Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 1, 2007
Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
A good mother is very subtle in giving pop quizzes and children don’t recognize sometimes that a pop quiz has occurred. One that is very popular among mothers is to bend down and kiss the forehead of a child. The child doesn’t know what all this is about; just more of that mushy mother stuff. What has actually happened is that the mother has just taken the child’s temperature and if there are indications she will get the real thermometer out and get an actual number, which will probably be exactly what she thought it was.
Fathers give pop quizzes as well, and as I am a Spiritual Father here at St. William’s, I have a pop quiz for you today. No, the ushers are not going to pass out paper and pencils; the ushers are going to get the pop quiz too. Ok, here it is; I don’t want a show of hands. You get to mark your own score, ok?
About three weeks ago we heard about the terrible flood in Gainesville. Gainesville, Greenville…they sound pretty similar and are not too far apart. The terrible flood they experienced downtown in Gainesville killed some people and displaced many. The torrential rains like we just had, have made things worse. The people in Gainesville are going to get Federal Aid or State Aid and of course that is only right. Now, the pop quiz.
We saw the flood on TV, we have read it in the newspaper and have talked about it with our friends. Since you have heard about all this, have you and your family prayed the Rosary at home and mentioned intentions for these people? To kind of let you know how long of a ………
As Father Paul is saying this, thunder booms very loudly, He looks up and says,
“Yes I know, I am telling them”
It kind of lets you know how short our attention span is. The people in Gainesville need our prayers and yet how slow we are to lift a finger and pray for them. Oh no, I am not taking up a collection; I am going for the big one…PRAYERS! Bur we don’t have time for prayers; we have more free time than we have rain, which we have a lot of. We have more free time in this country than any generation in the history of the world. In fact, according to the world’s standards, you and I are incredibly wealthy with the amount of free time and leisure we have as well as the comforts we have. More on this later.
These are historic days; these moments are so important that surround today. For example, don’t depend on what is written on the bottom of the bulletin cover. Almost everything on there is wrong. Yes, that is the statue of St. Paul the Apostle but the Feast Day was June 29th, and on the 28th the Pope went to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls of the Vatican for Vespers, evening prayer. While there he told us that in a year’s time we will begin a Holy Year in honor of the Apostle, St. Paul and the 2000th Anniversary of his birth. Not this year, but next year on June 29th of 2008. I am going to have to do something to that computer like give it a good whipping or something so it will get these dates right. Anyway…
Friday was the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul. This is a very important date that expresses the mission of the Church. St. Peter expresses the mission of the Church to the Jews, and St. Paul, to everybody else, to the nations, to the gentiles, as they are known. These two figures are not two figures that we drag out of a closet once and year and celebrate them. No, they represent the ongoing mission of the Church. If you look at the last lines of the Gospel, Jesus says,
No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Jesus IS the Kingdom of God; Jesus IS the Good News! Just as the sun appears to go from east to west in a day’s time, the gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ is to be spread to all nations; this still applies and that is why the Holy Father has made such an emphasis on the figure of the Apostle St. Paul. The entire world is still thirsting for Jesus, the Good News. Some people are incredibly poor and have never heard the Gospel. More on that later.
Let us look at the First Reading. It is interesting that we have this reading so near to the 4th of July because it involves a bbq. Elijah is the greatest prophet of the Old Testament; God has chosen his successor Elisha, who is out leading a team of oxen, twelve pair in all, and when he is chosen and told of God’s choice he does something very important, costly, and symbolic. It is a bbq to Texans. Elisha slaughters the cattle and takes not mere firewood, which was easy to find, but takes the most expensive wood, the plow that he was using. He chops it up and uses it to prepare the bbq. It is a way of saying that there is no going back to my former way of life. What is he going to do, dig the hole with his hands? He had a very costly and effective plow…24-oxpower, and he is just done everything to show that there is no going back.
With the conquest of Mexico beginning in 1519, Cortez did the same thing; he and his men landed at what is known today as Vera Cruz. After they landed they noticed their ships were on fire. I just hate it when that happens! Cortez had purposely scuttled his own ships.
“Now gentlemen, we can either go and defeat the 20 million plus Aztecs or we can die.”
Thanks be to God, they persevered. No turning back; it is do or die, which leads very well into the secular holiday, which we have this week on the 4th of July. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th in 1776 under incredible circumstances. Can you imagine having to meet in Philadelphia? Anyway…they met there and the Declaration was unanimously approved and the president of the Continental Congress put his “John Hancock” on the document. In fact, his name was John Hancock. He was one of the wealthiest men in the 13 Colonies. He wrote his signature in such a flamboyant manner, it could be read across the room; it could almost be read across the Atlantic Ocean. Hancock did this for a reason; he was showing that there was no going back; it was do or die. If the British were successful then he would be a dead man and a poor man at that. Of course one of the most famous lines in the Declaration is in the preamble.
We hold these truths to be self evident that ALL men are created EQUAL! The Declaration of Independence is so important because of these words. This was an historic moment and no one had ever made such a declaration. The success of the American Revolution was a turning point in the history of the world. In my opinion, this is the greatest nation on the face of the earth and so many blessings have been showered upon this country. In fact, you could make the case that because everyone else wants to come here, that we are the wealthiest nation on earth. I think that would be a very solid argument.We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In the pope’s new book, “Jesus of Nazareth”, if you have the book at home, on page 211 the pope treats on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It seems very fitting on this 4th of July to take stock of our wealth. The fact that the pope uses the parable of the rich man and Lazarus helps us to understand more the importance of these historic moments that surround us. Recall that the parable is about a rich man that is so wealthy and he lives the life of luxury and so he doesn’t even notice this wretch, Lazarus, who lives right under his nose.
The rich man dies, as every rich man will. The poor man dies, as every poor man will. The poor man goes to the bosom of Abraham in Heaven and the rich man goes to Purgatory. Now if you think that the rich man went to Hell, you can read the pope’s book and the pope will show you how studying the scriptures shows that he did not go to Hell but Purgatory. The flames of Purgatory were making his life miserable and he begged Father Abraham to allow Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to quench his thirst, and we know the result of that. He had everything he wanted in life and Lazarus was poor, and this was God’s judgment on Lazarus and this was God’s judgment on the rich man. The man is in Purgatory, if you think differently, I think I’ll stick with the Pope on this one and on all the rest. He tells a story about the rich man.
The story once again presents us with two contrasting figures: the rich man, who carouses in his life of luxury, and the poor man, who cannot even catch the crumbs that the rich bon vivants drop from the table-according custom of the time, pieces of the bread they used to wash their hands and then threw them away.
That’s why Lazarus was always so focused on the crumbs.
“Just give me the bread your washing your hands with please. I’m so hungry.”
Isn’t this scene repeated in so many American homes? And isn’t this scene repeated in so many restaurants?
“Oh come on, just leave that there they’ll just throw it away; it doesn’t matter.”
Right! There are people in the world that would love to feed themselves and their children with the crumbs that fall from our tables. People today go to restaurants and they don’t get a “to go” box. What… they haven’t a refrigeration in their home? The man doesn’t come with the ice tongs anymore. We have such access to refrigeration but, it’s more virtuous just go on ahead and throw the food away. Right? Don’t order it and if you have leftovers take it home. This is just one example of the incredible wealth in our country, something for which we should be very grateful, but often do not even give God the benefit of a “thank you”, or grace before and after meals. I will move on.
I mentioned Purgatory; July 16th is a very significant day where Purgatory is concerned. Now if you want give a pop quiz to your children or grandchildren, ask them the significance of July 16th. I am sad to say that most Catholic children would just think it is the day subsequent to July 15th and the one interior to July 17th. Those are fancy words but that is not the answer I was looking for. The Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is July 16th. The kids will say,
“I was going to say that next.”
Anytime you see Our Lady of Mt. Carmel with the baby Jesus on her lap extending the brown scapular, always pictured below are souls in Purgatory, who are being led from the flames of Purgatory into Heaven. So, July 16th has a direct connection of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Look at July 16th in the year 64 AD; that was a very important date. If you ask the kids again about that date and they say,
“Don’t you recognize that date? That is the day that the great conflagration, the fire that devastated the city of Rome begins.”
If they give that answer, go ahead and let your eyeballs fall out and roll across the floor. Give them a prize because that is exactly right. The crazed wretch of a Roman Emperor, Nero, probably set the great fire. He wanted to do away with all those little shops and the narrow streets; he wanted to remake Rome according to his personal plan and yet, there was much opposition to it. It is considered theory by many historians that Nero had the fire arranged. It burned in Rome for days. The Roman citizens were pretty swift and put two and two together, which added up to Nero. They were going for him. Nero found who had set the fire; it was the early Christians who were suspects. He blamed the fire on them and what began was an open season on Christians.
In fact, yesterday was the Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. Christians became a spectacle and entertainment for Roman citizens. They were thrown to wild animals in the arena or executed by gladiators. Tacitus, who was a pagan historian, mentioned the torture and persecutions. Yesterday’s feast called to mind the incredible persecutions.
Nero had an elaborate palace and expensive gardens made for him using the taxpayer’s money. And of course if you have a party in the garden and it extends into the night you need illumination. It was Nero who had Christians bound, dipped in tar, and then he placed these people on a long pole with a sharp point on it. It went through the area right below the chin up through the roof of the mouth. So he placed these people with tar on them on the poles around the garden and as evening came on they were lighted. These people were burned alive in order to give this wretch light for his party. Men, women and children were consumed by this persecution.
As I said, the feast was yesterday and it is interesting because the day before was the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, who were both martyred in Rome. It is the only city on the face of the earth to have two Apostles martyred in it. This is why Rome is so hallowed and revered. As I said, the day after that is the Feast of the Martyrs of the Church of Rome. This feast has only been universally celebrated since 1969. This is a very important day on the calendar. You will hear more about this and it has something to do with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Shrine in China.
There is a diocese in a remote part of China and in 1903 a bishop there built a shrine in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel because they were preserved and safe at a the time of the Boxer Rebellion. This shrine was built on a beautiful mountaintop not bothering anyone. The Japanese in WWII destroyed this shrine. It was rebuilt and destroyed again by the communists in the 1960s… Mau and his Red Guard. The shrine was again rebuilt and every July 16th pilgrims have been streaming toward this shrine. Of course the Catholics in China are probably one part of one percent of the population. It is amazing that 40-50 thousand pilgrims were there last year on July 16th.
So, this year on May 12th, the Feast of Our Lady of China, the diocese there was handing out leaflets about the annual pilgrimage to the Mt. Carmel Shrine on July 16th. But, it is not going to happen because they are going to have a fireworks celebration instead and the government is going to provide the fireworks. They are going to dynamite the Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on July 16th. What is going to happen there is a hideous thing and it is only the tip of the iceberg concerning the persecutions that are happening under that communist persecution of the Catholic Church.
I want to talk about a country that has a similar persecution. It was a Catholic country and they’d put a statue of the Sacred Heart right in the center of the country. The government had it blown up with dynamite. It was rebuilt larger and the same thing happened. It was again rebuilt even larger than the second one and the same thing happened. The author of the book I have says,
This is not even a hundred years ago.The government demolished, seized, and desecrated Churches and other religious buildings. Even private homes for religious meetings were sometimes confiscated.
To give you an idea of how bad it was, in one particular state the situation was very difficult for Catholics, and a governor who’d named his children Lucifer, Satan, and Lenin ruled this state. I mean, they are all three communists, right? He attempted to destroy all the Churches. What is the name of that Catholic country in which this occurred not even a hundred years ago? MEXICO!Sacred vessels, sacramental, and sacred works of art were destroyed or profaned. Many of the faithful were denied the Sacraments because priests had to be licensed, and the government denied licenses to all but a few. Religious activities were confined to Churches if they were allowed at all. Religious orders were bound; also religious instruction of children was banned
Do you know that in the last twelve months Mexico was that close…can you see it? They were that close to electing a communist for president. But, who knows with Mexican elections; maybe they did elect a communist and he just didn’t get installed. The winner had a large turnout for votes. How would you like to have a communist government just south of the border, along with Chavez and Castro down off the Florida coast? Of course he doesn’t count because he is at the tip of Florida, right?
It is kind of like you putting all your sweat equity into your home and then neighbors move in who are renting and they let the place go to ruin and their kids are rotten. There goes the price of your home. How would you like to have communists living right across the border? Communism doesn’t really concern us but if they are going to start moving in next door then you might start getting a little uncomfortable. We were that close in the last twelve months having Mexico turn to a communist country. It could still happen, Mexico still has revolutions.
All of this is to lead up to the historic moment of yesterday. Yesterday Pope Benedict published a most historic letter. It was a letter to the people in China. Now, I am going to give you my opinion. Most Catholics who hear that the Holy Father published a letter to the people in China will have the same response. It will go something like this…
“YAWN! That is nice. Over one billion people are in prison in China and it doesn’t concern me. You see, they are foreigners; they are Chinese. I like Chinese food but… Chinese people? I mean we have to have a cheap source for tennis shoes and if that means a billion people are enslaved to this end then I guess it needs to happen, right? ”
No! The pope published this letter on the Feast of the First Martyrs of Rome and is tying the publication of that letter to the persecutions, which are now going on in China and will continue to intensify under the communists of China. Here are some of the points that the Holy Father makes in the document. It is too long for me to treat, but I will hit some of the important aspects. A recurring theme in the first part of the letter is on suffering.
Pope Benedict expresses his unity with the people of China, a great people with a long tradition, who are suffering. He recognizes their suffering and the value of that suffering and knows that reconciliation cannot be accomplished over night. In language that seems to be proposed as a bridge, Pope Benedict writes,
No one in the Church is a foreigner. Those comments are particularly enlightening because the communists say the same thing that people in this country have said up until about what, ten minutes ago, about Catholics.No one in the Church is a foreigner, but all are citizens of the same people, members of the same Mystical Body of Christ. The bond of Sacramental Communion is the Eucharist, guaranteed by the ministry of bishops and priests
“Well, Catholics are ok but they have that foreign influence.”
They mean the pope. We have allegiance to that foreigner, the pope!
“You going to let him rule over us? You are not from here are you?”
This is the attitude that ignorant people have about the pope and about Catholics. And of course the communist government repeats that ignorance to this day saying that they do not need these foreign influences. The pope writes,
There are no foreigners in the Church. In this book, Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Father says very beautifully,The government is often concerned about foreign influences in the Church in China.
This is true! But the Gospel must be preached; China is not flyover country. If you look at the last lines of this Gospel, Jesus says that no one who sets the hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the Kingdom of God! There has to be a determination by Catholics to spread the Gospel to China. The pope makes the point that Jesus is the Kingdom of God again and again in his book. In the Gospel it says,Is it not true that this creature, man, has been alienated, battered, and misused throughout the entire history of the world? The great mass of humanity has almost always lived under oppression.
When the days for Jesus being taken up were fulfilled, He resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.
Other Gospels say that Jesus set His face like flint toward Jerusalem. It is kind of like the figures on Mt. Rushmore, which are carved in stone. Jesus wasn’t going to be turned away. It was going to be “do AND die”. Jesus knew what was awaiting Him in Jerusalem and there has to be this kind of determination of Catholics, this participation of Catholics here and throughout the world to spread the Gospel even to the billion communist prisoners in China.
This current edition of the Texas Catholic (Diocesan Newspaper) was very sad indeed. There is an article in there, which was written in Chicago. The city of Chicago just closed a minor seminary, a boy’s high school seminary. The article is terribly misrepresenting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. This is a seminary for vocations. Not every young man who goes through there will be expected to become a priest, but in letting over 3,000 men pass through Quigley, only one was ordained. It sounds like “quality control” wasn’t exactly at the top of the list in my opinion. The guy who wrote the article said that today people just aren’t ready to take that “component”, meaning the sexual component, and give it up for something like a vocation. Really?
Last week we had the 50th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. Oh, I know, most call it the Korean Conflict but the rest of us call it the Korean War. A friend of mine, who went through the seminary with me was born in Korea and left there with his whole family and came to the USA. God bless them, they settled in Detroit. Anyway, after realizing the mistake they had made, they moved to Dallas where he entered the seminary and is now a priest in our diocese.
His sister was also born in Korea, moved to Detroit and then to Texas. After finishing high school she quickly volunteered to be a nun. She entered a religious order, went to Korea and then from there she volunteered to go to China. She is in China now, teaching. Don’t tell me that young men and women can’t put their passions aside to focus like a laser beam on Jesus Christ and spreading His Gospel.
Let me go back to where I started. The tragedy of China is so large that it looms like a colossus. Over a billion people are in slavery and you and I must do what we can to spread the Gospel there. I am not taking up a collection to send to China; I am asking for prayers. You say you have no time? Oh really? So, you don’t have any time to pray the rosary? We have more free time in Texas than we have rain, and no other generation in the history of the world has had such luxury, free time, and wealth.
When the Declaration of Independence said that all men are created equal, I guess they mean, except in China. You and I are the rich man and Jesus is Lazarus, and I can see Jesus in China. If you would like to not be concerned about the people in China…well, you and I must care and be concerned; it is at the heart of this pope’s work, to spread the Gospel, spread Jesus Christ and His message of hope to the people of China.
Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God. No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen