Parables and Priests

Expanding our circle of love to be as big as God’s love

07/26/2018

Matthew 13:10-17 The disciples approached Jesus and said, "Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?" He said to them in reply, "Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.

Did you know that every time you see a priest, you get a glimpse of the Kingdom of God? Now, I don’t mean that priests are especially handsome or heavenly, or even have charming personalities; some clergy can be curmudgeons! Rather, I mean in the sense that they have detached themselves from property and persons so they can be attached to the promise of the Kingdom. Priests let go of people – we are not typically married to anyone – and don’t belong to any place – we are transferred frequently – so we cling tightly to the Kingdom of God, because that’s all we have left! Celibacy is simultaneously a summons to live like Christ (who had no place to lay his head) and also a sign of the coming Kingdom, where love will know no limits set by people and place.

If you study the scriptures seriously, you’ll begin to discover this has been God’s intention from the inception of the world, that is, to expand humanity’s comprehension of people and place to embrace the whole cosmos. In Genesis 15 God promises Abraham two things: land and descendants – a place and a people – who would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen. 15:5). Scripture shows how God then sets out to stretch his people’s mind to grasp a series of growing covenants. First a covenant with a couple, Adam and Eve, second a covenant with a family of Noah, third a covenant with the tribe of Abraham, fourth a covenant with the nation of Moses, fifth a national kingdom covenant with David, and finally an international kingdom covenant with Jesus Christ. Try to think of each covenant as a concentric circle that begins small with a couple (Adam and Eve) but expands and extends to embrace the entire cosmos, everyone and every place. This explains why Jesus established the Catholic Church – catholic means universal – as a world-wide family embracing all existence, even all heaven and earth (cf. Scott Hahn, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, 31-36). Priests who are detached from people and place are really attached to the widest circle of God’s all-embracing love.

This highlights the peculiar problem of using parables, by the way. When the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the people in parables, our Lord answers cryptically: “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.” The parables use homely examples of farming and fishing, weddings and wine, to slowly stretch people’s comprehension of the Kingdom to go beyond the people and place called “Israel” to the whole world. In other words, the Chosen People and the Promised Land were always supposed to include eventually everyone and every place. Conveying that message was the purpose of the parables, but the people’s minds could not catch the deeper meaning. Celibate apostles themselves – without people or place – would be Jesus’ last parables on two legs sent all over the world. Parables and priests serve the same sacred strategy: to be signs of the love at the heart of the Kingdom. That’s also why many people (then and now) misunderstand both parables and priests.

Today ask yourself: how wide is the circle of my love? God slowly taught his people to love like he does by widening their hearts through six concentric covenants. Which lesson of love, which covenant circle, are you currently on? Is your love primarily and principally like that of Adam and Eve, only wide enough for a couple? Teenagers and young people who are dating seem to live this way; their world is populated by only two people. Maybe you’re on the second lesson of love and, like Noah, love your immediately family but not your neighbors. Perhaps you’ve graduated to the third lesson of love, and like Abraham, care for your whole clan. This is why so many people are fascinated by genealogies – they love their genetic family. Have you moved on to the fourth and fifth levels of love and, like Moses and David, love your country and nation? This is the root of all healthy patriotism. But don’t stop there; you haven’t finished God’s school of love yet! The final circle of love leaves out no one and no place. It is universal and therefore catholic. God’s love is literally catholic love.

This is the rationale behind why Pope Francis and Bishop Taylor are questioning the growing nationalism all over the world. While that may make sense from a political and even practical perspective, it makes little sense from a Scriptural and spiritual point of view. Nationalism should not make sense to a Christian. Why? The problem is our love is too limited to a particular people and to a peculiar place in nationalism, and God’s love is not limited like that. Until the end of time, when Jesus returns in glory, both parables and priests will continue to be a mystery; the mystery of the Kingdom.

Praised be Jesus Christ!