Give It All Away And Follow Jesus

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, October 10, 2021

One of the finest Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, Paul Tillich, made a distinction between heteronomy, autonomy, and what he called “theonomy.” He said that a lot of us, in our own individual development and in a grand historical sense, tend to swing back and forth between heteronomy and autonomy. Heteronomy (Heteros+ nomos in Greek) literally means law from another. Autonomy (auto+nomos in Greek) means law from oneself. Obeying someone outside of oneself is heteronomy, and making law for oneself is autonomy. Paul Tillich thinks that as individuals and as societies, many of us tend to swing back and forth between these two extremes. From heteronomy viewpoint, law (nomos) is something imposed on us from the outside, from parents, from government, and from religion. Now, most sensible people accept the legitimacy of law, at least, as a kind of necessary evil. We need laws to govern our society and ourselves. Yet, even after accepting the indispensability of laws, deep down we kind of resent it. Let’s face it, no one is particularly happy about being told what to do. From a child to a mature adult, most of us resist laws being imposed on us from the outside. So, when heteronomy gets oppressive, there is a resistance, a clamor for autonomy (self-rule) that manifests itself in expressions like, “Don’t tread on me!” “Don’t tell me what to do.” Deep down each of us, we value autonomy. The abiding philosophy of our culture is autonomy. That’s why there is emphasis and sometimes overemphasis on freedom. Freedom is just another word for autonomy.

Here now is the problem. Both heteronomy and autonomy have shadow sides. The shadow side of heteronomy is tyranny. There is a tendency for the one who tells another what to do to become tyrannical, to become bossy. As for autonomy, its shadow side is chaos and relativism. To suggest that I am the law unto myself is dangerous. If everyone has the right to determine what to do, disorder will rapidly follow from autonomy. Paul Tillich argued that because heteronomy and autonomy have shadow sides, we tend to swing back and forth from one to the other. When autonomy gets a little bit crazy, someone will come along and impose order. But when the imposition of order becomes tyrannical, there is a pushback in the direction of autonomy. So, this causes us to kind of go back and forth. 

Is there a solution to this dilemma? Paul Tillich said, YES! There is a way out. There is a solution, which he calls “theonomy,” the law of God. What does he mean and why is this the solution to the problem? Isn’t God other to us? Of course, God is totally other to us. God is transcendent. God is not the same as my soul. So, there is something like heteronomy (law from another) even in theonomy. But God is not competitive with us. God is not other in the ordinary sense. Rather, God lives within the depths of each one of us and God’s closeness to each of us awakens what is the most beautiful and radiant in us. So, theonomy, which is the rule or law of God has the best of both heteronomy and autonomy. True freedom comes from discovering oneself and surrendering to God. 

Now, these sound pretty heady and abstract. But when you look at it through this familiar story of Jesus and a certain rich man, you will see this dynamics on very clear display. By his own admission, the rich man has been a faithful follower of heteronomy. By every standard, he has kept the law from another— law from the Torah. Dutifully, he has kept the commandments which says, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He has kept and applied the divine law but in a very heteronomous way. He sees God as the other who is imposing his will on a reluctant subject. How do we know this? His attitude! He hasn’t found joy and deep fulfillment in keeping the divine law. For as soon as Jesus instructs him to go and sell what he has, give the money to the poor, then come and follow him so that he will have treasure in heaven, the rich man balks and walks away sad. Why? Because he is a man of many possessions and his many possessions have possessed him. The Bible says that in his riches, man lacks wisdom, that is, the wisdom to discover the true self and surrender to God. The rich man is offered the opportunity to end oscillating from heteronomy to autonomy, to avoid the tensions often generated by both and to simply accept theonomy and live under the rule and law of God, but he refuses.

God is not a tyrannical master for whom we slave for. God is a wonderful Father who invites us into a relationship with him, a relationship in which everything the Father has belongs to us. To the rich man, Jesus says, “…come, follow me” and be free from the shadow sides of heteronomy and autonomy. Be free from the grudging observation of the law. Don’t think of yourself as a slave, rather consider the surrender to God’s will as the key to your own deepest joy. But why did the rich man turn down Jesus’ invitation? Because he is stuck at the same level as the pharisees who believe in auto-salvation (self-salvation) by the strict observance of the law. Discipleship, the Lord teaches, is more than a mere keeping of rules. It entails following him, not valuing and working for what most people do and also seeking for that which lasts beyond the grave. Jesus invites us to follow him. He invites us into theonomy, into allowing God to become the law, the norm of our lives. What does that look like? It looks like life and life to the full. That’s what Jesus offers to the rich man when he says to him, “…come, follow me.” You, me and everyone tend to move between these two extremes. We move into heteronomy desert and autonomy desert. But today, Jesus, the wonderful Savior and Lord invites us to surrender to the theonomy that gives life, life in its fullness.