Saturday of Week 29 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Ephesians 4:7-16 | Psalm 121:1-5 | Luke 13:1-9
Then we shall not be children any longer, or tossed one way and another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks men play and their cleverness in practising deceit. (Ephesians 4:14)
Less than a week ago, I read an article in La Stampa on the varied groups of Catholics who are “anti-Francis”. One of the more prevalent complaints about our current Pope is that he promulgates a magisterium (teaching authority) that’s grounded in social justice and humanism; critics lambast him for putting forth “a distorted idea of poverty [that] elevates old pauperism to the dogmatic sphere,” of elevating consumerism to an evangelical virtue through, of all things, praising the Earth-friendly practice of recycling.
Then, in a homily on Thursday, Pope Francis seemed to add fuel to the fire by remarking that Catholics should develop a personal faith that goes beyond just knowing church doctrine. This, in a time where observers complain that modern Catholics don’t even know their catechism, will probably spark lively debate at minimum. (And yes, I’m one of those who barely remember what we were taught as children during catechism classes.)
But I’m reminded of the saying that “the map is not the territory.” To be precise:
A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
— Alfred Korzybski, “A Non-Aristotelian System and its Necessity for Rigour in Mathematics and Physics” (1931)
In my mind, church doctrine is the “map”, and living the Christian life is the “territory”. The catechism is revised from time to time to clarify matters of faith, just as maps are revised over the centuries. There are different maps for different purposes, just as a children’s catechism text would leave out quite a few details found in the CCC.
However, all maps reflect the underlying territory, which doesn’t change; living as Christ did means opening ourselves to love God with all our being, and to love one another as we love ourselves. No catechism worth its salt tries to paint a different picture.
And just like in real life, it’s only when you walk the streets that you realize that the maps didn’t say anything about the cobblestones that are now hurting your feet. While the CCC is quite clear about the immorality of taking one’s own life, it says nothing to help you with a loved one who’s in constant and excruciating pain, and just wants to “end it all” for the sake of her sanity. “Suicide’s a sin” tends not to go over well in such circumstances, but spending time helping her do the things she wants to do, to take her mind off her pain for a while, just might work better.
Let’s be clear, brothers and sisters: We are called to live life, to walk these streets as it were. We can choose to pore over every last detail on our catechism “map”, endlessly debating on whether that marks a dead-end road or a gate to a pasture. Or we can take in the broad details of our chosen route, then proceed on our journey with eyes focused on our surroundings instead of the map.
I believe Pope Francis is asking us to do the latter: Don’t be obsessed by every last detail of the CCC. Instead, use it as a “rough guide”, but focus on walking the path of life, and living, and loving.
Amen.