To Bury or Not to Bury

This post isn't about funerals or Catholic burial. Instead, the question is posed in light of Matthew 8:22.[1] For a while now I have used "Let the dead bury their dead" as a sort of motto. It came to me shortly after a very difficult conversation I had with someone in the Church. It made me realize that we are all called to follow Christ, but that many of us are afraid and unable to leave behind what is comfortable, safe, and what we value or consider important based on worldly attachment.

Here is a statement that is far from shocking: I am a bad Catholic. We all are, really. We shouldn't fool ourselves. But we should know what makes us bad and what we should be striving towards. There is a monster that lives inside all of us, it is just below our skin fighting and clawing to get out. It is the sin that has stained our souls, passed down to us from those that have gone before us. Yet, we have all that we need to keep that monster quiet and to keep it from controlling us... yet so many of us give in to the monster's promptings.

In Matthew we are told that Jesus makes a very simple demand of those that want to follow Him: leave the dead to bury their own dead. 

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead." And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, "Save, Lord; we are perishing." And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" -Matthew 8:18-27

Even when the Lord commands them and invites them to accompany Him, they become afraid at the things of the world. Jesus is forced to rebuke them, and how easy can we relate to this? How often are we "so anxious and willing to follow God" only to find ourselves crying out and fearful at the first sign of 'bad weather'?

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Leave the world... to the world

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So what will we do, will we bury or not bury the dead? In other words, will we faithfully leave behind the trappings and things of this world and really follow God? Of course we want to say yes, but we wont. We are too weak. It is often said that God gives us "only what we can handle, never more," but where does that statement come from? It isn't in the Bible, so is it true, and what does it mean? I would argue that it is wrong. In fact, I think that sometimes God gives us more than we can handle just so that we cling to Him and seek His Grace. To me that is justice, we get what we have earned but we also are given "an out." We still have the free will to do as we please, but all the bases are covered - how just.

Personally, I have had a rather tumultuous winter/spring/summer.[2] Life isn't easy by any means, but along this difficult road I have encountered many blessings that I would have not otherwise encountered but for the difficult road. What has tripped me up the most is looking back to the things that keep me comfortable in this world rather than just putting my trust in God. The frustrating part is that I know I am doing it... I reach back, all the while thinking to myself: "just trust in God." But for some reason I think I know better... at the same time know that I have no idea what I am doing. It is such an odd paradox.

What really got me thinking about all this, as I mentioned, was when I was having a discussion with someone. The conversation centered around how various people in the Church view one another. There was a discussion of style, belief, orthodoxy,  and various labels were thrown around.[3] It made me realize that some, even those within the Church, are so unwilling to view that faith in an objective and critically analytical way because they are looking at life through the lens of the world. A lens warped and scratched by sin, death, and destruction.

The difficulty is us...

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It is difficult to follow God nowadays, and not just because of our own sin but also because of the sin of others. It is sometimes incumbent upon us to struggle through the hurdles placed before us by others. As adults, we must lead our families past these hurdles in a charitable way, but also in a protective way. When others create for us situations or environments where our faith is boxed up or compartmentalized we face a difficult path where we have to be charitable but also strong in our faith. This often choosing between what is right and what is "charitable". I place "charity" in quotations here because it is so often abused as a word, as to its actual meaning. On top of that Charity and Truth or Rightness are not exclusive, in fact one could argue they are mutually inclusive. So as you can see, this won't be an easy task.

The desire to cling to the things in this world that appease us (because they dont spiritually please us) is carved into us by sin. We sing crappy music at Mass in a lot of parishes not because we think it really glorifies God in anyway but because it makes us feel good. And what does that even mean? We feel good? Can you measure good? Ugh, I feel so dirty just thinking about the things that I want to go do before I follow God. "Hey Big Guy, I promise I'll do those 8 Commandments... wait, 9? Whatever, I'll do them all as soon as I get that new SUV, oh and the Marble Counter-Tops (sorry to 'you know who you are' this isn't a jab at you, I promise), oh and that sweet new watch Time piece that my friend at work showed me." Seriously, that is how we act - well, it is how I act but I know I am a craptastic Catholic. Some of us justify it by clinging to Catholic things, like our blogs. I know I have put off praying or reading something spiritually beneficial, or ignored some family responsibilities just so I could write something to make me feel good or to get more readers. Really? Purgatory is going to kick my butt for this especially, I know it.

If they aren't for us...are they against us or with us?

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What makes this even worse is when the people in our Faith life make it even harder on us. When the leaders in our parishes, our priests, and bishops decide to stray from the path as well. They are human, so they are no more guilty than I am, but it is inevitable that we will get some bad advice, teaching, or direction along the way. It is as if we didn't have enough problems, but it is also our own fault. We kicked the pooch a long time ago, and caused this chaos for ourselves. But the thing is... we have a choice. We can walk away. We can... it isn't easy, and we will stumble... but we can let the dead bury their dead. 


Honestly, we can give it all up. I was talking to a teen from my parish tonight and was telling them about St. Clare. She came from a wealthy family, and decided to follow God. So she showed up at St. Francis' door, he shaved her hair and told her essentially to leave the dead to bury their dead and to follow God. So she stopped wearing shoes, wore itchy-heavy-hot habits, didn't eat meat, barely spoke, and did all other sorts of self-mortification and became one of the happiest people in Assisi. How does that even sound like it makes sense? I know a ton of people that own some pretty nice things and they all keep buying more and more, and many of them are continually struggling to stay happy... it is as if we are all completely nutz. When folks hear about things like Gospel poverty they rationalize reasons why they dont adhere to it. Rationalization for me is a way to lie to myself, because I doubt anyone else is buying what I am selling.

In the end... we have to walk away, and we wont. We cling, rationalize, ignore, justify, and are trapped. Even if we can manage to leave the dead to the dead, the second the clouds roll in and things get a little tough we get all scared and fearful. The truth of the Gospel stares us right in the face and all we can do is say that we "hope we can one day follow its command..." A cold day in hell.

But this isn't to discourage you. We can't stop trying - because in the end we aren't going to be saving ourselves. That is God's territory, He rebukes the storm and clears the day. Our job is simply to follow Him. We take the first step, we jump, and He will do the rest. He dares us to move - all we have to do is... MOVE! So when given the choice... follow God and let the dead bury their dead.

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Notes:

1. See also, Luke 9:60.
2. NB: In Alaska seasons sort of blend together, I am generally speaking of the time frame consisting of March-July. 
3. FTR: I am not a fan of labels, I do occasionally use them in an illustrative way, but I do not want to pigeon-hole anyone into being a certain "type" of Catholic. I think to be truly Catholic is to transcend the trappings and labels of the world.