Fulfilling your purpose
Any time you join an organization, club, fraternity, or team, you’re likely going to want to know, “What is going to be expected of me as a member?” For instance, if you were on a varsity athletic team at the University of Michigan, the Coach and Athletic Director would sit you and the rest of your teammates down prior to the start of the season and articulate their expectations for your behavior both on and off the court/field/playing surface. Those expectations almost certainly will go above and beyond what is asked of “normal” students. For instance, you may be required to attend mandatory study sessions in an academic center, or you might be prohibited from attending certain types of parties or social functions. You may be restricted in your ability to speak to the media or post publicly on facebook.
The same would be the case if you rushed a fraternity/sorority, tried out for an a cappella group, or signed up to live in an inter-faith Co-Op. By asking to become part of this group, you are taking on a different set of responsibilities than those already applying to you simply by virtue of your status as a student. Members of the US Military, elected officials, and foreign diplomats all receive a code of ethics unique to their respective organization, much the same as doctors with a valid medical license, lawyers who belong to a bar association, and accountants certified to practice publicly in America. Joining a group confers particular prerogatives and privileges, but it also entails additional responsibilities and requirements. You are expected to behave a certain way.
Any time you join an organization, club, fraternity, or team, you’re likely going to want to know, “What is going to be expected of me as a member?” For instance, if you were on a varsity athletic team at the University of Michigan, the Coach and Athletic Director would sit you and the rest of your teammates down prior to the start of the season and articulate their expectations for your behavior both on and off the court/field/playing surface. Those expectations almost certainly will go above and beyond what is asked of “normal” students. For instance, you may be required to attend mandatory study sessions in an academic center, or you might be prohibited from attending certain types of parties or social functions. You may be restricted in your ability to speak to the media or post publicly on facebook.
The same would be the case if you rushed a fraternity/sorority, tried out for an a cappella group, or signed up to live in an inter-faith Co-Op. By asking to become part of this group, you are taking on a different set of responsibilities than those already applying to you simply by virtue of your status as a student. Members of the US Military, elected officials, and foreign diplomats all receive a code of ethics unique to their respective organization, much the same as doctors with a valid medical license, lawyers who belong to a bar association, and accountants certified to practice publicly in America. Joining a group confers particular prerogatives and privileges, but it also entails additional responsibilities and requirements. You are expected to behave a certain way.
In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, articulating the guiding principles for membership in the community of believers who were making an intentional commitment to follow him. Jesus has just finished reciting the Beatitudes—that is, he’s just told them all of the perks of membership. “Happy/Blessed/Most fulfilled” are those who live their life this way, Jesus has attested. “Sounds great!” you could imagine the listeners enthusiastically responding, “So what do we have to do to get in on this happiness thing?” Jesus proceeds to lay out a series of ethical requirements for membership in this community, and they probably would’ve left the original hearers speechless. The normative guidelines elucidated by Jesus in this passage underpin the entire Christian way-of-being in the world.
In Catholic ethics, moral actions traditionally are divided into four categories: (1) prohibited, (2) permitted, (3) obligatory, and (4) heroic. Prohibited acts are those moral behaviors that are not allowed, e.g. lying, stealing, and killing. Obligatory acts are those that we are required to do, e.g. if we overhear a conversation in which two college guys indicate their intention to drug a girl at a party, we are morally obligated to take some action. Permitted acts, or morally indifferent acts, are ones that in themselves are neutral, like whether we decide to go to work on our paper on Sunday afternoon before heading to Church, or whether we choose to work on it Sunday night, after Mass. Heroic or saintly acts, are those that are not REQUIRED by the moral law, but which are morally praiseworthy and virtuous, e.g. if you are walking down the street and there is a building on fire, and a woman indicates that there is still a young child trapped up on the 3rd floor—as a passerby, you would not be morally obligated to run into the burning building, but certainly it would be a very noble and self-less act.
This last category of moral actions—ones in which we go above and beyond the minimal requirements of the moral law—are what philosophers refer to as superogatory acts. (Aside: In Kantianism and Utilitarianism, there is no such thing as a superogatory act.) It is this sort of action—in which we find ourselves doing more than what is called for—that Jesus sets down as THE defining ethical distinctiveness of his followers. Jesus says, You’ve heard both what the civil law requires and what the prevailing cultural norms entail, but I am going to establish a whole new standard for behavior. It would be as though a guy on a college campus announced to his peers: “You’ve heard it said, ‘Don’t be an asshole,’” but I say to you, “Be a GOOD guy.” You’ve been told not to deliberately get a girl inebriated and hook up with her, but I say, actively foster a community where guys create a healthy, respectful dating scene focused on the emotional, physical, and holistic well-being of the girls you encounter.
Membership in this organization we call “the Church,” that is, the entire community of believers worldwide, both past and present, who announce publicly their intention to model their lives after the teachings of Jesus Christ, compels us to a superogatory ethic, a way-of-being in the world that goes above and beyond merely obeying laws. At times, the challenge can feel overwhelming and impossible, particular when Jesus ends this exhortation with the call to be “perfect,” “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Yikes! That sounds impossible! And yet, with a bit more unpacking, it becomes more clear what Jesus was really getting at.
The Greek word for perfect here is teleios, which means purposive or fulfilled in its end. It comes from the noun, “telos,” which means end or purpose, in a functional manner. The telos of a hammer is to drive nails into a wall; the telos of a violin is to produce musical notes; the telos of a human, as Jesus has just explained to us in the Beatitudes, is to flourish! Just as a wood worker creates a violin for the telos of producing music, or a technician produces a hammer to drive nails, God, the cosmic craftsman, has created us with an express purpose—to flourish in this life and join him in the next. Therefore, Jesus urge might be re-phrased as, “Strive to fulfill your purpose just as your Heavenly Father purposefully made you!”
The sort of ethical living Jesus is calling us to is not an oppressive, burdensome set of maximalist moral norms meant to make us feel like we are never doing enough and induce anxiety, e.g. I need to sign up for more community service; I need to be a more focused student; I need to be a better friend—rather it is a way of existing in relationship to those around us where we are always focused on how we might best contribute to the common flourishing of the entire community. And, the absolutely amazing part about it is—that precisely in being focused on this sort of community flourishing, we will be fulfilling our own purpose, and will thus attain an unequaled happiness in doing so.
Reflection Questions
1. What might it look like for you, personally, to “turn the other cheek” and “give also your tunic?” People probably don’t punch you very often (and Jesus likely didn’t mean that saying literally), so how can YOU “turn the other cheek?”
2. Do you ever feel like you are not doing enough? Like you need to be a better person? Does this cause anxiety within you? How might Jesus respond to those feelings?
3. Do you ever think about your telos, i.e. your purpose? We all share a common telos—to flourish in this world and join God in the next—but we also have a unique telos that might be correlated to our particular vocation. How are you called to fulfill your purpose?
