The Story as Creed

Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
2 Samuel 12.7-10, 13 Psalm 32 Galatians 2.16, 19-21 Luke 7.36-50

People often ask me what we as Catholics believe. But even more that what we believe, people often want to know how our beliefs impact the way we look at the world, how our beliefs guide the way we act and the decisions we make. It’s an important question, and it deserves a complete and honest answer. The most basic statement of what we believe as Christians is laid out in the Creed – belief in the Trinity; belief that God made everything that exists; belief in the Son of God who became man and who suffered, died, and rose from the dead; belief in the Holy Spirit, in the Church, in one baptism, and in eternal life. Christians have been praying this Creed in their liturgies for almost 1700 years. But that is just a beginning. For what we believe as Catholics, we could look to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a great resource that explains in detail Catholic teaching on the creed, liturgy, morality, and prayer. But for a different perspective, today’s gospel reading can give us a good overview not only of what we as Catholics believe but how those beliefs influence our outlook on life, the way we treat other people, and the way we look at the world. Virtually every significant point of our faith can be found in this story about a sinful woman and her encounter with Jesus at the home of the Pharisee.

This story has one person at its center – all the action and conversation is focused on the man named Jesus. So it is for us – everything we do as Christians is focused on Jesus Christ, the one we believe to be the Son of God. And like both the Pharisee and the sinful woman, we want to be near Jesus – we want to structure our lives so that we are in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That individual connection is crucial, it’s central to our faith – but it’s not everything. We also encounter Jesus in the midst of community – we get to know him, not by ourselves, but along with other people who are on the same faith journey. So it is in this story from Luke’s gospel – the people we hear about in the story do not have one-on-one encounters with Jesus, in isolation – they encounter Jesus as part of a group, and they learn from one another as well as from the prophet and teacher. Simon the Pharisee could not have learned about forgiveness without the presence and actions of the sinful woman and Jesus’ response. In our lives as Christians, we strive to develop both a personal and communal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God – everything we do is about him.

But there is more we can learn from this story. Our Christian tradition places a great emphasis on hospitality – we strive to be welcoming to all people, friend and stranger, just as the sinful woman welcomed Jesus with her tears and oil. We have a special concern for the outcast and those in need – people who are separated from mainstream society for whatever reason – the poor, the lonely, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the foreigner – we strive to see Christ in all people and to honor his presence in them. And we know the importance of forgiveness. We are a Church of sinners who want to be saints – but most of the time, we are sinners. We trust in the compassionate love and forgiveness that God shows us, and we try our best to show that same forgiveness to anyone who has wronged us. And everything we do comes sooner or later to a table. Jesus was never far away from a meal during his ministry. And we Catholic Christians are never far away from the supper of the Lord, the table of the Eucharist, where we are fed and nourished by Christ himself.

It’s not a creed, it’s not a catechism, but it seems to me to be a pretty good summary not only of what we believe but how we want to live. Day by day, we make Jesus the center of our lives – both personally and communally. We strive to be welcoming to all people. We have a special concern for those who are in need. We know that we are sinners, but through God’s grace and forgiveness we want to be saints. And along the journey, we are strengthened at the table of Christ’s Body and Blood. This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church, and we are proud to profess it by the way we live.