian acts are, as it were, foul, invalid. We shall later see that the Church sees this requirement as most necessary to such an extent that if this is not met, all the succeeding sacraments are invalid, without meaning and without use.
When I read the commentaries on this Gospel verse about self-denial, I was surprised to find out that most of them missed the real thought of Jesus on this matter.
Most of them teach that we are to deny this or that thing if it is not going to please God. Thus they say that we deny ourselves pleasures or worldly entertainments if these are contrary to our Christian duties. Following is a quotation showing such kind of teaching.
"To deny ourselves, is to put off our natural affections towards the good things of this life, let them be pleasures, profit, honours, relatives, life, or anything, which would keep us from our obedience to the will of God." (Matthew Poole's Commentary)
This is not what Jesus meant when he said that we must deny ourselves if we wish to come after him. He did not say that we must deny ourselves this or that activity. He simply said that we must deny ourselves. In the original Greek the verb means "to refuse to recognize, to ignore".
Fortunately there are a few commentators who teach us the real meaning of what Jesus said.
The great Reformer John Calvin explained in his Commentary that this statement of Jesus means to "give our consent to be reduced to nothing".
James Nisbet comments that many deny things to themselves who never deny self. And he continues, "Only there does self-denial exist, where Christ takes the place of self for all life's decisions."
As usual William Barclay has a beautiful description of this self-denial from the viewpoint of Jesus. Here is his description:
"To deny oneself means in every moment of life to say no to self and yes to God. To deny oneself means once, finally and for all to dethrone self and enthrone God. To deny oneself means to obliterate self as the dominant principle of life, and to make God the ruling principle, more, the ruling passion, of life. The life of constant self-denial is the life of constant assent to God."
Jesus did not and does not allow us to interpret this verse according to our opinion. His succeeding sentence plainly tells us what he meant. To deny self means to lose our life for his sake, to cease on living for his sake, to die so that he may live and reign in us and through us.
Thayer has also a picturesque description of this self-denial. He wrote that to deny oneself is "to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self, and one's own interests".
My own interpretation is that self-denial here means to throw away the self, to kill it and to bury it, never to come back to life again.
That is the meaning of our baptism. Our Catechism says that in baptism we die with Christ and are buried with him. We lose our lives in Jesus. By this sacrament we are no longer our own selves. Our selves have died and are buried with Christ.
Our Catechism teaches: "This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature". (1214)
Several paragraphs later the Catechism continues: "According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with Christ's death, is buried with him, and rises with him: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (1227)
This is the first of the sacraments. Without this sacrament no other sacrament can have meaning or effect.
Thus this self-denial, this dying to self, is our first step in following Jesus. James Nisbet says that it implies a definite act and decision, as introductory to a life of consecration and discipleship.
What I want to emphasize is that in the Christian life Jesus wants to take over our life so completely that there is no more room left for ourselves. We just throw ourselves away at the feet of Jesus.
St. Paul has a better imagery in the second reading. He says: "I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship." He wants us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We offer ourselves to God as a sacrifice, to be burned away. In this way we are being transformed to what God wants us to be, perfect reflections of his son Jesus.
The first reading describes the condition of a person who has denied his self. He is a person who has been duped, he is an object of laughter, everyone mocks him. The word of the Lord has brought to Jeremiah derision and reproach all the day. There is a fire burning in his heart which he cannot endure. He has given his self to God to suffer.
Do not think that if you give yourself to God all will be smoothly sailing. It was not so with Jeremiah. It was not so with the Apostle Paul. He wrote to the Corinthians: "Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; I was stoned once, shipwrecked three times; I paused a day and night on the sea. I traveled continually, endangered by floods, robbers, my own people, the Gentiles; imperiled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by false brothers; enduring labor, hardship, many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst and frequent fastings, in cold and nakedness." (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)
It was not also smooth sailing with Jesus. He died a most shameful and most painful death on the cross.
But that is the Christian life, a life which begins with self-denial. Glory does follow, as in Jesus, but not without self-denial, the cross, death and burial.
Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Thank you, Jesus, for reminding us that the Christian life is not a bed of roses, but a life which begins with our death to self, signified by our baptism. You are now the one living in us and through us. Thank you for your life lived in us, through us, and for us.
- - - - - - - - - -
Note for the readers:
The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.
NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.
AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.
No comments:
Post a Comment