Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
July 19, 2009
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
Mark 6:30-34
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
Today’s Gospel describes the people as “like sheep without a shepherd.” First, I want to put the lesson in its context. The people were politically oppressed and lived under a military dictatorship. The ruling clan, the Sadducees, daily offered up the Temple sacrifices, but they had sold out and were collaborators with the Roman Empire’s governor. The intellectual elite, the Pharisees, rather than pressing for a solution to this dilemma, were concerned that the people observe the law as they interpreted it, so as to increase their stature in relation to that of the Sadducees. All the while, the radicals, the Zealots, were calling for the overthrow of the Romans. They eventually won out, plunging the nation into war, inevitable defeat, the complete destruction of the Temple, and dispersion of the Jews throughout the Roman Empire.
The solution to the peoples’ dilemma was standing before them. The answer to this confusion in the person of Jesus offered the transformation so many desired. And this is what He taught. At the root of the problem was not external oppression but sin, internal oppression, and the solution to transforming society is thus greater sanctity. Jesus has the power to provide this. Additionally, he has overcome death; so they need not make compromises with evil when evil threatens murder.
There are many parallels today with the circumstances of the first century Jews in Judea. While we do not live under a military dictatorship, we do live under what Pope Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism”. Everyone is his own authority. Beyond this, there is not absolute truth. In the absence of any ultimate accountability, the nation descends into moral anarchy that shows no signs of abating.
This state of affairs is aided and abetted by the government who requires no accountability for the financial scandal that has wrecked our economy. The government continues to exacerbate the economic crisis by funding the demographic crisis, bankrolling Planned Parenthood and proposing abortion as not only a right but something to be covered for all women under a “reformed” health care system funded by Uncle Sam. The ruling elite and the intellectual elite—our congressmen and our professors—are almost all in the pocket of those who advance this dictatorship of relativism and culture of death. And, as a solution to this government evil, the radicals advocate shooting abortion doctors! Well, we need a civil war like we need a hole in the head.
The solution stands before us, proposed only by the Church. What is needed is greater respect for the sanctity of life. As the wolf tells people to indulge their every impulse, sexual or financial, Jesus the Good Shepherd teaches us that self-control is possible and necessary.
It is not the wholesale rejection of who we are as men and women that will right this ship, but an embrace of our human dignity and of our complementarity that issues in the children our nation so needs in order to avert impending disaster. We thus overthrow the dictatorship of relativism by holding fast to the teaching of the Church which rejects financial exploitation, sexual immorality and the dissolution of the family that goes hand in hand with rampant greed and sexual license.
Not only do we hold fast to the teaching of the Good Shepherd, but we must also hold fast to our faith that teaches us that Jesus has overcome sin and death so we have nothing to fear when evil asks us to make compromises.
And here is the starting point to the revolution of sanctity that can yet save our nation. That starting point is Natural Family Planning, the rejection of the contraceptive mentality and the embrace of the family as the natural embrace of man and wife. Natural Family Planning proves the idea that sanctity is possible. Man can control himself and need not resort to unnatural means to control that which is perfectly natural. We can control our impulses rather than be controlled by them.
Natural Family Planning rejects the notion that children are a threat to our financial security and material prosperity and thus a burden to be scorned. Rather, children are the guarantee of our national security and financial prosperity and thus are a gift from God, a blessing of inestimable benefit.
Natural Family Planning also happens to be a source of great joy, as families who practice it are bigger, stronger, more stable and happier. The divorce rate for those who do not contracept is practically 0%. These families show that sanctity is possible, that children are a gift, and our nation will be happier and better off if we would all follow their example.
Now consider for a moment the lost sheep of our generation, the people for whom we ought to have compassion for they are like sheep without a shepherd: the men addicted to alcohol, porn, video games, and sexual license; the women who are used by their boyfriends, seduced by the lie that they will find fulfillment only if they imitate the misdeeds of their male counterparts while suppressing their desire to be mothers.
Share this truth with them. You will offer them the possibility of true joy, and you may just be the revolutionary who saves our nation.