My best friend and I have known each other for almost twenty-five years at this point, and I like to think that in that time I have come to know him rather well. One of the little joys that I get in life is hearing a song on the radio for the first time and thinking, “Man, I bet Sean hates this song with all his heart.” I’ve heard him complain about so many dumb songs these last few decades that sometimes I know what he hates before he even hears the song for the first time. However, I am never one to rest completely on speculation. I always call or text him and ask if he has heard the song, and if so, does he loathe it with all his being? It’s a strange tradition, but it is mine.
 
I bring this up because of a strange phenomenon that has been on the rise in the last century or so; one that has undermined our culture’s ability to have productive conversations about who God is and how He wants us to live. Though it takes many different names unto itself, it is the danger of relativism that threatens our quest to love and serve God, because it chips away at our ability to know Him in the first place. This worldview asserts that truth is not universal, and that each of us must discern our own personal truth by which to live. In this vein, the reason why I always check with my friend to see if my perception of his musical tastes is in sync with reality is because I recognize that he is a real person, and my impression of him does not create the truth about him. No matter how strongly I may guess at his opinions, I am still only observing a reality outside myself, not creating one that I would like.
 
Yet this mode of thinking is so prevalent today that even those who strive to follow Christ can fall into it easily. There is a wiser priest than myself who once spoke of the dangers of creating a “cocktail party Jesus,” wherein we pick and choose the aspects of Christ’s teaching that we find socially acceptable or personally useful, and then we conveniently ignore the elements of His life that are difficult or challenging.
 
How often we quote Jesus’ wonderful command not to judge lest we be judged, and yet how rarely we invoke His warning about being cast out with wailing and gnashing of teeth. In many ways, both large and small, we all run the risk of forming an image of Jesus in our own minds that does not correspond to reality.

In today’s Gospel, St. Luke speaks of Jesus’ near universal popularity at the beginning of His public ministry. We hear that He “taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.” It is a far cry from the end of His public ministry, when He was hunted down by the religious authorities of His day, betrayed by one of His disciples and abandoned by nearly all of the rest, and publicly executed in the most shameful way possible. The simple truth is that oftentimes Jesus’ preaching and ministry is difficult to follow, and it puts us at odds with the world. The solution to this which some pharisees settled upon was to have Him killed. The solution which our world has chosen today is to water down the teaching of Our Lord and create an image of Jesus which is more convenient and non-threatening.

This method is tempting, but St. Luke tells us again today that he has written his Gospel so that we may have certainty of the teachings we receive from Jesus. A false image of God will never be our salvation, but only the truth itself made incarnate in the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. As we set out at the beginning of ordinary time, we should endeavor together to seek Jesus in truth, and ask God for the grace to struggle with and accept His teaching in full, and to rise to the challenge to truly know, love, and serve Him.

Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough