Today’s readings: Joshua 5, 9-12; 2 Cor. 5, 17-21; Luke 15, 1-3.11-32.
As a Church we have always had problems with change, whether in society, beliefs, values, or within the institution itself. We think statically. It may be due to fear or insecurity in the face of letting go of one’s frame of mind or it may be lack of discernment to choose between the core of beliefs and what is accessorial.
This is vital in the context of the Lenten journey. Lent is not simply about one’s own personal life and behaviour. Our faith is not simply a rigid repetition of what we received from the past. Innovation unfortunately is unwelcome in our language and in our circles. But that is what Christianity should be about. That is what faith should drive us to, to have eyes to see clearly and freshly how believing in God is not tantamount to remaining stuck in the past.
The Scriptures offer important hints of the way forward in rediscovering what Christianity is about in the 21st century. In the first reading, Joshua, who was the successor of Moses and had the daunting task of driving the people in its last phase before entering the Promised Land, had to decide for himself where the past ends and the future begins.
What today is at stake in a cultural context like ours is the Church’s ability to both maintain and invigorate its witness. Again, we read from Joshua that “from that time, the manna stopped falling” and “the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded”.
In today’s gospel, what transpires as crucial is the younger brother’s decision and determination when “he came to his senses”. This is the determination we need now, individually and collectively, to look ahead, not to remain stuck in a religiosity that no longer responds to what we need as nourishment on the human and the spiritual levels.
What many a time we are perpetuating is a religion that simply runs parallel to daily life, never crossing or impacting on it. We still invest in a religious past and struggle to keep the temple religion on life support systems that should have been unplugged long ago. This perpetuates religious alienation, and creates difficulties in transforming the faith into authentic spirituality and nourishment for the younger generation.
When we remain stuck in the past, the future never begins. Rather, it takes us unaware, as is often happening. Our roots are important, but growth more so. The Father’s admonition to the alienated elder brother who thought himself faithful and obedient, is very eye-opening: “You are with me always.” In other words, we can be so near and yet so distant.
There is a cry coming from the younger and adult generation that means business where faith is concerned. People are still in search of belonging, of spirituality, of liberation from a frame of mind that no longer responds to today’s spiritual needs. St Paul writes in today’s second reading that there is now something new and we need to open our eyes. Being reconciled to God, as Paul exhorts, means also coming to terms with the culture we live in to be in a position to impact positively and with sense as believers.
We are called to be reconciled to God in the newness of things, in reality as it is evolving and changing, because God is innovation. We are called first and foremost to meet the expectations of the present generation that reach out far beyond the religious services we provide for in our churches. There is an urgency to step out of the box of Christendom to take on the problems raised by Christendom itself, write authors Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, leaders in Missional Networks. Christendom is the paradigm that presided over the past 17 centuries in the West but which has been going through its shipwreck in the face of an emerging secularist and pluralist culture.
This culture has radically questioned and marginalised religion. This is what we have been afraid of in this culture. It is time to move on and realise that in enshrining Christendom as the sole form of Christianity or of the Church, we failed miserably to answer to the challenges of the gospel and of the times. Being reconciled to God in the here and now means acknowledging that God still works His salvation for us and that we need to be bold enough to let go of the past to rediscover and experience the Father’s embrace whatever our situation or life history.