Father Gerard 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
HOMILY 2 11 24 9:00 AM SAINT LOUIS ABBEY
6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
READING OUR GOSPEL SELECTION FOR THIS SUNDAY ABOUT JESUS HEALING THE LEPER LED ME TO WONDER ABOUT WHO ARE CONSIDERED THE LEPERS, THE OUTCASTS, THE LOOKED DOWN UPON IN OUR COUNTRY TODAY. IT OFTEN SEEMS TO ME THAT CATHOLICS ARE THOUGHT OF AS THE MODERN-DAY LEPERS IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY IN THESE DAYS OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. IF WHAT IS OFTEN SAID ABOUT CATHOLICS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TODAY WERE SAID ABOUT ANY OTHER GROUP, THERE WOULD BE A GREAT PUBLIC OUTCRY. BUT IT OFTEN SEEMS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS STILL FAIR GAME, THE ONE GROUP IT IS STILL ACCEPTABLE TO DEMEAN TODAY, THE ONE ACCEPTABLE WHIPPING BOY.
I AM A GREAT ADMIRER OF G. K. CHESTERTON AND HIS WRITINGS. CHESTERTON WAS A RENAISSANCE MAN, A FINE POET, LITERARY CRITIC, HISTORIAN AND A BRILLIANT CONVERT TO AND APOLOGIST, DEFENDER, OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WHICH IS SUCH A FREQUENT AND CONVENIENT WHIPPING BOY IN OUR DAY AS IT WAS IN HIS.
I WOULD NOW LIKE TO QUOTE FROM CHESTERTON, THIS STAUCH AND CLEVER DEFENDER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. IN HIS WHY I AM A CATHOLIC, CHESTERTON WRITES:
The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that ..." As, for instance, (1) It is the only thing that really prevents a sin from being a secret. (2) It is the only thing in which the superior cannot be superior, in the sense of supercilious. (3) It is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age. (4) It is the only thing that talks as if it were the truth; as if it were a real messenger refusing to tamper with a real message ...
The Church does often set herself against the fashion of this world that passes away; and she has experience enough to know how very rapidly it does pass away ...
Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes. The Catholic Church has for one of her chief duties that of preventing people from making those old mistakes; from making them over and over again forever, as people always do if they are left to themselves ...
The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.
There is no other case of one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years. Its experience naturally covers nearly all experiences; and especially nearly all errors. The result is a map in which all the blind alleys and bad roads are clearly marked, all the ways that have been shown to be worthless by the best of all evidence: the evidence of those who have gone down them. ... But [the Church] does definitely take the responsibility of marking certain roads as leading nowhere or leading to destruction, to a blank wall, or a sheer precipice. By this means, it does prevent men from wasting their time or losing their lives upon paths that have been found futile or disastrous again and again in the past, but which might otherwise entrap travelers again and again in the future. The Church does make herself responsible for warning her people against these; and upon these the real issue of the case depends. She does dogmatically defend humanity from its worst foes, those hoary and horrible and devouring monsters of the old mistakes ...
Now there is no other corporate mind in the world that is thus on the watch to prevent minds from going wrong. The policeman comes too late when he tries to prevent men from going wrong. The doctor comes too late, for he only comes to lock up a madman, not to advise a sane man on how not to go mad ...
Every moment increases for us the moral necessity for such an immortal mind. We must have something that will hold the four corners of the world still ...
HOW BRILLIANT, HOW ELEGANT, HOW ELOQUENT, HOW TRUE ARE CHESTERTON’S WORDS ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
AS BELIEVING CATHOLICS FAITHFUL TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, WE ARE IN OUR COUNTRY TODAY OFTEN DEMEANED, VILIFIED, SCORNED, HATED AT TIMES FOR OUR CATHOLIC FAITH, FOR STANDING UP FOR THE TRUTH IN MATTERS OF FAITH AND MORALS, SUCH AS IN OUR STAUCH DEFENSE OF THE SACREDNESS OF ALL HUMAN LIFE FROM THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION UNTIL NATURAL DEATH AND INSISTING THAT THAT RIGHT MUST BE PROTECTED BY LAW IN OUR COUNTRY, AND IN DEFENDING THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE WHICH OUR CHURCH RIGHTLY TEACHES IS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN.
YES, BY PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH OF OUR CATHOLIC FAITH, WE FAITHFUL CATHOLICS WILL BE DEMEANED, VILIFIED, SCORNED AND HATED AT TIMES FOR OUR CATHOLIC FAITH. BUT IN THE END, WHAT OTHERS IN THIS WORLD THINK OF US AND OUR FAITH WILL NOT MATTER. ONLY ONE WILL JUDGE US IN THE END, AND THAT IS OUR GOD. IN THE END, ONLY HIS JUDGMENT MATTERS FOR ONLY HE WILL JUDGE US AND ONLY HE CAN REWARD US WITH ETERNAL LIFE.
ONE MORE EXCELLENT QUOTE FROM G. K. CHESTERTON WHO INSIGHTFULLY WROTE THAT: “THE MASS IS VERY LONG AND TIRESOME UNLESS ONE LOVES GOD.” WE ARE HERE IN THIS CHURCH THIS MORNING BECAUSE WE DO LOVE GOD. AND WE FAITHFUL CATHOLICS HERE THIS MORNING BELIEVE THAT THAT SAME GOD IS REALLY PRESENT TO US IN HOLY COMMUNION WHICH WE WILL RECEIVE IN A MOMENT. BELIEVING THAT TRUTH AS WE DO MAKES THE MASS ANYTHING BUT “LONG AND TIRESOME”, RATHER IT MAKES IT THE GREATEST JOY WE CAN EXPERIENCE IN THIS LIFE ON EARTH AS WE RECEIVE GOD HIMSELF IN HIS OWN BODY AND BLOOD, GOD WHO LOVES US WITH AN INFINITE LOVE.
TODAY IS CALLED IN OUR COUNTRY “SUPER SUNDAY” AS THE SUPER BOWL WILL BE PLAYED THIS EVENING. WHEN WE CATHOLICS THINK ABOUT IT, AND WE DON’T THINK ABOUT IT AS FREQUENTLY AS WE SHOULD, EACH SUNDAY IS SPECIAL, EACH SUNDAY IS TRULY AWESOME, IN THE STRICT SENSE OF THAT OVER-USED WORD, AND, IN FACT, EACH SUNDAY IS DIVINE. DIVINE MEANS “OF GOD”. EACH SUNDAY AT MASS WE PARTICIPATE IN OFFERING THE SACRIFICE, THE PASSION, DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST OUR GOD TO GOD THE FATHER, AND WE RECEIVE CHRIST OUR GOD IN HOLY COMMUNION. THAT MAKES EACH SUNDAY A DIVINE, A GODLY EXPERIENCE, INFINITELY MORE IMPORTANT, INFINITELY MORE SPIRITUALLY NOURISHING AND INFINITELY MORE IMPACTFULTHAN ANY FOOTBALL GAME PLAYED ON THIS SO-CALLED “SUPER SUNDAY.” HOW BLESSED WE CATHOLICS ARE TO RECEIVE THIS GREATEST OF GIFTS AT MASS. MAY IT STRENGHTEN OUR CATHOLIC FAITH SO THAT WE MIGHT BE MORE THANKFUL FOR THAT CATHOLIC FAITH AND TO MORE ZEALOUSLY PROCLAIM IT AND LIVE IT WHATEVER OTHERS MAY THINK OR SAY OF US AND OUR PRECIOUS CATHOLIC FAITH, REMEMBERING THAT ONLY OUR ALL-MERCIFUL AND EVER- LOVING GOD WILL IN THE END JUDGE US AND THAT HE OUR ALL-MERCIFUL AND EVER-LOVING GOD ALONE CAN GIVE US THE REWARD OF ETERNAL LIFE.