This
summer I had the opportunity to give a retreat for high
schoolers, and I had fun coming up with off-the-wall analogies to help
them
understand different aspects of the faith. This one is my favorite.
Like all
analogies, it can’t be stretched too far, but I hope you enjoy it…
Let’s take a walk on the wild side
and say
that Jesus giving his disciples the Christian faith is kind of like
Jesus
giving each of his disciples a brand new Batmobile. That’s right, a
jet-black,
megacool, ridiculously powerful supercar just like Batman had in all of
his
movies, but with even more amazing high-tech gadgets and capabilities.
Except
this Batmobile can go anywhere—up a mountain, across the desert, heck
it can
even convert into boat mode and drive over the Sea of Galilee. It has
no need
for expensive gas, it runs on Christ’s grace, baby! And do you remember
how in
the second Batman movie, with the push of a button the car could
convert and
become super skinny to squeeze through alleyways and stuff? Well, this
Batmobile
is even more amazing… with the push of a button, the entire car splits
in half
and miraculously duplicates itself! One moment, you could have the only
Batmobile
in town, and minutes later the whole neighborhood could be cruising up
and down
the street in their own brand new ride! Pretty sweet, huh?
And so, as
he was about to return to his Father in heaven, Jesus commanded the
Apostles to
go out and make disciples of all nations, giving the Batmobile to as
many
people as they possibly could. And that’s exactly what they did. They
began in
Jerusalem, sharing the Batmobile with over three thousand people in one
day
(beat that, General Motors!), and soon people throughout Israel and
even
throughout the entire Mediterranean were driving it around! And it has
been
passed down intact from generation to generation until the present day.
Sure,
over the centuries its external appearance has changed a little bit,
and we
have gradually come to a deeper understanding of certain aspects of it,
but the
Batmobile we’re driving around today is still the same exact one that
St. Peter
and St. Paul and all the apostles were driving around 2000 years ago.
Jesus is
still working through it, helping us to zip down the road to eternal
life by
knowing, loving, and serving God.
Because that’s the purpose of the
Batmobile: to help us down the “Highway to Eternity” by knowing,
loving, and
serving God, so that one day we can experience the joy of heaven. Jesus
knew
that the Highway to Eternity is a difficult road, filled with obstacles
and
dangers and enemies that can cause us to forever lose our way, so in
designing
the Batmobile he spared no expense! He gave it a special GPS guidance
system to
guide and direct us along the right path (Christ’s guidance through the
leaders
of the Church). He installed bulletproof armor that strengthens us
against the
attacks of our enemies (the sacramental grace of Baptism and
Confirmation), a
built-in mini-fridge that nourishes us along the journey (the
Eucharist),
state-of-the-art first-aid technology that heals us when we are hurt
(Confession
and Anointing of the Sick), and countless other features to help us on
our
journey to heaven. Jesus wants everyone to have these awesome gifts,
but he
does not force the Batmobile upon anyone.
We might ask, what does that mean
about the
other religions—Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc? Well, if Christianity is
like
the Batmobile, then Judaism is, say, like traveling down the Highway to
Eternity
in a horse-drawn buggy (they’re still waiting on the engine!) And the
other
religions, they would be something like riding on a camel or a bicycle
or walking
on foot. God is all-powerful and can help a person to know, love, and
serve Him
even in these circumstances, but it is going to be a much more
difficult and
treacherous journey for them than if they had the Batmobile. He wants
them all
to have that gift, because it is only in Christianity that they will
have the
fullest and deepest experience of His fatherly love and care. That is
why we
are called as Christians to evangelize by word and deed, to help the
entire
world come to know Jesus Christ. We want every single person on earth
to
experience the joy of knowing Christ and becoming an adopted child of
God!
And what about the other Christian
groups
around us—the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists,
Baptists, and
all the rest? Where are they along the Highway to Eternity? Basically
what
happened is that five hundred years ago, a monk named Martin Luther and
several
other leaders each started churches that broke away from the Catholic
Church
and its fifteen-hundred-year-old faith. With the very best of
intentions, believing
that they were restoring the Church to how God meant it to be, they
each
decided that they wanted the Batmobile their own way. They decided that
they
didn’t need its GPS guidance system, they got rid of the bulletproof
armor,
they tossed out the mini-fridge and the first-aid, and so on with many
of the
things that make the Batmobile so cool.
In other words, with all the best
of intentions,
the Protestant Reformers turned the Batmobile into a Ford Taurus or a
Kia
Sophia! The engine, Jesus Christ, is still intact, so they can still
travel
down the Highway to Eternity pretty darn well (much better than any
camel or
bicycle!) But nonetheless, God still wants them to have all of the
gifts that
He gave his apostles two thousand years ago! He doesn’t just want them
driving a
Taurus or a Sophia, as nice as they are, He wants them to be enjoying
the
Batmobile! That is why we are called, as Catholic Christians, to
evangelize not
only non-Christians but even our non-Catholic brothers and sisters in
Christ.
It’s not that they don’t know and love Jesus, it’s simply that we want
them to
experience the fullness of the Christian faith, all the gifts that God
wants to
give them through his holy Church!
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