In his homily Thursday Jan 29th , Pope Francis says ecclesial elites who form cliques and scorn others are privatizing the faith and not following the way of Jesus and that the privatization of salvation is the wrong path. He went on to say that there are three criteria or reasons we cannot privatize our faith and they are faith, hope and love. “Faith in Jesus who purifies us, hope that stirs us to look at His promises and go forward and charity (love): namely taking care of each other, to encourage us all to practice charity and good works.”
Pope Francis spoke from the perspective of those inside the Catholic faith. He was addressing small groups that are created within the larger community of God’s people. These smaller groups of people believe they are being good Christians and also are acting in good faith maybe, but they have privatized salvation by scorning, judging others and staying away from the community / the people of God.
I think he missed a trend, at least here in the United States, which is to apply massive pressure from those outside the faith via public opinion magnified by social media telling believers to privatize the faith – essentially telling the faithful to sit down and shut up. To borrow a recent popular phrase in the 21st century – we are being faith shamed and the more powerful, well paid and public a figure the more pressure is applied.
Will we Catholics continue to help shape the new anti-Christian culture in America (it’s always been anti-Catholic) by our own eagerness to fit in, our own distractions and a faith that lived barely lukewarm and practiced in private?
Archbishop Chaput wrote in his book – Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America : “A genuinely Catholic life should feed the soul as well as the mind; should offer a vision of men and women made whole by the love of God, the knowledge of creation, the reality of things unseen; should enable us to see the beauty of the world in light of eternity; and should help us recapture the nobility of the human story and the dignity of the human person.”
That’s the dignity of every single human person by the way – n matter where they stand on any issue in any part of the world.
The common good can never be served by muting the thoughts and opinions of any segment of the population in public debate but it does seems that Christian thought is being slowly and effectively shut out of the public sphere.
So once again Pope Francis is spot on – we cannot forget that privatizing our faith in any form is not the way of Jesus and sets us down the wrong societal path. Sure our faith is personal but it can never be, nor did Christ ever want it to be, private. Check out – Matthew 28:16-20
Lastly – today’s first reading punctuates the topic. Faith shaming is nothing new. Hebrews 10:32-39
“Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering. At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated. You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense. You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised. For, after just a brief moment, he who is to come shall come; he shall not delay. But my just one shall live by faith, and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him. We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.”
