I recently came across a web page for a Christian Bible study program.  It was sponsored by Indiana Wesleyan University with most of the topics covering the Old Testament.  I was aware that the study was not from a Catholic perspective but I felt that the message was valid from any and or all Christian faiths.

One such article spoke of the “Mystery of the Unauthorized Fire.”  Moses older brother Aaron had two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who offered an unauthorized fire to the Lord.  For their disobedience they were slain by the Lord by an all-consuming fire.   We might think today that this might have been a very harsh punishment for what would appear to be a minor infraction and one could spend a great deal of time in conversation about such.

The main point of the article was that it appears today that we might have a lack of a healthy “fear of the Lord.”  To have a healthy fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Spirit found in Isaiah 11:2.  I found myself in agreement with both points, the punishment appeared to be harsh versus the crime and there does appear to be a general lack of a healthy fear of the Lord.  The article did cause me to stop and reflect on whether I had a “fear of the Lord,” which is another discussion for another day.

From this same web site another author was offering a multiple study of the Gospel of John.  This caught my attention because John is my favorite of the four Gospels.  The synoptics (Matthew, Mark & Luke) have a stronger focus on the humanity of Jesus while John speaks more to the divine Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1)

As I looked over the syllabus of what was to be covered in the study, I noticed that there was one very important chapter (Six) and some very important passages (17:22; 20:22-23) for example, that were not mentioned or even considered. As Scott Hahn stated in his book titled Rome Sweet Home, when Jesus repeats the same thing five times in eight versus, one needs to pay attention.  Chapter six begins with the Multiplication of the Loaves and leads into the Bread of Life discourse.

My point here is not to go into an in-depth study of John’s Gospel but to explore a question that permeated my thoughts as I investigated what was being covered – or not – in this particular study of John’s Gospel. I found myself asking the question – what is it that I choose to ignore about my faith and what I believe – with the emphasis on “choose.”  Jesus tells us in Jn 9:41 that if we were blind, truly ignorant, our sin would not remain; but if we say we see our sin remains.  What is it that I “choose to ignore?”

In this day and age and living in this country with all that we have and the freedoms that we have to do them, I am not even sure that I can say that I am truly ignorant.  I say this because of all the Bible study programs that are offered by all Christian faiths, not to mention all of the other faith based programs that are available for us to take advantage of. It is only by my choice to not take advantage of them, in order to be more informed about my faith, that I remain ignorant.  The question here isn’t whether or not I could know everything there is to know about God, Jesus, my faith in my life time.  The question is whether or not I am even trying.

I thought back to those times in my life when I developed my own belief system to accommodate how I wanted to live my life.  When I justified not going to Mass on a particular Sunday because it wasn’t convenient and besides, God wouldn’t care.  For all those times when I told myself that since it was hard for any human being to really know what God’s will is, as it is hard for humanity to truly know the depth of who God is, that ignoring this or that commandment or belief is ok.  Fasting from eating meat on Friday during Lent is not that big of a deal, it is just a demand from a Church that is out of touch with today’s world.  There isn’t a hell that we can be sent to.  How can a God who is supposed to be all loving and merciful condemn anyone to an eternity of hell?  Jesus didn’t really intend to build an institutional Church; it was just a construct of a patriarchal age that wanted to have control and power. I was made aware by a brother-in-law of a web site that spoke directly to this issue (See Msgr. Charles Pope’s article posted to the National Catholic Register; http://www.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-pope/8-modern-errors-every-catholic-should-know-and-avoid)

It will be very hard for us as a Christian community to “be one, as we are one” (Jn 17:22) when we continue interpret Scripture to fit our own beliefs to ignore important parts of the Gospel message altogether.  When we choose to ignore particular passages of scripture because we do not like the way that they challenge us.

Sometimes the lessons that we learn are not directly related to the subject matter that we are reading or studying about but from that which encompasses the whole of understanding.  In this case, I am sure that there were many lessons to be learned and faith to be explored from the program of study on John’s Gospel mentioned above that was being offered.   I, however, realized from looking at what was being offered, that we might all collectively be guilty of choosing or ignoring parts of Scripture because we cannot rectify it or justify it within our personal beliefs.  I have been challenged to look within my own faith experience, to discover what is lacking, or needs mending, spiritually.  I do realize that I need to once again have a “healthy fear of the Lord.”  “Right is right even if no one is right and wrong is wrong even if everyone is wrong” (unknown author).