Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time (September 5, 2018): Are you on milk or solid food?

Hungry for God? Sure you are! If you didn’t have a spiritual appetite, you wouldn’t be reading these Good News Reflections. But what type of hunger do you have? Some people are satisfied with baby food. They want everything pureed for them, i.e., they want the truth to be plain and simple, clear-cut, black and white with no grey areas, nothing to chew on. This kind of faith is effortless and easy.

However, St. Paul says in today’s first reading that this level of faith means we are “still of the flesh”. It takes hard work to understand the truth on a deeper level, with all of its nuances, and it takes the same hard work to overcome the sinful desires of our flesh-nature. Jealousy, quarrels, divisions, greed, anger, impatience, swearing, complaining, addictions, selfishness, and all the other vices we succumb to are indications that we haven’t put enough effort into deepening our understanding of the truth.

It takes spiritual maturity to appreciate — and respond to — the desires of our holy nature, which was given to us by the Holy Spirit during our baptisms. Paul told the “baby” Christians of Corinth that they were God’s “field” (to be harvested) and “building” (still under construction). This is our starting point. God has planted us in his field. He has built his foundation in our lives.

But then what? Do we want to stay in this baby stage?

When we accept the hard labor of growing in holiness, we become God’s co-workers. As partners in his mission, we are his earthly hands that plant seeds and that build up others on his foundation.

In the more advanced stages of spiritual understanding, we accept suffering and sacrifice as part of the mortar that holds the building together. We see beyond what’s obvious and we accept the guidance of God even when it doesn’t make sense. We accept Christ’s ministry (a glimpse of which we see in today’s Gospel reading) as our own, even with all of its hardships.

As we proclaim in today’s responsorial Psalm, “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.” However, we cannot enter into this blessing if we act like babies; babies cry out: “give me, feed me, hold me”.

Infants are ignorant, but ignorance (contrary to the old cliché) is not bliss. Ignorance leads us into danger, which is why toddlers should not go out into the street alone. Ignorance also hides many exciting challenges, and so we miss wonderful opportunities to make a good difference in the world.

In the more advanced stages of spiritual understanding, we go with Jesus wherever he goes. The work of sharing in Christ’s mission is not accomplished in baby cribs. Cribs have bars that hold us back. Ministry — making a difference in the lives of others — occurs outside the security of our comfort zones.

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica