Homily
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time A
22 October 2017
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
"Do you have to be Catholic to get coffee here?"
"No!" Actually I'd prefer it if you weren't Catholic."
This is a dialogue that I have heard at our Slow Drip coffee initiative on Fridays this semester. It's a dialogue I'd like to hear more and more.
The reason that we're serving free gourmet coffee on Fridays here at St. Lawrence is to meet new people. We especially want to meet those who do not agree with us. A culture shift for St. Lawrence would mean that our center is not just for orthodox Catholics who behave in an expected way, a way that makes everyone comfortable. Mind you, those people are most welcome - but our mission cannot end there. Instead, the center should be for everyone, especially for those who make us uncomfortable. Wouldn't it be great if we were engaging new students at the university everyday, discussing questions that really matter.
The predominant religion at KU these days is the religion of tolerance. It is a religion of isolation and distance. You do you, and I'll do me, and unless we can agree on everything and affirm each other at every turn, we will avoid each other. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Except that a religion of tolerance backfires every time. It has no choice but to descend further into a religion of hatred. What do I mean? I mean exactly what we see all around us. That tolerance never works, because we as human persons are meant for relationship and closeness, not isolation and distance. Avoidance rarely works long-term in the area of conflict management, and insofar as tolerance is avoidance, it is destined to fail.
Because we are created for relationship and closeness, when we lack conversations and spaces that allow us to engage those different than us, tolerance necessarily becomes hatred. When avoidance fails, than anyone who does not affirm me in everything I think, do and say, becomes a hater. What does this mean for Catholic Christians? Even if you have not a ounce of hatred in your heart, you are labeled a hater. When it comes for example, to gender identity, marriage, and the moral paths to authentic love and happiness, Christians have settled understandings that cannot and will not change. Ten years ago they were the norm. Now these very same commitments are labeled as hate. It's a irrational transformation and a false narrative of hate.
We see our Lord escaping such a false narrative of hate in today's Gospel. He escapes the trap deftly, and so should we whenever anyone tries to label us as haters. When supposedly forced to choose either Rome or Israel, either the Herodians or Pharisees, Jesus choose neither, or rather, both. This is not because Jesus is weak or sees gray instead of black and white, but because He calls out a false narrative of hate and chooses to stay close to all people while still holding fast to the truth.
Such is our challenge today. We must imitate our Lord's ability to escape labels, and to both go deeper in our commitments to truth and authentic love, and yet in mercy be more engaging to those who disagree with us. There can be no labeling or 'campiness' within our dear Church family to start. From there we must must model to the world not a church of isolation and distance, but one of relationship and closeness. We do this by listening over coffee to someone who disagrees with us.
All this is done not by hiding or watering down our Christian faith, but by becoming real Christians, by remembering whose image and likeness we ourselves bear. Catholics must render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and for the common good of all participate fully in the political process of building up a just society where human persons can flourish. Yet such participation yields little fruit unless those of us who participate politically are ourselves fulfilling our destiny to grow in the likeness of God. The point in the Gospel is subtle but profound. The coin bears Caesar's image, so give it to him. We bear God's image, and are to become a living sacrifice, a gift to God alone! And this is the far, far greater thing. We give God glory when we become virtuous and mature persons, when we grow in his likeness by following Christ more closely. We render to God what is God's when we embrace responsibilities before rights - when we become capable of great love - to make commitments to family, Church and society that give life rather than take it.
So what are we to do and why does it matter. Simple things that destroy false narrative of hate.
Transcend and escape the labels people put on you. Do not hate or label your neighbor. Make your life a gift to God. Have a cup of coffee with someone who disagrees with you. When everyone and everything is inviting you to hate, instead draw closer to God and your neighbor. Amen.
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time A
22 October 2017
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
"Do you have to be Catholic to get coffee here?"
"No!" Actually I'd prefer it if you weren't Catholic."
This is a dialogue that I have heard at our Slow Drip coffee initiative on Fridays this semester. It's a dialogue I'd like to hear more and more.
The reason that we're serving free gourmet coffee on Fridays here at St. Lawrence is to meet new people. We especially want to meet those who do not agree with us. A culture shift for St. Lawrence would mean that our center is not just for orthodox Catholics who behave in an expected way, a way that makes everyone comfortable. Mind you, those people are most welcome - but our mission cannot end there. Instead, the center should be for everyone, especially for those who make us uncomfortable. Wouldn't it be great if we were engaging new students at the university everyday, discussing questions that really matter.
The predominant religion at KU these days is the religion of tolerance. It is a religion of isolation and distance. You do you, and I'll do me, and unless we can agree on everything and affirm each other at every turn, we will avoid each other. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Except that a religion of tolerance backfires every time. It has no choice but to descend further into a religion of hatred. What do I mean? I mean exactly what we see all around us. That tolerance never works, because we as human persons are meant for relationship and closeness, not isolation and distance. Avoidance rarely works long-term in the area of conflict management, and insofar as tolerance is avoidance, it is destined to fail.
Because we are created for relationship and closeness, when we lack conversations and spaces that allow us to engage those different than us, tolerance necessarily becomes hatred. When avoidance fails, than anyone who does not affirm me in everything I think, do and say, becomes a hater. What does this mean for Catholic Christians? Even if you have not a ounce of hatred in your heart, you are labeled a hater. When it comes for example, to gender identity, marriage, and the moral paths to authentic love and happiness, Christians have settled understandings that cannot and will not change. Ten years ago they were the norm. Now these very same commitments are labeled as hate. It's a irrational transformation and a false narrative of hate.
We see our Lord escaping such a false narrative of hate in today's Gospel. He escapes the trap deftly, and so should we whenever anyone tries to label us as haters. When supposedly forced to choose either Rome or Israel, either the Herodians or Pharisees, Jesus choose neither, or rather, both. This is not because Jesus is weak or sees gray instead of black and white, but because He calls out a false narrative of hate and chooses to stay close to all people while still holding fast to the truth.
Such is our challenge today. We must imitate our Lord's ability to escape labels, and to both go deeper in our commitments to truth and authentic love, and yet in mercy be more engaging to those who disagree with us. There can be no labeling or 'campiness' within our dear Church family to start. From there we must must model to the world not a church of isolation and distance, but one of relationship and closeness. We do this by listening over coffee to someone who disagrees with us.
All this is done not by hiding or watering down our Christian faith, but by becoming real Christians, by remembering whose image and likeness we ourselves bear. Catholics must render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and for the common good of all participate fully in the political process of building up a just society where human persons can flourish. Yet such participation yields little fruit unless those of us who participate politically are ourselves fulfilling our destiny to grow in the likeness of God. The point in the Gospel is subtle but profound. The coin bears Caesar's image, so give it to him. We bear God's image, and are to become a living sacrifice, a gift to God alone! And this is the far, far greater thing. We give God glory when we become virtuous and mature persons, when we grow in his likeness by following Christ more closely. We render to God what is God's when we embrace responsibilities before rights - when we become capable of great love - to make commitments to family, Church and society that give life rather than take it.
So what are we to do and why does it matter. Simple things that destroy false narrative of hate.
Transcend and escape the labels people put on you. Do not hate or label your neighbor. Make your life a gift to God. Have a cup of coffee with someone who disagrees with you. When everyone and everything is inviting you to hate, instead draw closer to God and your neighbor. Amen.
