21 May 2023

21 May 2023 - 7th Sunday of Easter

Transcript

Reading:  

1 Peter 4:15-17

Write:  

But let no one among you be made to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer. But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name. For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God?

Reflect:   

Intriguer: other translations have that as “mischief-maker” (RSVCE). I think that is best described as someone who deliberately tries to stir up troubles. Isn’t that what the mainstream media in our country right now is trying to do? They’re always trying to find some angle at which they can destroy someone’s reputation. I think they do this in part because they want to make themselves “justified.”

It does not take much scanning of news programs to find people on one side of an issue or another trying to tear down rather than lift up. There seems to be this constant desire to justify their own positions at the expense of someone else’s reputation. Quite honestly, I have been disgusted by every news broadcast I have heard lately, whether liberal or conservative.

As an aside, I tend to gravitate toward – in case you didn’t guess – the more conservative approach to politics. But I have to admit that those who come across as conservative in our society today portray themselves as much more strident and self-righteous than I care for.

But enough on that. I want to focus the rest of my time today on that last verse from Saint Peter that was not in our reading today. I think it is VERY valuable to understand where the Church is in our society. I think that verse also speaks to the problems we are having within the Church.

God wants a holy church. He needs his people to stand in holiness before a world that does not care for holiness, and wants to make fun of anyone who claims they are holy. This is what has happened in the church with the bad actors who betrayed the confidence people put in the church.

Apply:   

Allow me to step back to the year 2002. It was when the first big scandal in the Church regarding bad priests broke into the news in the United States. Archbishop Curtiss gathered the priests of the Archdiocese for an information sharing and discussion about what had happened nationally. [The Archdiocese of Omaha has not escaped from its own scandals, but we have dealt with them – I think – in a commendable way.] The Archbishop wanted us to be aware of what was coming in the news and give us a chance to discuss it among ourselves. He would not even let reporters from the Catholic Voice witness our discussion. It was for us priests.

Well, after the presentation was made, the Archbishop opened the floor for comments. Big surprise: I spoke up. My comments were based mainly on that verse from Saint Peter that was after our reading for today. I read it to you at the start of my homily today. Let me remind you: “For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God?”

Whenever there are problems in a society, God has always corrected his people first. The example I used in that session was the nation of Israel when they were misbehaving and ended up in exile in Babylon. After God corrected his people, and they returned to him in faith, he allowed them to return to Israel. But what happened to Babylon? It is currently Baghdad. But it went through total destruction of its society and its existence.

I warned my brother priests that God is consistent in the way he works with his people. What he did to Israel, he is doing to his church. Pope Benedict the sixteenth warned us that we would have a smaller church. This warning came before he was even elected as Pope. He could see the trajectory of the Church. He tried his best to draw us away from the catastrophe that was headed our way. We see evidence of that catastrophe forming now in the Church in Germany, and in the polarization that is happening in different parts of the Catholic Church here in the United States.

We have some people who are trying to remake the Church into something that, I believe, God never intended. We have others at the opposite extreme who want to try to reverse the guidance of the Holy Spirit as revealed through the Second Vatican Council.

But these extremes are only examples of the problems that are the result of the judgment of God on His Church. I could go into much more detail on some of the problems that we are having from both extremes – liberal and conservative – if those labels really apply to members of the Church.

On the other hand, we are certainly seeing a polarization in our society between liberal and conservative. That polarization is getting so severe that it is tearing our society apart. I think this is the response that I warned about earlier. After God finished using Babylon, or whatever other nation he chose to use to correct His People, after he started the restoration of His own People, he destroyed the society he had used. They became arrogant and assumed that they had the right answers because they had been successful.

I think this is where our society is headed. God used an arrogant media to correct His Church. Now he is making the media implode. Twenty years ago, I warned my brother priests that this is what would happen. The reaction I got from my brothers was mixed: some said, “I never thought of that”; others said, “what was he talking about?”

Let me be very clear. I do not think God is done correcting his church yet. That is evidenced by the amount of strife that still exists among the People of God; and what is it going to be like for the church to finally come back in line with the call to holiness that God has given throughout the existence of the church? Permit me to read that verse again:

“For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God?”

Our prayers for our church, our nation, our world need to be more intense than they have ever been. Through multiple apparitions, Our Lady has warned us of what will happen if there is a failure to seek holiness in our own lives. During this month of May, when we remember Our Lady in a special way, let’s pray for those who – right now – are failing to obey the gospel of God – both those in the church and outside the church.

We will suffer for our desire to remain in the holiness of God. What that suffering will look like, I do not know. But I do know that God is faithful to those who remain faithful to him.

Pray/Praise:   

So, we pray: Lord Jesus, through the intercession of your Blessed Mother, help us to reform your church according to your Holy Spirit. Give us the words we need to bring a conversion of heart to a society that does not care about you or your call to holiness.

Grant us the wisdom to separate the wheat from the chaff that we may hold on to what is good and holy for the sake of your kingdom, for the sake of our own souls, for the sake of our country, but most importantly for the sake of the truth of the gospel, and your glory. Amen.

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