Ordinary People

I want to say something about the trustworthiness of the Scriptures, because it occurred to me this week that I am more confident in the historicity of the Bible than in today’s media. But why? Is it just because I disagree with much of the commentary on the news? Or do I have some other reason for distrusting the ability of this age to communicate truths? What grounds do I have for putting more confidence in the handing on of an event that happened 2,000 years ago than I do in hearing from an anchor about what took place in the Midwest last week?

My reasoning has to do with the type of men and women Christ called to be disciples. They were all ordinary. And from them He chose 12 men whom He also called Apostles. These men, too, were quite ordinary. I imagine His disciples were surprised even to have been invited into His company, seeing as they held no positions of status - with the exception of Matthew, the tax collector. But even Matthew, precisely because he was a tax collector, would likely have been met with great suspicion by the Jews. And yet His Gospel endures.

Of course, I do have hope for our country. I believe in the resilience of the American spirit, even as I disagree with the way most people define the American dream; this past Thursday was a day for me as solemn as any of the Feasts we celebrated, and leaving the country is always for me a confirmation that my blood is red, white, and blue. But it’s not in media moguls or social influencers that I trust; rather, I tend to trust more in the ordinary man. I think the thing that saves our juridical system will also save our country, namely, that whenever something really important has to be decided it’s best to entrust that deliberation to 12 ordinary people.

I borrowed that last expression from Chesterton, who wrote it in 1908, England, but it’s still true, and perhaps even more so. He was wary of democracy’s tendency to decline into oligarchy, even then; I hope he is praying for us now! Yet the jury system, still in place, itself borrows from the wisdom of Christ Who chose 12 ordinary men to judge, deliberate, and then communicate the most important Event ever to take place in history, namely, the Incarnation of God; and I trust them. I trust them for the same reason I believe you when you tell me about your life. I believe you when you tell me about your children, your job, your past.

He chose 12 Apostles to represent the 12 tribes of Jacob’s sons who formed the foundation of Jewish history in that birthplace of Jesus, to then go out into the whole world to preach the coming of the fulfillment of that history. Remarkable, really. It wasn’t to kings, but to ordinary fishermen that God entrusted His mission. And He chooses the same means even now, canonizing for us Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, two ordinary young men. God remembers His promise to Abraham and to his children forever by lifting up the lowly, exalting those who were once laid low.

This is why I trust the Scriptures. They come to us from a time when life - although not easier - was quieter and more connected to the earth. Food was appreciated, storytelling was a lifeline; there were no cameras, no filters; and all intelligence was still human. This is why I put more trust in those people grounded more in the real. The artificial life is making it hard for us to speak plainly, while the Scriptures are not born from industry or technology, but from ordinary men and women, like us. +