THE PAIN OF BIRTH CAN BE CONFUSED WITH THE PAIN OF DEATH

 

Some who had come down from Judea were teaching,“ Unless you are circumcised

according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” Because there arose no little

dissension and debate by Paul and Barnabas with them, it was decided that Paul,

Barnabas, and some of the others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and

elders about this question.

Acts 15

Many times, when Catholics use the phrase "changes in the church," they assume that the only "changes" that have occurred happened in their lifetimes - probably at Vatican Council II back in 1962 to 1965! When we think that way, we reveal a glaring ignorance of church history. To talk about "changes in the church," you have to go all the way back to the changes agreed on at the Council of Jerusalem in about 48 AD that is referred to in today's first reading.

The Council of Jerusalem is generally dated to about 48 AD, roughly15 to 25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. That meeting was called to debate whether or not male Gentiles who were converting to become followers of Jesus were required to be circumcised - that is to become Jews first! At the time, most followers of Jesus were Jews by birth. Even converts would have considered the early Christians as a sect of Judaism. According to scholars, Jewish Christians affirmed every aspect of the then contemporary Judaism with the addition of the belief that Jesus was the Messiah. The belief among them would have been that unless males had undergone Jewish circumcision, they could not be part of God's Chosen People. The meeting was called to decide whether circumcision for gentile converts was requisite for community membership since certain individuals in the community were teaching that "unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Others disagreed, making it necessary for an official decision to be made.

There was another council mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles to consider "changes in the church." This time is was about how to deal with the problems of rapid growth and fairness. Here is what it says in chapter 6:1-6. "At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community. They presented seven men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them."

Not counting these two church councils, there have been 21 ecumenical councils to deal with changes in the church. "Changes in the church" was not something that we invented in our lifetimes. It is something that has been part of the church since its beginning. It's laughable to think that the church was "change resistant" in the 1950s and that we should go back there and stay there!

What the first reading teaches us today is this - change is a fact of life and there would be no life without it, even for the church. Pope Francis, earlier this month, said this: "Wanting to go back to the way things were in the past is not Christian. Looking back to find inspiration is good because “without roots we cannot progress,” he said. “But to go in reverse is to go back in order to have a form of defense, a safety measure that saves us from the risk of going forward, the Christian risk of carrying the faith, the Christian risk of journeying with Jesus Christ.”

The message in today's first reading comes at a good time. Changes are coming at us faster and faster, making some people in the church and in our country more and more nervous. Like our first reading today said, we are again in that space where “no little dissention and debate has arisen.” We need to know some facts about the process of change and how to handle those changes as they unwind.

In my estimation, the best scriptural story to explain what happens during a major change, welcomed or not, is the story of the Exodus. The story of Exodus is the story of people being called to something new, setting out in excitement at first, being tempted in discouragement to back out of the process when things got tough, the decision to keep going and finally arriving at a new level of happiness and satisfaction. It would be worth reading the whole story at length sometime.

In that story, the People of God are trapped in slavery in Egypt. They get an opportunity to escape and go to a country of their own. At first, they were excited and filled with joy thinking that happiness would be theirs almost immediately. They did not realize that making a drastic change like that meant they had to personally change too and that change would bring them great hardship for a while. In a desert for 40 years, the People of God lose patience and want to go back to their imagined "good old days" of Egypt. Moses had to keep the vision of where they were going alive and keep prodding them to go forward.

The story teaches us that making a decision to change and setting out is always the easy part - whether its to go on a diet, to enter a treatment program or to change jobs. That is why so many people, undergoing difficult changes, often try to “go back to Egypt” when the “harshness of the desert” gets to be too much. Under the stress that comes with change, they start yearning for “the good old days” and start telling themselves that things weren't so bad "back then" after all compared to the stress of change they had to go through to get to the where they were going. Many, during the hardships of change, begin to idealize their old life and forget about the problems they had back then by telling themselves that “at least in Egypt we had meat and bread to eat."

That story is a template for all difficult changes we set out to make. Take the example of an abused spouse who gets a chance to escape her abuser. She is happy to be free at last, but once away from her abuser, having been stripped of her self-esteem by her abuser, she begins to get scared of what is ahead of her. She begins to tell herself, “What if I can’t make it? Where will I live? What if I end up living on the streets? Some tough it out and rebuild their lives, but many return to their abusers because the fear of the unknown becomes scarier than their abuse. They “return to the slavery of Egypt” so to speak. They go back to their abusers because, as bad as it was, it was not as scary as being out there on their own.

Take the example of the person who is an addict. One day, they finally get up the courage to go to their first “recovery” meeting. They get excited about a possible new life. They like the program and the people around them going through recovery. Then a sober life gets to be too hard. It gets worse before it has a chance to get better and so they seek relief by going back to alcohol, drugs or serial sexual encounters. They convince themselves that their old life may have been bad, but it was not as bad as trying to stay sober.

Take the example of the changes in the church initiated at Vatican Council II. For many lay people and priests, the control exerted from the very top had become a version of slavery. I remember the excitement after the Council. For me and many of the people who went through it, it was like “leaving the slavery of Egypt.” Looking back, we were pretty naïve. It never crossed our minds that we would have to go through a “desert,” many years of confusion and disappointment. Now some of our members want to “go back to Egypt.” They are idealizing the “good old days” and tell themselves that they were not that bad after all - in fact much better than the chaos that all the Vatican II changes have brought on! Others, refusing to turn back, are determined to get through the chaos of major change and push on! Pope Francis, our modern day Moses like the Moses of old, keeps telling us to "keep going forward and don’t look back!" Like the Moses of old, he is being cursed by those who want to “return to Egypt” and rebuild the old Pre-Vatican II church! Pope Francis knows that if the Church is to survive, grow and nourish the faith of the next generation, it has to change and adapt just as it always has in the past. If it doesn’t, it is doomed to become an inbred little cult that will shrink even more into irrelevance.

Our country is going through a similar time of chaos and crisis. The country has been gradually changing for many years now. Some (women, minorities and immigrants) like the changes and the freedom that they have brought. On the other hand, these changes are forcing others to give up their privileged positions of power and status. They want to “return to Egypt,” “the way America used to be,” when things were “better” for them, of course! As much as they try to keep our country from changing, they are fighting a losing battle. Women are not going to stand back and shut up! African Americans are not going back to Africa or return to their days of slavery. Immigrants are not about to give up their hopes to experience the “American dream.” Women will lead! Our country will continue to become browner. Immigrants will continue to arrive, one way or another. We are not going back to Egypt, no matter how uncomfortable the "desert" gets! We need to listen to the Moses-types among us who encourage to "remain calm and carry on" until we get to that "new day in America" that we are giving birth to right now!

It is my belief that the pain and chaos we are going through as a church and a country can be compared to a gigantic egg that is hatching. Some of us were going along quite content until one day we woke up and noticed that there are fine cracks forming all over that egg. Each day the cracks got bigger and scarier. Some of us panicked and started running around with tape, ropes and glue, trying to "fix" those cracks. Some assumed that we are "falling apart." Others of us, even though we are scared and nervous, are yelling, "Stand back, make room, the damned thing is hatching!" I grew up in the country. I have watched eggs hatch up close! The dumbest thing you can do is to try to tape the shell closed while it is hatching!

My friends, we are not going through the pains of dying! We are going through the pains of giving birth! Some of you here have given birth, and you have told me that when you were going through it, you thought you would die! Big changes are always like that - whether it is personal change or changes in our church or in our country! We are not dying. We are just giving birth to something new again! When undergoing great change, we can often get confused about which is which!