Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 2, 2008
Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass
of the
St. Thomas More Society
celebrated at
St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street
Scranton, PA
John 9:1-41
Ephesians 5:8-14
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
If an organization provided the most abortions of any corporation in the United States; and if this same organization received millions of dollars from the federal government so that it could hand out free contraceptives to teenagers; and if said organization did so few adoption referrals that it had stopped bothering to quantify them on its own annual reports, we would expect this business to be called something along the lines of “Abortions Unlimited” or “Pregnancy Prevention and Termination Incorporated”. Perhaps something simpler like the National Birth Control League would do, in order that at least one of its purposes for existence would be clear in its name. You probably know already that the name of this organization is in fact “Planned Parenthood”, even though preventing women from becoming or remaining parents is the primary focus of its work.
Our reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians gives us an idea why the founders of Planned Parenthood would go to such lengths to disguise the fact that they do not actually want you to become a parent: St. Paul writes, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” Planned Parenthood does not want you to think too hard or talk too much about what they actually do, because their deeds are part and parcel of the “unfruitful works of darkness”, and they do not want what is shameful even to speak about to be exposed by the light and therefore become visible.
To those engaged in evil, visibility is a bad thing. Those who make money or stay in power doing evil naturally want to keep making money and staying in power. So they must disguise the evil they do, couch it in terms that are acceptably vague or deceitful. In this way, they cast a veil over their wickedness, and for as long as the veil remains, they can continue to do their dirty work. But let just a little light creep in, and then whole enterprise may come crashing down. Therefore, when Margaret Sanger realized that the name ‘National Birth Control League’ revealed a little too much about what she desired to accomplish, she changed the name of her organization to Planned Parenthood. That was in 1946. But it still happens today: the National Abortion Rights Action League recently changed its name to NARAL Pro-Choice America. NARAL is not even a word. But it certainly is friendlier sounding than Abortion Rights Action League. And, of course, we must not ignore how Planned Parenthood even today is fighting tooth and nail to prevent the Kansas State Attorney General any access to their records in the face of evidence they facilitate statutory rape by performing abortions on children whom they have coached to lie about their age.
If this makes you cringe, contrast the secret evils they undertake with how Jesus conducts Himself in today’s Gospel. There is a man born blind whom everyone knows. In fact, the people refer to him as the man who used to sit and beg, after they see he has been healed of his affliction. Even though Jesus knows that healing on the Sabbath will not be popular with those in power, he heals the man anyway. Rather than worry about the flack He will take for doing what is right, He heals the man right out in the open. Everyone easily finds out who did it; so it is easy for people to decide whether they are for Jesus or are against Jesus. Because He in no way attempts to disguise what He is doing, it becomes clear to all that Jesus is about healing. One can decide whether or not he likes Jesus based on whether or not he likes what Jesus does.
We can conduct our lives in either manner. We can take the demonic Margaret Sanger approach to life and attempt to disguise our great evil by dressing it up with vague or contradictory words. We can attempt to confuse people about what we actually stand for. Or we can follow the example of Jesus who desired to do good in order that another might benefit, regardless of the price He would have to pay to do so. If we are like Jesus, our works will be visible, in the light, and we will have few, if any, secrets.
The fact that people can then form opinions about us will mean that many will not like what they see. Not everyone desires to see the blind receive their sight. All are not overjoyed when the lame walk and the dead are raised to life. There are, after all, a lot of people making money and maintaining their grip on power as long as the blind are blind, the lame are lame, and the dead remain dead.
But making clear what we believe and what we as Catholics do will also serve us well. We will find in the light all kinds of people dedicated to the same good we are, and together we will be able to accomplish far more than we could without them joining our efforts. Moreover, the people who need us will know where to find us and what help we are able to offer. Remember the crowds that followed Jesus wherever He went, how they loved to hear His words, to receive His healing touch. Those same crowds later turned on Him and demanded His Death. In either case, Jesus said and did what was right, right out in the open. In our walk with Jesus, carrying our cross to follow Him, we ought to be attracting crowds, crowds that want to praise us and crowds that want to stone us. If there are no crowds, there can be only three explanations: we are not doing anything; people cannot figure out what we are doing; or people know just what we are doing, and they do not care because our words and works aren’t worth noticing. So where are the crowds, and what are you doing to get them to gather here?