As a priest, I think people assume that my favorite book to read is the Bible. Fair enough. I do enjoy reading the Bible. Each time is a new experience of encountering God’s Word and God’s Love revealed to me. But the Bible is not my favorite book to read.
At this last sentence, you may be shocked. “Is Father saying there is a book better than the Bible!?” Usually, people recover quickly from this shock and follow up with “Well, what is your favorite book?” I think they expect me to say some work from the great spiritual or theological masters, Thomas Aquinas, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, etc. However, none of these is correct either. My favorite book is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice is a young, innocent girl who is simply trying to figure out how life works. In my mind, she represents all of us, working our way through life, coming up on roadblock after roadblock, trying to communicate herself to others when others have little interest in her. Alice is the quintessential Christian missionary: in the face of so many roadblocks, she never gives up hope, never loses herself (although she almost does on several humorous occasions), and continues to meet others where they are.
For most of us, though, any of the predicaments in which Alice finds herself would have been more than enough for us to throw in the towel, to try to climb back out of the rabbit hole. The roadblocks would have been too tall, the logic of Wonderland too confusing. We would be like the Jews and the Gentiles St. Paul speaks of to the Corinthians. Christ Crucified was too much for them to handle. God-in-the-flesh, Love-stronger-than-death was too tall a roadblock, a logic too confusing.
It’s easy to get disrupted in our mission. Distracted by the roadblocks. Tossed off course by those who push against us. Waiver under questions that we may not know the answer to.
But are these things truly scandals? Or just distractions?
A scandal is not something that shocks the conscience, but rather something that leads us astray from our beliefs. Christians, like Alice, should never be scandalized, because we have already encountered the biggest scandal in human history!
The story of salvation and the invitation extended to everyone to find his or her place in it is the greatest thing that can rock our worldview. It makes no sense that the Almighty God, Creator of the universe loves you. He is the Creator of the largest galaxies and the smallest electrons, and in all this, He loves you! That in all that has been, is, and will be, brought into existence by His mere thinking it, that God loves you is quite frankly insane.
It does not take someone with a social science degree to look around and see that we are not quite perfect, in fact, not even close. We are tempted to see God like Homer Simpson. After Marge complains about his song “Everybody Hates Ned Flanders,” he moans, “I'm beginning to hate my own creation! Now I know how God feels!”
Sometimes things coming at us in our mission can feel like craters coming at us when truly they are little pebbles. But it’s in staying in the scandal, or staying grounded in the love of God that gives us perspective.
I can speak only for myself, but, at times, it is hard to trust in the unconditional love God has for me.
I find it easier to make a list of the reasons why not to love me than the reasons to love me.
And yet, the scandal of Jesus is that He loves me before anything is put on that list. He loves me simply because I am. This is a love which we find nowhere else, a love that defies all logic.
It blows my mind! Salvation history is the greatest love story, and the protagonist is the greatest Lover. God’s Love flowed out from Himself to create us, in love and for love.
However, when we choose ourselves over God, we cut ourselves off from His Love.
At this point, God could have shaken his head and started over again. But He didn’t.
Instead, He pursued us, softly and gently. He made covenants with our ancestors, promising his Love time and again. We were never able to remain faithful. Finally, He sent His Son, Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He entered time and space, and united Himself to us. God became man, so that we might become God.
Jesus’ Love reaches the perfect culmination at the Cross. Beaten, bloodied, alone, and exhausted, Jesus demonstrates the length that God goes to pursue us, to heal us, ultimately, to bring us back to Himself. This is the scandalous Love of God.
The Cross defies all logic.
At some point, we say that enough is enough, that we are not worth pursuing. The Cross stands in contradiction to all our fears and anxieties. It is a perpetual reminder that God’s love is always greater than we can imagine. This is the scandal of Jesus, that we are worth the life of the infinitely perfect God!
How often do you stop to acknowledge this infinite love being poured out for you?
As Christians, we live within this relationship of unconditional love. We live within this great scandal. As we grow in our faith, we recognize more and more the Love that sustains us every day. Growing in the assurance of His Love, we lean into the encouragement Jesus gives us: “It is I. Do not be afraid” (John 6:20).
The seas are choppy, the wind is howling, but Jesus calmly reminds them that the most important thing is that He is with them.
As we grow in our conviction that Jesus’ Love is always with us, surrounding us and building us up, we can overcome our fears. We can share the message of the Gospel, even when it is challenging, even when our world seems as crazy as Wonderland. Alice does not give up. She does not sacrifice her manners at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, nor does she sacrifice the truth in the Queen of Hearts’ court. St. Paul instructs Timothy, his disciple: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus: […] proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient” (2 Timothy 4:1-2). For Alice, she must finally tell the Queen of Hearts: “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
We learn that love heals us, that love gives us the drive to keep going, to have the same reaction as Alice has to her world. We look around and say “curiouser and curiouser,” but never lose the drive to bring others to an encounter with Jesus and His saving Love.