The homily that follows is similar to the homily I preached September 30th, 2012. Parts of the homily have been edited to make reference to the Year of Faith and to the readings of the Twentieth-eighth Sunday of the year.
The Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year (B)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
On
April 23, 1886, Cardinal Simeoni said to then Deacon Augustus Tolton (whose
cause for beatification and canonization is underway): “America has been called
the most enlightened nation on earth. We
will see if it deserves that honor. If
the United States has never before seen a black priest, it must see one now.” The next morning Deacon Tolton was ordained a
priest of Jesus Christ and sent back to his home in Quincy.
The
most enlightened nation on earth? I
wonder, what did Father Gus think of that phrase? Born in slavery, he only became free after
his mother made a harrowing escape with her three children when Gus was
seven. Does an enlightened nation
enslave people simply on the basis of the color of their skin?
When
he enrolled at St. Boniface school in Quincy, many of the parents of the white
children threatened to withdraw their children; young Gus – then ten years old
– was the first black student there and withdrew himself. Does an enlightened nation discriminate
against others because of the color of their skin? When he later enrolled in St. Peter School –
at the insistence of the pastor - Gus found that, “As long as I was in that
school, I was safe. Everyone was kind to
me.”[1]
Here,
perhaps, we see something of an enlightened nation, but then we remember why
Father Tolton ultimately left Quincy for Chicago: the jealousy of Father Weiss,
who told the first black priest in these United States that he could only
minister to blacks and not to whites.
Even so, writing to Cardinal Gibbons, Father Tolton wrote, “The white
people in this little Gem City of Quincy, Ills are really good hearted
charitable and nonprejudicial, no feelings of bitterness at all against a man
on account of complexion.”[2] Following his death in 1897 and, in keeping
with his wishes, Father Tolton was buried back in Quincy where his body remains
today.
History
will judge whether or not the America of Father Tolton’s day was indeed an
enlightened nation, but I wonder: Will history judge the America of our day to
be enlightened?
Is
a nation that would require people of faith to violate their consciences and
provide contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs an
enlightened nation? The recent federal
mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services requires precisely this,
in clear contradiction of our first amendment right of the free exercise of
religion.
Is
a nation that makes it illegal for a priest to baptize an illegal immigrant or
even hear his confession an enlightened nation?
Such a law was passed in Alabama last year.
Is
a nation that seeks to alter the very structure and organization of the Church
and to determine who is and who is not a “religious minister” an enlightened
nation? Such a restructuring was
attempted in Connecticut in 2009.
Is
a nation that tells student religious groups that people of a different faith
must be able to be leaders of their religious groups an enlightened
nation? This happened at the University
Of California Hastings College Of Law in 2009 and at Vanderbilt University this
year.
Is
a nation that forces Catholic Charities out of foster care and adoptions
because their faith tells them they cannot place children with same-sex or
unmarried couples an enlightened nation?
This happened this year in Illinois, in the District of Columbia in
2010, and in Boston and San Francisco in 2006.
Is
a nation that refuses to allow Christians to use public buildings but allows
other groups to use the same buildings an enlightened nation? This happens routinely in New York City and
elsewhere.
Is
a nation that refuses contracts to the best organization helping with human
trafficking because it will not provide abortions and contraception an
enlightened nation? The federal
government this year refused to renew contracts with the U.S. Bishops’
Migration and Refugee Services for this very reason.
Is
a nation that kills more than one million babies each year in their mother’s
wombs an enlightened nation? Blessed Teresa
of Calcutta shed light on the horror of abortion when she reminded us that “It
is a poverty that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” What would Father Gus say of those who might
claim, “I’m personally opposed to slavery, but I can’t force my morals on
anyone else”?
Is
a nation that thinks more about its economic standing than even the right to
life when deciding its future an enlightened nation? I dare say it is not. What good is a robust economy if few people
may enjoy it?
Our
Bishop wrote to us a few weeks ago, saying, “you need to think and pray very
carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions
or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally
complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.”[3] Many people have reacted strongly against the
Bishop’s reminder, but the truth of his words remains.
Too often we forget
the words of Jesus himself: “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of
God” (Mark 10:24)! Those who make their
way to Hell do so by their own choice, by their free rejection of Jesus Christ
and the truth of his Gospel. Those who arrive
in heaven do so by preferring Jesus Christ to everything else. To inherit eternal life, we must live continual
in “self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that
seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God.”[4]
In
his Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, in
which he announced this Year of Faith, the Holy Father reminded us that “faith,
precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what
one believes (10).” This social
responsibility must be lived be outside and inside the voting booth.
In their recent
document highlighting the increasing threats against our religious freedom, Our First, Most Cherished Liberty, our
Bishops said:
As bishops we seek to bring the light of the Gospel to our
public life, but the work of politics is properly that of committed and
courageous lay Catholics. We exhort them to be both engaged and articulate in
insisting that as Catholics and as Americans we do not have to choose between
the two.[5]
Our
faith does not need to be – and cannot be – put aside.
Society today is
telling us that the most important issues of the upcoming election are jobs and
the economy; this is simply not true.
The most important issues of the upcoming election are the right to life
and religious liberty. Without life, no
other right matters. Without religious
freedom, every other freedom will be taken away. “What is at stake is whether America will
continue to have a free, creative, and robust civil society – or whether the
state alone will determine who gets to contribute to the common good, and how
they get to do it.”[6]
On the day of our
Baptism, on the day when faith was given to us, each of us was entrusted with
the light of Christ and was told to keep it burning brightly. Each of us must bring this light to the
public square so that the warmth of the Light of the World and the truth of his
words may bring light to a world and a society darkened by sin.
Some will undoubtedly say, “Father, you’re crossing the
line of separation of Church and State.” Such is not the case for what we are
discussing is not a matter of Church and State but of faith and politics. “This ought not to be a partisan issue. The Constitution is not for Democrats or
Republicans or Independents. It is for
all of us.”[7] We must remember that we are not Republicans
or Democrats or Independents; we are Catholics.
No political party fully supports the truth of the Gospel or the mandate
Jesus Christ has given us, though some parties are in greater alignment with it
than others; that is not our fault, but theirs.
Our allegiance must not be to one political party or another, but to
Jesus Christ.
Faith requires something of us. It requires that we love
both God and neighbor and that every decision we make, every word we speak, and
every action we perform, be in keeping with the love of God and of neighbor,
even in the voting booth. Faith, if it
is to gain us eternal life, requires a full adherence to Jesus Christ. Faith can never be laid aside, for we are
servants of the Lord at all times and in every place. We must remember that “no creature is
concealed from [the Lord], but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of
him to whom we must render an account” (Hebrews 4:13). If we remember this and live accordingly,
America will truly be an enlightened nation.
In speaking these words some will praise me and others
condemn me, but I do not speak these words for praise or condemnation; I speak
them because they are true. Because these words are true I must speak them, for
at the end of my life I want to say to the Divine Master, with honesty and
sincerity, “I am an unprofitable servant; I have done what I was obliged to do”
(Luke 17:10). Amen.
[1] Roy Bauer, They Called Him Father Gus: The Life and Times of Augustine Tolton,
First Black Priest in the U.S.A., Part Eight.
[2] Augustus Tolton, Letter to Cardinal Gibbons,
July 24, 1888.
[3] Thomas John Paprocki, “Think and pray about
your vote in upcoming election,” Catholic
Times, September 23, 2012.
[4] Pope Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 7.
[5] United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, Our First, Most Cherished
Liberty: A Statement on Religious Liberty, 9.
[6] Ibid.,
4-5.
[7] Ibid.,
10.
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