Some claim that if the Church were to change her teachings and make life easier for the faithful that she would have more members. This is an absurd statement for the Church’s mission is to preserve the teachings of Christ as handed down to us by the apostles and is to lead others towards an encounter with holiness. Even Jesus did not have it easy. Some even rejected Him as we see played out for us in today’s Gospel.
From it we were told: “He was no able to perform any mighty deed there. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” The rejection of Christ and His teachings are summed up throughout the course of the scriptures such as in John 6:66 (666 that should be easy to remember): “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Also, in Mark 15:13 when He was judged to crucifixion: “They shouted again, crucify him.”
If we think of the prophets (like Christ and all of us) they also did not have it easy. From Ezekiel we were instructed: “I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me.” It would of been easy for a prophet to head into a foreign nation and tell them what they want to hear. If they did this they would be easily accepted, but they would not be transmitting the truth to which they were to testify to.
Saint Paul’s epistle hits the nail on the head for in he mentions: “I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” These are powerful words because they are not what we want to hear. We would rather be told to avoid weakness, to avoid insult, to avoid persecution, to avoid constraint for in doing so we will be accepted and our life will be made easy.
If we want our life to be made easy we must come to accept Christ and to hand over everything to Him. In Matthew 11: 28-30 we are comforted by these words: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Therefore, my sisters and brothers in Christ, let us not conform ourself to what comes easily or to what is of popular opinion. Rather, let us be conformed to Christ Jesus. In conforming ourself to Christ we come to embrace Him no matter the joy or difficulty. To proclaim Christ to a world which is hostile to the reality of truth can be hard, but we must be willing to represent the Gospel in its fullness and not just one which is fragmented to represent popular opinion. G.K. Chesterton: “We do not want a Church that will move with the world. We want a Church that will move the world.”
