Those who know me know that I have published a book by the title, Exception to the Rule. Actually, I joined two of my friends to publish it. It was fun to write, since one of my friends is a business guy working for a very large, global corporation and the other one is a world-class physician. In the writing process we clearly are an interdisciplinary team in action. I never took one business class nor spent one day in medical school.
Our focus in that book is on high performing teams. Whether we are talking about a group of folks going into surgery, a team working on a new innovative vaccine or a basketball team, high performance is obviously a plus. But high performing teams don’t happen by accident nor are they merely the luck of the draw. I could detail what goes into making up a high performing team, but you can read the book!
I certainly did not have that in mind when I was reading an article on a recent speech by Pope Francis. I am not Catholic, but I very much like the current Jesuit Pope who carries the name, Francis, my favorite Catholic saint. If I were to have a pope, he would be fine. But I also admit, as a Quaker, I am rather happy not to have a pope! That aside, allow me to share what led me once again to think of my book title.
I am aware Francis gives a weekly general audience at the Vatican. Typically, he speaks about some aspect of the church’s teaching. The Pope has been offering some comments based on some of the Apostle Paul’s letters in the New Testament. The author of this article, Carol Glatz, summarized the papal comments. “Redemption is the work of God, not of human beings, so be careful and do not listen to ‘fundamentalists’ who claim holiness comes through following certain laws, Pope Francis said…”
In an interesting way, Francis ties together a theological assumption to a contemporary issue. He affirms a basic Pauline assumption that God saves humans---plain and simple. Redemption is God’s work. The Pope reminds us that humans can’t save ourselves. The New Testament Apostle goes on to teach us that grace is the gift that God gives all of us. Francis is reminding us that we are not independent agents in the world---making happen whatever we want to happen.
Then the Pope turns to the practical application. He tells the audience that we need to be careful. There are fundamentalists in our midst who want us to believe that we become holy by following a particular law or rule. This is not simply a Christian problem, but let me stay with that family of the diverse religious traditions to make the point. There are different rules that are offered as the key point for holiness. It might be abortion, capital punishment or some other rule. The Pope’s point holds for any of these rules.
Glatz offers us some detail with these words from Francis. “The belief that holiness comes by observing particular laws ‘leads us to a rigid religiosity, a rigidity that eliminates that freedom of the Spirit which Christ's redemption gives us. Beware of this rigidity that they propose…’” I appreciate this caution against rigidity. Of course, someone telling us we must follow some rule in order to be holy never considers herself or himself to be rigid. They are almost never ready to accept an exception to the rule. The rule may have to do with abortion within Christian tradition, the burqa within Islam or any other religious rule. It does lead to religious rigidity.
Those of us who know Paul’s letters can understand that the Pope was working from this Pauline text. Francis reminded his hearers the “line of the danger of ‘these new preachers’ who had convinced some Galatians ‘that they had to go back and take on the norms, the precepts that were observed and led to perfection before the coming of Christ.’” We can interpret the Pope’s words, just as we interpret the Apostle’s word. I understand Francis is not against rules and laws. Anyone who lives in community or in society knows that rules and laws have a function. But most of us know these rules, even when they are religious, do not thereby make us holy. It is our relationship with God that brings holiness. The function of law is to help us be in and stay in this relationship. There are times when an exception to the rule makes sense.
When I say this, it is tempting to thing an exception to the rule always means breaking the rule or not doing what the law says. That may sometimes be true. But referring back to my book, sometimes exception to the rule means we go beyond the rule or law. We are operating beyond what the rule or law demands, we effectively make the rule irrelevant. That is what high performing teams are doing. They operate at such a level, they really don’t need rules.
That is how I understand the person who is working within God’s grace. They are already beyond the rule, they don’t worry about obeying the rule. This is a worthy goal, but it is not an argument for doing away with rules and laws. Just don’t make them the determiner of our holiness.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-chronicles/holiness-does-not-come-following-rigid-rules-pope-says
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