Grab your torches and pitchforks!

The Adulterous Woman

"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 

They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, 

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” – John 8, 1-11

We know the story well. We have heard it read at Mass and depicted in a dozen different movies. We cheer for Jesus and feel compassion for the woman. We can see ourselves there with Jesus, helping the woman up, dusting her off. We despise the Pharisees. Of course, they were responding in the only way they knew how, the way the Law taught them to respond, or at least as they understood it.

Fast forward two thousand years and we find ourselves gathering with torches and pitchforks in hand. We demand the stoning of the clergy who committed grievous sexual crimes against the innocent and we demand the stoning of those who knew and worked to cover it up. We have become the Pharisees.

Jesus still stands between us and the accused. He is saying to us, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at them.” I look at those around me, waiting for one to cast a stone. I am frozen for I know my sins. I am not innocent here. And then I hear a voice in my head. It begins as the voice of my confessor and then changes to the voice of Christ. 

“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

“I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

I drop my rock and walk away. Who am I to call for the stoning of these broken men? Who are you? That does not dismiss what they have done. The damage done is extensive and the cost to rectify it will be immense. But I am proud to be Catholic today. I am blessed beyond words to have a God who both comforts the sorrowful and forgives the sinful.

This reading does not depict the woman begging at the feet of Jesus. That is a fabrication of the cinema. This reading does not tell us what is in the woman’s heart, but Jesus knew what that was. This reading simply says that he forgave the woman and told her to sin no more. If Jesus can forgive the woman he can forgive any one of us, including our broken and sinful clergy. Who are we to condemn? Who are we to call for their stoning?

So what is the appropriate thing for us to do during this time? We need to drop our torches and pitchforks, get on our knees and pray for these men and their victims. We need to pray for all clergy, that God will send his Holy Spirit to inspire and guide us to always be holy men who lead his children closer to him. Let us pray for deliverance from this demonic age.

Jesus goes on to tell us that if our hand causes us to sin we should cut it off. If our eye causes us to sin we should pluck it out. He wasn’t being literal when he said this. He was making a point. He does not want us to go through life without hands or eyes or tongues. We sin because of the hardness of our hearts. We don’t need to cut off appendages. We need heart transplants. We need metanoia, a constant changing of our minds to that of God.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a natural heart. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” – Ezekiel 36, 26-29

Ten Second Tom

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. “

Jesus instructed Peter, the first Pope, to tend to his flock and feed his sheep. This is the purpose of the clergy. Yet, one of the common reasons Catholics give for leaving the Church for another faith tradition is that they aren’t getting anything out of Mass. They aren’t being fed. Hungry sheep wander off in search of nourishment.

My brothers in diaconate formation and I are getting ready to start our second year of instruction on homiletics. When Catholic clergy preach during the Mass they give homilies, not sermons. Protestants typically give sermons during their services. A sermon is preaching about anything the pastor wants to preach about. A homily is a bit different. A good homily takes the readings from the Mass and makes them relevant for the people today. There is a bit of instruction, maybe even a challenge. It is the primary place where we feed the flock.

We have been told by our instructors that we are to take no more than five minutes to give our homilies. We can stretch that to seven minutes for a Sunday Mass. Shorter is always encouraged. One instructor even told us that we need to hone our skills so we can get a homily said in a minute or less. A former pastor was able to give an effective homily in just five words. Many of today’s parishioners don’t have the attention spans or patience for much more.

But is this really wise? Our Lord has instructed us to feed his flock and the flock is fleeing in search of food. The ones who are still here are looking at their watches and if you go too long they tune out. Bringing the hard message, the message that needs to be said, is next to impossible any more. We almost have to spoon feed people sugary, processed foods or they throw a fit and hold their breath until they turn blue. We have brought the fast food culture to Church. Get it fast and go. The food is eatable but living on it will make you sick.

The flock no longer wishes to be fed. They want to be affirmed instead. They want to feel good about themselves with as little work as possible. This is why preachers like Joel Olsteen and mega churches have become so popular. You can go to church, drink your coffee, and come away feeling good about yourself without the need to actually do very much in the way of being a Christian.

Look at the rewards society is reaping because of this. Fathers are inconsequential and the traditional family is under attack. Society is polarized with anger and hate ruling the day. Anything goes and even your gender is up to self identification without question. The flock is lost and scattered. The wolves are feasting without opposition. The bleats of desperation are deafening.

We need good shepherds willing to use their voices to draw the sheep together as a flock again. We need a flock willing to listen to the shepherds. We need a people willing to live as Christians and cast aside anger and hate and show love to everyone, not just those who parrot the same things they do.

Be the candle in the darkness.

FLO

Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes.

One meaning of this phrase is that the more you do something the easier it is to get bored in doing it. Often this leads to going through the actions without the thought. You are on autopilot. How many times have I driven a stretch of road and couldn’t remember if the light was green or red? Did I blow off a red light?

Celebrating Mass and serving at the altar is not immune to this, especially when you are doing so every day and sometimes two or three times a day. Once you become bored with something you can become lackadaisical in doing it. One of our spirituality teachers taught us a way to help safeguard us from falling into this trap. It is a principle called FLO.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your First Mass.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your Last Mass.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your Only Mass.

As I thought about this principle I realized that it applies just as much to the laity as it does to the clergy. You can never know what is in someone’s heart or what is going through their mind but if you watch the communion lines there seems to be a number of people on autopilot. When you are distributing the Eucharist you can see in many eyes that they are just not present in the moment.

Receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the single greatest thing we as humans can ever do. Jesus makes himself fully present to us even when some of us aren’t fully present to ourselves.  Then there are those who commonly receive the Eucharist as if they are in line at a fast food restaurant. They grab the Eucharist and quickly swallow as they hurry towards the door. There will be some that will be in their cars and down the street before the last person in line receives our Lord. They have given little thought to who they just asked to dwell within them. They have gotten their ticket punched and are on to better things. Better things?

Let us apply the FLO principle to receiving the Eucharist as well.

Receive the Eucharist as if it were your first time. Think back to the day that you were a first communicant or, if you are a convert, the Easter Sunday you became a full member of the Church of Christ. Remember how awesome it felt to receive the Lord, something up until that point you could only watch. I remember being full of joy unable to hold back the tears.

Receive the Eucharist is if it were your last time. Viaticum, food for the journey. This will be the last time you will be able to receive the Lord before standing before him in the judgment. He gives you himself as nourishment for the journey home. The last thing you want to do is grab and go. You want to spend as much time with him here as possible.

Receive the Eucharist as if it will be the only time you will ever receive him. This is the first and last times combined. If you could only receive the Eucharist just once in your life would you run for the door?

Each and every time we receive the Eucharist we should practice FLO. Be fully present to him and realize just who you are accepting into your body. Cherish him as if he will be the last food you will ever consume. Take time to prepare yourself properly and be in a state of grace so you can receive all the grace the Sacrament has to offer. Take time to be with him and invite him into your life. The rest of your life will wait for this moment to be over. There is nothing more important that this moment. Be present to him.

Lord, I welcome you into my life. I ask you to live in me and dwell within me. Let the light of your love fill me completely and burn out all of the darkness within me. Use me as an empty vessel to carry the light of your love to those still in darkness. When they look upon your light let them see only you through me. Make me an icon of your love. I love you Lord. Thank you for giving me your body and blood.

Puting Disorder in Perspective

In the movie “I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” there is a scene where the LGBT community is having a costume party. Gathered outside is a group of religious zealots who are protesting the event. They shout, “Gay is not the way” and “Homosexuality is an abomination”. You see how badly these words hurt the party goers and you can empathize with their struggle. 

Art often imitates life and this is no exception. Religious groups all over the world constantly protest and scream hatred towards these people because spewing hate is the easiest way to convert someone. The Westboro Baptist Church has captured headlines in recent years by protesting at the funerals of service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in war because of the government’s inclusion of people with same sex attraction in our military. This seems like such a long way from Jesus’ command to love our enemies. And therein lays the problem. The LGBT community is viewed as the enemy instead of people of God who are struggling with a disordered attraction.

A friend, a fallen away Catholic whose son has same sex attraction, recently asked me why the Catholic Church hates homosexuals. He left the Church because his son was not accepted there. He was open to listen and so we had a chat.

God created all things and all things were created good. All things were created by Love, through love, for love, and to love. God’s design is perfect. Through the envy of the devil sin came into the world and with it disorder. The second law of thermodynamics states that the state of entropy will always increase over time. In other words order always tends towards disorder. The natural course, if left unchecked, will always move towards chaos.

God created a perfect order, the way things are supposed to work. Anything that is contrary to this order is a disorder. God’s order for the family is one man, one woman, married for life, producing children. Anything that is contrary to that is a disorder. Same sex attraction is a disorder. At the same time so are fruitless-by-choice marriages, divorce, cohabitation, and casual sex. In God’s eyes these disorders are the same, disorders. There are those who think they speak for God who believe some disorders are worse than others. With all things being equal, a disorder is not a sin. Sin comes into play in the way we respond to a disorder.

It has been said that the Catholic Church hates the sin but loves the sinner. The problem comes in when we, who profess to be Catholic, mistake a disorder for a sin. We hate the disorder. But the truth of the matter is that we are all sinners therefore we all suffer from some type of disorder. The non-hypocritical thing then would be to all hate each other. That’s exactly what the devil wants us to do and exactly why Jesus commanded us to love one another has he loves us.

The Catholic Church does not hate those who suffer from same sex attraction. She does not view that disorder as being fundamentally worse than any other disorder. People who suffer with this disorder have the same dignity that every other child of God has and they demand the same respect due to this dignity. The Church is a safe haven for those who suffer with this or any other disorder. It is the only place one can find forgiveness and healing for responding to a disorder in the wrong way, a sinful way. As members of the body of Christ we should be standing on the steps of the Church welcoming every person with open arms. Instead, we are viewed as being locked arm in arm chanting “Gay is not the way. Repent or burn in Hell!”

This does not mean that the Church can or will accept a LGBT lifestyle as an acceptable lifestyle. At the same time friends with benefits, premarital sex, divorce and remarriage, or just casual sex is just as unacceptable. We don’t shun parishioners who are shacking up playing married and we shouldn’t be shunning people who are suffering with same sex attraction.

Love one another as I have loved you. Imagine what a world would look like if more of us could do just that.