April 20th, 2014
I don’t know if you ever heard of an Irish rock and roll band called U2—or of the band leader—a bloke by the name of Bono. Well to tell you the truth I have no idea what their music sounds like since I stopped listening to rock and roll when Bob Seeger retired.
The rock star answered, “Oh yes, my family and I pray to Jesus every night….”
But Bono is certifiably famous—he is a media giant. Not only is he famous for his music—he is famous for his philanthropy and his efforts on behalf of the poor. And I used to think maybe it was a little self-serving—”Here I am the Big Rock Star—helping poor people. I am so good.”
But the other day I scrolled across a clip of a television interview that he did recently. And truth to tell, it was an amazing two minutes.
Now the interviewer was a very distinguished looking older man. He was impeccably dressed—with white hair—and Ruddy cheeks. His face was pleasant and his accent had that certain sound you get when an Irishman tries to sound like an Englishman—you just know that he thinks he is just a bit superior to the rest of us.
Now Bono—who is probably about 50—was sitting there looking a little scruffy. Though Bono is so rich he probably could buy the television station that was interviewing him. In the bit of the clip that I saw, the conversation turned to religion. They began discussing the fact that Bono and his wife and family actually believe in Jesus. And when the commentator heard that he looked as if he were about to faint—he seemed actually puzzled that this famous rock star might actually believe in all the religion stuff. Amazing!
And with a little wry smile on his face the interviewer asked “Do you actually believe in this Jesus? Really! Well, what or who was He—as far as you are concerned? Do you actually believe that He is Divine? That He is the Messiah? That He is the Son of God? Do you really believe this?”
The Irish rock and roller answered very pleasantly, “Oh yes, my family and I pray to Jesus every night and we gather on this huge bed that we have and we pray to Him. And our prayer is that God’s will would be done in our lives.”
The TV guy by now was about ready to swallow his tongue. He could not believe what he was hearing—that this immensely rich and famous rock star actually believed—not only in Jesus—but that Jesus was God. Bono even went on to give him the classic defense of Jesus’ Divinity: He told him that of course he believes that Jesus is God. It is not enough to say that Jesus was a great thinker or a great philosopher. And the reason is that because Jesus claimed He was God—that is either true or Jesus was a madman—no middle ground. He is either God as He says He is or He is a nutter—(Bono’s word).
The interviewer seemed flummoxed: ” Well, do you believe that He rose from the dead? So that when you pray you are praying to the risen Jesus?”
“Yes. I believe.”
Without hesitation and with great calm and evident peace Bono said “Yes. I believe.”
I guess sometimes even famous people—if they are smart enough—believe in the very same things we believe. But that is not why I mention Bono’s interview. What I really want to show is that this rock and roller in his very homemade but sincere profession of faith has put his finger on the very thing that separates believers from non-believers and Jesus from His enemies—and it is no less than this: Jesus is God or He is nothing. And we either believe in Him as God and face the consequences and live up to the implications or we believe in nothing and go back to living our meaningless lives.
Look at the gospels we have been reading for the last few weeks—miracle after miracle. And what is the point of all those miracles? That Jesus was compassionate? That He had a heart of gold and did not want people to suffer? That He did not want people to be poor or blind or handicapped or hungry or immoral—or even dead? And so he healed them and gave them comfort and made them to see and made them to walk and gave them to eat and forgave their sins—or raised them from the dead.
But if that is all Jesus came to do—to feed the poor and the hungry and cure the blind and lame and halt and yes—raise the dead—then He would have to explain why there was—all over Israel—at that very moment—thousands more poor hungry, blind lame and halt and dead—who were not cured—who were not healed—who were not brought back to life. Why did He do it for these few and not for those thousands?
Because the point of all the miracles—every one of them—was to prove that He was God—that He was who He said He was—the Son of God—the Messiah. He never shrunk from proclaiming His identity—He didn’t play coy—He didn’t pretend—He didn’t deny. He was so clear that He told them—before Abaraham came to be I AM.
He could not have said it clearer—He was God and that is why His enemies looked to put Him to death and put Him on a cross—not because they were jealous—not because they misunderstood Him—not because they were greedy—but because He equated Himself with God. And that they refused to believe. That claim to Divinity—was what got Him killed.
So it all comes down to us. Do we believe that He is God—that He is who He said He was? Of course we believe. We would not be here in church if we did not believe it. But how deeply do we believe?
Do we understand the real life implications of our belief? Does our belief get into the very marrow of our bones—does it have an effect on how we look at things—how we perceive the world and our life? Does it change the way we do marriage or home or family?
Does the fact that we believe mean that we actually pray with our spouse or with our family? Every night? Or are we a little embarrassed to do that—kind of over the top for us.
And all that garbage they throw at us—on TV and in the movies—do we even recognize it as garbage that they are throwing at our beloved Jesus in whom we say we believe.
Yes—and every time there is a gay character on TV who gets married and everyone on the show melts at the wonder of it all—don’t we see that we are being manipulated? That we are being maneuvered into questioning not the atheists who run Hollywood– but Jesus and our own Catholic faith.
Have we allowed ourselves to think that some vague adolescent understanding of mercy now allows every moral enormity and that Jesus didn’t really teach anything about how concretely we live our lives if we believe He is God.
No. We have been propagandized so relentlessly that many Catholics including bishops and priests and deacons—while they do not say so explicitly have come to tacitly accept things like homosexual marriage? They have been manipulated into thinking that this issue has nothing to do with Jesus or our faith so they either ignore it or do their own bit of manipulation.
Every time some bishop hints that maybe the Catholic Church can accept civil unions—are they not aware—and of course they are—that any benefits that were ever historically given to married couples were for the sake of families and for the benefit of the children—and not in order that the person with whom someone is in love can get insurance?
Civil unions are as harmful to the institution of family as is homosexual marriage.
Civil unions are as harmful to the institution of family as is homosexual marriage. And maybe some bishop thinks civil unions are a great compromise and that way he can remain popular—while still holding on to the last shred of catholic belief—well he needs to think again. He cannot be on the side of Jesus and be loved by the world at the same time.
If what we say we believe as Catholics—and these days it always comes down to the life and love issues—abortion, homosexual marriage—mercy killing—contraception—if what we believe is not enough for the world to excoriate us— to laugh at us—to sneer at us—to hate us as it hated Him—if our profession of faith is not enough to make them want to stone us and put us up on the cross with Him—it is just not enough.
Some day they will come for us—and they will ask us—as the interviewer asked Bono—”Do you really believe in this Jesus? And that He is God? “Well our glory will be to say with all its implications about all the neuralgic and painful issues of our day—I do believe—and it is His will I follow—even if you should stone me.