For the second month in a row, I prepared a homily I didn't give. In fact, I prepared two I didn't give. I am going to share one of them here.
You may recall that last month, I wasn't happy with what I had prepared, so I completely rewrote it, very shortly before I was to give it.
This month, the circumstances were different: I was scheduled to preach; but I also was scheduled to serve as a deacon with a visiting priest. We get quite a few visiting priests on weekends these days, as our large-ish parish (2,800 registered families) only has one priest and we have five masses scheduled every weekend. At least in our parish, and I think at other parishes, it is considered the courteous thing to do to give the visiting priest the option of preaching at masses for which he's scheduled. Our rota of visiting priests is fairly stable so I know most of them, and so on deacon preaching weekends, it's not uncommon for me to work out with the visiting priest ahead of time which of us will preach.
But in this case, the visiting priest was new to me and to the parish. He is an instructor at the seminary, which suggested (to me, anyway) that he is sharp and might have some interesting things to share with our congregation. So I quickly deferred to him.
Here is the one I came prepared to give:
If you happened to go to Catholic schools, as I did for most of my primary school years, you may have been taught about today’s Gospel passage – this episode in which Jesus calls Peter the rock and hands him the keys to the kingdom. In the eyes of the Catholic church, this is a key passage – pun absolutely intended.
When Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”, and bestows upon him the keys to the kingdom of heaven, we Catholics understand these words as Jesus’s prediction and promise that Peter will become the leader of the church. We Catholics consider Peter our first pope in Rome. This is why we call ourselves Roman Catholics. We Catholics not only honor Peter as the first Pope, but we continue to acknowledge the leadership and authority of his successors, the many bishops of Rome who have come after him, right up to our current Pope, Leo XIV.
Christianity has come a long way since those New Testament times. As we look around us today, we see that there are about two and a half billion – that’s billion with a b – Christians in the world today. Please believe me when I tell you: 2.5 billion Christians is good news. Whenever anybody confesses their faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Anointed One, as Peter did in today’s Gospel, that is good news!
But – looking around us, we also can’t help but notice that those two and a half billion Christians aren’t really completely unified. We Catholics have always understood Jesus’s promise to Peter as meaning that all the world’s believers, no matter what country they live in or what language they speak, should be united under the authority and leadership of Peter and his successors – that is to say, the popes who have come after Peter. This was not so that Peter and his successors could amass great power and wealth and worldly glory. On the contrary, the popes traditionally have called themselves the servants of the servants of God. They should wish to serve all of us in our discipleship by keeping us faithful to the teachings of our true king, who is Jesus the Anointed One.
But as most of us are aware, Christianity isn’t really united under the leadership of the servant of servants. Today, a majority of those two and a half billion Christians are Catholics, but hundreds of millions of other Christians don’t acknowledge the authority of Peter’s successors. Members of the various Orthodox churches, members of the various Protestant denominations, the vast panoply of Evangelical and Pentecostal believers – we are all brothers and sisters in our Christian faith, but we are not fully united with one another under Peter.
Why aren’t we more unified? After all, it was clearly Jesus’s intention, and even his prayer in John’s Gospel, that we be unified – that we be one. When we are divided, it kind of feels like we’re failing, doesn’t it?
You may know that one of Vatican II’s great initiatives was to try to repair the state of disunity across Christianity. We call that effort ecumenism. Ecumenism is the effort to reunite the branches of Christianity that have become divided from one another. We Catholics believe that, if we ever achieve unity, then all believers will come together under the Pope, who is our symbol of Christian unity. That seems difficult, doesn’t it? There are still many non-Catholics for whom being asked to acknowledge the authority of the popes is a showstopper; for some of them, denying the authority of Peter and his successors is literally an article of faith. How to overcome this? How to change the hearts of such believers? I think it’s obvious that we humans can’t do it ourselves. We’ll need to depend on the Holy Spirit to dispense grace across the lines of division, to change and heal hearts on both sides of the divide, if we ever hope to achieve unity.
But meanwhile, it’s an interesting thing many of us Christian believers haven’t sat around, waiting for Christian leaders to achieve unification. Many of us are interweaving our lives with those of non-Catholic Christian believers in practical and fruitful ways. For example, some Catholics meet with non-Catholic Christians in interdenominational prayer groups and cross-denominational bible study groups. And it happens more informally as well, as when we invite a non-Catholic friend to visit our church, or when they invite us to visit theirs.
Most directly and profoundly, we undertake what I call practical ecumenism when we Catholics and non-Catholics marry one another and start a family. This happens a lot. I am certain that there are folks here today, right now, in this situation of two spouses belonging to different branches of Christianity. If that describes your marriage, I hope you’ll stop for a moment to introduce yourself to me after mass, when I’m standing in the Narthex. The sociologists tell us that about a quarter of Catholics enter marriages with non-Catholics, and most of these are with non-Catholic Christians. That means that, right here in our neighborhoods and local community, there are a lot of children being born into families where one parent is Catholic and the other isn’t. How do these parents handle the question of church membership for their families?
The answer is, they handle it in a lot of different ways. I have spoken with parents here at St. Edna who go to more than one church. Sometimes they come here and go to Catholic mass. Other times, they go to the Lutheran church or Willow Creek or whatever church the other parent belongs to.
Perhaps that is not the traditional ideal of how families worship together. But it is real life today. It is the starting point for some of our families. Those of us in pastoral leadership need to recognize that this is the way things are among some people today – and here at St. Edna, we do recognize this. If you’re here and you’re not Catholic, then on behalf of our parish leadership, let me say, You’re welcome! You’re welcome to join us. We want you to feel welcome, while we here who are Catholic also seek to be as faithful to our Catholic teachings and rules as we can.
Let our prayer today be: let us be as united as we can with one another. May Leo XIV, our current successor of Peter, exemplify the love, service, generosity and hospitality of Jesus himself. And may the Holy Spirit heal the divisions that wound all of us.
LOL, I am experienced in mixed marriages, got plenty of them in my family. I know the goal is unification, but maybe our unity should be considered our faith in Jesus Christ.I just don't see everyone gathered under one umbrella. If we look at history, there has actually been some much worse disunity than we have at present. At least we're not fighting shooting wars over it now. Just verbal ones.
ReplyDeleteThe Mormon boys stopped by a couple weeks ago. We had an interesting chat about their concept of St Peter and the priesthood of believers among the LDS. I find that the Mormons, unlike the evangelicals and JWs, tend to try to find unity or at least points of common ground.
DeleteThe Mormons are a curious bunch. It seems to me like they started out a bit cultish, and their founding fathers definitely had some issues. But as time has gone by, they have smoothed out (not counting the ones in the back hills who are pretty fundamentalist and have multiple wives). Their theology is unusual. I'm not sure what they believe about the Trinity. They baptize with the same words we do, but apparently believe differently about who Jesus is? But at least around here they act more Christian than some who profess to be straight up Christian. They are big on community service and feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. They have some good hymns which have crossed over into mainline. Sometimes young people dressed in Sunday best come around knocking on doors. My husband chats them up. I usually just say I admire them for their dedication to God's work and wish them a good day. We could have worse neighbors.
DeleteI read yr homily with both my Catholic and Protestant ears. I've heard the "welcome, benighted ones, we're praying you'll see the light and join the True Church" thing before, and yours was nicer than some.
ReplyDeleteMost mainline Protestants do not deny the authority of Peter. They see their own clergy as the "rocks" of the faith. Most certainly see you that way, but they know that, strictly speaking, you don't recognize their clergy as legit.
Protestants reject the Pope because they think it's just one man making all the rules, and they haven't traced the evolution of the papacy since the Reformation. They often don't understand that there is an army of theologians advising the Pope on matters large and small. But these deliberations seem unnecessarily secretive (conclaves). Protestant conferences (like Lambeth) occur out in the open where everybody hears the arguments (and factions go off in a huff and start their own deniminations).
Did any mixed-marriage couples out themselves to you after Mass? I'm sure some were curious about why you wanted to get a bead on them.
I didn't actually give this homily - I deferred to the visiting priest to preach, and he talked about Peter and the popes, but took his in a different direction than I did.
DeleteRegarding getting a bead on them - whenever I encounter a non-Catholic in the parish church, my default reaction is, "Welcome!" If, by chance, they indicate that they'd like to learn more about becoming Catholic, I tell them about our OCIA inquiry sessions and point them toward our OCIA director. But I typically don't bring up OCIA if they don't open the door to that conversation.
I should add: there are people in the church, including clergy, who would somehow discern that their conversation partner is interested in learning more about the Catholic church, even if the other party doesn't bring it up. I don't think I have that gift of discernment.
DeleteSorry, I'm making these comments piecemeal because I'm thinking these thoughts and adding them real-time. Re: that gift of discernment: I think it's possible or even likely that Simeon and Anna had this gift of discernment on the occasion when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be presented in the Temple.
DeleteOops, sorry forgot this was the "just in case" sermon.
DeleteMy niece's husband is Mexican-Puerto Rican. He turned back to his faith after some real hard knocks. My family never agrees about anything except that he's a great guy and the best thing that ever happened to niece.
Niece asked me one time if it was "hard to turn Catholic." I told her to go to Mass with husband and to talk to him about it.
I expect it would be difficult for them, since they are both divorced, recovering alcoholics, and Church Ladies butting in and throwing hurdles and roadblocks into a marriage that has reached equilibrium after years of hard work might not be great for them.
But maybe Church Ladies near them (Tuscon) are different, so I kept that to myself, and deflect if she brings up religion. Don't need "discouraging converts" on my Big List o' Sins.
It's also possible the Church Ladies aren't running the program to the degree they ran it at your parish. There are some fast-growing dioceses in the Southwest, which often leads to large parishes with lots of professional staff. Not sure of the extent that Tucson is part of that, though - I think a lot of that growth is in larger metropolitan areas.
DeleteThe way the Welcome comes across in Catholic Churches is a bit offputting. At the ECUSA churches we’ve gone to over the years, including while traveling, the normal “ welcome, we’re so glad to see you here” is backed up with a note in the worship aid that ALL who seek Christ are welcome to the communion table. In Catholic Churches that note says - if you’re not Catholic, please don’t come to the communion table. I feel that’s a bit like inviting people to your home as guests, and then telling them to make themselves comfortable on the couch where you can watch us eat dinner.
DeleteEvery denomination has its little rules. ECUSA churches here "welcome all baptized Christians." Sometimes an Episcopal priest invites non-Christians for a blessing and demonstrates the correct stance for the heathens. Last Catholic funeral we attended, the priest said that only Catholics who had received the Sacrament of Reconciliation within the last year should present themselves for Communion. I saw a lot of people counting months on their fingers and giving each other looks ...
DeleteThe Catholic priest doesn’t know the rules. There is no church law mandating confession if there is no mortal sin. I doubt many ordinary Catholics commit many mortal sins. Plenty of venial sins’ but à mortal sin requires grave matter, not lying about why you’re late to the office.
DeleteThe rule is to receive communion at least once/ year.during the Lenten/ Easter season.
"Last Catholic funeral we attended, the priest said that only Catholics who had received the Sacrament of Reconciliation within the last year should present themselves for Communion. I saw a lot of people counting months on their fingers and giving each other looks ..."
DeleteI wouldn't have done that. I don't think that should be announced to a church full of people, and especially at a funeral. If it needs to be said to anyone, it would be better to way it to that individual in private. Just my view.
Tangential to this discussion, I am reading that Dolly Parton has passed away. I am not much of a country music fan, but I have always thought she was an admirable person
ReplyDeleteMark Shea had this to say about her, and her religious faith:
"I have a theory that, as the Body of Christ diversifies and ramifies like the roots and branches of a tree, its various expressions tend to produce both saints and sinners who become more and more specific to their particular traditions. Dolly Parton expressed a very particularly American Protestant kind of saintliness. The Catholic tradition could not have produced her any more than the Orthodox could have. She is inexplicable apart from her faith and, like all saints, she is magnetic and deeply attractive in her *goodness*. I'm grateful to have lived in a time overlapping her life."
One of the things Dolly Parton has done is founding and sponsoring the Imagination Library. In participating areas children can receive a free book every month up to age five. My sister has worked to promote and raise funds for the Imagination Library in our hometown.for many years. We had lots of books in our home when we were growing up. Not every family does. But having access to books is one predictor of academic success for children.
DeleteI watched two news segments this evening that served as obituaries for Dolly Parton. The segment on the ABC national news evening broadcast was quite lengthy by the standards of that broadcast, which usually features very quick-hit segments.
DeleteAs you might expect, both focused on her Appalachian-rags-to-superstar story, her success as a pop song writer, and her film career. And of course, what a wonderful, beloved human being she was.
I was a little surprised, and maybe even a little miffed, that neither mentioned her contributions to American musical theater. She wrote the original score for the Broadway musical version of 9 To 5. In my book, any composer who gets a even a single Broadway song credit has done something remarkable. Parton wrote the entire score for 9 to 5. She also was nominated for the Tony Award that year for best original score.
She also has a new biographical musical that will open on Broadway (previews scheduled for December, I am reading), for which she has composed original music. And my impression is that she was trying to continue to work and create, almost up to the very end.