Homily Shaped by Parishioners' Voices (23 B)

This is the third time in four Sundays that I’ve spoken about the current crisis in the Church. My first two homilies are posted here  and here.

But today I’d like to let some of you speak. Parishioners have reached out to share their thoughts with me—challenging and informed reactions along with heartfelt feelings.

The most powerful reaction is anger. People feel betrayed and they’re not going to suppress their feelings. One parishioner wrote “I think parishioners need to feel empowered to [express their anger] without feeling guilt and disloyalty to the Church.”

Amen to that. In my first homily on this subject, I mentioned that the scriptures clearly show us the wrath of God; and we meet it again today in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.”

Today’s psalm highlights God’s faithfulness, but it also reminds us that he “executes justice for the oppressed.”

Almost every day since the recent revelations I’ve encountered the mighty justice of God in my reading of psalms and the prophets of the Old Testament. Now consider these terrifying words:

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgement, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ 

That’s not from the Old Testament but from the Letter to the Hebrews, in the New Testament, addressed not to ancient Israel but to the Church. (Hebrews 10:26-30)

The final words of the chapter are the most frightening of all: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

As I said in my earlier homily, God is angry too.

Another parishioner said this: “The mercy of God is infinite—but the justice of God is infinite also.” Wise and true words. These scandals are connected to a false notion of God’s mercy.

Ralph Martin, who visited with us in June, traces that notion in his book Will Many Be Saved, in which he points to both scriptures and official Church teaching that tell us getting to heaven is not automatic—in other words that it’s quite possible to end up in hell. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that if members of the Church fail to respond to the special grace of Christ “in thought word and deed, not only will they not be saved, they will be judged more severely.”  (Lumen gentium, 14)

It amazes me that some people were actually scandalized by Dr. Martin’s book, since Jesus himself said “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.” (Matthew 7:13)

Finally, one far thinking parishioner slightly shocked me with this statement: “Let’s not waste a serious crisis.” It’s a phrase wrongly attributed to Sir Winston Churchill, often used to make the point that times of great difficulty are also times of great opportunity. When things go wrong, we can open new areas of discussion and take a harder look at the status quo.

I might not have used that secular phrase myself, but rather a phrase from St. Paul. Romans 8:28 is a text I cling to in difficult times: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” The verse is also translated “God makes all things work together for good,” or “in all things God works for good.”

Even the greatest, ugliest and most sordid evil cannot overpower God and his plan—if we continue to love him and to cooperate with him.

Now let’s be careful and clear here.  God doesn’t cause evil. He doesn’t make evil good. But he doesn’t let evil win. That’s what Paul is saying—please don’t misinterpret his words.

I don’t pretend to know all the good God may draw from the evils that have been exposed, but I can suggest one. It’s something I preached on some years ago, on a smaller scale. I say it again today with even greater conviction. We need to know that we—individual Christians and the Church herself—are part of a cosmic battle between good and evil. We have an Enemy.

This should have been obvious to me long before I was ordained. But it wasn’t. I was a card-carrying member of the Church that St. James describes in our second reading. Let’s call it the Church of the Nicely-Dressed.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t ask people in dirty clothes to sit on the floor. The fact is, I almost never saw anyone at Mass in dirty clothes. The people who came to church on Sunday were respectable folks, folks like me, following the commandments and going to confession if they slipped up. We certainly weren’t going off to war.

Two fine Protestant Christians helped set me straight.

In his book Waking the Dead, John Eldredge says “We are at war [and] how I’ve missed this for so long is a mystery to me. Maybe I’ve overlooked it; maybe I’ve chosen not to see.”

And he adds, the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it to the life we do want.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says “One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe—a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin.  Christianity agrees… this universe is at war.”

Do you remember the passage where Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”? Of course you do. But do you know what Jesus said in the first part of the very same sentence: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

In other words, the offer is life, but we’re going to have to fight for it.

We’re going to have to fight for it because there’s an Enemy with a different agenda. There is something set against us. We are at war.

Before he promised us life, Jesus warned that a thief would try to steal, kill and destroy it. How come we are so shocked when that murderous thief actually steals, kills and destroys?”

I suspect we’ll return to this subject more than once in the months ahead.  But for now, let us not waste this crisis. Let us allow Jesus to heal our deafness and to open our ears to what he really says, not just what we want to hear.