We Shouldn’t Complicate the Matter

Seeing the Church through the eyes of the saints

07/14/2025

Matthew 10:34—11:1 Jesus said to his Apostles: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household. "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple– amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward." When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

Do you have any summer reading plans? Besides the Bible, my booklist for this summer includes Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. On the cover of the book there is a quotation by Twain in his signature style stating: “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, and it is the best…” I am only half-way through the book, and I have to agree: it is wonderful.

Twain recounts the highly unlikely history of how Joan of Arc became the commanding general of all the armies of France by the tender age of 17. She overthrew the English occupiers and restored the crown to Charles VII of France. And how was she rewarded for all her heroic labors? She was put on trail for witchcraft and burned at the stake.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes Joan of Arc in the section on the Church. We read: “A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the faith of the holy doctors and the good sense of the believers: ‘About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter’” (no. 795).

The irony of Joan’s statement is that she was being tried for witchcraft by a church tribunal. The bishops of the Church, ordained by God, were inquiring about Joan’s faith in the same Church. Instead of reacting or responding like you or I might have by losing our cool or questioning our faith in the institutional Church, Joan doubled-down on her belief. Remarkable resolve, and from a teenager.

Of course, Joan of Arc did not invent this unshakable faith out of thin air; it came straight from the lips of Jesus in today’s gospel. Our Lord taught in his great Missionary Discourse the core of our belief in the Church: “Whoever receives you (his apostles and bishops) receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (Mt 10:40).

In other words, “for reasons known only to the Almighty and our guardian angels,” Jesus chose to associate weak, sinful, selfish, and foolish men to his work of salvation. This ministerial association with human beings is a mystery of faith, perhaps second only to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the central and deepest tenet of Christianity.

And a humble and holy teenager summed up that mysterious faith sweetly and serenely in the face of prelates and priests who were hell-bent on her destruction: “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”

This past Saturday I had lunch with a friend who drove down from Northwest Arkansas. She is a devout Catholic, and our conversation ranged over many topics, but mostly about faith. At one point we discussed Pope Leo XIV. By the way, do you like Leo XIV – as if I even need to ask? We discussed some ways he is similar to Pope Francis and how in other ways he is dissimilar.

And of course, in these first months of his pontificate he is in the honeymoon stage of being the pope. That is, everyone looks at him through rose-colored glasses, and he does nothing wrong. But soon he will make difficult decisions and someone is not going to be pleased. They will criticize and complain, and maybe even leave the Church over those tough teachings.

But such unhappy Catholics should remember the retort of a teenage girl to a church tribunal looking for evidence to burn her as a witch: “About Jesus Christ and the Church I simply know they are just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.” It doesn't matter who the pope is, Jesus Christ and the Church "are just one thing."

Naturally, we don’t have to wait for the Holy Father to upset us, our pastors here at home are constantly upsetting the apple-cart of our Christianity. Pastors who change one thing but do not change another. Priests who put us to sleep with long, incomprehensible homilies about the theology of the body. Priests who fail to visit us in the hospital and who lose their patience when we desperately needed a little of their compassion.

Why on God’s green earth would Jesus Christ associate such men with his work of saving your soul? Perhaps it was no easier for St. Joan of Arc than it is for us to say: “About Jesus Christ and the Church I simply know they are just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.” Maybe everyone should read Joan of Arc by Mark Twain for summer reading.

Praised be Jesus Christ!