Homily - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - St. Kateri at St. Margaret Mary July 19, 2015 8a and 11a

Today's readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071915.cfm

Link to Prof. Janet Smith's presentation "Contraception: Why Not?"   http://catholicaudio.blogspot.com/2007/07/janet-smith-contraception-why-not.html

Link to USCCB resources on NFP:  http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/awareness-week/index.cfm


Today's homily:

          Last week our readings spoke of prophets; this week we speak of shepherds.  One of the finest shepherds, and prophets, around today in my opinion, is Father John Riccardo, pastor of Our Lady of Good Council Church in Plymouth MI and a regular on Catholic radio. 

            As I often do as I prepare to preach, I listen to and read homilies from three, or six, or nine years ago, just to get ideas and a sense of how others have preached on the same readings.  This past Monday I listened to the podcast of Father John’s homily from three years ago this week, and immediately called him up, asked him if I could “steal” that homily, and he said “sure.”  Now while this homily isn’t the exact same, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you I’m borrowing liberally from his words.

            As I said, this week we speak of shepherds – Jesus looking with pity on the crowd who were like sheep without a shepherd.  Jeremiah’s stern warning to those shepherds who would mislead and scatter the flock.  And of course, the 23^rd psalm – the Lord is my shepherd.

            Many of us are shepherds in one way or another, huh?  Certainly Father Joe and our priests. Bishop Salvatore. Pope Francis.  Parents – moms and dads tasked with shepherding their little flock – keeping them safe, raising them rightly.  Coaches, teachers, administrators, bosses – all in a way shepherds.

            And shepherding is a big responsibility, huh?  For when sheep don’t have shepherds, one or more of three things happens – they get lost, or scattered, or they get devoured!

            As a parent for the last 26 years, I’ve always felt the weight of this responsibility – that Pam and I have been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of raising our three daughters to become godly, faith-filled women living in a culture that has become anything but godly. As they’ve grown, I’ve been able to relate to Our Lord’s feeling in this Gospel – “moved with pity” – as they’ve gone out into the world.  For it’s a frightening world – all sorts of pitfalls and traps to lead a soul astray.

            And when Bishop Clark laid his hands on my head three years ago and ordained me a deacon, I took on an added responsibility as shepherd –he gave me the privilege and awesome duty to stand before you and preach – the responsibility to proclaim and teach our faith, the responsibility to care for your souls!

            In those three years I’ve also had the privilege and responsibility of preparing a number of couples for marriage, and I’ve met with a number of individuals and couples on the other side of their wedding day, facing difficulties, impending breakup, or putting their lives back together after divorce.  It’s dawned on me that few things have left as many of us wounded, lost or scattered as both a lack of understanding of, or an all-out attack against what I would call simply biblical sexual morality.

            There’re two things which have brought this about, I think.  The first is simply a reluctance of shepherds - to teach, to pasture their flocks – not just clerics but all of us who share in the task of shepherding.

            The other part that’s left a trail of wreckage which so many experience has been the increasing volume of the voice of false, lying shepherds, who promise euphoria and liberation if we would just throw off all the restraints which are found in God’s word.

            Next Saturday, July 25, marks the 47^th anniversary of a letter written by a good shepherd, one not reluctant to teach, one who was moved with great love for his flock to speak about an issue which at that time, 1968, was just beginning to cause unrest and confusion in our culture. 

            We know that shepherd today as Blessed Pope Paul VI, and the letter was called Humanae Vitae, or in English “On Human Life.” It’s one of those documents of the Church which is unfortunately read by very few people, but which would profit many of us greatly.

            Humanae Vitae reaffirmed the Church’s constant teaching from the very beginning as to why contraception is harmful to married love, and in fact reduces what God intended to be an act of total self-giving to a lie, whereby though the bodies are saying everything I have is yours, in fact, because of what’s being practiced, that’s not true.

            In our culture, contraception is presented by the media as a Catholic hangup.  Few are aware that all orthodox Christians, virtually without exception, until 1930, taught and believed that contraception was intrinsically evil and harmful to married love.  It wasn’t until 1930 that the Anglicans voted to allow it but even then in only certain circumstances and only for husbands and wives dealing with very particular issues. 

            Martin Luther taught that it was intrinsically evil.  So did John Calvin and John Wesley.  All the reformers taught the same.  Many of us are surprised to learn that people as diverse as Freud, Teddy Roosevelt and Gandhi taught the same thing. 

            Now we might sit here and say yeah but a lot of bright people used to think the world was flat but we’ve arrived at some data which has proven otherwise.

            But I’m afraid we don’t have any data like that with regards to the so-called sexual revolution. In fact, the data just are overwhelmingly in favor of what God in His word has always taught us.

            Paul VI in Humanae Vitae prophesied four things if in fact contraception was to be widely embraced:

            First, there would be an increase in infidelity within marriage.

            Second, there would be a general lowering of morality and moral standards especially among youth.

            Third, men would more greatly objectify and degrade women, seeing them more and more simply as an object for pleasure.

            And fourth, governments would use contraception in coercive ways.

            Now - can anybody reasonably challenge the prophecy of those predictions?

            The reality of the sexual revolution is we don’t have more euphoria, more happiness or even liberation. We don’t have better relationships between men and women.  We don’t have stronger marriages.  There’s no doubt an increase in sexual immorality.  We have an increase in STDs.  In unwanted pregnancies. 

            In an endless pursuit of pleasure, we have completely divorced sexual intimacy from its God-ordained purpose, that being the co-creation with God of new human life. 

            Perhaps most disturbing, we have come to trivialize abortion, which is simply backup contraception.  The research arm of Planned Parenthood acknowledges that more than half of all the women who come in for abortion are on contraceptives at the time of their pregnancy.

            Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate!           Maybe it’s time to try God’s way. Maybe it’s time to ask for help.

            The Gospel is good news - not just with regards to heaven.  It’s good news with regards to now.  God has a plan for us.  And the most tragic result of the fall, after the separation between us and God, has been the increase in division between men and women.  What St. Paul refers to in our second reading as a “wall of division” which exists on many fronts but perhaps most thickly between men and women. Ever since the fall, men have more and more objectified women, and women have more and more allowed themselves to be objectified. 

            But God gives grace to heal that.  He gives us strength to overcome the temptations that we all have to objectify each other, to reduce each other, to use each other, so that in fact we can love each other, pour our lives out for each other, be sincere in our relationships with each other, which will then, in fact, lead to real happiness.

            So - what can we do on a day like today?

            Five ideas:

            First, just step back.  Look around at the wreckage of our culture.  Look at all of the lives, all of our lives, which have been chewed up, scattered, lost, wounded, as a result of not understanding what it is that the Lord teaches us in His word with regards to sexuality.

            Second, study, read, learn.  As a start, I’d suggest a talk by Professor Janet Smith entitled “Contraception- Why not?” It’s available free on youtube.  I can’t encourage all of us enough, especially for those of us who’ve never taken the time to understand or learn or listen why the Church teaches what she teaches on this, to take the time, with an open mind, to read, study and learn.

            Third – just repent.  Say to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t understand.  I have a mind distorted with regards to sexuality. Make me see rightly.” It’s impossible to live in this culture and not have a distorted understanding of sex.  Everything around us tells the lie that it’s all about pleasure. 

            Fourth – consider godly alternatives to contraception in regulating the size of our families.  Pope Francis recently said that we’re not obliged to have large families.  Our U.S. bishops named this week National Natural Family Planning Awareness week, and there are all kinds of resources available about NFP on the US bishops’ website.

            And lastly, ask for God’s grace, especially for those of us who are married.  Just as when Father Joe raises the bread and wine and they will become the Body and Blood of Christ, so when we who are married were blessed in Church and a hand was extended over us something happened, we were changed.  God gave us grace! Strength.  To do what He’s asking us to do.  That means we’re not alone, we’re not on our own, we can call on Him for help. 

            Help so we can overcome the temptation to use.  So that instead we can give, sincerely.  Pour our lives out, sincerely.  Lay down our lives for each other, sincerely.  And in the process, help to rebuild a culture that is scattered, lost, and very deeply wounded.

Homily - 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 11/12 - St. Kateri at Christ the King

Today's readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071215.cfm

In order to understand our readings from God’s Holy scripture today, I think we have to take a step back a second and ask the question – what exactly is a prophet?  Now I used to think a prophet was somebody who was able to predict the future.  Sort of like up on Ridge Road over in Greece, right by Mt. Read – there’s a house with neon signs advertising “palm readings” or some such.  And I think that’s a pretty common way of thinking of a prophet, huh?  Sort of like a modern-day psychic or sooth-sayer.

But I’ve come to realize that while that is one definition of prophecy, and in fact Amaziah the priest of Bethel does call Amos a “visionary” in our first reading today, that’s not usually what we mean when we speak of prophets.

What we usually mean by the word “prophet” is, and this is my own paraphrased definition now, a prophet is one who interprets the way things are and speaks the truth about them, speaks of the way they ought to be.  Interprets the way things are and speaks of the way they ought to be.  It is said that a prophet is one who afflicts the comfortable, and comforts the afflicted.

With that definition, we can think of many prophets in our own day, people who speak the truth about the way things are and who see a vision of the way they ought to be. 

Martin Luther King was a prophet, no doubt.  He saw injustice, he was uncomfortable with the status quo, and he had a vision, a dream, of a different world, one in which people would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  Rosa Parks was a prophet – she got on that bus that day and when the bus driver told her to surrender her seat to a white person she said “no.”  Enough.”  “This is not right.”  And she refused.

Barbara and Jack Willke were prophets.  Shortly after the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v Wade decision in 1973, they founded the National Right to Life organization, making it their life’s work to speak out on behalf of the tiniest and most defenseless among us, the unborn.  Protesting the injustice of that decision, they had a vision of an America in which all might have the protection of law, the right to life.

And our Church has had modern-day prophets as well.  Pope Saint John XXIII envisioned a Church that was more outward-focused, more engaged with the world, and he called for the Second Vatican Council to “throw open the windows of the Church and let the fresh air of the Spirit blow through.” 

Blessed Pope Paul VI saw a burgeoning contraceptive culture spreading throughout the world and proclaimed that the Church is to be a “sign of contradiction” against this sexual revolution.  Go online and read his powerful encyclical Humanae Vitae, so much ignored and even ridiculed over these fifty years, and judge for yourself if his voice wasn’t prophetic.

In his Theology of the Body teachings, Pope Saint John Paul II teaches of the dignity of the human person, and proclaimed a prophetic “yes” to the beauty and goodness of authentic human sexuality, a vision so lost on much of our 21^st century secular culture.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Pope Francis.   In all kinds of ways, in many different areas, the Holy Father is calling for us to re-examine our beliefs and ways of living that may conflict with the message of the Lord and the rich teaching of the Church, calling us out of our comfort zones to be sure.   

Francis preaches of our need to better care for our common home, the earth.  On the need to strengthen the family.  He has spoken against abortion and same-sex marriage.  Just this week of the evils of unfettered capitalism.  And most frequently about our need to care for the poor, for least and most forgotten among us, and to envision a more just world for our one human family.

And almost 3000 years ago, Amos was a prophet as well  A reluctant prophet to be sure.  “Me, a prophet? I had no desire to be a prophet.  I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores,” he says, “but the Lord commanded me to speak.”  Amos answered that call, prophesying to the kingdom of Israel of many evils, chief among them a growing disparity between rich and poor.

Sisters and brothers, here’s the point - you and I might not think of ourselves as prophets. But God’s commanding the same thing of you and of me.  He is calling each of us to prophecy.  In fact, at our baptism, as our heads were smeared with holy oil Chrism, you and I were anointed “priest, prophet and king” in the image of Christ Himself, who was anointed “priest prophet and king.”  You and I, by our baptism, are called to prophecy.

You and I are called to interpret the way things are, envision the way they ought to be and speak the truth, not remain silent.  It’s, no doubt, a calling out of our comfort zones. First of all to examine our own lives and repent and conform ourselves to Christ.  And to no longer remain silent in the face of the growing evils in our world.

 Often it’s a very uncomfortable calling, just as it was for Amos, just as it probably was for the disciples whom Jesus sent out two by two.  And what is it that they were sent forth to do?  They were called to be prophets too.

They were given authority to drive out unclean spirits, and they were sent forth to preach of repentance.  To anoint with oil, heal the sick.  Whether it was unclean spirits, sinfulness or illness, theirs was a mission of healing.

To go out into a world desperately in need of the love and mercy of Jesus Christ and confront whatever is evil, whatever is opposed to Him, and by word and loving service proclaim repentance, mercy and healing.

Their mission is ours too, brothers and sisters.  As Father Warren just prayed in our opening prayer, the collect, it is a mission “to show the light of truth to those who go astray, so that all may return to the right path.  So that all Christians may have the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and to strive after all that does it honor.”

The perfect model of this kind of prophecy is the Lord Himself.  Think of the scene - Jesus, confronted with the men about to stone the woman caught in an act of adultery.  Confronted with sin – hers, and theirs - their hypocrisy. Our Lord’s was a prophetic and loving encounter with each – “let the one among you without sin cast the first stone,” He said, and each went away.  He then turned to the woman, told her if no one condemns you, then neither do I, and commanded her “go and sin no more.”

Sisters and brothers, nourished here in this place by His word and His sacred Body and Blood, you and I are called to go out from here to be this same presence, His presence, this same prophetic call to repentance, this same face of encounter, love, mercy and tenderness, in this broken world of ours today.  Let us pray for the grace, courage and great love to live this calling as He did.