Stanley Hauerwas, the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University, published an article in the May 1995 issue of First Things.

I would like to reflect on Hauerwas’ article Preaching As Though We Had Enemies which was cited on the Pontifications Blog.

Who told you you have the right to be who you are?

That is why the saints are so powerful and so distressing at the same time. They did not make up who they are. They allowed God His rightful place. God designed, fashioned, changed, and converted them. He destroyed them utterly, and made them nothing, so He could make them everything.

As Christians and particularly as Catholic Christians we are at war. It is a war of two fronts.

We are at war within ourselves to be sure.

That war is defined by our need to maintain our own identity in the face of becoming what God calls us to be. At a deeper level it is our need to analyze and define what God calls us to be rather than letting God’s Word and His Church define it. When you claim the name Christian your right to self determination is gone. You are not a member of a democracy and the civil notion of freedom is a falsehood.

The root of sin is self will. It is your will apart from God’s will.

As a Christian you are called to allow yourself to be emptied and to have enough faith and trust to allow God to fill you. You are called to subjugate your will to His will.

God has the right to define you. Furthermore, Jesus gave that right to the Church. That right is not yours or mine individually. He gave the Church the sacraments, most especially the sacraments defining membership through baptism, strengthening the members in the Spirit, nourishing the members in the Eucharist, and teaching them through the Word.

The Church then is your starting point. It is the place where you surrender and are incorporated. You surrender yourself to fulfilling what God’s Word and the teaching of the Church demand of you. By doing so God readies you to be a soldier of Christ.

As a corporate body, we the Church are at war with the world. Christianity, at least in the fist 300 years or so lived that war. Remember the martyrs and evangelists? Once Christianity became the state religion the war’s front changed. But remember Jesus called us to be in the world not of the world.

In the discourse in John 17 Jesus tells us:

And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.

And Jesus says:

But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.

I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

As the state religion Christians had an easy go. For about 1,500 years we’ve held say and sway over the world. We almost became part of the world, and on occasion, by all outward signs, we were of the world. However, as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit has remained with His Church and has not allowed this.

The paradigm, as they say, has shifted. The state religion is freedom. The last 200 years has been a steady progression in self will.

Define yourself, be what you want to be. Sculpt your body, adorn yourself, most of all never question anyone’s self determination. Don’t want to have a baby, kill it. Don’t want to die in pain, kill yourself. Most of all never question anyone’s reasons or motivations. Live and let live.

Carpe Diem, quam minimum credula postero. Latin for seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.

We fall into that trap. We say, —Well I don’t really like that, but as long as they keep it to themselves its ok.— We apply that to everything from peoples’ style of dress and music to homosexual behaviors and abortion.

But, that is not what you are called to do as a soldier of Christ. You are called to challenge the world, the government, and your neighbors.

It is not ok.

The preaching Hauerwas speaks of is not mine or simply the clergy’s. It is each of us, each of us preaching by example. We must each live the life of Christ in word, deed, and action.

He said:

Put differently, the project of modernity was to produce people who believe they should have no story except the story they choose when they have no story … That story and the institutions that embody it is the enemy we must attack through Christian preaching.

How to go about it? First, live the Christian life. Live Christ’s story for it is real and it is all truth. Start by making a Lenten resolution to exercise your faith. Pray, make frequent trips to receive the sacraments, come to devotions. Surround yourself with Christ.

Surround yourself in the home. Dust off that old crucifix —“ the one with the Jesus nailed to the cross, and put it in a prominent place. Pray before and after meals. Pray when you wake and go to sleep. Pray as a family. Read scripture and good books that edify the Christian faith. In the old days these were called spiritual exercises —“ and for a reason.

Second, do not stand for sin. Turn off the TV. Stay away from the movies and music. Dress conservatively. Speak the name of Jesus in public. Put a Bible on your desk at work. When someone mentions how they think so and so has a right, say that you don’t think so. Say, that’s not what the Church teaches. Speak your witness.

Keep Jesus words in mind:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first…you do not belong to this world”. (John 15:18-19)

You have no right to call yourself Christian and remain who you are. You are called to constant conversion. You are called to regeneration in the Spirit. You are called to preach His name and His Word. You are called to:

Go, therefore, and make disciples from all nations. Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to fulfill all that I have commanded you.