Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
November 9, 2008
Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Friday I filled up my gas tank for $1.93 a gallon and with gas going down like this more will be sold. If the State of Texas were to step in and subsidize gasoline prices to a dollar a gallon then that would be gas under one dollar a gallon. Gasoline stations would sell even more gas. People would jump on that and drive, drive, drive. And if the State of Texas, in a spirit of generosity, and using our money, were to subsidize the price of gas completely then the gas stations would see gas flying out of their pumps. You see, it is a principle of economics; if you subsidize something you are going to get more of it. It is true of gas and of a lot of things. More on this later.
There is an image on the cover of the bulletin and I forgot to put the date on it. It was November 8, 1519. Yesterday was the 8th. In the picture you see the representative of the Catholic King and Queen of Spain, Hernan Cortez meeting Montezuma. Cortez has with him in Mexico City, just under a thousand men. That is all he has at that time. Montezuma is a leader of over twenty million Aztecs. This is the meeting between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. I want you to look at that image and I want you to find a very large and glaring error in it. It is a big one. Just take a second and look at it. Ok, did you find the error? I bet you didn’t. Let me describe a case for you and you will see the error.
In 1487 they built one of those pyramids on Mexico City and it was five stories tall; it is still there. There were over 114 steps to the top. It took them four days to dedicate it. At the top of each side of the pyramid was an altar staffed by team after team of Aztec priests. At the base of the pyramid there was the first person standing in line with others behind them. There were babies, young children, teens, and adults. When the dedication began it began with the beat of the drum, which didn’t stop for four days. They had teams of men to beat the drum. The drumbeat is what would make the whole thing work with devilish precision; it would keep time. The drumbeat was signaling everyone to take one step per one beat forward. So, the guy at the bottom of the pyramid would go to the top of the first step and wait for the next beat and then advance to the second step. Everyone behind did the same.
Once at the top of the pyramid one of the Aztec priests would put a hook around the victim and pull them up on top of an altar. An Aztec priest would cut the person open and remove the beating heart. The person, still being alive would be pulled off the altar with the same hook and dropped to the floor and eventually he would make his way to the bottom. How would he make his way? Well, by gravity because the pyramid was very steep but also by the lubricant that would make it all work…. human blood! To dedicate that pyramid in 1487 over 80,000 victims were killed. Every square inch of that pyramid was drenched in human blood. This is very different from how we treat the human body.
We see these two arrangements here from Frances Nelson’s funeral yesterday. What a dear lady, may she rest in peace. We treated her body with the utmost care but you can see the defining differences between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. Cortez represented life and Montezuma represented death. Besides human sacrifice on such a grand scale they practiced cannibalism and every other sin that you could possibly image and then, a million more. I am not exaggerating.
So there we are; that is the big error in the picture on the cover of the bulletin; those shinny pyramids were not shinny; they would only glisten in the sun when the blood was moist. Human blood was what was used.
Less than a month ago Cardinal George, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago and the newly elected president of the USCCB, gave an interview and this is part of what he said in the interview about abortion in our country.
Cardinal George is not a man of hyperbole or known to exaggerate.There is no recognition of the fact that children continue to be killed and we live therefore in a country drenched in blood.
”Oh, that is just Father Paul exaggerating again.”
No! In the interview Cardinal George acknowledges that we live in a country drenched in blood. Veterans day is just around the corner, and I know that veterans gave or risked their lives so that we could have abortion on demand. Isn’t this a great country? Aren’t you so proud as a veteran that your work and labor has brought us this great freedom to kill our own children? You have no idea how deep this goes into the heart of our country until you stand in front of an abortion clinic.
I was there at the clinic on Thursday along with two women, who are there on Wednesdays and Thursdays. When I got there Thursday morning the ladies told me that the morning after the election the place was flooded with people and they were 99% black, African Americans. They were going in for abortions. The next day it switched to Mexicans.
I was there on Thursday to interpret. The first person out had already had their appointment and they were leaving. Diana and Alexandro kept their appointment and it is interesting that the date that they secured for the abortion, the date that was given to them…uh huh…Saturday, November 8th. How fitting. She speaks perfect English with not even a Texas or Mexican accent. He speaks Spanish but understands a lot of English. She is eighteen and he is nineteen. We stood there and talked; they are terribly in love and this is their first child. Both are the picture of health and both have jobs. Isn’t this an incredibly drastic case for an abortion?
As I was talking to them we were talking about different things and one of the ladies brought up a question that comes up every couple of minutes or so; we talked to them twenty or twenty-five minutes. The father of the child held a rubber replica of the child that is his in the womb of Diana. The replica is a ten-week-old child, with all the limbs and you can see the head. We were talking about this and the question that comes up again and again from this lady is, “I am still not hearing why she wants the abortion?” Even though the question was asked several times, the reason the young lady didn’t answer was that she didn’t know why.
You and I look at children very different than young people do today. When she discovered that she was pregnant her first thought was, well, that she just needed to go and get in line and wait her turn. You see how sad we are at this moment, when young people see pregnancy in this way. I still don’t understand why she wanted the abortion. That was the $64,000.00 question. I pray that she didn’t have the abortion; I don’t know if she went through with it. These are just two of the people I met on Thursday.
Our country must admit that it is drenched in blood and that blood is human blood, which come from procured abortions since 1973. In the elections that we just had it was reported that 54% of Catholics voted for candidates, who are pro abortion. Pro death and pro choice! They all mean the same thing. I don’t care how you nuisance it, they all mean the same thing.
Lets contrast this with yesterday’s funeral. The Gospel was from St. John. Jesus said to St. Martha, after her brother Lazarus died,
I AM the Resurrection; I AM LIFE!
So, I am pro God, I am pro Jesus, I am pro resurrection and I am pro life. It is the same thing. Did you notice in the first reading it says that wherever that living water, who is Jesus Christ, touched it, created life; there was no death connected to that life-giving water. It is impossible. So, 54% of Catholics voted for death, for choice, and for abortion. This is the Gospel that was slated for today. There is a house cleaning here; there is a cleansing of the temple and if you do not see the anger, the righteous anger in the face of Jesus Christ you are already asleep. Jesus took a whip made of cords; he got the belt, right? He ran them out. He didn’t go back later on to pick up the coins or to assemble the animals; He was mad because, look what they had done to the temple. Now, you have to watch very closely because the Temple is Jesus.
Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for 46 years and You will raise it up in three days?” But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His Body
Every baby, every child is a part of the Body of Christ. Now if you see it differently, I would love to hear your explanation. Every child comes from God and we are all destined to go to God for judgment first. It depends on that judgment whether we go to Heaven or Hell. But, we come from God and we are going to God. That equalizes everyone. All the rest of the variables about us are different. We are absolutely different in every way but this is our common human dignity, the fact that we come from God. Saint Paul says,
”Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys that temple, God will destroy that man. The temple of God, which you are, is holy.”
Those aren’t mere words, but that is the truth. The fact is that, we have to see things as they really are and we have to pray because 54% of Catholics elected pro death, pro abortion, and pro-choice politicians.
Now, there is always hope when we pray. We can pray that candidates X, Y, and Z convert and become pro life. For example, when President Ronald Regan served, he was very pro life. To his credit he often mentioned his greatest regret and that was having signed, as governor of California, the most liberal abortion policy in the history of the state of California to that date. He had blood on his hands; he had the blood of those babies on his hands. He was a Republican governor of California and later Republican president. So, he converted but he had the blood of many on his hands. When he was president of this country in 1984 he had assembled and signed something called “The Mexico City Policy.” Huh, there is that city again. The Mexico City Policy essentially said that no more of our taxpayer money would go to fund abortions. Yes, test, test! Our taxpayer money would fund abortions in other countries through International Planned Parenthood, Inc. You see, killing children is a big business and Planned Parenthood is just as big as IG Farben was for the Nazis. They ran the concentration camps. So, President Regan signed that Mexico City Policy that said that no more of our tax money would go to deal death in foreign countries.
On the first day of his new administration, President Bill Clinton rescinded the Mexico City Policy on January 22, 1993. Isn’t it interesting how all these dates fall around Roe versus Wade? That was the law of our country for eight years. Our taxpayer money funded abortions in foreign countries. What business do they have sending our money to foreign countries to deal death like this? The when President Bush took office on January 22, 2001, he reinstated the Mexico City Policy.
The fact is that our taxes have no business doing this. The temple is Jesus Christ and every baby is part of Jesus Christ; we have to understand this. When I first came here, on my first day here I mentioned a rotten sign that hung over a main street here in Greenville. It said,
Welcome to Greenville. Home of the blackest land and the whitest people.
Yes, what a miserable sign it was and it graced the streets of Greenville for too long. It is now over in the Audey Murphy Cotton Museum. That civilized people would let such a sign stay up in this city…. I remember mentioning that my first day here and the following week this very nicely dressed white lady came up to me, her husband hiding behind her, and she said to me, while smiling like a great white shark, as she was shaking my hand and with the most charming southern accent, “ Back then, white men good.” I smiled right back at her, imitating her accent, I said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to understand that all of us don’t take it that way.” I never saw her again. BIGOT!
That is exactly why I mentioned it on day one here, because bigots have no place at St. William’s A bigot discriminates against someone for some reason and there is not greater bigotry or discrimination than taking the life of a child in the womb of his mother because he is unborn. That is the greatest discrimination. Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil War, that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and he was right. He gave his life to repeal slavery.
When I was in college I learned that slavery wasn’t the litmus test…no, there was the manufacturing in the north and the state’s rights in the south and they tried to blur the issue. No, the litmus test for the Civil War was slavery! Yet, people in the media say that when I go to vote I can’t have a litmus test. Wait a minute…they also tell me that there is a separation between Church and state that the Founding Fathers put into the documents. But, if I study the Founding Fathers I find no separation of Church and state. When President George Washington was at Valley Forge, his letters were all about Divine Providence this and Divine Providence that. There was no separation of Church and state. Isn’t it interesting that the people in the media preach to me that I cannot mix politics and religion and what do they do? They are mixing politics and religion as some great high priest. They tell me as a Catholic Christian that I cannot mix politics and religion. Who are they? They are people of this world and they have an agenda. Their agenda is to see more blood spilled through their “sacrament” of abortion, the same way as Montezuma and his Aztec priests.
I went to vote on Tuesday and as I approached the polling place this man handed me some information and said, “You voting Democrat, Father?” I said, “I vote pro life.” I didn’t say yes or no but that I vote pro life. He said, “Well, Catholic priests are all Democrat.” I said, “You’d be surprised.” This presumption that one party or the other is pro life… There was a day when there was no Republican Party and now it exists, and there will be a day when the Republican Party ceases; the same goes for the Democrat Party. So, if you want to identify me with one or the other party, get away from me. Get away! If you think that all of this up to now has been politics you don’t know me. Get away from me. I am pro life, pro God, pro Jesus, and pro Resurrection . It is all the same thing and no death will ever touch Jesus in His Wisdom and His Glorified body. If you see it another way then you are not reasonable as a Catholic Christian. I am presuming that I am speaking only to Catholic Christians, who are pro life. If you see it another way, where have you been the past 4 ½ years? Have you been under a log somewhere? Is this the first time you have ever heard me speak?
You and I have work to do. I am first going to address the work you have if you voted for someone, who you knew was pro abortion. The first thing you have to do as a Catholic Christian, who is called to be pro life, is go to Confession. That doesn’t mean you have to go to Confession to me but that you have to go to Confession before you go to Communion. I mentioned this before the election so this is no surprise.
Secondly, when you run into family or friends and they voted for candidate X, Y, and Z and they did it knowing that the candidate was pro death, then at Thanksgiving or across the fence you have to ask them this question. “Excuse me, what was so important to you that this or that candidate was going to give to you that it meant killing a baby? Please tell me, I want to know.” That is exactly how the question has to be framed. “What did you not have that he or she was going to give to you that was so important that even a single baby had to die?”
Now we move on and we have work to do. If you voted pro life, if you voted pro death, we all as Catholic Christians have work to do. So, after you go to Confession if you voted pro death, you have to write your Congress men and women and tell them that you want them to pass laws and appoint judges that are pro life, and that you will not stand for abortion any longer. I am declaring myself today to be an abolitionist. I don’t want abortion rare, but abolished. You see, I am from Dallas, which has the distinction of two notorious events and they are the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which happened when I was only a few years old, but I remember it. The second is Roe v Wade, which originated in Dallas, Texas. I can’t do anything about the first one but I can do something about the second one. You can see that abortion has coarsened out culture and country.
On Tuesday night I saw something shocking. I didn’t watch the elections come in; I had to do laundry and had to go to the store. When I got back I watched President elect Obama give his acceptance speech and it sent a chill down my spine. I will tell you what sent that chill down my spine. This is a man, who for the last two years has criss-crossed this country a million times, going through a million crowds and wading through people shaking hands, yet where was he on Tuesday night? He was behind bulletproof glass in Chicago. They probably got some report that some crazed skinhead or bigot had called in some kind of assassination attempt. There is some more work that you have to do; I don’t care whom you voted for. You and I have to pray for the safety of President elect Obama whether you like it or not. He is our President and we must pray for his conversion the say way someone evidently prayed for the conversion of Ronald Regan. He is our president and to see him behind a bulletproof glass sent chills down my spine. He was in a cage! President elect Obama was in a cage on election night, made of bulletproof glass. Behind that glass were his wife and children; I couldn’t believe that.
The morning after the elections I prayed the Divine Officejust as all priests have to. There are certain readings set for each day. The first reading for the Divine Office is on the back page of the bulletin. It involves a group call the Maccabees. They are called zealots, like that quote from the Gospel for today…”zeal for your house consumes me.” They were zealots for the Lord. Just before the time of Christ all of Israel went pagan. It says in the Book of Maccabees” that most of the Jews went so far as to try to cover over their mark of circumcision. I can’t EVEN try to figure that one out! Judas Maccabees and Matathias and many other Maccabees went up to the mountains and people followed them. Guess what happened? They brought Israel back around to the faith. Here is the reading from the morning after the elections. This big army headed by Seron, sounds like something out of the Lord of the Rings. Anyway, they are heading out to make a name for themselves by defeating the Maccabees. The Jewish men had been fasting because of their religion but when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas,
The cover of the bulletin shows a man, who with under a thousand people defeated over 20 million Aztecs. He was using karate. No, it is the strength that comes from God.”How can we, as few as we are, fight against so great and strong a multitude; we are faint, for we have eaten nothing today.” Judas replied, “It is easy for a great number to be overcome by a few, for in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between being saved by many or being saved by a few. It is not on the size of the army that victory and battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven. They come against us in great pride and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children and to despoil us, but we fight for our lives and our laws.”
Now, the things I have said today, you could object too because I am talking politics. If you believe that, run from this Church and never come back as long as I am here because I am not going to change. I declare myself today to be an abolitionist. You and I must peacefully work always to abolish abortion. Not just that abortion will be rare and safe, no, no! It is going to be abolished. But, you have to ask your friends and family members what it was that was promised them that made them vote for candidate X, Y, or Z.
The way we treat the unborn today is the way the Jim Crowe Laws used to treat blacks just a generation ago. Hitler was praised for his Audubon, Mussolini was praised because he made the trains run on time and your candidate, whoever they are, what are they to be praised for, prescription drug benefits, universal health care, and that is worth having a single baby die?
President elect Obama, on July 17th, promised Planned Parenthood that on his very first day as president he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Girls as young as 13 will now be allowed to have an abortion, and don’t worry, they don’t have to call mommy and daddy and notify them or get permission. They also don’t have to ask their parents for extra lunch money to pay for it because your taxes and my taxes will go to pay for their abortions.
Now, to finish this, will we be getting fewer abortions that way, now that abortion is totally subsidized? Or, will we be getting more abortions? Think about gasoline. If gas were free it would be flying out of the pumps at the stations. If now, as Cardinal George says, our country is drenched in blood, we are going to have fewer abortions with FOCA? You and I have to write President elect Obama and encourage him as president to enact laws that will protect every citizen from the moment of conception until the moment we draw our last breath naturally. If you see it any other way you are cooperating with a great evil right there with the Aztec priests and our country is awash in human blood.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person, for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit