Liberal Catholicism is slavery to mammon, Sermon of February 27th

And he saith to him: Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.

8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

February 20^th, 2011

Matthew 6:24-34

You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

It is not uncommon to hear people today – both those who are outside the Church and even, most regrettably, some of those who are within the Church – it is not uncommon to hear people today say something like this: “Why doesn’t the Church allow married priests?”, or “When is the Church going to get with the times and allow priests to have a wife and kids and a more normal life?” Such persons will likewise often be baffled at the thought of traditional religious life: “How can anyone be happy as a monk or nun?”, “Why does the Church still require monks and nuns to live such austere lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience?”, “Wouldn’t they be much happier if they lived more like the rest of society?”, “Didn’t the Church do away with the habits for monks and nuns after Vatican II?”

To persons such as these, it seems impossible that a man could be happy living the life of a celibate. They cannot believe that a life, separated from the world and from worldly pursuits, could be fulfilling. They are shocked – or even saddened – at the thought that some young men and women today still are willing to leave the world and enter religious life.

And what shall we say to such persons? There are, of course, many things we could say, but this alone will suffice: Persons who think such things have not yet begun to live in the freedom of the children of God, but are yet slaves of mammon. Such persons cannot believe that a man or woman could ever be happy without mammon, that is, without worldly possessions and secular pursuits. These people approach the Church from an incredibly worldly and secular perspective – they judge things according to the ways of human beings, not the ways of God.

When they desire that priests and religious should be more like ordinary people, what they really are asking is that those consecrated to the Lord should find their consolation not so much in the hope of heaven, but in the vanities of the world.

Christ tells us, “You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot both love God and love money, honors, and luxuries.” Therefore, our Savior commands us, “Do not worry.” How challenging this teaching is! How radically contrary to the mentality of the secular world.

The Lord does not merely say, “Do not worry about luxuries – that is, do not worry about special vacations or fancy cars and homes.” Rather, Christ tells us not to worry even about the necessities of life! We are not to be anxious about even what we will eat or what we will wear.

But the Good Jesus does not want us to be discouraged. He does not want us to despair. Therefore, he gives us three reasons why we ought not to worry, why we ought not to be anxious.

First, he points out that our worrying doesn’t do any good anyways – We cannot add a single moment to our lives through worrying. Why then should we worry? It leads only to evil.

Second, the Savior gives us an example – He directs our thoughts to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, which do not worry and are not anxious but are yet well provided for by the Almighty. And here we point out that Christ did not say, “Do not work.” He said, “Do not worry.” For, of course we are to work! The birds of the air work, and even St. Paul worked as a tentmaker during his apostolic missions. We most certainly must work, but we ought not to be anxious about our work. We ought to entrust our work to the Lord, knowing that he will make it profitable in his good time. After all, God takes care of the sparrows, and you are worth more than many sparrows.

This, then, brings our Lord to his third point – Your Father in heaven knows what you need. Why then do you worry? For God is all-powerful, and he loves you very much. Don’t you know what that means? It means that you win! If God so loves you as to give you eternal life, will he not provide you with all your necessities – but persevere, seek first his kingdom and all the rest will be given you besides.

And here I recall the words of Mother Teresa: “God is so good. If only we remembered that more often, we would be much more joyful!”

How a rich man is saved, Sermon of October 31st

 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C.

October 31^st, 2010

Luke 10:1-10

Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was…

Wealthy persons rarely come up in the Gospels, but when they are mentioned they usually do not fair too well. This is particularly true of the Gospel according to St. Luke – we have already heard in recent weeks of the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus; how the rich man went to hell, since he did not help Lazarus when he was in need.

Just a few verses before today’s Gospel, there is the passage about the rich young man who desired to follow Christ – the Lord told him to sell all his possessions and give his wealth to the poor; but the rich man went away sad, for he was attached to his many possessions. It was on this occasion that Christ said, “It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.” We may sum it all up with the Lord’s own words, “Woe to you who are rich.” Indeed, the rich will hardly be saved.

No, rich men do not usually do too well, when they meet Jesus; and this should be a bit alarming for most of us. Nearly every one of us would be considered rich in the Gospel sense of the word – we have our basic necessities provided for, and we have at least a few luxuries besides.

But St. Luke does not want us to be discouraged, and Jesus wants each and every one of us to know that he loves us. Thus, so that we might not feel dejected, St. Luke includes the account of the conversion of Zacchaeus – and we ought to note that this account is found only in Luke’s Gospel. He puts in there, I think, because he knows that he has been particularly hard on the rich and he doesn’t want us to give up hope.

In the story about Zacchaeus, the first thing we learn about the man, even before we learn that he is short (which is really a bit humorous), the first thing we learn is that he is a chief tax collector (and, thus, very powerful) and that he is wealthy. Before St. Luke tells us anything else, we learn that Zacchaeus is rich and powerful, and so we might be thinking to ourselves, “I know how this story is going to end, Zacchaeus is really going to get it.” But, behold, there is a new twist, something which is quite unexpected – Zacchaeus is not rejected by Christ, nor does he turn away from the Lord, but he is welcomed by our Savior and becomes his disciple.

When Jesus looks up in the tree and sees Zacchaeus, he calls to him and accepts him as a disciple – and we must point out that Zacchaeus was still rich at this time. The Lord called Zacchaeus while he was still rich, and Zacchaeus became a disciple while still wealthy. Here we find a great deal of encouragement – for Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and he did not see a rich man or a tax collector, he saw a son of Abraham, a poor lost sheep in need of a true shepherd. The gaze of our Savior pierces through all that is superficial and penetrates to the core. Perhaps for the first time in his life, someone loved and accepted Zacchaeus for who he was as a human being, rather than for his riches and his power.

So, up till now, we are all very much encouraged; for we know that Christ looks at each of us with that same gaze of love which fell upon Zacchaeus – but though Christ loves us as we are, he calls us forward to be something new; and this is a challenge to us. Zacchaeus is accepted by Christ as a rich man, and the Lord does not even command him to give his possessions to the poor – but Zacchaeus is compelled (not by word or deed, but by love itself) he is compelled to give half of his wealth to the poor. Because he loves Christ, Zacchaeus must also love the poor. The love of Christ, which so fills Zacchaeus, overflows in a love for the poor.

It is the same for us – Christ loves us and that love moves us not only to a true love for him, but also for an intense and even a sacrificial love for the poor. Because the love of Christ is pure, it is also purifying – and thus, the love of Christ compels us to love others even as he has loved us.

I am reminded of the words of Mother Teresa, “Jesus in the Eucharist, Jesus in the poor. It is the same Jesus.” Now Mother Teresa surely knew that Christ is not present in the poor in the same way in which he is present in the Eucharist. He is present in the Eucharist really, truly, substantially, and sacramentally. In the poor, though he is present really and truly, Christ is not present substantially and sacramentally. The mode of presence is clearly different, but the one who is present in the Blessed Sacrament and the one who is present in the poor is the same Jesus.

The Savior is so closely identified with the poor that he can truly say, “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.”

May the love of Christ purify and fill us, and may our love for the poor here on earth bring us swiftly to the glories of life everlasting.

For Respect Life Sunday: A sermon on abortion and contraception, October 3rd

Respect Life Sunday

October 3^rd, 2010.

2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.

I would like to share with you a very beautiful story from the life of Mother Teresa, a story of great compassion and love. In 1994, Mother Teresa was invited to Washington, D.C. to give a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. She was invited because of the great work she had done with the poor in Calcutta and throughout the world. The theme for her talk that year was world peace, but we are not at all surprised to see that she began by speaking about the Gospel.

She told us of how much Jesus loves each and every one of us. How he loved us so much that he not only became man for us, but he even sacrificed his own life in order that we might live forever. Mother Teresa pointed out that the love of Christ teaches us how to love – we must imitate our Savior and “love until it hurts.” This is what true love requires: self-donation and self-sacrifice, giving until it hurts. It was love that led Christ to die for us, so too only love can bring us to sacrifice for Christ and for others.

Mother Teresa told us that we cannot say we love God without loving our neighbor, and that we have not really loved out neighbor until we have given until it hurts. Until we are willing to sacrifice our wants and desires in order to help others, we will only bring injustice into the world. We must imitate Christ and die for love of others.

This ought not to have been a surprise to anyone; as a bride of Christ, Mother Teresa would certainly begin with the Gospel. But what she said next probably caught nearly everyone by surprise.

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

Now I know that abortion is a sensitive issue, even for many Catholics. I am quite certain that many of us here have been affected personally by abortion in some way, either through family or friends, or perhaps through participating in an abortion ourselves. This can be a very difficult topic to hear about, but I would ask that you open your hearts to the words of Mother Teresa. If you know anything at all about Mother Teresa, I hope you know this – She loves you. If you can be certain about anything at all about Mother Teresa, it is this – whatever she says, she says it because she loves you and she wants you to be happy. These words are indeed challenging, but they are also words of love.

Mother Teresa continued, “How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.”

“By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

If many of the people at the Prayer Breakfast were on the edge of their seat up to this point, what Mother Teresa said next probably astonished all present – and perhaps it shocks us as well.

“I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning. The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception.”

Here we need to point out that natural family planning has had many advancements in recent years. It is not just the old rhythm method – in fact, many statistics show that Natural Family Planning is more effective than the most common methods of contraception, and it has none of the adverse side effects. But as great as the statistics are and as good as it is that natural family planning is effective, there is something much more important – contraception destroys the love between a husband and a wife, but natural family planning nurtures love and teaches love.

Mother Teresa says, “In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.”

Now I know that these words can be very challenging and may even seem too difficult for some; and I know also that, despite the Church’s clear teaching, many Catholics use contraception. Again, remember that Mother Teresa speaks to you out of love. She desires your happiness, she want your family to grow closer together.

Contraception destroys the love between the couple, and thus destroys the family – for if a couple will not give themselves to one another in love, how can they ever fully love their children? This is why Mother Teresa connects contraception with abortion – both destroy love, both treat children as a ‘choice’ rather than a gift.

“I also know that there are great problems in the world,” Mother Teresa says, “We cannot solve all the problems in the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion.”

I would like to conclude by putting two women before your hearts and minds: Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood, and Mother Teresa. On the one hand there is Margaret Sanger, she herself admits that she founded Planned Parenthood with the specific intention of destroying culture. She promoted contraception and abortion as a means of eliminated blacks, Hispanics, and the poor – Planned Parenthood, from its conception, has been an institution bent on tearing down, on destruction. Even today, it has been shown that Planned Parenthood targets minorities – it is a form of eugenics, an establishment which brings only death.

On the other hand, we have Mother Teresa and the Church. She speaks to you out of love. While Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood become rich through selling their cancer-causing Pill, Mother Teresa became poor to serve and to love. While Planned Parenthood works to tear down, Mother Teresa gave her life to build up.

We have these two choices: Life or death, love or hate, the Church or Planned Parenthood.

“If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak – the unborn child – must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!”