Christian for Free . . . or Free Christian?

The Beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 6:17-26) are tough, and although Luke says basically the same as Matthew (Matt 5:1-11), Luke’s sermon looks even tougher than Matthew’s.

Jesus did not sell Christianity cheap. He came to set us free, but not “for free”. Nowadays I see a tendency in our churches to try to attract people by selling a cheap Christianity: “Come to Church, we are a wonderful community! Come to Church, you will have fun, our music is wonderful! Come to Church, you will be able to perform at our functions! You will have more friends! Don’t worry about Confession, we don’t do that any more! Come to Mass whenever you feel like it—Jesus understands! Use artificial contraceptives if you want, follow whatever teachings you want about abortion or euthanasia issues! Pick the commandments you prefer, Hakuna Matata, Kumbaia… no worries…”

Why the h… did Jesus die on the Cross? Because He was nice? Because He said, “Do whatever you want, I love you anyway?” Jesus corrected even ecclesiastical authorities of His time, and He paid for it. Our leader was persecuted and died. How much better can it be for us, if even our leader was killed? If the best of us had such a bad end, what can we expect for ourselves?

God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our strength. I don’t mean to scare you today. Jesus knows that we are weak, and that we may not yet be ready to give our lives for Him. He will never give us more than we can bear with. He is a good Father. But, precisely because He is a good Father, He wants us to grow. He wants us to understand what a real Christian is about, and what it means to follow Him, to be with Him, to live like Him.

Christian life is not a picnic, but an adventure. It is not a table game, but a football game, a game played in the field. Christian life is not like sitting on the couch with the remote, but like riding a horse, holding the reins in one hand and a weapon of light ready to charge with the other hand. It is not a cheap thrill, it is the joy of perfect love. It’s pricey, but it’s worth it.

That is why St. Paul was so insistent in preaching Christ crucified. Of course St. Paul spoke also about the Resurrection, but Resurrection---complete redemption—comes at the price of the Cross. It is not cheap, because it is the real deal. You know the difference in price between regular ordinary pancake syrup and maple syrup. You know the difference in price between a brand new car and a used car. When we invite people to Church, we need to understand that what we are giving them is of infinitely greater value, is different—it is the only thing that makes a difference, it is something they will never find in the world, and at the same time the only thing they really need.

That is why the message of Jesus begins by preaching poverty, mourning, bad reputation and even persecution. Jesus is trying to tell us: “I know you people look for happiness in money, pleasure, fame, power and worldly success. But you don’t find happiness in those things, because those things are not perfect, those things are not infinite, and therefore they do not and cannot satisfy your hearts. Follow Me, and I will give you rest. I am infinite, I am the Truth and the Life. I am the real deal. Be poor in things, so that you can be rich in Me. I’m asking you to stop loving the world the way you do and to love Me. To stop loving the world as if you could find happiness in it, and to begin loving Me, the only One who can quench your thirst, and satisfy your deepest desires.” (Cf. Matthew 11:28, John 14:6, 12:25; Matthew 16:25; Luke 9:24, 6:17, etc…).

And I am not saying that we should stop trying to make our parishes and ourselves friendly and welcoming in order to bring people to God. What I mean is that we should not deceive people, nor should we deceive ourselves. There is no redemption without Cross, there is no Jesus without Cross, there is no resurrection without Cross. But neither is there Cross without Jesus, neither is there suffering without God’s help, neither is there sacrifice without reward. And nothing in the world can separate us from the love of Jesus (cf. Romans 8:35ff). And, if Jesus comes to us, nobody in the world will be able to take our joy from us (cf. John 16:22).

If we try to sell Christianity cheap, people will never commit themselves. If we do not challenge people, they will not thrive, will not commit and will not persevere. When you challenge someone to do something difficult, you dignify them, because challenge is like telling them: “Come on, you can do this!” When, instead, you propose to them an easy religion, it’s like saying, “We know you guys will never change, we know you want easy things and are not able to work hard, we know you are not able to become heroes or anything like that, so here it is: go to Heaven for one dollar! Follow Jesus without suffering! Leave Him alone on the Cross, but go ahead and enjoy the Resurrection! Jesus will agree with anything you say! Let us know if we can improve our Church service even more, and make it even easier for you!”

Again, the message is not about being nasty, and preaching sadly about Jesus. It is about showing the treasure we have, and challenging others to also “steal” it for themselves… “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt 11:12) Sometimes we (priests included) do not preach in a challenging way because we fear displeasing people. That is why Jesus said to us: “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26) It is not a matter of deliberately trying to collect “dislikes” but of trying always, in everything we do, to obtain the “like” of God, and offering our brothers and sisters not low-cost fun, but life—life in abundance, the true life Jesus came to bring.