Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXIX per Annum C

20 October 2019

 This weekend I am going to continue reflections on the state of things in the Church and in the world, motivated by the recent abuse report from our Archdiocese.  The sinful and criminal scourge of sexual abuse together with the moral rot within so much of our leadership that has contributed to failures in handling abuse is a subject that I think we simply must talk about and it cannot be swept under the rug.  I think it is also owed to you to hear words on this from a priest.  Given the realities of disorder and immorality in our society and within the Church I do NOT, sadly, anticipate that this will be the last time we have to reflect upon this topic.  But I do hope that a new level of transparency is happening now, which can only bode well for the witness the Church can give to our world such that other institutions and groups might be driven to more transparently address abuse where we know it also takes place in the secular world.  In God’s Providence, His Sacred Word in the scripture selections this weekend seems quite appropriate for the pulse I sense in our community.  In particular, I find great consolation in the Old Testament (first reading) image of fraternal support and intercessory prayer: Moses having help holding up the staff to gain victory for God’s people.  And I find consolation in considering the new staff of God, that is the Cross of Jesus, by which on the hill of Calvary his arms are outstretched to gain us the ultimate victory of salvation.  And then the perfect Gospel for us today.  Maybe I shouldn’t assume to attribute this to you as a group, but I know this Gospel speaks to me: Jesus gives his disciples a parable “about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.”

Thank you, Lord!  That’s just the message I needed to hear right now because weariness I think describes my general sentiment.  Maybe that resonates with you too.  All week I have been reflecting upon weariness and trying to notice how weariness is just sort of hanging in the air.  The original Greek in this passage that we translate in English as “weary” has a rich variety of meaning.  It refers to what can happen when we are in a bad situation, when we are immersed in suffering or in evil.  The literal root of the word refers to the tendency to faint or to turn coward when being “in evil.”  The connotation of the word in this use carries the sense of being disappointed, or losing heart, or growing weary when we suffer evil.  Now, to be clear, I am not at all suggesting that there isn’t joy in daily living or that there aren’t so many good things that take place over the course of a day.  However, when I stop to think and to reflect upon the state of affairs in our world, both the secular world outside and the state of affairs inside the Church, I think I notice a sense of being fatigued, of being dissatisfied, and being impatient.  Maybe I’m not the only one.

Looking at the broader secular world things seem more and more unhinged from truth and reality.  And more to the point, the velocity with which we have become unhinged seems to have increased exponentially.  I suggest that our political discourse in the United States can serve as the magnifying glass to see the dissolution in our secular world.  Looking into that magnifying glass I think we see a fanatical blood lust for abortion on demand, that seems like its own evil, distinct from the fact of the evil of abortion itself.  I think we also see a rapid rise in the tyranny of the transgender movement which, frankly, just looks like complete chaos.  Switching gears now to look to the Church, I don’t think we can just assume that life within the Church is our little safe haven because disorder and chaos mark the Church too, at least in her human membership.  More and more I hear from so many Catholics who are disturbed by the confusing decisions, documents, and actions that come even from the Vatican.  There is a Synod of bishops going on currently in Rome and it, like the couple of previous synods in the last few years, seems determined to sew confusion even in already settled matters of doctrine and in long-standing disciplines.  We look to our bishops, but so many seem to be lacking real apostolic courage to proclaim authentic Catholic faith when it might cost them popularity among people or among fellow bishops, or even higher ups in Rome.  How much do they need to hear today’s second reading from St. Paul: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, … proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”  Added to all this is the great sadness of the abuse scandal and the complete loss of trust it carries with it.  I’m not going to burden us with any more observations than these few examples.  Again, maybe it is just me, but I know I need to hear the divine command to not grow weary, to not become a coward, to not despair.  Rather, we pray always and await God to secure the rights of His chosen ones and to do justice speedily.

 So what do we do?  What can we do here?  First of all, our turbulent times outside and inside the Church are a painful but important lesson that our firm and lasting foundation given to us by Jesus is Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.  Our only answer and solution to the problems in society and in the Church is to be more deeply immersed in authentic Catholic Tradition.  That Tradition is the full deposit of God’s Word to us and contains the spoken, oral teaching and discipline of the Apostles and that privileged portion of oral teaching written down in the Sacred Scriptures.  To be immersed in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition gives us an anchor and a firm foundation that does not move even though the winds of chaos batter us.  Secondly, taking the lesson from today’s Gospel, we must be persistent in prayer and not give in to weariness.  You and I want our prayers answered right away, correct?  I have some sobering news for us.  Notice that final line of today’s Gospel?  Jesus said, “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  I hate to have to tell you this but that seems to frame Jesus’ teaching in this Gospel in the terms of the end times, meaning that Jesus is saying the justice and the vindication that will speedily come from God is in reference to the final judgment.  In other words, he does not mean that we should expect our prayers to bring a speedy resolution of earthly injustice.  And not, sadly, on our timeline.  So, we must be determined to pray and to be persistent and to not become weary of the events of our times.  I promised you some guidance in our prayer response in light of our local abuse report.  (1) I suggest that we invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph in our prayers, with a specific focus of having before our eyes authentic feminine and masculine examples of discipleship.  The daily Rosary is clearly a great prayer to adopt.  (2) I suggest that we make time to be committed to be before the Lord in our Adoration Chapel and to make every effort to incorporate adoration into our spiritual life.  To be there simply before the Lord who is present.  To raise to him all the concerns that rise up in our hearts.  And to have ourselves prepared to receive from his open Heart the gift of merciful love that flows so abundantly from that Divine Heart.  (3) I suggest that you consider how you might make attendance at daily Mass possible.  To be more regularly, frequently, nourished by the Sacred Scriptures proclaimed at Mass and to receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Lord more regularly strengthens us in battle.  And, finally, (4) something we will do together is that on the first three Wednesdays of November we will move the daily Mass into the main church and we will offer those Masses in particular for reparation for the sin of abuse and for the healing of victims.  As you responded so enthusiastically to this last year, I hope you will make the effort to join together on those first three Wednesdays of November for the evening daily Mass held here in the main church.

  In the first reading, God’s people were victorious against a fierce enemy while Moses held his arms aloft with the staff of God.  Moses was not alone.  He had the help of others to raise the staff.  That gives us an early example of intercessory prayer and the value of coming together in mutual support and prayer.  My friends, the new staff of God is the Cross of Jesus, where his arms are spread out for our salvation.  The psalm today tells us we lift our eyes toward the mountain whence shall come our help.  Lifting our eyes to the mountain and to the Cross is precisely what we do sacramentally at the Holy Mass.  In the raised sanctuary, like the Hill of Calvary, we set our eyes upon the ultimate victory of God, both the crucifixion by which the debt of sin is paid, and upon the resurrected flesh of Jesus Christ given to us in Holy Communion to aid our weariness!  If exhaustion, loss of trust, and loss of hope wage war upon you then hear the Gospel remind you how much more the just Judge will respond to our persistent prayers.

In the face of so many challenges both in secular culture and in the Church, and in places far away and also near, what you and I can do is to live the orthodox Catholic faith in the only place that matters for us: Here and now… in the family, the domestic Church; in the witness of our lives out in our small segment of the world, at work, at school, in our neighborhood, in gatherings of friends; and in this parish.  This is our sphere of influence.  This is where we are called to pray always and to help one another when we grow weary.  This is the place where the lives of the saints – YOU –  these saints are made!  That “book,” we might call it, of local holiness is the answer to present crisis and it needs to be written upon the pages of our very lives.  Gods gives us the grace – the “ink,” so to speak – to write that story.  God the Father’s answer to this fallen world is Jesus Christ.  But we must never forget that by faith and baptism we have been made members of the Body of Christ.  And so, it is up to you and to me to respond to God’s gifts and to be disciplined and zealous in our cooperation with His grace so that we become more and more the living image of Christ in our broken world.