Homily – 20th Sunday Year B (2018)
All of the readings today talk of the wisdom of God, and how it does not always match the so-called wisdom of the world. Like the Jews who cannot comprehend and understand the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood as the food that comes down from Heaven, we do not always understand the ways of God.
And yet, we do not always understand the ways of the world either. Sometimes, the ways of the world, which may be very harmful to us, are hidden or may appear attractive. And sometimes we don’t even realize that what is harmful, what is bad, even what is evil, is right there in front of us. That is why St. Paul tells us in the 2nd reading to “watch carefully how you live… for the days are evil. Do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand the will of the Lord.”
Let me give you an analogy, a story from my daily life that may shed some light. Some 30 years ago, I was playing tennis and got hurt. I won’t go into all the details, but I got hit in the eye by a tennis ball and had to go to an eye doctor. After he fixed it as best he could, he told, that I would still have a scar, and this scar would result in a “floater” in my vision. It’s really just a shadow from protein fibers from the scar, and most of the time I don’t notice it. But if I try hard and focus, I can see it. Lately, due to old age I guess, I have developed another floater in my vision. This one looks more like a very small bug, where the older one looks like a thread that’s balled up. I’ve noticed that they are most visible either when I can’t focus very well, like when I first wake up, or, when it is exceptionally clear, like when I look up into a deep clear blue sky. They are always there, but most of the time, they just blend in with everything else in my vision and I don’t notice it.
That’s the key! They are always there. I just don’t always notice them unless I am struggling, or unless I am very focused. That is the story of our spiritual life, and in reality, the spiritual combat we are in everyday! Evil is real, very real. And the diabolic is always there, tempting us and trying to lure us away from Christ and our heavenly home. Sometimes it’s easy to notice, like a terrible tragedy when we ask, how and why would God allow this to happen? Other times we notice evil in the world, because we may be so in tune to the ways and will of God. But most often, it is the regular temptations of the world, that blend in with what the world says is good, acceptable and normal. And as the world changes and turns away from the ways of God, these evil ways, posing as now acceptable behaviors, can creep even into the realm of the good and the holy.
The term for that is “Sacrilege”, and it means to take something holy, and destroy it or it use it for an evil purpose. And that is what is going on in the Church today. We are in a grave crisis, possibly the worst crisis in the history of the Catholic Church in America. When the news broke of the sex scandal in the U.S. Church 20 years ago, I was a seminarian. Most of the terrible stories we heard were from decades ago, and I blamed poor formation, bad seminaries, a few bad priests, and imprudent bishops. I even blamed psychologists, counselors and therapists who recommended to bishops that these men could go back into ministry. But that was years ago. The diagnostic manuals had changed so much in that time, and I knew what I had to go through to get ordained, all the psychological evaluations and formation conferences.
I knew St. John Paul II had just set the new norms for priestly formation, and then Pope Benedict made them even stricter. I knew terrible things had been done by priests and bishops, and I believed the Church addressed what needed to be done.
I even believed that this was not just a Church problem, or a Catholic problem, like all the jokes and terrible news inferred, but was systemic of a much bigger cultural problem. We were just the “big guy on the block”, the one it was PC to attack. Sexual abuse was rampant everywhere, other denominations, public schools, scouting organizations, and especially in families. They were just picking on us because the Catholic Church is an easy target, with a big dollar sign. And as new priest, I was very defensive about all of this. Sure, I felt terrible for the victims and prayed for them, but I also felt terrible for priests who were wrongly accused and removed from ministry as someone who was “guilty until proven innocent.”
But when the new Grand Jury indictment from Pennsylvania came out last week, just a few weeks after the news of Cardinal McCarrick and what happened while he was a bishop in New Jersey, I was sick. And I was angry. It wasn’t just reading parts of the report, or listening to interviews about the abuses. What woke me up was reading and listening to my brother priests, good, holy, priests, all over the country, who are fed up with the subculture of sacrilege that is going on within the Church. There is something diabolical within the Church, within the Body of Christ, and it is taking what is Holy, the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bishops, His Priests, His Sacraments, and His Faithful, and contorting them into a perversion in the service of shameful and selfish passions.
Our Lady warned us at Fatima about an apostasy from the faith. This is a practical apostasy, a renunciation of the faith and the teachings of the Church on sexual morality. The cultural belief that sexual activity outside of marriage is not only acceptable, it is the norm, has crept into not just the mindset of the faithful in the pews, but has also become a demonic infestation within a subculture of the hierarchy. That is truly the only way to describe the abuses that have been inflicted by those in positions of authority in the Church. It is diabolical, it is demonic. Predators and those who have covered it up or ignored it, have profaned what is good and holy. This is more than a PR nightmare or a financial setback, this is an attack in which we have let the enemy gain a foothold inside our inner sanctum. As St. Paul tells us, we are dealing with principalities and powers here, that cannot be fought with soundbites and public relations, but only with prayer, fasting and penance. We must cleanse this sacrilege so that what was created to be holy and a font of grace for the faithful, may again be what Christ created it to be.
So what do we do now. We are angry, we are distrustful, and we are disgusted. I am reminded of the words of a good friend, a good and holy priest from Fall River, Massachusetts, who lived through the first wave of the scandal in Boston years ago. He was addressing so many of his parishioners who were angry at the Church in Boston, and were threatening to leave the Catholic faith. He said: “These men who did such terrible things to the faithful, they have committed spiritual homicide, and have killed the faith of so many. But if you leave, then you are committing spiritual suicide. There is hope, there is still hope. In every great persecution against the Church, God raises up great saints to get us through it.”
That is the starting point for us right now. In this most grievous crisis, Christ will raise up good and holy leaders from among us. Just as the Living Father sent Christ, and He has life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Christ will have life because of Him. For each of us, we start the change here by faithful, fervent, and zealous love of the Body of Christ! Let us worthily celebrate the Sacred Liturgies. That means, challenging ourselves right now.
First 1.) Ask yourself, when was the last time you went to confession, and ask if you are letting any sacrilege creep into the holiness of your life. Draw closer to Christ, catch me after Mass. Call me up and set up an appointment for the Sacrament of Reconciliation anytime this week. I will spend every moment of each day, even my day off, in that confessional for each and every one of you. Just tell me when and I will meet you there. It is for my sake as well as yours that I should be in that confessional.
Second 2.) We need to do penance, penance for the whole Church. We are in spiritual combat, and as Christ said, some demons can only be cast out with prayer and fasting. Do something extra, something special, both to pray for the Church but also to do reparation for the suffering. The Communion we share in Christ and with the Church is for all. Take on a new devotion, prayer or fasting for the sake of all those affected in so many ways by this crisis of faith. May our penance be a font of grace that re-consecrates something or someone who may have been lost.
Third 3.) Turn to Our Mother! The Blessed Virgin Mary is Our Lady of Sorrows; she knows suffering better than anyone but her Son. Ask her to intercede for all the victims and to hold them close to her Immaculate Heart. Mary is Mother of the Church; she will wrap her mantle around us, shower us with graces, and always bring us into the presence of Christ. Ask for her guidance. Mary is Mother of the Clergy; just as she gathered her Son, Jesus Christ into her arms as he was lowered from the Cross, Mary will embrace her faithful priests and bishops as they carry their crosses. She is always there for us, and no one has more power against Satan than our Blessed Mother.
Fourth 4.) Offer the Mass with great and fervent devotion. We all bring ourselves to the Altar of the Lord and offer gifts and petitions to Our Father. Let us not just bring our bread and wine, or even the tithe, but also offer ourselves, our hearts, as a sacrificial offering for others. Let us offer Mass with the greatest devotion for the victims of these abuses. Let us offer Mass for the conversion of those who have turned away from Christ. Let us offer Mass for the many who are contemplating leaving the faith. And let us offer Mass for our faithful priests and bishops, that they may be the Good Shepherds needed at this time.
As the Book of Proverbs tells us in the 1st Reading today, God has built us a house, His house, and it is the Church. He invites us to be fed, fed with the Body and Blood of Christ, so that we may not fall for the foolishness of the world, but understand and long for the wisdom of God. That is our faith. Let us keep that in focus. Not just when things are going well and we know we are blessed; and not just during a terrible crisis when we wonder where God is. Keep it in focus at all times, and don’t let it blend into the haze and fog of the foolishness of the world. We are in a spiritual war, a real conflict of principalities and powers that is fighting for our souls. That is why God has given us His Son, His Body and Blood, and the Church. It is so that we may share in His victory.
For it is on this rock He has built His Church,
and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
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