He had a beard, so he can't be all bad. In spite of his beard, John the Baptist has never been one of my favorite saints. Screaming men who wear fur coats and eat bugs make me very nervous. He was not the type of person you sit out on the deck and have a beer with. Before you could pop the top, he'd be giving you a lecture on the evils of drinking. He has always reminded me of those people who have just gotten back from making a Cursillo or a trip to Medjugorje and can’t wait to get in your face and redo your life for you. You know that condescending attitude that says; "I know the truth now and I’m sorry you're so defective." As soon as they start talking, I look for the nearest exit. I've always wanted to say to him: "John, buddy, lighten up!
But as I have gotten older and wiser; I have begun to appreciate John a little more, In fact, maybe he could be a role model for today's American Catholic. John the Baptist stands out as a believer who is both critical and committed, the two essential ingredients most needed in today's church. He, above all, seems to have found a balance between those two poles.
As our church continues to undergo massive transformation, the tension between the left and the right continues to produce anxiety in the hearts of believers everywhere. It seems that zealots at both ends of the spectrum are claiming to own the truth. Somehow, we must cooperate and give up our competition, separatism, and fragments of the truth. Maybe John the Baptist can teach us to ignore zealots of every stripe and listen to the less shrill voices of reason and joy. Maybe we can find some common ground between the hypercritical and the blindly committed. Maybe John can teach us to be both critical and committed.
Criticism, without commitment, is cruelty. There is a growing number of Catholic people who have moved to the edges or left the church altogether to take potshots at the church from their safe positions of smug superiority. They have their well-documented lists of flaws and sins to justify their withdrawal from active church life and are willing to point them out on cue. They are like the people who look at a thorny bush with a single flower and see a thornbush rather than a rosebush. Behind their superior attitude is a belief that others are responsible for the health of the church, and they will not grace the church with their presence until it conforms to their point of view.
Just as dangerous are those who are committed without being critical. Even Pope John Paul II, when he was still Cardinal Wojtyla, wrote in 1969: “Conformism means the death of any community; a loyal opposition is a necessity in any community.” Blind commitment without question is also unhealthy for the church. There are those among us who would have us believe that anything our leaders say or do should be followed without question, without hesitation.
Sometimes the church's best friends are those who criticize it. A very respected spiritual writer in our church, Louis Evely; far from being a radical, has written: "The church is dying, and her murderers are those clerics who spend their lives repeating what was said before their time and redoing what was done when they were young. True fidelity is inventive. A faith that asks no questions is not faith. A faith that is not able to put up with questions is not faith. To have faith means to have enough light to be willing to tolerate certain areas of darkness."
Read church history. Its history is darkest when its prophets were silenced. Prophets challenge too much belief in the status quo. Those who question some of the positions of the church may be its best friends. A case in point: the Vatican defended slavery during the American Civil War. Would disagreement with that position then make you a bad Catholic? No! It would actually make you a real Catholic! Our history is full of cases where we were saved from our own foolishness and cowardice by people who made waves. those who made "good trouble."
Criticism without commitment is cruelty. Commitment without criticism is lazy, sentimental, and infantile. What is needed is the spirit of John the Baptist. He was both critical and committed. What we really need today is people who care enough and love enough to raise some questions. We need committed people who are willing, in the words of Saint Paul, to "profess the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Those who drop out and attack from the outside are no help. Those who stay and bury their heads in blind conformity are dangerous and destructive. What we need is people who are committed but vigilant and attentive, knowing in their hearts that this old church requires, in the words of Pope Paul VI, “that continual reformation of which she always has need.” What we need are people who are committed, not to forms and old ways of doing things, but to the gospel itself; people who understand that if we are too concerned with preserving our old wineskins, then we shall inevitably lose the new wine.
As a pastor, I was sometimes
caught in a tug of war between the critical and the committed. I tried to
model myself after John the Baptist. I have tried to model for you the marriage
of those two perspectives. I have tried, especially in my preaching, to be both
carefully critical and deeply committed. It's not always a comfortable
position, but I believe it is a spiritually healthy position. After all, there
is "this treasure we possess in earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7),
and we need to know the difference between the treasure and the crock.
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