Catholic Sandwiches

Keeping our bodies and souls together

 Luke 11:37-41

           After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.”

            Do you know what the “Catholic way” is?  It is never “either-or” but always “both-and”; it is inclusive; it finds the best everywhere and embraces it.  For example, Catholics do not endorse either Democrats or Republicans but we embrace what’s good in both parties.  The Catholic faith is not liberal or conservative, but we have elements of both in our teachings, both liberal and conservatives tenets.  The popes do not champion either capitalism or socialism, but do promote what is good in both.  In other words, Catholic sandwiches don’t have just either peanut butter or jelly, but we always prefer both peanut butter and jelly – those are the best sandwiches!  One professor in the seminary taught us, “Wherever there’s anything that’s true or good or right, we’ll take that.  That’s Catholic!”  The Catholic way is always the high road of the cross and Christian love, and never the low road of petty partisan politics.

            In the gospel today, Jesus is teaching the Pharisees this lesson of “both-and,” how to make a good Christian sandwich.  They notice that Jesus fails to wash his hands before supper and they call him out on it.  And Jesus replies, “Oh, you Pharisees!  Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil.  You fools!”  You know, it can’t feel good when Jesus calls you “a fool.”  But he’s upset because the Pharisees had taken the low toad of pettiness instead of the high road of inclusivity; “either-or” rather than “both-and.”  The figured as long as you get the outside clean, it doesn’t matter what the inside looks like.  But Jesus insists on being clean on both the outside and the inside.  Both peanut butter and jelly is best on your Christian sandwich.

            Do you know where to find the root of all this “either-or” thinking?  It can be traced back to the 17th century French philosopher, Rene Descartes, who famously said, “I think, therefore I am.”  In other words, the human person is essentially a spirit (the thinking part), and only accidentally a body.  Far greater than splitting the atom, was the moment when Descartes split the human person and said the human being can be “either-or”, either a body or a spirit.  Ever since then, we’ve emphasized one to the detriment of the other.  Peter Kreeft, a theologian at Boston Collge, said that’s why we’re frightened by both ghosts and cadavers – when we see one without the other, either the body or the spirit, rather than the full human person.  I’m very worried about the current fascination with zombie movies and T.V. shows that are really “either-or” thinking about the human person.  We should be repulsed by them; that’s fundamentally not-Catholic.  I always worry when a family chooses to cremate a person who has died.  Now, the Church permits cremation.  But once the body is ashes, some people want to sprinkle them on a lake or divide it among the children, or keep it on the mantle.  The cremains, like the body, should be buried or interred until it is reunited with the soul.  You see, the Catholic way is not “either-or” but always “both-and” and especially when it comes to both the body and the soul.

            How do you make a good Christian sandwich?  Jesus tell us today: you have to have both the inside and the outside, both the body and the soul, both peanut butter and jelly.  Don't let Descartes teach you how to make a different sandwich!

            Praised be Jesus Christ!