Catholicism Lite isn't Catholic

 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

The most common complaint against Catholicism is that it makes life too difficult, that it over-complicates Christianity and that it has too many rules and restrictions. “If Jesus was here,” so the argument goes, “He would just simplify things and dispense with all these small minded rules. Jesus would never make it so hard for people to enter!” What I find ironical is that these complaints generally do not come from non-Catholics, but they are the constant gripe of many well-meaning Catholics who sincerely believe that more people would flock to Church and less would choose to leave, if we just keep things to the basics, to the bare minimum - soften our approach, lessen the demands, relax the rules, grant greater accessibility to the sacraments. Yes, this argument is so appealing because it proposes a lighter, easier Christianity – “Catholicism Lite.”

But the reality of life often proves the reverse. For example, if you wish to do anything well, it takes effort, time and lots of sacrifice. Shoddy and lazy work results in poor performance or substandard products. If you wish to achieve better results, you have to make costly investments of time, money and effort. So an easier Christianity does not guarantee better Christians. It just means that we may be churning out substandard Christians – Christians who are more self-serving than selfless, Christians who feel more entitled than duty-bound to follow Christ, Christians who are more ready to give up than persevere. Lighter, easier Christianity does not guarantee better Christianity. Churches that have chosen to go “lite” have not stemmed the exodus. In fact, going easy seems to have quicken the pace of dying – easy come, easy go! 

So, as much as we would like to look for shortcuts, and time and effort saving hacks in our spiritual lives, they may actually lead to failure and destruction. Scripture warns against spiritual shortcuts. St. Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:1-7, warns against this human tendency to look for an echo-chamber, an opinion or a teaching that agrees with us rather than one which challenges us, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” Today, our Lord warns us: “Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.”

Authentic Catholicism involves accepting suffering, it calls for urgency, for patience, for conviction, for endurance. Catholicism-lite, on the other hand, is nice and easy: no need to “endure sound teaching,” just seek out teachers of your own liking. You get to pick and choose what you like and discard the rest of the messy, difficult and demanding stuff that makes you feel uncomfortable. That sounds a lot nicer than martyrdom. But the real litmus test of a good religion is not whether it makes things easier but whether it gets you to heaven or not.

If you want to know whether salvation is easy or difficult, just look at the Cross. This is what our Lord meant by the “narrow door.” The cross is never easy. That’s the price our Lord Jesus Christ paid to get us to heaven. If salvation were meant to be easy, somebody should have presumably given that memo to Jesus so that He didn’t have to suffer the pain, the humiliation, the rejection and finally, death on the cross. If Catholicism is hard, it is because the Cross is hard. Other things may be easier, they may be more comfortable, more convenient, less painful and demanding, but nothing can lead to salvation apart from the Cross.

Now, some smart-alec may argue, “Didn’t Jesus just tell us to “try”?” Most people console themselves by saying that they’ve tried their best and then resign themselves to failure. But when our Lord tells us to “try your best to enter by the narrow door,” He is not just making a tentative suggestion. The Greek word for “try is agonizomai, implying an agonising, intense, purposeful striving or struggle. It is the same word used by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:25 when describing an athlete battling to win a victory; in 1 Timothy 6:12, when speaking of a Christian who “fights the good fight of faith.” It is a battle because entering the kingdom is like going into warfare. It is a reminder that salvation is not easy, “because many will try to enter and will not succeed.” The gospel is not made to accommodate any kind of cheap grace for people with low-pain-threshold or an enormous sense of entitlement. The kingdom is not for people who want salvation without making any radical changes or sacrifices. It is only for those who seek it with all their hearts, those who agonise, who strive to enter. Many would lose the opportunity of salvation because upon approaching the gate, they turn away upon finding out the cost.

Nevertheless, the “hard” here doesn’t mean only few succeed. If you notice, our Lord did not actually give a direct answer to the question posed by the anonymous person in the crowd, “Sir, will there be only a few saved?” The answer He gives is in a way saying, “Your salvation depends on whether you choose to enter by the “narrow door” by paying the cost or choose an easier, a more convenient short cut, which circumvents and avoids the cross.” The former leads to salvation, the latter leads to perdition – “where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” So, when the Church makes demands of us and sets the bar high, it is not because she wishes to see us fail but because she knows that this is the only path that will guarantee “places at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

So, Christians should avoid falling into despair thinking that salvation is only reserved for the elite, the strong, and the best among us. Neither, should we fall into the temptation of presuming that salvation is easy, and it is guaranteed with the least effort or sacrifice on our part. Both are sins against hope and falsification of the message of Christ.

If the Christian path is difficult, does it mean that God is some sadistic being who wishes for us to suffer? The author of the letter to the Hebrews assures us that “when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that He loves and He punishes all those that He acknowledges as His sons. Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as His sons?” What a beautiful image to speak of God as a loving parent. Loving parents practice tough love and choose to discipline their children; self-serving parents do not because they wish to pass themselves off as “cool”, which is more self-serving than loving. Therefore, the suffering we experience in life must be understood not as punishment but as a necessary instrument of formation, a means to stretch our spiritual muscles and compel us to grow beyond our comfort levels to reach for the stars.

Following Christ is hard. It’s brutal at times. It’s painful. And it’s made even harder when well-meaning people seek to undermine the importance of doing just that by telling us, one way or another, to settle for the middle ground or even, to do the bare minimum. The bare minimum may be sufficient for survival in this world but salvation is not just about survival. When it comes down to protecting the feelings of people and defending the Truth, we must choose the latter for the good of the person. Yes, soothing wounded hearts is important. Understanding is important. Gentleness is important. But nothing – nothing at all – is more important than the eternal salvation of souls meant to be with God in Paradise for eternity. So don’t be afraid to challenge the limits of potential disciples. The solution is not found in lowering the threshold but raising it by helping people to “try” or “strive” to enter by the “narrow door.” May our work of evangelisation, of reaching out to others, ever be guided by this ultimate Truth.