Theology Meet Reality

Learning how to balance deep faith and real life

05/14/2025

John 15:9-17 Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you:  love one another.”

We have profound and mind-blowing theology in the Catholic faith. But sometimes that high-soaring theology has its wings clipped, and comes down to earth to meet reality. I see this every day in my work in the marriage tribunal, where we deal with annulments. The Catholic theology on marriage is grand and awe-inspiring; indeed, Christian marriage reflects Christ’s love for his Bride, the Church.

And yet individual couples can experience excruciating problems like alcoholism, mental, emotional, and physical abuse, infidelity, etc. The dream of marriage becomes the nightmare of divorce. It is the unenviable task of the tribunal to bridge the gap between the beautiful theology of marriage (until death do we part) and the rude reality of a broken marriage (until divorce do we part). I call annulments “making lemonade,” when life throws you lemons, make lemonade.

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Matthias and witness another instance of theology meet reality. In Acts chapter one the 11 Apostles are concerned with the tragic end of Judas and replacing him. They pray for God’s help and choose Matthias so that the apostolic college is back up to 12 members, like the 12 tribes of Israel. And yet they never worry about keeping that number of bishops 12 ever again. Why not?

Well, the number of converts to Christianity explodes exponentially throughout Acts. On the day of Pentecost alone 3,000 people are added to the Church. That is, the reality of governing a fast-growing Church required the apostles to adjust the theology of having only 12 bishops. As of 2020 there are approximately 5,600 bishops world-wide in the Catholic Church.

We experienced another example of this soaring theology being grounded by earthly reality in the cardinals electing a pope. For centuries there were only 70 cardinals who helped the pope govern the Church. Why? That number referred to the 70 elders who helped Moses in the desert in Numbers 11, and to the 70 disciples Jesus sent to evangelize in Luke 10.

But Pope St. John XXIII increased that number of cardinals beyond 70, and all the subsequent popes have followed suit. Why? Because the reality of a culturally diverse and linguistically rich people of God calls for broader representation. The scripturally symbolic number of 70 elders had to give way to the complex reality of a world-wide body of believers. We now have a U.S.-born pope, from a country that was nowhere on the map during the Acts of the Apostles.

Of course, the hard part is knowing how to adjust our deep theology to the demands of an ever-evolving reality. Some people argue that when the winds of reality blow we should tack right and become more conservative. Others propose that the winds of reality require us to tack left and become more progressive. And of course, everyone is eyeing Pope Leo XIV to see whether he will tack the Church more conservatively or liberally.

But a better approach to dealing with theology meeting reality is to seek organic growth. That is, harness the best of the past while fearlessly forging new ways forward. Being authentically Catholic is always a matter of both-and and very rarely an either-or choice. So it is highly significant that today’s gospel is taken from John 15, the chapter on the vine and the branches.

There Jesus asserts: “Remain in my love.” That is, to remain in Christ’s love is to reside in his Church the true vine and not cut ourselves off from our roots while still putting forth new branches. Such growth is organic because it comes from within rather than cancerous growth that invades from outside. Organic growth is a basic rule for all healthy discernment, and bridges theology and reality.

On the Feast of St. Matthias, may the same Pentecostal Spirit be poured out upon us, especially when our high theology meets a low reality. May the Holy Spirit who helped the apostles to choose Matthias, but then not worry about keeping the apostolic band at 12, guide our own decision-making. Harness the past but look to the future with hope. And along the way you can enjoy some good lemonade.

Praised be Jesus Christ!