I am so glad you reclaimed your voice. It is so valuable that you are bringing attention to these issues. Understanding the BITE model is huge!
I had a brush with Opus Dei too. It is hard to believe the church canonized the leader of a cult. Well, may be it is not hard to believe. The church also let Marcial Maciel lead the LOC for decades and he was a sociopath and pedophile.
We need more people speaking about this. Thank you for speaking up. I know how much work it is to break out of this system.
Thanks for this piece, Max, and particularly for the Bite Model tool that I had never heard of!! Although I've never been Catholic, my husband is / was, my mother was sent to a Catholic boarding school for many years, and my best friend is Catholic, so the topic is always intriguing to me. This piece reminded me of one of Richard Rohr's devotionals about power this week:
"The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt.
Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.
Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.
That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.
Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.
Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places." Adapted from Richard Rohr, “When Everyone Is a ‘Christian’ No One Is a Christian,” homily, February 5, 2017.
I am so glad you reclaimed your voice. It is so valuable that you are bringing attention to these issues. Understanding the BITE model is huge!
I had a brush with Opus Dei too. It is hard to believe the church canonized the leader of a cult. Well, may be it is not hard to believe. The church also let Marcial Maciel lead the LOC for decades and he was a sociopath and pedophile.
We need more people speaking about this. Thank you for speaking up. I know how much work it is to break out of this system.
Thank you, as always, for your support! It is so helpful to find community that values pushing back against these harmful ideologies
Thanks for this piece, Max, and particularly for the Bite Model tool that I had never heard of!! Although I've never been Catholic, my husband is / was, my mother was sent to a Catholic boarding school for many years, and my best friend is Catholic, so the topic is always intriguing to me. This piece reminded me of one of Richard Rohr's devotionals about power this week:
"The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt.
Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.
Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.
That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.
Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.
Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places." Adapted from Richard Rohr, “When Everyone Is a ‘Christian’ No One Is a Christian,” homily, February 5, 2017.
Thank you so much for sharing that Rhoda! A beautiful and apt reflection