Today’s question involves geography; but it’s not a hard one. It requires either a “yes” or “no” answer. The question is this: How many of you have ever visited Santa Fe, New Mexico? And how many of you have “enjoyed” visiting Santa Fe? Santa Fe is one of my favorite towns, even if I do get tired after a while of seeing howling coyotes on everything. And I think there are more colors in life than pink, turquoise and tan. Yet despite all of that commercialization, there is a certain ambience, call it a certain calmness united with joy, that I find refreshes my spirit in Santa Fe. So, if you haven’t been to Santa Fe, I’d encourage you to visit, even if I don’t get a cut from the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.
However, if you never have the chance to visit the town of Santa Fe, I would encourage you even more to spend a lot of time, in fact, a lot of your life, within the boundaries of the real Santa Fe. And what is the “real” Santa Fe?
Have you ever stopped to recognize that Santa Fe means “Holy Faith?” Yes, whether or not you ever get into the mountains of New Mexico, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Blood of Christ Mountains of the southwest; whether or not you visit Santa Fe, New Mexico, I would encourage you to seek “Holy Faith,” itself.
And what is holy faith? There are many ways to define it, I suppose. One way is to acknowledge that “faith” is a “gift of God.” Our God has revealed to us that divinity exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our response to that revelation is our faith. How we live out our response is our faith.
For some, faith is a list of the things we believe. Each Sunday at mass we recite the Creed that summarizes this list of beliefs of our faith. But at the heart of this Creed is the internal knowledge each one of us has; the knowledge that God exists; that God is. And coupled with this knowing that God exists is the knowing that I, myself, exist and that I exist not on my own, but I exist in God.
I am like a bright cloud floating in God who is the blue sky surrounding me and sustaining my flight. At any moment I can dissolve into apparent nothingness, yet I am still with God. Faith is knowing that everyone else also exists in God; that there are many clouds in that blue sky but we are all moved in one direction by the same wind, the wind of the Holy Spirit.
This capacity for each person to know that God exists and to respond to God’s existence, is our gift of faith. Yet like all gifts, the gift of faith must be opened; it is a gift that we must be taught to use. We need help to realize that God is the Creator and we are the creations of our God.
In our First Reading from the book of the prophet Amos we heard about people who had forgotten this lesson. They were people who could hardly wait for the Sabbath, the day of rest, to be over so they could get back to cheating others. They wanted to diminish the Ephah, the measure used for volumes of food. They wanted their customers to think they were getting a full bushel basket of wheat by making the basket smaller. They wanted to add to the weight of the shekel used in their balance scales so that when they bought the wheat from others, their clients would need to put more grain on the balance pan before the sale could be made.
But in our Second Reading from Paul’s Letter to Timothy, we are reminded once more, of the basic lesson of faith. We are urged to offer “… petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings … ” for all peoples, especially for those in authority. Yes, Paul encourages us to pray even for our boss. Can you image Dagwood praying for Mr. Dithers – or how about Dilbert praying for the welfare of that pointy-headed character who employs him?
In our gospel reading we heard about a relationship between another boss and a different kind of employee. In the story Jesus told to his disciples, the boss seems to be more understanding that either Mr. Dithers or the pointy-head who supervises Dilbert. Just before he’s to be fired for incompetency, our employee cuts a few deals for himself. If you want to look kindly upon this guy, some scholars would say he was merely reducing the master’s debts by the amount of interest that he, himself, had coming to him and, in the process, he ingratiated himself to his clients so they might hire him perhaps as a high-payed consultant – after he was fired.
But no matter what motivated this particular employee and whether or not his boss approved of the results, Jesus does give us the tag line for his story. He concludes by saying: “You cannot give yourself to God and money.” It seems that each person needs to make a choice: either to be faithful to God or to live out your life according to the guidelines of the secular world.
Which brings us back to where we started, our need for faith, for living out the way of God, for opening God’s gift of eternal life, God’s gift of grace wrapped in the gift of faith. But how do we learn how to open this gift of faith?
We accomplish this task through the process of catechesis. Yes, catechesis is a fancy word for opening the gift of faith. Catechesis means an education in our faith. Catechesis is more than merely teaching about God, about Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is rather teaching by both word and example. In our modern jargon: catechesis is … “to walk the talk.”
Today, throughout the United States, Catholic parishes are celebrating “Catechetical Sunday,” a special day to acknowledge and honor all of the catechists in our lives. There are many such people around us: those who have helped us to unwrap our gift of faith, who have taught us, and shown us, what it is to live a Christian life.
The first catechists are our parents. They are the first ones who helped us open that sacred gift. They brought us to the waters of Baptism. They taught us what is right and wrong. They taught us about sharing. They taught us about God. They taught us how to speak with God in prayer.
Our second set of catechists are our peers. Rightly or wrongly, our friends taught us about life. Sometimes they tried to lead us astray. Sometimes, like those we heard about from Amos, we were told to cheat and to lie in order to get ahead. Sometimes, like the employee in today’s parable, we thought we could get away with shady dealings; that we could take care of ourselves; that we could plan for the future independent of higher authority, independent even of God.
What our parents had begun so well, was sometimes set aside by our peers. Yet, hopefully, we also had peers who did not lead us astray but, instead, also helped us open and use our gift of faith. Yet, if parents and peers were less than helpful, perhaps there were also “professionals” – those who truly professed their beliefs, who spoke out and taught us through their words and actions.
The first of those “professionals” – those who profess our faith – are our bishops. We sometimes forget that they are the primary teachers assigned to us by God to help us in our response to God’s revelations. Bishops, priests, deacons and religious sisters and brothers have principal roles to openly profess our faith.
But perhaps the most important ones who profess their faith to others, who help others in their quest for God, are our ordinary teachers, our ordinary catechists: those ordinary women and men of all ages and backgrounds who do such extra-ordinary things in their lives – and with their lives. These are the people we acknowledge and honor today. These are the ones who have given of themselves so that each one of us can experience today our own “Santa Fe” – our own Holy Faith.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 20, 1998 (Catechetical Sunday)
Amos 8:4 -7; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13