Ambassadors of Christ - The Power of Holiness

The Jedi/Ninjas/Pirates/Neo-from-the-Matrix of the Ancient World

Phil 3:17—4:1 or 3:20—4:1
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.

In the readings for this upcoming Sunday, Paul speaks about the power of holiness. He contrasts those who serve the world against those who have devoted themselves to Christ. The quote above describes how, by following the teachings of Jesus, God will give a holy person the grace to become aligned with the Spirit of God, to become greater than oneself with the aid of God. We see the ultimate example of what this looks like in last weeks readings, when Jesus is tempted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Yet he resists the devil's temptations, because "one does not live on bread alone." Jesus is able to resist the devil and overcome temptation. Paul is promising that, through the Holy Spirit, we too are capable of turning ourselves to the Will of God.

Paul is not the origin of this idea, by far.

Ezekiel 36:25-28

I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your
impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking
from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees.
You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my
people, and I will be your God.

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, there are stories of God granting abilities. Moses lifted up his arms strengthened his armies, King David spread the kingdom of Israel with the help of God, and the authors of the Holy Texts themselves became scribes of the Word of God.

These concepts are familiar in pop culture. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker uses his senses to tune into "The Force," the ultimate fabric of the Universe. In The Matrix, people can predict the future, change reality, and even stop bullets by focusing their minds on the underlying truth of the world in which they operate. These two pop-culture examples have their roots in history. Ninjas and warrior monks used concepts deeply routed in Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, and Confucianism. They believed that by understanding the truth about reality, they could tune their consciousness to truth itself, and through the unification of their minds, bodies, and spirits with the truth, they could become holy warriors, invincible and impervious to the attacks of their foes. They could ignore pain, move faster, and focus their senses beyond the abilities of a normal man.

What Paul is saying is that, in a way, these ideas are also applicable to Christianity. We often think of religion as an activity (things one does or doesn't do, i.e., going to church, not eating meat on Fridays during Lent, refraining from stealing, giving to charity, ect.). Others often think that religion is a spiritual exercise, involving meditation, singing, praising, and praying. What Paul seems to be suggesting is that in order to become an ambassador of Christ, one has to conform their entire will to the Will of God. In doing so, God grants the grace to unify one's body, soul, and mind with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Merton, perhaps the greatest Catholic thinker of the 21st century, once said this: "The first step toward finding God, Who is Truth, is to discover the truth about myself: and if I have been in error, this first step to truth is the discovery of my error." Merton, who studied Eastern religions and Buddhism with Asian monks, believed that the ultimate Truth, God, was inside all of us always, and that by reconciling ourselves to who we really are, by actualizing our holiness, we would become Christ-like. During a period of time in his life where he was struggling with his own morality, he asked an old monk how he determined right from wrong. The monk replied that he prayed so much that he hadn't had the need to think about right or wrong in several decades; he simply lived the Will of God.

I think we've lost touch with Christian meditation. We don't think about religion as the pursuit of who we already are, we think about it as a Quest for something external. We have also lost the understanding that our minds, bodies, and souls are deeply integrated. The idea that we can become stronger and holier by finding God through finding ourselves is both challenging and inspiring.

If you want to be holy, then be. That's the most important step in becoming an Ambassador to Christ.

READERS, share some obstacles, meditation methods, or tips on how to become holier with us. We'd love to hear some suggestions on how to actualize the words of Paul.

Plus, I really want to know what it's like to be a Ninja/Jedi.

Ash Wednesday and a Lenten Experiment

Readings for Ash Wednesday:

Reading I: Jl 2:12-18
Responsorial Psalm: 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 12-13, 14 and 17
Reading II: 2 Cor 5:20—6:2
Gospel: Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

"Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart..." (from the first reading)

With my whole heart... That is a tall order. Has there ever been a time when I have served God "with my whole heart," without any kind of reservations? Can I truly say that my intentions at any given time were absolutely pure, without ulterior motive?

I am forced to ask myself whether I belong in the category of "hypocrites," in the sense in which Jesus invokes the term in the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday. It may be worth our time to put this label into its historical context.

Becoming an Ambassador of Christ

A lot of Catholics, when discussing the readings of the day, typically start with the Gospel and then attempt to make sense of the old testament and/or new testament readings. Some will opt to start with the old testament and compare the old covenant message with the new covenant message. I'm weird, so today I'm going to start with Paul and move outwards.

Today, Paul says,

We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The "we" is pretty clearly the early Christian missionaries, the apostles and disciples of Jesus who are preaching to the Corinthians. They are the ambassadors, and those who have only recently become exposed to the Gospel are the ones in need of reconciliation. Two thousand years later, we could hardly consider ourselves ignorant of Christianity, but I wonder how many of us consider ourselves "ambassadors?" We have ambassadors in our world, and are familiar with the concept (especially those of us who have gone trick-or-treating, as young-adult college kids, on Embassy Row in D.C.), but would we connect that concept with religion? When I think of ambassadors, I think of two foreign nations, foreign cultures, with many misunderstandings and competing interests, as well as many common values and partnerships, attempting to work together to solve problems. Often, we think of ambassadors as bridges across those cultural misunderstandings, as knowledge seekers and peacemakers. Occasionally, we think of ambassadors as the last line of diplomacy before the bombs begin to fall. But what does it mean when we apply any of those concepts to Christianity?

What is Catholic Labs?

Catholic Labs is a place where thinkers can work together to discover the truth. We aim to apply a global worldview to Catholic issues and a Catholic worldview to global issues in order to foster dialogue and see the world in a new light. Challenging as well as encouraging one another, we endeavor to investigate pertinent questions, improve lives, and foster a spiritual community. Through these efforts, we intend to do our part in building up the Church in our day and to become salt, light, and leaven for the online community and the world.

The 21st century is a turbulent time for the world. Religious beliefs are fragmented, East and West are colliding, and atheism is trying to stake out the high ground in discussions about progressive human thought. At Catholic Labs, we don't believe that religion is an outdated and primitive product of evolution whose time has passed. We don't believe that Catholic thinkers have to shield themselves from dialogue with the non-Catholic world. We don't believe Catholicism is a dinosaur, and we don't believe that Catholic thought stopped with Thomas Aquinas.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him:

"If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

We believe that the truth will set us all free, and that God has made the truth accessible, through our own senses, our intellects, the teachings of the Bible, of Christ and his apostles, and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We believe that Catholic thinkers have lots to bring to the table when confronting the problems of our day. Catholic thinking and Catholic spirituality have the potential to play a powerful and life-giving role in the 21st century, and we've built Catholic Labs as a place for the kind of spiritual and intellectual growth needed to make this happen.

Our goal at Catholic Labs is to broaden the conversation towards the fullness of what our faith teaches us about the struggles, obstacles, and blessings of our daily lives. We want to connect with Catholics and non-Catholics and engage in a frank and fearless dialogue about the future of our world.

Is Catholic Labs a Real Laboratory?

We picked the name Catholic Labs because we aren't afraid to ask questions, explore, and experiment in order to find the truth. We're not talking about sending Bibles into orbit or devising empirical tests for measuring the divinity of Christ. We intend to contribute to the growth in understanding of Christian revelation (cf. Dei Verbum, no. 8) and of the inner meaning and value of all creation (cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 36) that manifests the living dialogue between God and human beings and includes progress in human knowledge and understanding. We believe that this sometimes requires going outside our comfort zones, encountering God's Word in unfamiliar places, and searching out new ways to express old truths. Catholic Labs offers a "controlled environment" where anyone looking for wisdom can examine their beliefs, probe unexplored territory, play with new ideas (mindful that some of these will need to be rejected!), and challenge one another in a fraternal spirit to seek the truth in all its fullness.

We take seriously the instructions of the Apostle to the church of the Thessalonians:

"Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil."


So Where are the Test Tubes?


God speaks to us in many ways, some of which we could never have expected. As Catholics, we believe that we encounter God in his Son through the living witnesses of holy women and men, through the teachings of our pastors and our fathers and mothers in faith, and in a special way through word and sacrament each time we celebrate the Eucharist. We will be reflecting on the traditional sources of Catholic faith in light of contemporary issues, bringing to them our questions, our challenges, our experiences, our concerns.

So let's begin!

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