Identity First, Then Action
And if anyone of you does not renounce
all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
I have always been fascinated and intrigued
by the subject and the study of psychology
and in particular, psychotherapy.
It is all about how the mind works
and how we can heal from certain wounds of the past.
I have always tried to figure out
why we do what we do
or why we do not do what we want to do.
St. Paul, in his famous chapter 7 of the book of Romans,
asks that very question.
Why is it that I do what I do not want to do
and fail to do what I know I want to do?
The problem of good and evil if you would.
There are lots of books out there and
I have read a lot of them
but there is one particular subject I take in a particular interest.
It is “cognitive behavior therapy.”
It is understanding how we can change behavior.
Of course to change it we have to first observe it.
Inside that subject is one particular area I have been fascinated with
because there has been a lot of new data on it.
It is the subject of habits.
Why we do certain things and
we do them automatically
and other things we do not do?
There are lots of great books out there.
There is the “Power of Habits”,
“Atomic Habits” and “Tiny Habits” to mention a few.
I have read lots of them but
there is one common thing about them.
All of these actions come out of a certain part of the brain
called the the basil gaglia.
It is a tiny little portion of the brain.
It is one of the more ancient parts of the brain.
And in that basil gaglia, there is a decision maker
that says basically “go” or “no go,” “action” or “no action.”
What is fascinating is that they found
it can be reprogrammed a little bit
or what they would call rewired
because it is all to do with neurons and the neurological path.
Here is what is interesting;
at the core of all of these books
and we could go through them and summarize,
there is just one section that is really interesting.
If you want to change behavior you need to understand habit.
We all know that a habit is built from three steps.
There is a cue then there is the action
and then there is a reward. Right?
You smell a donut, you eat a donut,
and then you have the reward afterwards.
There is actually a pre-stage or what is known as craving;
one that sets up for the cue and that is craving the donut, right?
So the smell is part of the craving
and that is actually where the pathway can get shifted.
They say the easiest way to shift that pathway,
that neurological pathway in the basil gaglia
is actually about identification.
If you identify this is what I am
or who I am then you have an easier way to shift it.
Let me give an example of this to kind of explain.
I have used this before
but it is helpful to understand in this context.
If I took a survey of people out in the world, randomly,
and I offered 10 people a cigarette to smoke,
eight of them would decline,
two of them will take it.
And of those two, one will take it and enjoy it
and the other will take it and hate it.
So the only one who is actually going to be tempted
to ever take another cigarette is that one
because that person has made a decision
whether I do it or I do not do it.
Rather than focus on those last two
I want to focus on the first eight.
Why do eight all respond the exact same way?
This study is not my study but it has been done multiple times.
Out of the eight, they all say the exact same thing.
What did they say when offered a cigarette?
“I do not smoke.” Or “I am a non-smoker.”
There is no act of will involved here.
They have made a statement of who they are.
It is an identity.
They do not say,
"Oh, I am really strong.
I refuse to smoke.
No, I am not a smoker.
I do not smoke.”
There is no act of the will.
It is a decision of who I am.
It is identity.
They say that is the easiest way to change behavior.
Ironically that is exactly what Jesus is getting to today.
This is not pre psychology or anything.
This is how smart Jesus was.
He knew human beings really! Surprise!
He turns around he says,
“Look you have to focus on who I am to follow me.
Nothing else matters.
Not your parents, your children, not anything else.
Everything is just identity with me.
Identify to me.”
Now, this is what is known as semetic hyperola.
This is Jewish hyperbole.
That does not mean to take it literally.
So, boys and girls,
you are not meant to hate your parents. Okay?
And we are not meant to hate our brothers and sisters.
You do not say,
"Well, why are you doing that? The Bible says I should do it.”
That is taking it out of context.
We are meant to understand
that Jesus is using hyperbole to get their attention.
Focus on me and the identity of being a Christian.
The original disciples and apostles,
when they followed Jesus,
they were called the followers.
The the original name for Christianity was not Christianity.
It was called “The Way.”
You see what we have done is
make a mistake about being Christians.
We think that being a Christian is being a believer.
No, that is not a Christian at all.
There are lots of believers and
they can call themselves Christians,
but that is not really Christianity.
Christians are the ones who are followers of Jesus Christ.
That is the disciplehip.
That is what Jesus is making distinction of here today.
There are lots of people who liked what he said.
Sometimes they did not.
Then he reminds them that
this discipleship is going to cost you.
There is going to be a cost.
You are going to have to give up certain things
and you must pick up your cross and come follow me.
There is a sacrifice because when you make a decision for one thing,
you say no to something else.
That is the cost. Understand?
For example, a person who says,
"I am not going to smoke” is choosing never
to have the potential joy of smoking.
I cannot imagine what that is
because I would never do it. I am non-smoker.
But you could all choose to be somewhere else this morning.
You could be choosing your bed and having it.
You could sleep in, watch television.
You could just rest and stay at home,
but you chose to be here. Why?
Because that is the identity who you are.
I am a Catholic.
I go to church on Sunday.
That is what I do.
There is no other way.
Now, what if you had to make that decision every week
by an act of the will? It will exhausting.
Even just hearing it is exhausting.
You have to make the decision as identity.
This is who we are.
There is no conversation with the family.
This is what we do.
We are a Catholic family.
We go to church.
There there is no conversation.
There is no decision of the will.
You are not asking your opinion of your children.
You decide this is who you are.
And then boom, you go.
Everyone gets up and they go.
You see how see that not the act of the will,
that the act of identity, of who we are.
If every time we want to do something good,
we decide will I do the good, will I not do the good?
You can see the brain has to do all this extra work.
We have to go past that.
We have to define ourselves by Christ.
That is who we come to follow.
We come to follow him and
we know that will cost us sometimes.
But that is part of the disciplehip.
That is part of who we claim to be.
Jesus goes even further by saying
we have to give up all our possessions.
What he means by that is
we got to put everything else upside down.
It is Christ first and then follows everything else.
Now the challenge with that is
that a lot of other people do not do it.
And so we have to make the decision who am I?
It is an identity because
we are called to be followers of Christ.
It is not only about what we believe.
It is not just about coming to Church and believing in Church.
Even though that is great,
that is what we call doctrine, a part of the church,
but that is not why we come here.
We come here to listen to the scripture,
to hear what is it that Jesus did
because that is what we are going to do.
So that is why when we are a Christian,
a Catholic who is all-in,
who is decided that this is who I am.
When somebody hurts us and we forgive them
and other people think we are crazy,
we go like that is who I am.
That is just what I do.
When we are reaching out to the refugees,
the immigrants, the broken, the homeless,
and the immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
That is just who I am.
They can condemn us.
They can do anything they want,
but this is just who I am, this is what I do.
This is this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
We keep coming back each Sunday to remind ourselves,
what Jesus called us to do?
Because that is the way we are going to follow.
There is so many other voices from the secular wisdom
like the book of wisdom today
that come in to try and compete against that.
But we keep reminding ourselves what it is.
That is our joy.
But let's be very clear,
it is an identity first, then the behavior follows from that.
If we do not make the identity first that this is who I am,
we are going to make a whole lot of work for ourself.
It is going to make a fight in the family
and the fight is going to be about all the wrong things.
It is hard work to make a decision and will be every single time
when you are asked to do a good
or a Catholic Christian thing or not.
Whereas if we make the identity,
the way sort of rolls itself out
and we just do what we are called to do.
The identity is what we reaffirm here each Sunday.
When I say yes to the Lord,
I am be promising to become what I already am,
the body of Christ.
I am committing to “the way” again each and every week.
And we see each other to recommmit that same thing again.
It is not as much hard work as it is a decision.
Once you have made that decision,
then we live by that decision.
Christ, is the way, the truth, and the life,
and the final everything for us.
And if anyone of you does not renounce
all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
Identity First, Then Action
And if anyone of you does not renounce
all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
I have always been fascinated and intrigued
by the subject and the study of psychology
and in particular, psychotherapy.
It is all about how the mind works
and how we can heal from certain wounds of the past.
I have always tried to figure out
why we do what we do
or why we do not do what we want to do.
St. Paul, in his famous chapter 7 of the book of Romans,
asks that very question.
Why is it that I do what I do not want to do
and fail to do what I know I want to do?
The problem of good and evil if you would.
There are lots of books out there and
I have read a lot of them
but there is one particular subject I take in a particular interest.
It is “cognitive behavior therapy.”
It is understanding how we can change behavior.
Of course to change it we have to first observe it.
Inside that subject is one particular area I have been fascinated with
because there has been a lot of new data on it.
It is the subject of habits.
Why we do certain things and
we do them automatically
and other things we do not do?
There are lots of great books out there.
There is the “Power of Habits”,
“Atomic Habits” and “Tiny Habits” to mention a few.
I have read lots of them but
there is one common thing about them.
All of these actions come out of a certain part of the brain
called the the basil gaglia.
It is a tiny little portion of the brain.
It is one of the more ancient parts of the brain.
And in that basil gaglia, there is a decision maker
that says basically “go” or “no go,” “action” or “no action.”
What is fascinating is that they found
it can be reprogrammed a little bit
or what they would call rewired
because it is all to do with neurons and the neurological path.
Here is what is interesting;
at the core of all of these books
and we could go through them and summarize,
there is just one section that is really interesting.
If you want to change behavior you need to understand habit.
We all know that a habit is built from three steps.
There is a cue then there is the action
and then there is a reward. Right?
You smell a donut, you eat a donut,
and then you have the reward afterwards.
There is actually a pre-stage or what is known as craving;
one that sets up for the cue and that is craving the donut, right?
So the smell is part of the craving
and that is actually where the pathway can get shifted.
They say the easiest way to shift that pathway,
that neurological pathway in the basil gaglia
is actually about identification.
If you identify this is what I am
or who I am then you have an easier way to shift it.
Let me give an example of this to kind of explain.
I have used this before
but it is helpful to understand in this context.
If I took a survey of people out in the world, randomly,
and I offered 10 people a cigarette to smoke,
eight of them would decline,
two of them will take it.
And of those two, one will take it and enjoy it
and the other will take it and hate it.
So the only one who is actually going to be tempted
to ever take another cigarette is that one
because that person has made a decision
whether I do it or I do not do it.
Rather than focus on those last two
I want to focus on the first eight.
Why do eight all respond the exact same way?
This study is not my study but it has been done multiple times.
Out of the eight, they all say the exact same thing.
What did they say when offered a cigarette?
“I do not smoke.” Or “I am a non-smoker.”
There is no act of will involved here.
They have made a statement of who they are.
It is an identity.
They do not say,
"Oh, I am really strong.
I refuse to smoke.
No, I am not a smoker.
I do not smoke.”
There is no act of the will.
It is a decision of who I am.
It is identity.
They say that is the easiest way to change behavior.
Ironically that is exactly what Jesus is getting to today.
This is not pre psychology or anything.
This is how smart Jesus was.
He knew human beings really! Surprise!
He turns around he says,
“Look you have to focus on who I am to follow me.
Nothing else matters.
Not your parents, your children, not anything else.
Everything is just identity with me.
Identify to me.”
Now, this is what is known as semetic hyperola.
This is Jewish hyperbole.
That does not mean to take it literally.
So, boys and girls,
you are not meant to hate your parents. Okay?
And we are not meant to hate our brothers and sisters.
You do not say,
"Well, why are you doing that? The Bible says I should do it.”
That is taking it out of context.
We are meant to understand
that Jesus is using hyperbole to get their attention.
Focus on me and the identity of being a Christian.
The original disciples and apostles,
when they followed Jesus,
they were called the followers.
The the original name for Christianity was not Christianity.
It was called “The Way.”
You see what we have done is
make a mistake about being Christians.
We think that being a Christian is being a believer.
No, that is not a Christian at all.
There are lots of believers and
they can call themselves Christians,
but that is not really Christianity.
Christians are the ones who are followers of Jesus Christ.
That is the disciplehip.
That is what Jesus is making distinction of here today.
There are lots of people who liked what he said.
Sometimes they did not.
Then he reminds them that
this discipleship is going to cost you.
There is going to be a cost.
You are going to have to give up certain things
and you must pick up your cross and come follow me.
There is a sacrifice because when you make a decision for one thing,
you say no to something else.
That is the cost. Understand?
For example, a person who says,
"I am not going to smoke” is choosing never
to have the potential joy of smoking.
I cannot imagine what that is
because I would never do it. I am non-smoker.
But you could all choose to be somewhere else this morning.
You could be choosing your bed and having it.
You could sleep in, watch television.
You could just rest and stay at home,
but you chose to be here. Why?
Because that is the identity who you are.
I am a Catholic.
I go to church on Sunday.
That is what I do.
There is no other way.
Now, what if you had to make that decision every week
by an act of the will? It will exhausting.
Even just hearing it is exhausting.
You have to make the decision as identity.
This is who we are.
There is no conversation with the family.
This is what we do.
We are a Catholic family.
We go to church.
There there is no conversation.
There is no decision of the will.
You are not asking your opinion of your children.
You decide this is who you are.
And then boom, you go.
Everyone gets up and they go.
You see how see that not the act of the will,
that the act of identity, of who we are.
If every time we want to do something good,
we decide will I do the good, will I not do the good?
You can see the brain has to do all this extra work.
We have to go past that.
We have to define ourselves by Christ.
That is who we come to follow.
We come to follow him and
we know that will cost us sometimes.
But that is part of the disciplehip.
That is part of who we claim to be.
Jesus goes even further by saying
we have to give up all our possessions.
What he means by that is
we got to put everything else upside down.
It is Christ first and then follows everything else.
Now the challenge with that is
that a lot of other people do not do it.
And so we have to make the decision who am I?
It is an identity because
we are called to be followers of Christ.
It is not only about what we believe.
It is not just about coming to Church and believing in Church.
Even though that is great,
that is what we call doctrine, a part of the church,
but that is not why we come here.
We come here to listen to the scripture,
to hear what is it that Jesus did
because that is what we are going to do.
So that is why when we are a Christian,
a Catholic who is all-in,
who is decided that this is who I am.
When somebody hurts us and we forgive them
and other people think we are crazy,
we go like that is who I am.
That is just what I do.
When we are reaching out to the refugees,
the immigrants, the broken, the homeless,
and the immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
That is just who I am.
They can condemn us.
They can do anything they want,
but this is just who I am, this is what I do.
This is this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
We keep coming back each Sunday to remind ourselves,
what Jesus called us to do?
Because that is the way we are going to follow.
There is so many other voices from the secular wisdom
like the book of wisdom today
that come in to try and compete against that.
But we keep reminding ourselves what it is.
That is our joy.
But let's be very clear,
it is an identity first, then the behavior follows from that.
If we do not make the identity first that this is who I am,
we are going to make a whole lot of work for ourself.
It is going to make a fight in the family
and the fight is going to be about all the wrong things.
It is hard work to make a decision and will be every single time
when you are asked to do a good
or a Catholic Christian thing or not.
Whereas if we make the identity,
the way sort of rolls itself out
and we just do what we are called to do.
The identity is what we reaffirm here each Sunday.
When I say yes to the Lord,
I am be promising to become what I already am,
the body of Christ.
I am committing to “the way” again each and every week.
And we see each other to recommmit that same thing again.
It is not as much hard work as it is a decision.
Once you have made that decision,
then we live by that decision.
Christ, is the way, the truth, and the life,
and the final everything for us.
And if anyone of you does not renounce
all his possessions cannot be my disciple.