I belong to a Small Christian Community (SCC) in my parish named after St. John the Apostle. SCCs are very popular in Kenya and an effective means of organizing and engaging the parishioners of the parish in the mission of the Church and the parish’s role in that mission. SCCs typically get together once a week to pray and read and reflect on the Gospel. My parish, St. Mary’s, has just over 30 SCCs.
For Lent, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) puts out a booklet that includes readings on practical day-to-day challenges in living out our faith and reflection questions, which we discuss as a group in our SCC gatherings during Lent.
The topic for the last week of Lent centered on threats to living out the faith in the current culture, and specifically threats to the family. These types of discussions are always challenging for me as my life spans two completely different cultures – being born, raised, and having lived most of my life in the United States and now living in Kenya. The culture and societal views in Kenya today are more reminiscent of the U.S. when I was growing up. However, the U.S. of today is so much different.
However, when we discuss how to promote values consistent with our faith in a world that is increasingly hostile to the Gospel message, my response is the same in both cases – simply be a witness to our faith in the way you live out your life. Yes, we need to engage the culture with words and arguments in support of what is true and consistent with the teachings of Jesus. But the only way to truly change hearts and minds is by living as a witness to this truth.
In Dostoevsky’s novel the Brothers Karamazov, the middle brother Ivan struggles deeply with the question of unjust human suffering, particularly that of children, and the idea of an all-loving God. This struggle is extremely prominent in the thinking of our post-modern society today, which rejects any notion of a purpose or efficacy associated with suffering.
In a key part of the novel, Ivan tells a story to his brother Alyosha in order to challenge Alyosha’s religiously grounded worldview. In the tale, Christ returns to Earth in Seville, Spain at the time of the Inquisition and performs a number of miracles. During the story, the Grand Inquisitor attempts to scrutinize Jesus’s responses to the devil during his temptations in the desert as depicted in the Gospels by asserting that Jesus missed an opportunity to save humanity from needless suffering. However, during the interrogation of Jesus, the Grand Inquisitor states a keen insight. “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” How pertinent is this truth in today’s culture which increasingly views people as nothing more than collections of biological molecules that simply act according to the laws of nature? Given this worldview, it’s no wonder that many people struggle to find meaning in life. They have no concept of their mission.
The late Swiss theologian Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar said that there are two dramas that we can choose to live. The theo-drama is the unfolding story of creation being written and directed by God. This is contrasted with the ego-drama in which we are the center of the story and the point upon which everything else revolves.
I typically pray the Rosary using Bishop Barron’s beautiful reflections (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE247jOt4AA&list=PLg6k5UmSDlcigRZ52ETLRRoolBLuBJa20) on the four mysteries. In the second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation, in which we hear that the pregnant Mary goes in haste to visit her cousin Elisabeth, whom the Angel Gabriel had also revealed to be with child, Bishop Barron speculates that Mary proceeded in haste because she had found her mission. That is, she had discerned her unique role in the story being told by God and chose to take an active part in that story.
However, most of society today lives according to the ego-drama, which is the story that we write, we direct, we produce, and most importantly that we star in. The ego-drama is only concerned with ourselves, what we want, and our own personal freedom. But as Christians, we are called to life in the body of Christ, which is lived out in the theo-drama. What gives life meaning and purpose is to find and live out our unique role in that theo-drama, the salvation story being told by God. God created each of us in a particular time and place. Each of us is an integral character in the story he is telling, which eventually leads, for those who choose to be part of the story, to everlasting joy and happiness with him. Life outside of this story is shallow and meaningless. Our existence on earth lasts but a brief moment, but during this time we are given the opportunity and freedom to seek out and be part of the eternal story being worked out by God in cosmic history.
This is what Ivan is intuiting in the quote from his story of the Grand Inquisitor, a belief which Fyodor Dostoevsky elegantly espouses through his novel’s characters. Our society today, is intensely focused on self-gratification and personal safety, which are not necessarily bad things, but become perverted when they are accepted as the sole purposes of living. It’s not surprising that so many people are preoccupied with the misplaced idea of creating a utopian form of eternal life for themselves here on earth, rather than finding a purpose and meaning outside of themselves.
As Jesus teaches, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it produces much fruit.” (John 12:20-33) In this passage, Jesus is exhorting us to die to ourselves, to live life outside of ourselves. In other words, to find our mission and put ourselves in the service of others in the theo-drama. By doing this we become truly alive. We become what God created us to be with a share in his divine life. This is the call to missionary discipleship that Jesus puts forth to us at Easter in the light of his glorious resurrection.
God is good.
