Seeing the difference between Christianity and Islam
1 John 3:1-2
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we
may be called the children of God. And so we are. The reason the world does not
know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what
we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
This will
probably be the most controversial homily I’ve ever delivered. That’s why I’m preaching
it here at Christ the King instead of Immaculate Conception. That way, Fr. Babu
has to clean up the mess I make, and I can just ride off into the sunset! I’d
like to point out one major difference between Christianity and Islam. This is
something I learned listening to Scott Hahn, who you may know was a
Presbyterian pastor but converted to Catholicism and now teaches theology. He
explained that at the core of Christianity is something called “divine
filiation,” or becoming a child of God. The more technical Latin term is “filii
in Filio,” which literally means “sons in the Son.” That is, God became a child
of human beings, so that human beings could become children of God. Now, that
may sound rather commonplace to us Catholic Christians; we take it for granted
that we’re all children of God. Duh, what could be more obvious?!
But that
phrase, Scott Hahn went on to explain, would be blasphemous to most Muslim
ears. Why? Well, because Islam holds that Allah, God, is uniquely and utterly
One, and there is no one else like him in the entire universe. Therefore, to
say that a human being is a child of God would be to suggest human beings enjoy
some level of equality with God, just like your children enjoy the same dignity
as you, their parents. More colloquially, we would say, “Like father, like
son,” or “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” But a true Muslim would
cringe at any such comparison between the Creator and creature. In Islam, the relation between God and man is
not that of Father-and-son, but rather more like Master-and-slave.
Now, I don’t
say this in order to pick on Islam, because it’s also true for most
non-Christian religions, including Judaism. The reason the Jewish scribes and
Pharisees were so annoyed by Jesus was he kept calling himself “the Son of
God.” In making that claim, Jesus was asserting equality with God. That’s why
we read in John 5:18, “For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the Sabbath, but he also called God his own father,
making himself equal to God.” Have I painted a stark enough picture for you?
Have I at least gotten your attention? Good.
Because it’s
really only against this rather bleak religious backdrop that we can hear how
astounding sounding the second reading is today. St. John writes: “Beloved, see
what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of
God. And so we are.” Boom! My friends, there is the whole gospel message in a
nutshell: “we are children of God,” “filii in Filio.” The Son of God became a
son of man, so that sons of men could become sons of God. (Please pardon the
sexist-sounding language there – the comparison is clearer and more poetic that
way.) In other words, divine filiation is at the heart of Christianity, even if
that causes heartburn for most other religions, especially Islam.
Let me tell
you a little joke to lighten things up a bit here. A young man found out that
he would inherit a fortune when his sickly father died. So he decided he needed
a woman to enjoy it with. One evening, he went to a singles bar where he
spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his
breath away. He approached her and said, “I may look like just an ordinary man,
but in just a week or two my father will die and I’ll inherit $20 million.”
Impressed, the woman went home with him that evening. Three days later, she
became his stepmother. So, sometimes, the whole father-son scenario goes south;
who knows, maybe the Muslims are right! (That’s a joke.)
The real
reason I’m here today is to talk about Trinity Junior High, but I wanted to
create a context in which to highlight the value of our school. Of course, we
insist on high academic standards, strong moral behavior, service to the poor,
and deep religious faith. But why do we do all that? Because we believe what
St. John said, “Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed on us that we
may be called the children of God. And so we are.” Sadly, this core conviction
is something that the rest of the world does not share, not even many
religions. This is why we demand so much from Trinity students (because they
are children of God) – just like you demand more from your children than you do
from the neighbors kids. This is why at Trinity we treat each person with
infinite respect and dignity, and why we will not tolerate bullying or
discrimination. We are absolutely convinced that each person is a child of God:
whether they are male or female, whether they are black, white or brown,
whether they are American or immigrants, whether they are cowboys or Indians
(like me!), whether they are Catholics or Muslims. Heck, we believe Muslims are
also children of God, even if they wouldn’t say so of themselves. This is what we teach our students at Trinity
Junior High.
I’d like to
make two requests of you today. First, would you consider sending your children
to Trinity next year? Now you know the conviction that is at the core of
everything we teach. And second, would you support us financially in the second
collection today? If you’d like to learn more, we’ll have Dr. Karen Hollenbeck,
Zach Edwards and Mike Charlton available after Mass handing out brochures. You
know, before a teacher ever stands in front of a class and opens his or her
mouth to explain math or science or economics, he or she has already formed an
opinion about the bright eyes staring back at them. A teacher either sees his
students as sons, or as slaves, or as something else. Every teacher at Trinity
sees every student as a son or daughter of God, even if the son only wants to
inherit his father’s $20 million.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment