Homily

Jesus says in today's Gospel that if anyone is ashamed of Him and His doctrine, that He will be ashamed of that person when He returns at the Second Coming. So then, are many of us ashamed of Christ and His teaching? That's a very strong question, I think. Are we ashamed of Christ or of our faith? I can't believe anyone here is ashamed of Christ, and I doubt that anyone here is ashamed of their faith. But how do we react when powerful elements in our society criticize or even condemn what we believe?

Some years ago, I thought I would watch the first program of the new version of the television series, "Cosmos." Because I kind of like that science/space stuff. And then they start to talk about Giordano Bruno, a 16th century philosopher and sometime science dabbler. According to the TV show, Bruno, who believed that the universe was infinite, was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for being a man of science. This is absolutely not true, and you would think a program about science would value the truth. I don't want to talk about Bruno's case here but rather to show how, once again, misinformation is put out to the public in an attempt to show that the greatest enemy to science and learning is the Catholic Church.

But what kind of science does the tv program "Cosmos" preach? Here is a quote: "The universe is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be." But that is not a scientific statement because it cannot be proven. We are expected to take that on faith, because "scientists" tell us so. Or at least a couple of scientists say so. It is not so surprising to learn that the man behind this TV series is an atheist.

There is a book by Frank Sheed called, "Knowing God," and I came across a passage where he talks about sanity and society. He writes, "Sanity means seeing what's there and planning life accordingly. And as a society, ours does not see the major part of reality at all, therefore it does not correctly see the minor part it is aware of, and so society shapes its activities as though this mis-seen fraction of reality was the whole of reality. Secular ethics means deciding our actions as though there was no God.... To act without a full vision is a formula for chaos. And in chaos we live, exhibited by every newspaper we read...." He goes on to talk about our society's lack of sanity because it refuses to see the big picture, which includes God, and only wants to consider the smaller portion of reality, this material world. Many believe that is all you need to consider when you are thinking about life. And Sheed says this is a kind of insanity, a failure to see the truth as it is, which results in the failure then to try and live in that truth. Does this mean that our society is evil and rotten to the core? No, because there is still much good in our society. But the problem is what effect our society has on us, as believers, since our society only deals with part of reality.

Sheed writes that our society, which has lost contact with God, presents itself and all its teachings, ideals, and goals as sophisticated, enlightened, educated and superior in every way especially in its rationality and inclusiveness. Only a fanatic would question the conclusions that it presents to us.

Sheed writes,

"Hardly any of us realize how much we are creatures of our time. Its assumptions and claims can easily become ours, without even a question stirring in us. And there is a continual seeping in from it which makes for a kind of damping and discoloration even of values we hold sacred."

Of course, should we be surprised that we are under a certain pressure to go with society, to go with the majority, to obey the loudest, most repeated voices wherever they want to take us?

Sheed continues,

"Fanatic is the word . . . the Catholic (person) can be consciously embarrassed at his difference. There are those who feel out of step if they have not made the mysteries of revelation truly their own . . . . The temptation is to try to get into step with everybody else while somehow hanging on to the truths. Short of denying them, there is a kind of scaling down and shading off, a resolute switching of the mind away from doctrines at which the world would raise an eyebrow. At all costs, one must not be a fanatic."

Sadly, this is the case for many Catholics today.

You might be surprised to learn that these words were written not just a few years ago but in 1966. But that should not surprise us, really, because this was a problem 2000 years ago when St. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome and said, "Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." (Rom. 12:2)

Sheed says we ought to pay great attention to what we believe and how we think and act and conduct our lives so that we move through this world as people who hear the voice of Christ and are willing to obey, to learn and to love the truth of Him Who is our Savior. He must be the source of our reality and the wisdom that does not change with the seasons or the desires of any time or age. Other drums are always beating and telling us we need to march to their rhythm or else we will be out of step with the rest of society. But our vocation cannot be to march along with whoever had the loudest drum, or the biggest parade. Our vocation is to pick up the cross and march after Christ because we see that reality is infinitely greater than the cosmos and the entire material world just as we are much, much more than just creatures of flesh and blood, doomed to end up in decay and death. We may indeed be creatures, but we have an eye and an ear and a love for our Creator, Who loves us, and offers us His own divine life.

I believe Sheed is correct when he says that just as we examine our consciences from time to time, we should also examine our thoughts and our beliefs to be certain that we have not allowed some of the narrow-vision insanity of the world to seep into our lives and the way we conduct ourselves in life. Jesus said that His sheep only hear His voice and they will not follow someone else. May we be those sheep who only hear His voice, who only follow Him, so that we never allow ourselves to go astray.