Homily
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Christ the King Catholic Parish Topeka
6 October 2013
Year of Faith
Daily Readings
At my first parish, on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October, there was a rose procession of people born beginning in 1973, when abortion was legalized. This year the procession would have been forty people long, beginning with a 40 year old like me, and ending with a newborn baby. I'm sorry I didn't get such a procession organized here this year. But I will next year. The procession rips your heart out. It's powerful. It brings home the reality of the lives lost to the civil rights issue of our generation, a holocaust of untold proportions, the scourge of abortion.
Born in 1974, I was conceived just months after the Roe v. Wade decision, so although I live in the greatest country in the world, it has never been a country, in my lifetime, that has defended my right to life from the moment of conception, and my right to be born. So the abortion debate will always be personal to me. It can't be anything but. I am so proud to be a part of a Church that is not afraid to stand strongly in defense of life, beginning with standing up for the most vulnerable in our society, the unborn. We always begin by defending the life of the weakest, who have no voice. We stand for life in so many ways, including healing and feeding those who have been born, but our defense of life always begins with the smallest and the weakest, the unborn, and there is no replacement for that witness. I will be on the corner of 21st and Wanamaker today at 1pm standing and praying for life, and I invite you to join me. I will stand up every year for the rest of my life, or until abortion is ended. You can DVR the Chiefs game.
The Lord tells the prophet Habbakuk in today's first reading never to be discouraged. We are to be firm in the vision of our country teaching the world, and being a light for the nations, in the pursuit of life, liberty and human flourishing at the highest levels, not the way we do it today. The United States is better than abortion. We can never settle if we are to fulfill our destiny to be a light for all nations. We are to stand for the truth not with cowardice, but as St. Paul tells us, with the spirit of courage and love that has been given us.
As important as it is that we stand up for life and justice in a visible way today on Respect Life Sunday, the greater work that must be done is at a much more personal level, at the level of our marriages and families. It is in traditional marriage that children are most safe, and as much as possible, children, the most precious resource any society has, have a right to be raised by a mom and a dad in love with each other for a lifetime. I always say as much as possible, so as never to look down on any marriage or family. We are to support and love each other no matter what happens in life and look after all our children.
Yet, we have to face the fact that children die, and abortion while a terrible choice becomes a perceived necessity, in a culture that has given up on marriage and family. The Catholic Church continues to take unpopular stances on chastity outside of marriage, on arttificial contraception, reproductive technologies and same-sex marriage not because she thinks everyone will agree with her, and not because she expects everyone will live it perfectly. She takes strong stands not to be in judgment of anyone, for the Church is to bring God's mercy into the world just as surely, or moreso, than she brings truth. It is never mercy or truth for the Church, but always both. The Church takes strong stances because she is doing what she believes will strengthen marriage and family. The Church's teachings are challenging for many, embarrassing for others, but at the very least we are members of a Church that must never become afraid of saying what she thinks to be true. The most embarrassing thing would be to belong to a Church that is afraid to say anything or stand for anything. We have spent too long in this country failing to form men to be husbands and fathers, failing as a government to define marriage as it is, not as any two people would want it to be, and failing as a Church to prepare our young people for vocations, including sacramental marriage. It is in this cowardly environment where it is hard to know and choose the good that we leave people alone to make good choices. Shame on us.
Still, we are not to lose hope. As people of faith, we look first in amazement at creation, at the impossibility of the universe and the gift of life ever happening, and yet here it is and here we are, and we are filled with wonder and gratitude. We look at the reality of all the evil that has touched the world, some evil that will always confound us and seem unjustifiable, and yet we know at our core that life is sacred and good and worth living. Even when tempted to wonder where God is, our response is one of faith, knowing that the Lord of all nature and all history is always carrying out his purposes. His perspective is always greater than ours, so even without perfect understanding we always respond in faith, knowing that in his active yet mysterious providence, God can even use the mistakes and mess of the world to bring about his divine plan of love.
So we press on with faith and hope, listening to the Lord's response to the questions of the prophet Habbakuk in today's first reading.
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Christ the King Catholic Parish Topeka
6 October 2013
Year of Faith
Daily Readings
At my first parish, on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October, there was a rose procession of people born beginning in 1973, when abortion was legalized. This year the procession would have been forty people long, beginning with a 40 year old like me, and ending with a newborn baby. I'm sorry I didn't get such a procession organized here this year. But I will next year. The procession rips your heart out. It's powerful. It brings home the reality of the lives lost to the civil rights issue of our generation, a holocaust of untold proportions, the scourge of abortion.
Born in 1974, I was conceived just months after the Roe v. Wade decision, so although I live in the greatest country in the world, it has never been a country, in my lifetime, that has defended my right to life from the moment of conception, and my right to be born. So the abortion debate will always be personal to me. It can't be anything but. I am so proud to be a part of a Church that is not afraid to stand strongly in defense of life, beginning with standing up for the most vulnerable in our society, the unborn. We always begin by defending the life of the weakest, who have no voice. We stand for life in so many ways, including healing and feeding those who have been born, but our defense of life always begins with the smallest and the weakest, the unborn, and there is no replacement for that witness. I will be on the corner of 21st and Wanamaker today at 1pm standing and praying for life, and I invite you to join me. I will stand up every year for the rest of my life, or until abortion is ended. You can DVR the Chiefs game.
The Lord tells the prophet Habbakuk in today's first reading never to be discouraged. We are to be firm in the vision of our country teaching the world, and being a light for the nations, in the pursuit of life, liberty and human flourishing at the highest levels, not the way we do it today. The United States is better than abortion. We can never settle if we are to fulfill our destiny to be a light for all nations. We are to stand for the truth not with cowardice, but as St. Paul tells us, with the spirit of courage and love that has been given us.
As important as it is that we stand up for life and justice in a visible way today on Respect Life Sunday, the greater work that must be done is at a much more personal level, at the level of our marriages and families. It is in traditional marriage that children are most safe, and as much as possible, children, the most precious resource any society has, have a right to be raised by a mom and a dad in love with each other for a lifetime. I always say as much as possible, so as never to look down on any marriage or family. We are to support and love each other no matter what happens in life and look after all our children.
Yet, we have to face the fact that children die, and abortion while a terrible choice becomes a perceived necessity, in a culture that has given up on marriage and family. The Catholic Church continues to take unpopular stances on chastity outside of marriage, on arttificial contraception, reproductive technologies and same-sex marriage not because she thinks everyone will agree with her, and not because she expects everyone will live it perfectly. She takes strong stands not to be in judgment of anyone, for the Church is to bring God's mercy into the world just as surely, or moreso, than she brings truth. It is never mercy or truth for the Church, but always both. The Church takes strong stances because she is doing what she believes will strengthen marriage and family. The Church's teachings are challenging for many, embarrassing for others, but at the very least we are members of a Church that must never become afraid of saying what she thinks to be true. The most embarrassing thing would be to belong to a Church that is afraid to say anything or stand for anything. We have spent too long in this country failing to form men to be husbands and fathers, failing as a government to define marriage as it is, not as any two people would want it to be, and failing as a Church to prepare our young people for vocations, including sacramental marriage. It is in this cowardly environment where it is hard to know and choose the good that we leave people alone to make good choices. Shame on us.
Still, we are not to lose hope. As people of faith, we look first in amazement at creation, at the impossibility of the universe and the gift of life ever happening, and yet here it is and here we are, and we are filled with wonder and gratitude. We look at the reality of all the evil that has touched the world, some evil that will always confound us and seem unjustifiable, and yet we know at our core that life is sacred and good and worth living. Even when tempted to wonder where God is, our response is one of faith, knowing that the Lord of all nature and all history is always carrying out his purposes. His perspective is always greater than ours, so even without perfect understanding we always respond in faith, knowing that in his active yet mysterious providence, God can even use the mistakes and mess of the world to bring about his divine plan of love.
So we press on with faith and hope, listening to the Lord's response to the questions of the prophet Habbakuk in today's first reading.
Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
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