Homily

During the last few weeks you can find dozens and dozens of articles, news reports and opinion pieces just about everywhere you look, and many of them are not good, or else they are bad, or even very, very bad. I generally have avoided them because there is no point in allowing oneself to get upset over the ignorance of other people. But one that I did read was an opinion piece written by a 29-year-old woman named Annie Selak for the Washington Post. It says in the bio-line that Annie is "a lay minister in the Roman Catholic Church." There is no such thing as a position of "lay minister" in the Catholic Church, even though people want to use that term. It says that she "specializes in the question of young adults and vocation in the modern world." What does that mean? Are young adults a question? Does she have a degree or a certificate in modern vocations?

The reason I bring her article up is because she mentions a number of points you can see in similar pieces, over and over again so I think they are worth bringing up. In speaking on behalf of young Catholics, which she claims to do, because she is a specialist and a lay minister, she says what she wants from the Church.

"We want the Church to ask the questions that we are asking, rather than the ones that seem trivial at best and irrelevant at worst. Catholicism can recover from mistakes but one thing the Church cannot recover from is being irrelevant."

How would Annie like the Church to become relevant to young people today? Would it be by quoting Jesus' words in today's Gospel, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me . . . What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and lose his life?" Is that the type of relevancy she is looking for?

Of course not, sadly. What would make the Church relevant to young people today? That would be the ordination of women and changing the teaching about homosexual behavior. Annie says she and young Catholics do not want to be spoon-fed theology that is given by the hierarchy.

"We do not need answers; we need to engage the world . . . We want to wrestle, grapple, use our minds, engage our hearts, debate, think and pray. And we want the Church to do that with us."

You may have thought that the Church was the Body of Christ. For Annie it's more like "Fight Club." There is no solid or lasting truth that comes to us from Christ Our Lord, passed on for 2,000 years by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Anything and everything is up for grabs. And people have to decide for themselves what is true because the times change. The only value she mentions in her piece that Jesus taught is "inclusivity."

Now it is surely true that the love of Jesus is inclusive. He loves all people. But Jesus also requires that all people live up to the standard of their God-given life if they wish to be with him in eternal life. Again, today's Gospel:

"Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels."

You, yourselves with a little bit of time can come up with a number of examples in the Gospels where Jesus teaches there will be judgment and some will end up in the blessed life and others will not. For Annie it is the job of the Church to change its teaching if people do not like them or refuse to accept them.

Let's hear what someone else has to say about his role in the Church. The former pope, Benedict, on his last day in this ministry, spoke to the Cardinals in a meeting:

"I want to tell you that I will continue to be close to you in prayer, especially in the next few days, so that you may all be fully docile to the action of the Holy Spirit in the election of the new pope. May the Lord show you what is willed by Him. And among you . . . there is also the future pope, to whom here today, I already promise my unconditional reverence and obedience. For all this, with affection and gratitude, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing."

I guess he doesn't feel he needs to wrestle to find truth.

Do you notice the difference in the way Benedict responds to his role in the Church and the way Annie sees herself? Annie and those who think like her see the Church as basically a human institution, run by a bunch of overbearing men, who have no compassion for the current causes of the times and live in outmoded and ignorant ways of thinking and acting that cannot speak to the sophisticated ideas of modern people. The biggest sin the Church can commit in the eyes of people like Annie, is to be out of touch with the times, to be irrelevant.

And for people like Annie it is impossible for them to see the Church as the Body of Christ, the Communion of Believers, the Standard of Truth, the Mother of the Faithful, the Fountain of Grace. No, for them it is merely an institution that must serve people the way they want to be served, and teach people what they want to be taught. People who think as she does, both inside and outside of the Church, and there are many of them, will never talk about the salvation of souls, the life of holiness we are called to by Christ through His Church, which teaches us, guides us and nourishes us in our faith. They never talk about taking up the Cross and following Jesus. They just don't get it.

But there is a genuine understanding of the Church we can listen to. Again, in his last talk of the papacy meeting with the Cardinals on Thursday morning, Pope Benedict spoke about the impression he received from the crowds outside of St. Peter's Basilica at the General Audience the day before:

". . . We could see that the Church is a living body, animated by the Holy Spirit, and truly lives by the power of God, She is in the world but not of the world. She is of God, of Christ, of the Spirit, as we saw yesterday. This is why another eloquent expression of Guardini's is also true: 'The Church is awakening in souls.' The Church lives, grows and awakens in those souls which like the Virgin Mary accept and conceive the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. They offer to God their flesh and in their own poverty and humility become capable of giving birth to Christ in the world today. Through the Church the mystery of the Incarnation remains present forever. Christ continues to walk through all times in all places. Let us remain united, dear brothers, to this mystery, in prayer, especially in daily Eucharist, and thus serve the Church and all humanity. This is our joy that no one can take from us."

The Church of Annie is based on the arrogant idea that nobody knows the truth better than I do. It is always angry, frustrated and ultimately lifeless.

But the Church that Benedict speaks of—well, notice he uses the word "joy" not frustration and anger. As he has taught us, we are born to become holy, to love God and one another, and, one day to come into eternal joy in Christ our Lord. Let us love the Church, let us love Christ our Lord.