As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at
the tax office;
And He said to him, “Follow me.” And Matthew rose and followed Him.
Homily for the Twenty Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 22nd, 2013
Saint Joseph’s-
Worcester, NY
Saint Paul’s-
Schenectady, NY
Saint Kateri
Tekakwitha (Rosa Road)
Rev. Michael Taylor
So, every now and then, you’ll have
been working on a homily for the week. And you think you have it down. And then
something happens in the world that causes your idea for the homily to fly out
the window. This past week, it was the interview the Pope that seems to have
everyone in a frenzy. Now, I read the interview when it first came out.
However, in the days that followed, in all of the different news outlets such
as the BBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR, I began to think I’d read the wrong interview.
No, it just turns out they care more for headlines than for what the Pope
actually said. So go read the
interview.
Here. No, seriously. Stop reading
this, and go read the
interview. Then come back.
And welcome back! Alright, so first
things first. The media will twist things as they deem fit. They didn’t cover
him when he said that “it is not possible to find Jesus
outside of the Church”
or "there is no reconciliation
outside of Mother Church” or even last
Friday right after the interview is published when he
preached against abortion. We need to make sure we read what the Pope actually says. The pope
didn’t change one single thing as regards faith and morals. He’s not going to
change anything in regards to faith and morals. It’s not his job to change
things in regards to faith and morals. I think we Americans are susceptible to
a certain fallacy of thinking when it comes to the papacy. We’re use to
elections where a new president, a new administration, a new party comes to
power, and with their arrival comes different political theories, practices and
world view. Yet that is not the job of the papacy. The job of the papacy,
as it is for all the faithful, is to hand on the faith as they have received
it, as it is written,
to contend for the
faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
That being said, each pope brings something new and unique to
the Chair of Peter. If God had wanted the same type of person for the papal
office, he’d allow us to clone (and would have told Peter how to do it). So, let
us remember that we should not play one pope off another. It’s disingenuous to
how the popes themselves see their role, and it does us no good to imagine our
faith as a political platform just waiting for the next pope to finally change
things. This will help us to appreciate each pope for who they are. Pope John
Paul II was a mystic and a philosopher, who’s understanding of prayer and
meditation, especially as regards devotion to the Blessed Mother,
was hugely inspiring to many, and it helped bring many closer to Christ. That
is a good and holy thing. Pope Benedict XVI has one of the most brilliant minds
our Church has produced in the last hundred years. His ability to explain
theology
clearly while showing the depth of thought capable within our tradition lead
many people closer to Christ Jesus. And that is a good and holy thing. Pope
Francis has a simpler style and speaks in simpler terms,
which is convincing many to grow closer to Christ Jesus. And that’s a good
thing. So let us appreciate them for the gifts they bring rather than playing
one against the other.
That being said, this is not the most striking part of the
interview and the media’s coverage of it. In none of the stories that I heard
or read about what Pope Francis “said” did I find what concerned him the most.
Not once did they mention Jesus or His mercy.
Stunning how they could miss such the central theme of the interview. You see
the hope in God’s mercy is at the heart of who Pope Francis is. At the
beginning of the interview, Father Spadaro, the interviewer, asks the question,
“Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” Pope Francis, after a pause, answers, “I do not
know what might be the most fitting description…I am a sinner. This is the most
accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a
sinner.”
This is the heart of the encounter with Christ. First, a side
note. Let us notice something. Realize that when Jesus encountered those whom
he would call, His first message wasn’t, “Hey, guys, I have this new Christian
philosophy, a set of ideas, that you’re really going to find reasonable.” No,
so often, the first words out of Jesus mouth were;
follow me.
Don’t worry about what I say or do, just follow me and it’s all going to make
sense. That’s what Pope Francis is trying to communicate. Not that these moral
teachings aren’t important, and even less is he saying that they’re not true.
Rather, he’s saying they are not who we are. We cannot allow ourselves to be
defined by our prohibitions or affirmations, but rather by the one whom we
follow. We are Christians because we follow Jesus of Nazareth who was the
Christ. We are marked by our journey with Him. The teachings we follow are a
sign of that faith, but they are not the faith itself. Follow Christ and
everything will make sense. If Christ is not the heart of our message,
everything will seem dry and pointless.
There is a reason though why these
issues keep coming up. At the heart of it, it has nothing to do the actual
issues and everything to do with no one likes to be told they’re a sinner. In
the heart of every human being, regardless of culture, faith or lack therein,
there is the awareness that we have sinned. That we have failed to be the
person we were made to be.
In our more sober moments of reflection, we also realize that there is nothing
we can do to make up for our sin, nothing we can do to dig ourselves out of the
hole we dug ourselves into. And thus, no one likes to be told that they are a
sinner.
Yet Christianity takes this dynamic,
and flips the narrative. It stands the logic on its head. Pope Francis began
his interview by stating he is a sinner. Saint Paul, in his first letter to
Timothy stated,
How true is that saying,
and what a welcome it deserves, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners. I was the worst of all…
The authentic Christian is the one who knows they were a sinner and can
proclaim the glorious transformative power that Christ’s mercy can have. I know
that I am a sinner. I know the wretch that I was. I know the chains and scars
that I still carry with me. I am deserving of God’s wrath and justice because I
have sinned against God and man. Yet in His infinite love, God sent His Son
into the world to die upon a cross so that I might have life. Blessed be God
forever! Because of so great a gift of mercy, I would do anything I can to
serve the one who loved me so greatly. I want people to see me and know that if
God can do such good things to me, then surely he can work in their lives. As
Saint Paul says,
Three times I besought
the Lord about this [my weakness], that it should leave me; but He said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I
will all the more gladly boast of my weakness, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me.
That needs to be our message. That Christ can take save you from the chains of
sin that held you back. That’s worth following.
We need to decide though if we’re in
this all the way. Are we going to follow Christ completely, or are we just
going to dabble in it? In his interview, Pope Francis was asked about some of
his favorite pieces of art. He talked about Caravaggio’s The Calling of Saint Matthew situated in the Church of St. Louis of
France. Pope Francis said,
“That finger of Jesus, pointing at Matthew. That’s me. I feel
like him. Like Matthew.” Here the pope becomes determined, as if he had finally
found the image he was looking for: “It is the gesture of Matthew that strikes
me: he holds on to his money as if to say, ‘No, not me! No, this money is
mine.’ Here, this is me, a sinner on whom the Lord has turned his gaze. And
this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as
pontiff.” Then the pope whispers in Latin: Peccator
sum, sed confido autem in infinitum misericordia et patientia in Christo Iesu
Domino nostro, et accipio Pænitentiæ animo accipio.
We need to decide if we’re going to clutch onto the things
that have held us back or if we’re going to do follow Christ completely. The
invitation has been made. Are we willing to follow? Are we willing to extend
the invitation to others? This is our faith. Christ Jesus is the heart. Let us
respond to the invitation, for
He who
calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
Blessed Pope John Paul II. Redemptoris Mater. 25 March 1987. §45: “The Redeemer entrusts Mary
to John because he entrusts John to Mary. At the foot of the Cross there begins
that special entrusting of humanity to the Mother of Christ, which in the
history of the Church has been practiced and expressed in different ways. The
same Apostle and Evangelist, after reporting the words addressed by Jesus on
the Cross to his Mother and to himself, adds: "And from that hour the
disciple took her to his own home" (Jn. 19:27). This statement certainly
means that the role of son was attributed to the disciple and that he assumed
responsibility for the Mother of his beloved Master. And since Mary was given
as a mother to him personally, the statement indicates, even though indirectly,
everything expressed by the intimate relationship of a child with its mother.
And all of this can be included in the word "entrusting." Such
entrusting is the response to a person's love, and in particular to the love of
a mother. The Marian dimension of the life of a disciple of Christ is expressed in
a special way precisely through this filial entrusting to the Mother of Christ,
which began with the testament of the Redeemer on Golgotha. Entrusting himself
to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the Apostle John,
"welcomes" the Mother of Christ "into his own home"(Jn 19.27;
cf. St. Augustine.In Ioan. Evang.
119.3) and
brings her into everything that makes up his inner life, that is to say into
his human and Christian "I": he "took her to his own home."
Thus the Christian seeks to be taken into that "maternal charity"
with which the Redeemer's Mother "cares for the brethren of her Son,"(II Vatican
Council. Lumen Gentium, §62) "in whose birth and
development she cooperates" (II Vatican Council. Lumen Gentium §63) in the measure of the gift
proper to each one through the power of Christ's Spirit. Thus also is exercised
that motherhood in the Spirit which became Mary's role at the foot of the Cross
and in the Upper Room.”
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