Homily

This has been a very painful and difficult week for me. I was suffering from a dental abscess that was amazingly painful and had become rather dangerous. I would give you more details but there are children and people with heart conditions in church today. I am now getting better every day, and I thank you for your prayers and your offers to help. Thank you most sincerely.

The situation had a dramatic effect on the way I temporarily saw the world last week. And those of you who have suffered periods of great pain can relate to my experience. Sometimes the only thing I could think about was the pain itself, and it became difficult to even try and function in a normal way. But that change in worldview was only temporary and superficial. It had no lasting effect in a negative way about how I see myself and my life in this world. I have spoken in the past about ways that this Corona virus has pushed us into making changes in our lives, and how that may have affected our worldview. I hope it did. I hope it does. I hope the current situation can give us the opportunity to change how we see ourselves and our lives in this world and that we continue to choose to live more faithfully as followers of Christ, that we keep praying and working to improve our lives by His grace. Difficult times can produce holier people, if we live through them in the spirit of the Gospel.

Now let me talk about a third example of a worldview. There is a Latin Catholic man, David Haas, who is a very successful composer of religious songs. He’s probably written over a hundred of them in the past forty years, and I am pretty sure most of you have heard some of them in other Catholic churches. A few years ago several woman accused him of inappropriate behavior. So his Archbishop decided that he would no longer be allowed to appear at events sponsored by the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis unless he disclosed the complaints that had been made against him. The complaints about Haas’s behavior did not reach the level of criminal behavior, but even so I believe the Archdiocese has the right to withhold giving someone a place in their events if they believe he has probably committed sexually offensive or aggressive acts against women. That can be seen as being prudent.

But just recently several more women have complained about past bad behavior on his part and the Archbishop has upped the ante. Now he is completely banned from any event of the Archdiocese. Again, I don’t have a problem with this. AND: “The Archdiocese will not use Haas’s compositions at Archdiocesan Masses and other Archdiocesan events. Also the Archbishop has encouraged pastors, principals and leaders of other Catholic institutions to consider the sensitivities involved with using Haas’s music in liturgies or other parish school events, and to take appropriate steps to fully support those who have been harmed by sexual assault or abuse.”

I should not have been surprised, but I was. This way of thinking and acting is directly taken from the “#MeToo” movement. Because Haas has been accused of doing some bad things, now his music cannot be played. How do the two connect? Sure, you can ban him from public church activities, but now suddenly his songs, which have been used for decades, are banned also? What is the point of that? It seems the Archbishop believes that if the faithful hear Haas’s hymns they will wither at the sound because Haas has been accused of misconduct. As if the laity even know who Haas is, or what songs he has written. It seems to encourage the idea that if Haas has done wrong, everything he has produced is now become bad and cannot be tolerated. It’s truly amazing. So, if we should discover, at some future time, that Michelangelo had committed a murder, should we then whitewash the walls and ceilings of the Sistine Chapel, and tear down his famous statue of King David in Florence?

Reading the statements of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, I do not see them as based on Christian faith, but rather on the activist/corporate/political mentality of the #MeToo movement. There is no call to conversion, no quotes from the Gospel, no hope for saving grace, no genuine compassion for those involved. It reads just the same way as something that Starbucks, or MSNBC, or some politician might have written, and I think it shows the worldview of the Archbishop.

Remember last year when that poor boy from Covington, Kentucky, was accused of being a racist at the March for Life, when that Native American man was harassing him? Both the boy’s high school and his bishop couldn’t wait to denounce this innocent young man because that’s what our current activist/corporate/political worldview tells us must be done. They didn’t need to even talk with him. His own bishop trashed him in public because he did not see the situation or the young man, he did not treat him in the light of the Gospel, but only according to what he thought the world demanded of him. He did what the mob wanted. He didn’t care about the boy. Shame on these bishops.

Now I am not here to bash bishops. We can do that another time. (Just kidding!) I want us to think about our own worldview. Is it formed according to the truth of Christ, or is it founded on other values, with some Christianity on top? I believe one of the reasons that people abandon their faith is because they have never really made it the guiding principle of their lives. Instead, they often substitute today’s truth for eternal truth, and today’s values for the values of Christ. They choose convenience over sacrifice, and comfort over conversion. They look for the approval of the world, and not for their salvation in Christ. It is sad but it should not be a surprise when we find these attitudes even in the shepherds of the Church. But what’s more important is that we look and review all the time to be sure that our own worldview is based on what Jesus has told us, because that is the worldview we need to offer to the world and continue to pass on to our children.