I usually
write a ‘This Week in Madonna House’ wrap-up on Saturday. At this point in the
summer, it gets hard to do this, as the weeks start to look pretty much like
one another, and I could virtually get away with copying and pasting last
week’s post. Work and hospitality, hospitality and work, rinse and repeat… such
is life in high summer at MH.
Meanwhile,
something cropped up on my Facebook page lately that I was unable to respond to
in the narrow confines of an FB comment thread. Namely, this:
Now it first
must be said that this quote is wholly fabricated – Pope Francis has never said
these words. And that if someone is trying to make a larger point about being a
good person without God, it’s probably not a good idea to start off by TELLING
A LIE. Just a thought.
But what
about the actual quote? Is there some validity to these words, anyhow? Leaving
aside the parts of the quote that are so vague that they are impossible to
respond to (the traditional notion of God… part, for example – what does that mean?),
let’s focus in on the question of ‘can you be a good person and not believe in
God.’ What is the Catholic answer to that.
The Catholic
answer to that is that, no, it is not really possible to be a good person and
not have a relationship to God. I would go further and say that it is
impossible to be a good person, really, and not go to church (the ‘money’ thing
is a total red herring here, since the Church does not absolutely command
people to financially support it).
OK,
shocking! Intolerant! Hateful! Right? I thought you were a nice guy, Fr. Denis!
All that jazz. Well, I hope I’m a nice guy (more or less, on a good day), but
it’s a question here of thinking clearly through things. What does it mean to
be ‘good’? That is the question. When we say something is good, we mean that
the thing is everything that thing should be. Goodness is possessing all the
desirable qualities a thing should possess. A good hamburger is juicy,
flavorful, just the right size, and so forth. A good dog is happy, loyal, affectionate,
and obedient.
And a good
human being is a human being who is everything a human being should be. And we
are made by God, for God. We are made and our entire human vocation consists in
having a relationship to the One who made us, who loves us, and who wants to
fill us with Himself eternally in a free gift of love, the response to which
gift of love is the obedience of faith—believing in Him and so doing what He
asks of us.
And we
believe that He has revealed what He wants of us in Jesus Christ. And that
Jesus Christ has saved us and as an essential part of that work of salvation
has established us as a ‘people’, a community that comes together to receive
the grace of God in the sacraments and to embody the love of God by working to
form a community of love among ourselves.
So we cannot
be ‘a good person’ without possessing those necessary qualities—relationship
with God, obedience to His plan, membership in the community of believers. Not
because everyone who lacks those qualities is a depraved fiend lacking in any
good quality (that is an utter non-sequitur) but simply because to lack those
qualities is to be a hamburger full of flavour but dried up and crumbly. It is
to lack what we need to be what we are supposed to be, the kind of ‘thing’ that
we are.
Now where
this FB meme does have a point (and I suspect it’s the point the author was
going for) is that simply professing faith in God and simply showing up in
church weekly does not suffice to make one a good person. It is necessary, but
not sufficient. Part of the reason I knew immediately that Pope Francis never said
these words is because they are a banal observation—everyone knows that lots of
‘religious’ people are total jerks. We who go to church regularly are actually
the most aware of this, since we are rubbing shoulders with said jerks
constantly! Furthermore, on any given day, we may be those very jerks.
And of
course there are many atheists or unchurched theists who are kind, generous,
truthful, and a host of other virtues, and thank God for that. But that too,
while necessary, is not sufficient for 'goodness', because we are made by God, for God, and
without God and our obedience to His plan for humanity (the Church) we are not
being what we are made to be, and so we are not really good. And that is the
Catholic answer to that particular cultural meme.
Well, I have never seen this quote...or maybe I have and I just let it go by. Sometimes I just have to do that...because there is only so much discord I can let into my life each day.
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder if this is some kind of spin on that homily in May 2013 that caused such an uproar. Remember? Some felt Pope Francis was saying atheists were redeemed thru good deeds and not by belief in God...and others felt (and I think the Vatican later clarified this) that Pope Francis was encouraging us all to work together for the Good...who is Christ.
"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! "Father even the atheists? " even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class. We are created children in the likeness of God and the blood of Christ has redeemed us all. And we have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. "But I do not believe , father, I am an atheist." But do good: we will meet one another there".
(Pope Francis, may 2013)
These words I remember created such a stir. Perhaps they were not meant to seperate- but to draw all together to the Good...to Jesus....
Bless you.
Oh yes, absolutely. And I love that quote from Pope Francis! "We all have a duty to do good..." Amen!
Delete