We often think that it’s our capacity to reflect on our humanity that distinguishes us from other creatures, from other species. That is to say, that we suppose that what makes us special in the created order is that we know something about who and what we are as human beings; we are able to reflect on our human-ness, and we do so at a deep level. But it’s possible that actually what distinguishes us as a species is our confusion about who and what we are. And it may be that it’s our capacity for reflection that shows us how deeply confused we are about what it means to be a human being.
No other animal struggles with its own identity and purpose the way we do. My dogs are blissfully un-confused about what it means to be a dog, as they eat, and run, and play, and fetch, and eat, and swim, and eat. Horses know well what it means to be a horse, and if we humans choose to ride them, we can either deal with their horsiness or not, but they are going to be horses, no matter what. And cats, well, we all know that cats are not confused about their identities, and that we can take them or leave them as they are; it’s all the same to them. But to be human is to occupy a space in the created order in which we can easily be confused about who and what we are, and why we are here on this planet.
I think there is ample evidence around us about how confused we are about all this. Warfare. Racism and social discrimination. Political divisiveness. All of these conflicts lead to violence; and we are deeply confused. And the violence that comes of all these conflicts is a sign that we don’t know what it means to be a human being. We don’t actually know how to be, as a species. And since we don’t know how we should be, we don’t really know how to thrive as a species, either. And because we are at the top of the food chain and every other chain, pyramid, or chart we can imagine, our confusion, our failure to thrive affects every other species, and every other dimension of the created order.
In the old days in the church, for a while, we used to begin every Mass with a recitation of the Summary of the Law that we heard that Jesus provided to the Pharisees and the Sadducees: Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith, “‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” We borrowed the practice of repetitive recitation of these words from the Jews who had long engraved these two commandments on their hearts, as the start of daily prayer, and as guiding principles of what it means to be a child of God.
There’s nothing unique in the Christian religion, in placing the Golden Rule so near the center of everything, or so near the top of any list. But the need to do so - to place so simple and so basic a rule at the heart of religion - is a sign of our confusion about what it means to be a human being. It is surely not a sign of clarity about who we are and how we should be. It’s a sign that we have reckoned that we need religious systems just to learn how to be good to one another. (Although these systems have a very mixed record of success in that regard.) We need commandments from on high just to learn how to function with each other. And even when we have such systems and such commandments, we fail miserably at them, resorting to violence, and demonstrating that we don’t know how to be human.
Exhibit A among the evidence for this argument is one of the great questions of the Bible that I have not yet spent much time on, when “the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ Good question! Cain did not know how to be human without resorting to violence. He could not find a way just to be good to his brother Abel. There’s a reason this story comes so close to the beginning of the scriptures.
We don’t know how to be good to one another; we don’t know how to thrive. For some reason or other, it’s not instinctive, is it? But violence comes easily to us. How could any society that uses guns the way do, claim that we know instinctively or otherwise how to be human, and how to thrive as human beings? Shall we ask that question in Ukraine? Or in Gaza? Or in Lewiston, Maine?
There’s a telling detail in St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ summary of the law, which comes about in a debate/discussion with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. St. Matthew tells us that “nor from that day did anyone dare to ask [Jesus] any more questions.” Let’s acknowledge that Matthew is exaggerating, and that it wasn’t the case that no one ever asked Jesus any more questions. But perhaps it was the case that the Pharisees and the Sadducees asked him no more questions; and there is a reason they asked him no more questions. They did not want to hear his answers.
Near the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation is the wisdom that Jesus is not confused about what it means to be human. Jesus has answers to the questions we raise when reflect on our confusion about what it means to be human, and when we realize that we cannot trust our instincts when it comes to thriving as human beings. Mostly, his answers are not complicated. Jesus seems happy to allow the same old answers that Jews had known for a long time to form the basis of his insight. There’s nothing unique about the command to love God, or about the Golden Rule.
More and more these days, people are unconvinced that there are many good reasons to go to church. Here’s one: we go to church to be reminded by Jesus of what it means to be human, and how to thrive as a human. At its best, religion is meant to be a corrective to our lack of good instincts about being human. But, sadly, religion is seldom at its best. We have to work very hard to try.
The problem, of course, is that the churches are full of Pharisees and Sadducees, like me and others, who will tell you what we think, and who may have long ago stopped asking Jesus any questions, because we don’t want to hear his answers. And this is why it’s so good that you don’t have to rely on me to interpret for you Jesus’ reflection on what it means to be human. Although I hope you will allow me to point out some features of that reflection.
To be human, Jesus tells us, is to respond to God and to one another, and to do so with the unique human capacity to love. Love God and love your neighbor. That’s what you need to know.
But we are actively forgetting, as a society, how to respond to the presence of God in our lives, which is to worship. And we have perfected the ability to respond to one another, armed to the teeth.
No one has ever, in the history of the world, needed a semi-automatic weapon to follow these commandments. And the fact of the necessity of our armies, in this day and age, is an indication that although the kingdom of heaven may have drawn nigh, it’s not nigh enough. If we are actively forgetting as a society, how to respond to God, and if we are responding to one another, over and over again with violence, then we are a long way away from knowing how to be human, and how to thrive as a species.
There was a short time in American history when one of the most important things we thought we could do, many thought could only be achieved by non-violence. Non-violent resistance to violence was a hallmark of the Civil Rights movement, promoted by people of faith. It was a moment, I think, when the goal of getting better at being humans was advanced by actually trying to be better as humans. The power of non-violence comes precisely from what an obvious fulfillment it is, of the commandment to love one another.
Many people look at the church and they see an institution governed and controlled by people (mostly men) who dare not ask any more questions, because we are afraid of what the answers will be. Who can blame them for seeing things this way? But still, Jesus is not confused about what it means to be human. And Jesus wants us humans to thrive. He wants us asking questions that lead to different answers than the ones we have been reaching so often. Jesus, we are told, disappointed many who might have followed him, because he was completely and utterly non-violent. This was not the answer to the question that they were looking for.
We only dare to ask the questions when we are ready to hear answers that are not necessarily the ones we are looking for. What does it mean to be human? What distinguishes us from the rest of the created order? The answer to those questions may be nothing more than the summary of the law: the commandment to love the living God with all our heart, and soul, and mind. And the second is like unto it, to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Oh, we have made a complicated mess out of it, prone as we are to violence. But it’s not as complicated as we have made it. And it is essentially all that God requires of us.
If we are still confused, maybe we should be asking more questions. We can sure that Jesus will have answers.
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
29 October 2023
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia
