Homily
for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October
6th, 2013
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish (Union Street)
Rev.
Michael Taylor
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
And thou wilt not hear?
Or cry to thee, “Violence!”
And thou wilt not save? [1]
What
does it mean to proclaim the faith in the modern world? What does it mean to
say that the message of Jesus Christ must be suited for contemporary times? The
II Vatican Council declared, “the Church has always had the duty of
scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of
the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond
to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the
relationship of the one to the other.” [2]
So what language is intelligible to modern man? There’s a story that I pass
along quite frequently from the 19th century philosopher, Søren
Kierkegaard who tried to explain the challenge of warning the world. “In a
theatre, it happened that a fire started offstage. The clown came out to tell
the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and
they became still more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world
will be destroyed-amid the universal hilarity of wits and wages who think it is
all a joke.”[3] Kierkegaard
wasn’t a really cheerful storyteller. Ratzinger used Kierkegaard’s story in his
book, Introduction to Christianity,[4]
to point out though this is the Christian preacher in the modern world. Dressed
in funny attire and yelling about things that don’t seem to make any sense,
people assume he is just hooting and hollering to get people to fill the pews
in order to put on a show for them to enjoy.
And
so it is with us still today. The very language that we use to describe our
faith is not making any sense. We tell of God’s mercy to a world that does not
believe in God’s justice, we preach forgiveness to a world that doesn’t believe
in sin, we warn against hell to a world that only believes in heaven, and while
the world says we can have everything we want and be comfortable, we preach a
Christ who tells his disciples, “if any
man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me.[5]
It doesn’t seem like we’re preaching a language that’s understandable to the
modern world.
Yet
this problem is not unique to our times. When we look at our first reading, we
see Habakkuk lamenting the same thing. He certainly seems to be bewildered by
what is going on around him. He cries out, why
dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble [6]
or when he says, behold, he whose
soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his
faith.[7]
If you ever spend time with the prophets, they’re constantly warning, weeping,
lamenting and in general just being real killjoys at the party. Who would want
to be a prophet, really? Is it really the job of the priest to preach woe? I
mean, I don’t want to have to talk about hard things. I don’t get any sense of satisfaction about
talking about sin, or any sense of joy from admonishing. I don’t want to be the
funny dressed clown who’s jumping up and down about the coming fire. Yet there
it is, right in the middle of our mass. I feel like Jeremiah when he prayed, O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was
deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a
laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. For whenever I speak out, I cry
out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become
for me a reproach and derision all the day long. If I say, “I will not mention
him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning
fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.[8]
So
there is this anxiety within me. When I see so many of the parents dropping
their kids off for religious education but not attending mass, I am reminded of
Jesus’ parable of what happened to those who refused the King’s invitation to
the wedding feast.[9]
When I think of last week’s gospel, and see how many of us have become inactive
in our helping of the poor, I am nervous.[10]
When I hear Jesus say things like he does in John He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him [11]
or in Matthew , enter by the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those
who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that
leads to life, and those who find it are few,[12]
and I see people walking away from the faith and no longer practicing, I am
fearful.[13]
I
have dedicated my life to Christ Jesus. I have dedicated my life to following
him, completely, without reservation. And I have spent years studying
scriptures and in doing so, reading them with the guides of the Church and her
teachings. I would much rather be able to focus on the happier sayings of
Christ, the easier sayings. Yet Jesus speaks of harder things too. There are
some realities that we have to acknowledge. There is heaven to be sure. But
there is also hell [14]
and it is eternal.[15]
And there is purgatory where those who are not condemned will still have to be
purified.[16]
Does not the bible say nothing unclean
shall enter [heaven]? [17]
Can we really say that right now we are without stain or blot of sin? Does not
the Beloved Apostle warn us against making such a claim, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us? [18]
Why else would we pray for the dead at every mass? If they are in hell, our
prayers could not help them. If they are in heaven, our prayers are not needed.
Yet from the beginning, the Church have prayed for those whom have gone before
us marked with the sign of faith.
Yet,
what is the point to speaking of such things? The first is that we do not grow
lax in the practice of our faith. Saint Paul encourages us to work our salvation with fear and trembling[19]
and Saint Peter writes therefore,
brethren, be more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this
you will never fall.[20]
Still more importantly, if we become zealous for Christ, to let whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,[21]
then people will become attracted to the faith. Most importantly, we need to
rediscover our zeal for evangelization. Pope Francis has said that we need to
get out into the streets, to go out and preach the Gospel.[22]
The stakes are serious. We have to let people know about Christ Jesus. We cannot
remain silent. Jesus did not make the great commission an option. He said, go therefore and make disciples! [23]
Saint Paul says everyone who calls upon
the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are men to call upon him in whom
they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never
heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? [24]
Without Christ there is no hope! Paul VI wrote “The Good News proclaimed by the
witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There
is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises,
the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not
proclaimed.” [25] Pope
Francis, in his first homily as pope said, “When we do not profess Jesus
Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.” [26]
We need to proclaim witness to Christ Jesus in word and deed. We cannot fail to
be prophets.
[1] Habukkuk 1.2-3 [All scripture quotations taken from
the Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) unless otherwise noted.]
[2] II Vatican Council. Gaudium et spes. §4
[3] Søren Kierkegaard. Either/Or: A Fragment of Life. Vol. 1. 1843, p. 30
[4] cf. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). Introduction to Christianity. Ignatius
Press. 1968, p. 39
[5] Matthew 16.24
[6] Habakkuk 1.3
[7] Habakkuk 2.4
[8] Jeremiah 20.7-9
[9] cf. Matthew 22.1-7: And again Jesus spoke to them in
parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to the marriage feast
for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the
marriage feast; but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and
my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’
But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his
business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and
killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those
murderers and burned their city.”
[10] Cf. Luke 16.19-31
[11] John 3.36
[12] Matthew 7.13-14
[13] cf. II Vatican Council. Lumen Gentium. §14: “This Sacred Council wishes to turn its
attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture
and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile,
is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the
Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms
He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby
affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a
door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic
Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it,
could not be saved.”
[14] Catechism of
the Catholic Church §1034: Jesus often speaks of ‘Gehenna’ of “the
unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to
believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost (cf. Mt 5.22; Mt
5.29; Mt 10.28; Mt. 13.42; Mt 13.50; Mk 9.43-48). Jesus solemnly proclaims that
he “will send his angels, and they will gather…all evil doers, and throw them
into the furnace of fire,” (Mt 13.41-42) and that he will pronounce the
condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” (Mt. 25.41)
[15] Catechism of
the Catholic Church §1035: The teaching of the Church affirms the existence
of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in
a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of
hell, “eternal fire”. The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from
God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was
created and for which he longs.
[16]Catechism of
the Catholic Church §1031-1032: The
Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which
is entirely different from the punishment of the damned [Council of Florence
(1439) and Council of Trent (1563); See also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336). The Church formulated her doctrine of faith
on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent, the tradition of
the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing
fire (cf. I Corinthians 3.15; I Peter 1.7). “As for certain lesser faults, we
must believe that, before the Finale Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He
who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be
pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we
understand that certain offenses can be forgive in this age, but others in the
age to come (Saint Gregory the Great, Dialogues
3.29; Matthew 12.31).”
§1032 This teaching is
also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred
Scripture. “Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead, that they
might be delivered from their sin” (II Macc. 1246). From the beginning the
Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for
them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may
attain the beatific vision of God (cf. Council of Lyons II-1274). The Church
also comments almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf
of the dead. “Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by
their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead
bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died
and to offer our prayers for me (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. In I Cor. 41 §5).
[17] Revelation 21.27
[18] I John 1.8
[19] Philippians 2.12
[20] II Peter 1.10
[21] Colossians 3.17
[22] cf. Pope Francis and Antonio Spedaro, SJ. “A Big
Heart Open to God.” 30SEP2013. “We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street
corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our
preaching, every kind of disease and wound.”
[23] Matthew 28.19
[24] Romans 10.13-14
[25] Pope Paul VI. Evangelii
Nuntiandi. 1975, §22
[26] Pope Francis. “Homily of the Holy Father Pope
Francis.” Sistine Chapel. 14MAR2013
No comments:
Post a Comment