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This Fr. Gerry Creedon homily was delivered at St. Charles on September 29, 2002
In light of what is happening in our world and in our church, I want to make a few comments on the First Reading and on the Gospel in the light of world issues and church questions respectively.
I will begin with the world. The first reading declares, "My ways are not your ways". Some would say that I squandered some of my youth studying the classics, five years studying Greek and Latin in high school and three years at University College of Dublin. I've a whole rack of books of classics in my office. It is a temptation that I resist, but I could not resist this quote attributed to Julius Caesar.
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor. For patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood just as it narrows the mind. When the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather the citizenry infused with fear and blinded by patriotism will offer up all of their rights into the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this what I have done and I am Caesar."
A great zeal for the classics overtook the 5:00 PM Mass and many wanted that quote. I will have it posted on the web site. I have heard subsequently that there is question as to whether the attribution is correct!
We are living in a time when we are preparing for war. It is useful for us not just to consult our patriotic feelings but to consult also the ethical tradition that comes to us ultimately from the Gospel. Catholic moralists have enshrined this reflection in the just-war theory. Our Catholic tradition allows and respects the non-violent tradition as well.
So we should consult not just our hearts and patriotic feelings but also the authorities that speak to us in the name of the church: The Pope, the National Council of Churches, and The National Conference of Bishops. Their statements have been posted on the web site for your consultation along with a letter from myself to our leaders: a letter that is not infallible, but reflects my opinion and may provoke you to write your own. The issues of war and peace are too important to leave to our politicians. The whole citizenry needs to respond.
The Pope, our Bishops and all the mainline churches with the exception of a few evangelical leaders have raised serious moral and ethical questions about pre-emptive, unilateral strikes against Iraq. In fact the Archbishop of Westminster goes beyond questions to pronounce his judgement against war. Consult The Catholic Herald this week. The back page carries a summary of these religious opinions. We like to think that God is always on our side. Let's consult, in case God's ways are not our ways.
The Gospel talks about compassion and forgiveness. People change their hearts and minds, people who say no end up doing the right thing and people that profess a great faith often times don't do a darn thing about it. There's room for transformation and change. The people who are most open to the message of repentance are often times the most vulnerable.
Zero Tolerance and Intolerance
The public sinners, the tax collectors, whose affairs that have not been too clear, and the prostitutes, marked with shame, opened their hearts to a message of transformation. The religious leaders, the chief priests, the Pharisees had no need in their hearts for a message of repentance or transformation because they felt they already had the message. They were already squeaky-clean.
Our church is going through its crisis and we've have resolved it in terms of zero tolerance. God knows we need zero tolerance with the criminal abuse of children. No more cover up. Yet, we need to be careful if zero tolerance produces an intolerant church. If zero tolerance becomes our major value, we can confuse crime and criminal conduct with plain honest-to-God, ordinary sin.
Are we going to move towards a church where the clergy are going to be perfect in every way? Of course we need zero tolerance of criminal abuse and lack of oversight. Do we let the pendulum swing toward a kind of perfectionism that doesn't allow for repentance?
Should we abolish the sacrament of Reconciliation and Absolution? Some would say we haven't been going there too much anyway. I spent an hour yesterday hearing confessions and in 34 years I have yet to refuse someone absolution. I believe God's pardon is available. It's universal. It's free. It's grace. Christians, despite our pretensions, are not perfect, "Just Forgiven".
While we raise the bar of ethical conduct, let's not eliminate the need for forgiveness and the possibility of rehabilitation. It's an idea that has gone out of our criminal justice system but we can't let it be run out of the church. We offer the opportunity for a second chance, 70 times 7 times. We are a pardoned and forgiven people, every single one of us from the most recently baptized child to the Holy Father. We are human and we don't always follow the path.
Was Jesus squeaky-clean? He does not appear so in this Sunday's Gospel. He kept the wrong company and made room for the wrong people. Even though we do not tolerate certain behaviors, we are a forgiven church and if we are a forgiven church, we are a forgiving, compassionate church.
God's ways are not our ways when we come to our political choices. God's ways are not our ways when we form a church in our own narrow vision.
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or 2002
Homilies
Revised/reviewed October 2,
2002