I have a confession to make. I am a recovering “Shopping Cart Catholic.” You know how it goes. You walk down the first aisle of Catholicism – “I’ll take a can of ‘Holy Days of Obligation”, no problem. “The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the other sacraments” – better stock up on those. And there, on the top shelf, “the preferential option for the poor” – I love that stuff! It is easy to put those into my ‘cart’ – to live as a Catholic Christian with those teachings. Because they make sense of my world, because they fit my understanding of how Jesus visions the way we should be and could be – all the things in aisle one of Christianity.
But, when you turn down aisle two and three, it has not always been that easy. What about the church’s teaching on sexuality, whether that is in the orientation question, pre-marital sex or the birth control side? And then there’s that women ordination question. Better to not even touch that one. Next, is that whole aisle of ethical teachings – from capital punishment to human cloning to abortion to dignity of life and euthanasia issues. Do I have a sense of what the church is teaching there? Better leave it on the shelf! “Shopping Cart Christianity” – following Jesus down the convenience aisles of life – without ever dealing with the more difficult issues. I admit – I am a recovering shopping cart Catholic. Just like the folks in the time of Jesus.
After this long bread of life discourse – you finally hear the reaction of the people of Jesus’ time. Murmuring. Doubting. A hardening of the heart – ‘who can accept it?’ And then the conclusion: “As a result of this, many disciples returned to their former way of life.” Shopping cart disciples. People who were in it for the bread or for the healings or for the fame of being around him or for anything but the Spirit and life Jesus promised. But once it became clear what Jesus was about and what it might cost them, it was so hard for them to continue. It was so hard for them to trust. Because eventually that is what it is all about – trusting in Jesus as being the Spirit and life, of having the words of everlasting life. …What do you do when you are faced with the hard choice of following Jesus?
In many ways, the shopping cart stage of life is an apt description of the experience of college as well. It is a time for the trying out of so many different and new things. Let’s put a box of living on my own in the cart. Ahh, sweet freedom! And how about a nice bottle of “Party Hearty!” for Friday nights. “Awesome!” Hey, check this out <<reach for imaginary item>> – One “skip every morning class” card. That rocks! But, then you turn down aisle two, and you see items like
“4 hrs of STUDY a night’.
‘Keeping up with the parents and family while away from home’. ‘Smart choices around alcohol consumption!’
How do you find your way through? Will you go through life, only sampling the convenience items at the checkout lane – usually junk food/items which have little permanent value? Of all the choices before you, how will you choose that which will help you be your truest and best self? Today’s gospel invites you to try what I call the Simon Peter test.
When Jesus turns to the twelve and asks them what they will do in the face of his difficult teaching, it is Simon who gives us the answer. And at first breath, it is not exactly a ringing endorsement of Jesus. “To whom shall we go?” It’s kind of like saying to your spouse on your 25th anniversary – “I’ll stay with you ‘cause I couldn’t find anyone else who would put up with me…” But, to his credit, Peter doesn’t stay in that kind of ‘path of least resistance following of his Lord.’ In his next statement, he hits it out of the park. “You have the words of eternal life.” AHH! There is an experience of life, of love, of an expanding ability to be in and of the world when I am true to who you are and what you teach me about life. This following of you, step by step, brings me to a place of holiness and self giving that I might never have known any other way. That’s the Simon Peter test about the difficult teachings of Jesus and the church. Does being faithful to this teaching bring me closer to Jesus and does it awaken in me an experience of eternal life?
And here is the other truth I know. Unlike some things in college where you can sort of know what to expect without much effort, to integrate the things of God and the truths of the Spirit in your life, you have to ‘put it in your cart’ first. You have to live and walk the teaching from the inside so you can test it. You can’t learn by reading the label and leaving it on the shelf. You have to live the teaching/truth/value – which is a work of humility and hope and trust. The challenge is to live the teaching until you come to know the deepest truth about it…
This evening, the same Jesus who asked the Twelve disciples – “Will you also leave?” asks us the same question. Will you be a shopping cart Catholic? Or will you take the Simon Peter test? In all the choices you make and the decisions you choose, will you live them asking that simple question:– Does choosing this lead me to life and life to the full? Does it allow me to say, with Simon Peter: “Lord, You have the words of everlasting life?”