Homily

As he comes to the end of his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells them: “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.” Those are not words that describe a passive, easy-going, get-along-with-everybody-and-don’t-upset anybody kind of faith. “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.”

I thought of those words yesterday on the feast of the beheading of St. John the Baptist. Kind Herod’s marriage to the former wife of his half-brother was not allowed in Mosaic law. St. John decided that he must publicly chastise Herod for this offense and renounce his illegal marriage to Herodias. Why did John do this? Was it simply because the king had sinned against the law, or was there some sort of particular prompting from God urging the prophet to do this? We simply don’t know. But wherever the motive came from he surely embraced the qualities St. Paul wrote in today’s epistle. John was certainly well-aware that his public condemnation of Herod could end up in his arrest, and maybe even his death. But it didn’t matter to him. He felt compelled to call this ruler to repentance, just as he called to everyone else, despite the danger that came from risking the wrath of the king.

It’s not so easy to find similar leadership in the Church. There are so many politicians out there who claim they are Catholic, and yet in public and in their official duties, they take stands against some of the most fundamental principles of Christian morality, especially the right to life. But there is almost a complete silence about these individuals from their bishops. The politicians continue to go to church when they feel like it, and receive Holy Communion when they feel like it, and very few bishops challenge them to repent and follow the law of Christ instead of supporting laws that allow murder in the womb. And this certainly has an effect on the faithful. Almost half of all Catholics in this country believe abortion should be legal. That is twice as many as Evangelical Christians. It is one thing to speak against evil in general, and another thing to speak to speak up specifically to and about people who publicly support evil. If we can’t do that for those who say they are Catholic but support evil causes, is it a surprise that the faithful don’t really understand what it means to be faithful.

Recently a priest on the East coast put out a statement on Facebook about what political candidate he supports and that he believes in a woman’s right to choose. The very next day his bishop came out with a statement saying that it is forbidden for clergy to publicly endorse candidates for political office, because doing so is against IRS regulations and the Church could lose its non-profit status. The second day after this bishop issued a statement that the faithful have a right to hear the truth about abortion from their pastors. Very good for that. But the concern about the IRS was the first reaction. What should I think?

Of course abortion is one of the easiest ways to see how this plays out, because it’s such a literally life and death matter, but there are many other areas of moral life where the same situations apply. It is hard to find the John the Baptist voice among our bishops. And I do appreciate what a difficult thing it is, to point to someone and say, “You need to repent!” It’s not only true for bishops, it’s true for priests and lay people also. When we realize we are also sinners, it’s hard to point a finger. When we realize that we may be criticized for pointing out the errors in thinking and the choices of other people, and that we can find ourselves being accused of passing false judgment, or lacking Christian love, or being out of touch with the times, it is not easy to speak up. When we see what can happen to people who do speak up for their Christian values, for example in the workplace, it can take a great deal of courage to stand against those who want to coerce us into ideologies that are against the teaching of Christ. In our families too, we may have relatives who do not accept the truth of the Gospel, and they do not take it kindly when we stand for what we value.

In all these situations the easiest thing to do is just keep quiet and say nothing. Of course, we need to use good judgment about when to speak up and when to let it be. Of course we do. But we must also struggle against the idea that since it is personally safer and easier to go along with moral coercion or bad faith than to oppose it, that’s the path we should take. The reason we are standing in the moral swamp we find in American life, and the reason the waters keep rising is because so many Christians keep silent. And that silence threatens the salvation of souls.

So let us speak up when we need to speak up, for the sake of the Gospel, for the spiritual good of others, and not allow fear to shut us up. Fear is one the devil’s strongest tools.

“Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong.” Not such easy words to follow, but St. Paul, like St. John, found his strength, his courage, and his life in the Lord. And we can find it there as well.