RIP Consuelo Hernandez

 

U of S Convocation 2004 Founding Faculty & Board

Homily #199: A Call For 'Bad' Catholics To Be Good Catholics & For Good Catholics To Be Fervent Catholics With The Eucharist & Mary

 

Homily #199a (12 p.m. Mass)

Homily #199b (5 p.m. Mass)

“A Call For ‘Bad’ Catholics To Be Good Catholics & For ‘Good’ Catholics To Be Fervent Catholics With The Eucharist & Mary” (Homily #199)

21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time (John 6)

[Old Calendar: Feast of the Immaculate Heart]

By Deacon Dennis Purificacion

Aug. 22, 2021

 

I

Recently, I asked a group of children a question. 

I asked, “Which is worse: When a group of kids you DON’T KNOW make fun of you or when a group of kids you DO KNOW make fun of you?”  [PAUSE]

The immediate reply was that it is worse when a group of kids you DO KNOW make fun of you.  I pressed the matter further and asked, “Why is it worse when you DO KNOW the kids that make fun of you?”

They said, “Because the ones that made fun of you were your friends.  You trusted them.  You spent time with them.  There was respect.  But the other ones didn’t know you.  It hurts more when they know you and still made fun of you.”

Out of the mouths of children the truth emerges about today’s Gospel and the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of evil.  Today is the 4^th time this past month that we heard from John Chapter 6 on the Bread of Life Discourse.  Here, Jesus had just explained that we must eat His flesh.  Jesus asked, “Does this shock you?”  And the reply is, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” And then, in the ever-sad line from John Chapter 6, Verse 66: As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and [SLOW DOWN] no… longer… accompanied… Him. They “no longer accompanied him.”

So to bring the question with the kids up here: Which is worse, when a group of people who DON’T KNOW Jesus reject Him or when a group of people who DO KNOW Jesus reject Him, I think we see the point:  It is worse when the disciples who DO KNOW Jesus and follow Jesus, who walked with him, who spent time with him, reject Jesus.  It hurts more when your friends, not strangers, betray you.

II

This then is the ultimate mystery of evil from Jn. 6: Not that enemies of God and the enemies of the Church reject Jesus, but that it is the disciples, the baptized, the very members of the Church, esp. her leaders, those who were with Jesus, reject Jesus and his teachings.  Like Judas Iscariot, even those within the Church hurt us.

The point here is not so much on the evil doers rejecting God but on the good people rejecting God.  It is attributed to Edmund Burke for saying, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”  [REPEAT] 

St. Bernadette Soubirous, the young girl who Mary appeared to in France, said, “The only thing I fear is bad Catholics.” 

And St. Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy, wrote in her Diary that it hurts Jesus more when those who believe in Him do not trust him and his goodness.

You see, in a sense, it is expected that arch-enemies outside the Church reject God.  Groups like Atheism/Anti-Theism, Satanism, Freemasonry, Communism and Socialism, etc. seek the destruction of the Catholic Church.  It is expected.  But it is not expected for a someone within who calls themselves a Catholic or Christian to betray the Church.  Our response to Jesus’ question “Do you also want to leave?” should be like Simon Peter’s, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  Simon Peter’s echo the words from the Book of Joshua in the First Reading, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

III

So, don’t focus so much on the evils that surround us, but rather focus on the good, the truth, the beauty of God.  It’s like that scene at the end of the animated movie Mulan.  Mulan goes up to her father after defeating the villain and says, “Look, Father, I brought you gifts: the sword of your enemy.”  Instead, Mulan’s Father cares neither for sword nor enemy; he drops the sword, embraces her with such love and says to her, “The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.”

God’s love for you as a baptized believer is like Mulan’s Father embracing Mulan who is an image of you, the Church.  The Church is the daughter of the Eternal Father.  We heard this in the Second Reading, in the often-misunderstood Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 5.  When Paul speaks of love of husband for wife, and wife for husband, he is drawing an image of Christ sacrificing for his Bride, the Church, the Body of Christ which is us.  But how many of us reflect on the Bride sacrificing back for her Beloved?  She, the Church, also shares the mission.  That is the correct biblical scholarship of the word “submission”.(1)  We modern people distort this, as if it is some egoistic Pauline power trip.  In Latin, “sub” means under, and “missio” is mission.  The Church, the wife of Christ, then is “under the same mission” of Christ.  She is sub-missio to Christ’s mission and equally shares in the mission of Christ the Redeemer, she is a type of a co-redeemer, or co-redemptrix (Latin feminine).  She is his Body and dies on the Cross, too, for her Beloved Jesus.

So those are the two main parts of this homily: Reject evil but focus on the good.  In other words, don’t be a “bad Catholic” but rather be a good or devout Catholic.  When someone looks at us, does someone say, “Yeah, that person is a devout Catholic”?  Or do they say, “Meh, that person is a so-so Catholic.”?

Of course, it’s not my job to say whether you or I are a bad Catholic – only God knows this! – but it is my job as clergy to call the bad and lukewarm Catholics to repentance and to follow Jesus once again.  You know, in the military, there’s a saying: Leave no man behind.  Bad Catholics are like walking wounded.  We can’t leave them behind.  This then is a friendly and gentle invitation to not walk away from Jesus and his teachings, especially on the Eucharist, esp. on the Real Presence, esp. on Sunday Mass.

IV

In closing, let us not be discouraged and no longer accompany Jesus.  Let us rather turn to Jesus’ Mother for help in our weakness.  “For man, it is impossible.  But with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26).  Last week, Aug. 15, we celebrated her Assumption (or what the Eastern Churches calls Mary’s Dormition) into Heaven, body and soul.  Aug. 22 is when we normally honor her as Queen.  Because where she is Queen, he Jesus is King.  And as the Bible says, Jesus will at the end of the world hand over his Kingdom back to the Father.  Mary said at Fatima that we would undergo these global trials and difficulties, wars and plagues, if we do not repent from our sins, do penance, and pray the rosary, if Russia is not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.  True devotion to Mary and fervent devotion to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist will turn back our global turmoil.  Pray the rosary.  As she said, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”  Mary and the Eucharist.  These two goods of Mary and the Eucharist will bring back order to the Church and even an era of peace in the world.  So don’t be afraid and pray.  Don’t focus on the evil of the waves and the winds rocking the boat of the Church, but let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, especially Jesus truly present in the Eucharist.  Let us accept Jesus and taste his goodness.

As the Responsorial Psalm says, let us “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

(1) Eph. 5:22: mulieres viris suis subditae sint sicut Domino ("wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord," RNAB); 

Eph. 5:21: "subiecti invicem in timore christ" (submit mutually in fear/reverence of Christ or "Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ" RNAB);

 Latin: subiectum (noun), submission (English translation: subject; submit; submission) or Latin: subdita (verb): "___ is subject to"

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[Today, I also brought Holy Communion to someone at the local hospital's ICU.]

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