REFLECTION
YEAST IN THE DOUGH: BEYOND ELITISM AND UNCRITICAL ASSIMILATION
Every
Christian community, and indeed the Church as a whole, is always at risk of
falling into what we could call “spiritual elitism”: the belief that since we are
trying to follow the Gospel we are better than others. Naturally, it would be
an unfortunate contradiction to think that we are superior to anyone by virtue
of a message that invites us to be servants of all and to discover God’s
presence in every person. But in the
attempt to move away from elitism we could fall into the opposite extreme: as
we strive to become involved in (and in no way “above”) the reality around us, we
dissolve ourselves in it. This happens when in the necessary process of
“embracing the world,” so characteristic of the spirit fostered by Vatican II,
we lose the originality that comes from the Gospel. Then we lose the ability to
contribute constructively to the criticism that so many aspects of our
societies actually need. By believing that in order to avoid elitism we must
uncritically assimilate all the cultural, ideological, political and social categories
of everyone around us (including injustice, racism, lack of care for the poor…
just to name a few), we lose the Gospel itself.
The
fact is that as followers of Jesus we do have a peculiar way of being in the
world. And yes, it is legitimate to contribute to the development of society
with our Christian perspective. How to do this without falling into elitism?
Perhaps, as it is so often the case, the answer is to be found in the Gospel itself, an indication that Jesus and the early communities had already wrestled with this very issue. What we should do is to try to be yeast in the flour and help leaven it (Matt 13: 33).
This
image says it all: the yeast is not the flour, yet it exists for the dough, and
when mixed with it transforms it into a better reality.
While the spiritual elitism was based on a lie (believing that because we try to live the Gospel we are better than other people), the uncritical assimilation of all aspects of our culture is a mediocre choice –one that comes from fear and ultimately a lack of love for the world. Between these two fruitless fields comes our path: being like yeast mixed with the flour.
The
metaphor provides an important reflection on the nature of the Christian
communities and the Church: if we are yeast we have no other purpose than to
leaven the dough: yeast only makes sense when mixed with the flour. In other
words, no one eats a plate of yeast. Just as no one eats a dish of salt,
following another image used by Jesus to talk about his disciples’ mission (Matt
5:13); nor does light (Matt 5:14), yet another image, makes sense by itself
either: light does not “light itself,” but illuminates what already exists in
the world. The three metaphors, yeast, salt and light, insist therefore in the
same point: the life of a Christian community only makes sense when its members
dedicate themselves to help transform and improve the lives of others and the
reality around them.
A
Christian community without a clear sense of this mission will in the end lose
its identity –by either becoming an isolated, elitist group, or by trying to
blend so much in its sociological context that sooner or later will have lost
its own voice.
Martí
Colom
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