Wednesday of Week 5 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Saint Jerome Emiliani
St Josephine Bakhita, Virgin
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17 | Psalm 103(104):1-2,27-30 | Mark 7:14-23
Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
My old friend and I had a spirited discussion en route to my client’s office today. The subject was an unexpected one: papal elections. I was describing the election process when he interjected that it sounded very political, and ripe for manipulation.
He proposed instead that the Cardinal electors make their nominations in secret, then have all the names placed on a big wheel, rather like the famous one on The Price is Right.
Not so gaudy, but you get the idea.
Each Cardinal elector would then spin the wheel, and the name it landed on would be tallied. After all electors had their spin, the nominee with the lowest tally would be removed from the wheel.
Rinse and repeat until habemus papam!
He argued that this would remove any possibility of politicking, and if God chose to point the way, He could influence the wheel.
I argued that the current way (secret balloting) left nothing to chaos. He shot back that it was better than relying on human fallibility, inspired or not by the Holy Spirit.
I decided to play the scriptural tradition card, and began relating the election of Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot among the ranks of the apostles (Acts 1:15-26). Three things happened in quick succession:
- I remembered too late: that election was settled by casting lots, quite similar to what he was suggesting
- He had to take an important call
- I arrived at my destination
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
I’ve known quite a few people who say, without a trace of irony, “blessed are the gong-gong (ignorant)”. They’re usually the same folks who’ll blindly promote homeopathic cures, or some such “grandmother’s remedy” that, to my science-trained mind, lacks real-world plausibility.
I think the same goes for our faith in God. It’s easy to say “I love God and God loves me, that’s all I need to know”, but that’s the kind of faith that’s built on sand (Matthew 7:26), liable to be blown over by a small tragedy, or a challenge from an unbelieving friend.
Yet some would say “but, but, God said not to eat of the tree of knowledge!” Well, that Pandora’s box of mortality has already been opened by Adam and Eve, and our faith is now under constant assault by secular forces. We cannot afford to remain ignorant of what we profess to believe in.
We also cannot afford to treat God like some mysterious grandfatherly figure; a memory just surfaced in which I overheard a parent explaining to her child how Our Creator was like Santa Claus!
It behooves us to study and meditate upon the twin pillars of scripture and tradition that support our belief.
It behooves us to give flesh to the skeleton of “God is good all the time!”, rather than just toss that phrase out and have others laugh at its flimsiness.
It behooves us to be confident that the more we learn about Him, the more we will love Him.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
I don’t know if my old friend and I will resume our papal elections discussion when we meet up today, but just in case, I’ll have to figure out how to continue it in an informed way. He expects nothing less from me, and I’m sure God does too.
Amen.