Only the Church shall overcome the gates of hell

21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

August 21^st, 2011

Matthew 16:13-20

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

Now I don’t normally mention movies in a homily, but something from a popular movie from a few years ago strikes me as quite applicable to our Gospel today. I am thinking of the family movie called “The Sandlot”, it is one with which I am sure most of you are familiar.

The movie “The Sandlot” is about a group of young boys who play pick-up games of baseball throughout the summer in the local sandlot. One of the boys, who is called “Smalls” is new to town, but he is welcomed into this little band of brothers and learns all about baseball, friendship, and loyalty.

There is a certain point in the movie where the boys run out of baseballs and this new kid “Smalls” says that he will go to his house and get an extra ball. He brings this baseball back and promptly hits his first homerun, the ball sailing over the fence into a sort-of junk yard which is watched over by a guard-dog.

It is only at this point that the boys realize that this was no ordinary baseball. The ball had been signed by Babe Ruth! “Smalls” did understand the significance of this fact, he didn’t even know who Babe Ruth was – he says, “Who is SHE?!” It is only when the other boys impress upon him the true value of the ball, the fact that it is so rare and precious, that he really comes to understand that they have to get that ball back. And so the movie progresses into a delightful and funny tale about trying to outsmart that old guard-dog.

What strikes me about this little story is that the boy didn’t recognize the value of that ball because he didn’t realize just how rare it was. He didn’t know how precious the ball was, so he ended up losing it through negligence.

Perhaps we can see here a little analogy for the way that we often think of the Church. Do we recognize just how unique and precious a gift the Church is to the world and to all of us individually?

Christ today states that he will found his Church upon Simon, and he names him “Peter” which means “Rock”. Then our Savior tells him, “Upon this rock – that is, upon you, Simon Peter – I will build my Church.” Here our Lord gives his people the promise of the Church which will be solidly established upon Peter and his successors, the Popes.

But what is the next line? “And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

“The gates of the netherworld shall never prevail against the Church.” Perhaps we miss Christ’s point: The gates of the netherworld WILL prevail against every other entity. The gates of the hell will overcome every society, every nation, every ideology and philosophy; but they shall not prevail against the Church.

When Jesus tells us that the Church will withstand the gates of hell and will persevere until the end of time, he is saying that the Church alone will stand the trials of this life and pass over into life eternal.

It is not that the Church is one entity, one being, one religion among the many others against which the gates of hell will not prevail. No! The Church alone – and none other, excepting insofar as it is within the Church – the Church alone will overcome the gates of the netherworld.

And now we begin to recognize something of the great value of the gift Christ gave us when he founded the Church. This is a most precious and rare gift, it is one of a kind and there is no other church in which we may find salvation.

But what is more, consider the love with which Christ said these words to Peter! When our Savior says that the gates of hell shall never prevail against his Church it is as though he is telling us, “The powers of hell and the prince of demons will overcome this world and all who hope in the world, but I do not want you to be overcome, I do not what you to fall. Come, then, I shall establish my Church upon Peter as my solid Rock – I will make him to be strong in me, so that you may be saved. I promise you, I swear by it, the Church will never fall and she will never be overcome. Come, then, and find rest for yourselves.”

And yet, the Church is still human as well. Certainly, there are mistakes and even the priests and bishops (indeed, even the Pope) can sometimes upset us. However, we have to trust in Christ’s words – the Church will never be overcome by the gates of hell, she will never fall and she will never be led astray. 

This is why it is so sad that people will sometimes leave the Church because they are upset about something in the moment. It is sad because it is a type of despair, it is as though they are saying that hell has prevailed against the Church. But Christ promised us that this would never happen!

Christ our Savior looks upon the world and he sees that all are on the verge of falling, so many have gone astray. He looks upon his Bride, the Church, and he sees that many of her members are imperfect and weak. But he always looks upon us with love and with a desire to draw us back.

This is why he gave us the Church in the first place – not because we are already perfect and well established, but because we are weak and ready to fall (indeed, we have all fallen many times). And so our Savior established the Church as a refuge and resting place, she is the solid foundation and fortress wherein we shall find protection unto life everlasting.

The yeast leavens the whole batch, Sermon of July 17th

After the worst persecution of the Church,
Rome herself became Catholic under Constantine the Great

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

July 17^th, 2011

Matthew 13:24-43

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.

In today’s Gospel, Christ gives us three parables by which he encourages to persevere in the face of evil. In each of these three parables – the weeds and wheat, the mustard seed, and the yeast which leavens that batch of dough – our Savior gives us some indication of answer to the great and mysterious question: “Why is there evil in the world?”

I would like to focus on the parable of the little bit of yeast which is mixed with the three measures of wheat flour to leaven the whole batch. We must understand something about the imagery which the Lord uses – the visual is of a woman mixing in the yeast and then kneading and beating down the dough. It is precisely this act of violence, this continuous beating down which makes the whole batch to rise.

The point of the parable is this: As the violent force of the woman beating down the dough causes the yeast to leaven the whole batch, so too the evil in the world actually contributes to the increase and spread of goodness. It is not merely that good and evil co-exist until the end of time, but the evil is used by God to promote the good.

This is borne out in the life of the Church: The more the Church is persecuted, rejected and ridiculed, the more the Church will grow and the more the faith will spread.

I do not mean this only as a theological or spiritual truth, it is also an historical reality. Even without faith, simply looking at history, we can see Christ’s parable being fulfilled.

Consider, for example, the early Church. In the first days, the Church was terribly persecuted by the Roman Empire. This persecution was intense – but the more the Romans attacked the Church the more the faith spread.

This persecution reached its climax under the emperor Diocletion at the end of the 3^rd century: under his reign the Churched suffered the most cruel and organized attack which she had ever faced.

But after this greatest of all persecutions came the emperor Constantine, who not only converted to Christianity himself, but made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Behold the wonder of it all: After the worst persecution which the Church had ever seen, Rome awoke to find itself Christian!

Similarly, consider that Rome fell to the pagan barbarians of northern Europe. Now, every time in history when one people conquers another, the victors impose their religion upon the vanquished. But what happed when the pagan barbarians sacked Rome? They converted to Christianity!

This is a real miracle of history: Conquering Rome, the barbarians were conquered by Christianity! Nothing like this has ever happened before.

Behold, the parable of the yeast and the dough working itself in history.

Yet, the Lord Jesus has something more to say: This parable isn’t simply about how the true Faith and the Catholic Church will conquer and convert all peoples and nations. The Savior is not only the Lord of history, he is also the Lord of your heart and of mine.

The parable of the yeast and the dough also is meant to encourage us personally in our journey.

Do you feel stretched too thin? Are you suffering? Is the life of faith sometimes a struggle and difficult? Perhaps we sometimes feel like we can’t go on much further.

It is precisely in these times of difficulty – so the Lord tells us – precisely when we are beaten down and struggling, that is when the grace of Christ is most effective in us.

We say: “Lord, please take away my struggles and my temptations.” But he tells us: “The dough must be kneaded and suffer violence, only then with the yeast leaven the whole batch!”

So do not be discouraged when things are tough. Do not become despondent when you suffer temptations or when you seem to take two steps back for every one forward. Trust rather in the grace of Christ!

Think of it: Once the yeast is in the dough, you can’t get it out! The grace of Christ Jesus is in you, if only you are faithful he will enliven you, he will win you over.

The good Lord conquered the Roman Empire, can he not conquer your soul? He defeated and overcame nations and peoples, shall he not win you to himself?

Of course he will! What have you to be discouraged about? Christ died for you, will he not give you everything else besides?

We must only keep our hearts and minds focused on Christ our Savior. Humbled by our weaknesses, but confident in his love, we shall persevere through all things.

And, though your faith may seem like only a little mustard seed, if only you look to Jesus and persevere in his love, that little seed of your faith shall grow into the great tree of glory in life everlasting.

The structure of the Church is not man-made, but is of God. Pentecost, Sermon of June 12th

The Solemnity of Pentecost

June 12^th, 2011

Acts 2:1-11

Then there appeared to [the Apostles] tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

John 20:19-23

And when [Jesus] had said this, he breathed on [the Apostles] and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

I would invite you to imagine with me a playground in which children are running to and fro, enjoying themselves as they play. The children are happy and free. And, surrounding this playground, there is not merely a fence, but a tall and sturdy brick wall. This wall completely encloses the children and the grounds, but there is still ample room for games and for fun.

However, one day, a man comes and begins speaking to the children and tells them, “This wall limits your freedom, it stifles you, it constricts you.” Some of the children begin to listen to the man and he continues, “Moreover, this is no playground at all, but is rather a prison. This wall is the barrier that keeps you from true freedom in the outside world.”

And so, several of the children, though not all, join with the man and they begin to tear at the wall. And, as the wall comes tumbling down on all sides, the children are horrified to realize that their playground is on a small island that is surrounded by cliffs on every side, falling off into the sea.

As the walls crumble, several of the children who were tearing them down stumble and fall off the cliffs and drown in the sea. Likewise, several children who were playing and not paying attention also get too close to the edge and stumble and fall into the sea.

The children who remain, however, are now gathered in the center of the island, huddled together in terror. Indeed, now they have truly become slaves of fear.

This image is something of a parable for an aspect of modern culture and, specifically, for the manner in which many in modern culture approach the Church. The Church, they will claim, has set up this enclosing and restricting wall of doctrine, moral teaching, and tradition. “Let us tear down these old fashioned teachings and traditions. They are a prison to free thought! Get rid of all this antique notion of faith and moral discipline.”

However, as they reject the doctrines of the faith, they imitate the protestant reformers and, as one doctrine falls, so too many others follow. Suddenly, as they turn away from the traditions of the faith, these individuals fall farther and farther away from the truth – just as the protestants continue to divide amongst themselves, daily forming new sects each one in contradiction to the others.

Closer to our own times, there is the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 70s in the USA and the western world. Many individuals rejected the traditional moral teachings of the Church and of the natural law – “It’s too restrictive,” they said. “Let people be free and stop making them feel guilty all the time.”

And what is the fruit of their revolution? Tearing down the moral code, they fall off into the abyss of perversion. Alas, who can doubt the moral depravity of the modern world? How many souls have been lost because of these sins!

Underneath both of these radical notions – the rejection of the Church traditional faith and the rejection of the moral law – there is a fundamental misconception. These people fail to understand an essential point about the Church in herself.

The radicals will claim that the Church is made up of two separate realities: On the one hand, so they claim, there is the invisible, internal, charismatic spirit of the Church – this is good, and is given by God. This is what is essential about the Church. Then, on the other hand, there is the external, visible structure of the Church – this, so they claim, is man-made and is not usually very good. To these radicals, the visible structure of the Church is not essential, but is something added on by men.
And, when they say that the visible structure of the Church (I refer here both to the doctrines of the faith and to the moral teachings, as well as to the hierarchy of the Church and her liturgy), when they say the visible structure of the Church is “man-made” they mean two things by this. First and foremost, they intend to state that the hierarchy and the sacraments (as well as the doctrines and moral teachings) were not established by God, but were created by human beings. Moreover, and here we see just how radical their ideologies are, these individuals mean to say that the visible structure is “man-made” in the sense that it is made by males as opposed to females – apparently they think that anything made by God or by women is good, but if it be made by males it will necessarily be oppressive!

This radical view, even if it is extremely popular today (both outside and, sadly, even inside the Church), this radical view is directly contrary to the vision of the Church presented in the Scriptures.

Today, the feast of Pentecost, the feast of the birth of the Church, we recall that the Church is one reality – both in her visible hierarchical structure and in her charismatic spirit, the Church has been created by God, established by Christ during his life on earth, and confirmed by the Holy Spirit at the feast of Pentecost. The Church, both visible and invisible, is united as one and there can be no division or separation, nor can there be any contradiction, between the visible structure and the invisible spirit of the Church.

In the Gospels, we see quite clearly that Christ established his Church as a hierarchy. Recall that he did not make everyone who followed him an apostle. Rather, from among his disciples, the Lord chose twelve men. And he ordained these twelve men as his apostles and priests. And from among these twelve men, our Savior chose one (namely, St. Peter) to be the prince of the apostles and their visible head and ruler. Our Lord himself, during his earthly life, established the hierarchical structure of the Church – the Pope (that is, St. Peter), the Bishops (that is, the other apostles), and the lay faithful (that is, the crowd).

It was to the apostles that he appeared after his Resurrection and, as we heard in the Gospel reading, he breathed upon then and said Receive the Holy Spirit. Christ did not give the Holy Spirit immediately to all his followers, but rather he chose to entrust the gift of the Spirit to the ministry of his apostles.

Moreover, he did not give the power to forgive sins to all his disciples, but solely to these chosen men – it would be through the ministry of the apostles (that is, through his priests) that the sins of the world would be forgiven. Therefore, we see that Christ established, together with the hierarchy, also the sacramental life of the Church.

This visible structure which was established by Christ was also confirmed by the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost. On the very day in which the Church was born, the Holy Spirit chose to confirm the hierarchical structure of the Church – for he did not descend upon everyone in Jerusalem immediately, rather he came down first upon the twelve apostles (for Matthias had already taken the place of Judas the betrayer). Having filled the apostles and inspiring them with the gift of tongues, the Holy Spirit then worked through the ministry of the hierarchy to bestow his blessing upon the crowd. For, as those present began to believe in the doctrine of the faith which the apostles proclaimed, they came to believe and received the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of baptism.

The miraculous events of Pentecost happen entirely within the hierarchical and visible structure of the Church! These two elements within the Church – the visible, external structure and the invisible, charismatic spirit – work together in perfect unison.

And so, as we consider the mysteries which the Scriptures themselves present to us on this feast, we recognize that the Church is not a man-made structure, but that this visible hierarchy (together with her teachings and her sacraments) is given from above by God himself. As there is only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, so too there is only one Church, founded on the one Rock, which is Christ the Lord.

The one reason to be Catholic, Sermon of January 16th

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

January 16^th, 2011

John 1:29-34

John testified further, saying, “I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”

Today, at the beginning of the season of Ordinary Time, the Church gives us to meditate once again upon the Baptism of the Lord. Last week we heard the account of Christ’s Baptism as given by St. Matthew, now we hear of the same event as recorded by St. John the Beloved.

As we listen to the text of St. John’s Gospel, we might notice a certain peculiarity, something which could perhaps cause some confusion – for, speaking about Jesus, John the Baptist says, “I did not know him.” John tells us that he did not know Jesus until after the baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

But how can it be that John does not know Jesus – recall, of course, that John and Jesus were second cousins; their mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, were first cousins and close friends. Is it possible that John the Baptist should not know his own relative? Could it be true that John, who leapt in the womb when Jesus came to him in the womb of Mary, could it be that John did not recognize his Lord?

Most certainly, John the Baptist knew who Jesus was – he recognized him and said, “I ought to be baptized by you.” John testified that Jesus is the Christ and our Savior, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Moreover, John even knew something of Jesus’ divinity for he said, “He who is coming after me existed before me” – John was conceived and born before Jesus, yet because he is God Jesus existed before John.

What, then, did John the Baptist not know about Jesus? What did he not learn until he saw the Spirit descend upon our Lord? John tells us, “The one who sent me to baptize told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” This is what John did not know until that day: That Christ alone would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

John knew who Jesus was, he knew him to be the Christ and our Savior, he even knew that he is true God – what he did not fully know was that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Yet, he knew that Jesus would baptize for he said, “I ought to be baptized by you.” And he knew that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit, “The one coming after me will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

What he did not know was that, whoever baptizes with the Holy Spirit, it is always Christ who baptizes. This is the great difference between the sacramental baptism which Christ instituted and every other ritual baptism which had preceded.

If John baptized with his baptism, it was John who baptized. But if Andrew, when still a disciple of John, baptized with the baptism of John, it was not John who baptized but Andrew. And likewise, if Peter baptized with John’s baptism, the person was baptized not by John but by Peter.

However, it is different with the sacramental baptism which Christ gave the Church – for it is always Christ who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Does Peter baptize? It is Christ who baptizes. Does Paul baptize? It is Christ who baptizes. Does Fr. Ryan baptize? It is Christ who baptizes.

The power of the sacrament of baptism does not depend on the particular minister, but on Christ, for it is always Christ who baptizes – and likewise with the other sacraments, it is Christ who is the one high priest. This is why there is no baptism of Paul or of Peter or of Fr. Ryan – there is only the one baptism of Christ, for it is always Christ who baptizes.

From this it follows that the Church is not founded on Fr. Ryan, nor even on Paul or Peter, but on Christ. Likewise the holiness of the Church does not come from her priests, nor from her people, nor even from the apostles, but from Christ.

Certainly, it is necessary that we should all become saints – and especially the priests of the Church must strive for holiness – but the grace of the sacraments and the holiness of the Church does not depend upon the holiness of her members, but only upon Christ.

The Church receives her holiness from Christ and, like a true mother, passes this holiness on to us her children. For the holiness of the Church is greater than the summation of the holiness of her members, it is a sanctity which comes from the perfect holiness of Christ himself.

There is some confusion about this in our day. All too often, we hear of people leaving the Church because the priests are sinners or because the other Catholics are hypocrites – and there is some truth to this! Indeed, priests are sinners and we must continue to strive for greater virtue. Indeed, Catholics are also sinners and even sometimes are hypocrites, we all should be working to grow in holiness.

However, whenever I hear someone say that they left the Church because of the sins of priests or of other Catholics, I can only shake my head – they have not understood the Church at all! We do not join the Church because of the holiness of her priests or people, and so we do not leave the Church because of the sins of priests or of people. There is only one reason to be Catholic – it is Christ! Jesus alone is the foundation of the Church; not the priests and not the people, but Jesus. She keeps her gaze ever fixed upon the Sacred Heart of her Savior.