In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears as a carpenter and is criticized.  He appears as a healer and is doubted and questioned.  He appears as a teacher and is disagreed with and ignored.  Well, under carpenter or what some translations give us as handyman, I think I owe you a building report.  The refurbishing of our church is going very well.  We are right on schedule and hopefully next weekend we will all be inside church and not out here.  From what I have seen so far, I think you will really like what we are doing in the church.

Secondly, under healer, I think I owe you a medical report.  First of all, I have to give a big thank you to all of you for your cards, for your good wishes, for the tons of prayers, I can’t help but heal with all the prayers that I have behind me.  I saw my neurologist this week and he said I was using all the right treatments and medications.  Then he paused and he said “every last one”.  Actually there is one more lined up.  I have to receive an epidural shot to the spine later this week.  I was too shy to contradict him and I admitted telling him all the other treatments that I haven’t taken.  For example, the healer in Ireland who is known for healing people with shingles and actually does it over the phone.  I called him almost every day ‘til Wednesday when I gave up.  His line was always busy.  Several of you have recommended chiropractors to me and I haven’t gone that way yet.  Three of you gave me the names and recommendations of different experts in acupuncture and I haven’t tried that yet.  A number of you recommended applications that I should put directly on the shingles.  For example, one recommended wine vinegar; another recommended Listerine; a third gave me a full supply of deodorant cream.  About the only thing that has not recommended yet and I expect it any time now is Windex.  Oh yes, I also was referred to a hypnotist complete with address and phone number.  I have to tell you that I am feeling much better and as Mark Twain would say, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated”; and as Confucius would say “Get your shingle shot.”

Under teacher, a teacher who was disagreed with in today’s gospel.  Last week we asked the question “When we disagree with part of the life or leadership in the Roman Catholic Church why do we stay”.  Why do we stay?  And I think I’ve quoted a very good answer to that which you will find in Practicing Catholics, a book by James Carroll that recently came out.  He says:

“We maintain our loyalty to the Church because we cannot live without it.  The Church gives us a language with which to speak with God, it gives us a meaning that is God, the Church feeds us with the Eucharist, keeps the story of Jesus alive in the preaching of the word, marks our journey through life with the Sacraments, and underwrites our participation in the community that transcends time and space.” 

Well, I want to raise another question today instead of why do we stay.  Since the gospel shows people disagreeing with Christ; and since it is the 4th of July, I want to raise a more political and controversial question.  When we disagree with public statements of the Church and positions that seem to be taken by the Church, the question are not why do we stay but what do we do.  To think about this I’m going to give you a couple of issues – two to be exact and they are both very simple, uncomplicated, uncomplex and uncontroversial he said.

One would be capital punishment which the Pope and Catholic Catechism have pretty much condemned.  Another issue would be legalizing civilly same sex marriages which many Bishops, including our own Bishop of Oakland, have publicly opposed.  Why do we find ourselves at odds with these or any public positions the Church takes?  The question is not just why do we stay, but why do we stay and still remain faithful Catholics?  I’m going to suggest the answer to that (remaining faithful Catholics) is in the form of five simple steps.

Here is the first step:  It is first and foremost we must root and reroot  ourselves in the values and the vision of Jesus.  That’s a lifelong task for each one of us.  We have to keep going back to Jesus to make sure we get it.  In the life of the Church itself it is a lifelong task.  Take for example the issue of slavery.  At the beginning with the disciples like Paul, the Church didn’t get it.  They thought slavery was acceptable.  The same later with torture.  Torture for a good end was seen as acceptable.  Today after really close to 2000 years, the Church can say we finally got it.  We got the message that slavery and torture are both unacceptable and intrinsically evil always, everywhere and for whatever reason.  Before all and above all we must be a people who keep going back to the values and vision of Jesus and by study and prayer keep trying to make sure that we get it.  That’s the first step.  Root and reroot ourselves in the value and vision of Jesus.

The second step:  When we get to public positions or propositions that we may have to vote on that have a moral dimension.  My second suggestion is to do our homework.  We have to get the facts because quite frankly morality is based on reality.  So get the facts.

The third step is to welcome our Bishops to state their views and their visions and to share their statements and leadership with us.  First of all because they are our spiritual leaders, and secondly, because we never as a Church want to have on our record something like the silence of Nazi Germany where the Bishops did not speak.  And when I say we welcome our Bishops’ statements and positions it includes not just getting a sound bite or their conclusions, but looking at and listening to their arguments and their reasoning.

The fourth step is to make your own best decision and vote your own conscience and if you find your best decision and your conscience seems at odds with Church teaching, then the fifth step is to remain open to reconsideration and to revisit the issue again. 

Hopefully, our disagreements are few and far between and are always around secondary and arguable issues.  We need to be a people who give thanks for our faith, give thanks for our Church leaders and give thanks to our Nation where we are allowed to exercise faith and freedom both.  We must pray that God may bless us all.  May God bless our Church leaders and our political leaders.  May God Bless America.  Amen.

 

 

 

rjs