Going deep

Today, I feel blessed to have read two wonderful passages in the Bible that really allowed me to reflect on my relationship with God. The first is from James [James 1:19-27]. The Letter of James is renowned for its call to make the Christian life a life of depth and not of superficiality.  He finds many ways to point to a life which isn’t merely a collection of good thoughts and kind wishes, but a life rich in actions.  From this letter we receive the often-quoted reminder that “Faith without works is dead.”

What struck me most about James’ words is the variety of ways in which he envisions faith being expressed in actions, in which the Christian life is to be one of depth. The passage’s reminder that true faith consists in “looking after orphans and widows” sounds just like the James I studied before choosing him for my ‘Confirmation saint’ as a teenager.  But slipped in just as easily are James’ injunctions to “control the tongue” and to “keep oneself unspotted by the world.”

Most surprising is the leadoff line which James sends our way, commanding us to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”  If ever there was a call to depth and not superficiality, this is it.  But could we think of three things that our contemporary society finds more difficult?

Quick to hear.  Sounds roar around us without interruption.  Normal, unavoidable sounds aren’t enough; we need “background sound.”  To really hear what someone else is saying demands that we stop and receive from another, that we allow the other’s words to “go deep.”  Are we anxious to “receive from another?”

Slow to speak.  From Twitter and Facebook and Instagram to talk shows, we’re not very slow to speak.  Talking “off the top of our heads” or “from the hip” without much depth comes easily to us.  Yet we’re delighted when we hear someone who speaks “from the heart.”  Do we speak “from the heart?”

Slow to anger.  I doubt that James would mind ‘good’ anger at injustices and other things that “shouldn’t be.”  What he would find hard to handle would be our society’s tendency to blame others first before looking at our own responsibility, the tendency to react rather than to respond.  When difficult words come our way, do we “react” or do we “respond?”

In the Gospel passage [Mark 8:22-26], Mark tells the story of Jesus and His healing of a blind man.  A lot has been written about this account with much focus on why Jesus took two attempts at curing the man’s blindness.  The best way for me to make sense of this reading is to relate it to my own life.  

I was baptized and then grew up in a Catholic family.  Throughout life, Mom (and even Dad, although he was not Catholic but supported Mom’s efforts to raise the children Catholic) stressed the importance of the Mass and being good Catholics.  And I think my faith was fairly strong – yes, I could ‘see’, but my religious life was fuzzy or not completely focused.  Junior high, high school, and even college was a little unfocused spiritually—people looked like “walking trees.”  I was fortunate enough to be given a second chance at enhancing my faith when I stumbled across EWTN radio and television stations while driving to work one day.  They provided a new perspective of Jesus and my relationship to him and God.  That spurred me to go to Confession after a long absence, further reading and inquiry and eventually into a deeper understanding of Jesus and my relationship with God.  And it was through this inquiry and my willingness to hear God’s message that my spiritual sight was restored, and I was able to see clearly and to truly get it.  Now, is my spirituality or my connection with God always perfectly clear?  No — but when it occasionally becomes fuzzy, it always seems to help when I purposely reconnect with God through more intense study or by being more open to hearing his word.

Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.  James encourages us to let these actions flow from our faith.  What a life of depth that demands!