33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
11 / 13 / 2005 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

He said, “Master you gave me five talents, see I have made five more.” His master said to him, “Well done my good and faithful servant, since you were faithful in small matters I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

Before I begin; there will be wailing and grinding of teeth if we don’t get better translations. Look at the Second Reading,

Like labor pains upon a pregnant woman.

Who else has labor pains, right? [Laughter] It should read like this.

Peace and security in a sudden disaster comes upon them like labor pains.

We need to pray!

Yesterday some unusual things happened. I got an email yesterday morning from a friend of mine saying another friend of my said “Hello.” Well, I don’t hear from this friend very often and the first time I ever heard from him was in 1998; yesterday I heard through another friend that he said “Hello”.

The first time I met this man was November 12, 1998 and his name is Mr. Jim (James) Likoudis. He is a teacher up in Buffalo, where by this time they have a least fifty feet of snow. God bless them all over there, it is very cold in Buffalo. Anyway, Mr. Likoudis teaches at a college up there and he also writes a lot about the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek Orthodox Church is in the East and the Latin Church is in the West. The Church has been compared to a body with two lungs, wanting to breathe through the East and the West. Exactly nine hundred years before this Church building was built, there was the breaking apart of the East and the West. Mr. Likoudis has studied the matter quite a bit and has written extensively about it.

In 1998 Msgr. Botik passed away in March and so in the fall of that year we started the Msgr. Botik Lecture Series and Mr. Likoudis was the third speaker; we had one a month CUF, Catholics United for the Faith. I had never heard of Mr. Likoudis but Kirk Kirkendall had and so being the President of CUF, he invited Mr. Likoudis to come and speak. Despite his busy schedule, Mr. Likoudis flew down here to Dallas, Texas to give a talk on St. Josaphat, whose Feast day was yesterday. When Mr. Likoudis came it was Thursday, November 12th and he spoke on St. Josaphat.

St. Josaphat might sound like one of those very obscure saints that is buried in some out of the way monastery on the top of some mountain. If you go into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and come all the way down the isle to the front, there is a statue of St. Peter and everyone touches the foot of the statue. They have literally rubbed the bronze off the foot. After thousands of pilgrims, they have had to replace the bronze on that foot. If you walk around the very large column behind the statue of St. Peter, there is an Altar and under this Altar are the mortal remains of St. Josaphat. His body is the closest to the tomb of St. Peter.

He is not some obscure saint; obscure because I didn’t know him in 1998 and perhaps this is the first time you have ever heard of him, but I met two friends on November 12, 1998, St. Josaphat through Mr. Likoudis.

Well, yesterday when I got the email and my friend said that Mr. Likoudis had said to tell me hello, she later on wrote back to say that she had contacted him about some of his works so he had not said to my friend,

“Oh yes, I remember, I gave a talk there on November 12, 1998.”

Isn’t that interesting? Over the years I have probably heard from him maybe three or four times and it just happened to be yesterday, the anniversary of the first day that I met him, on the Feast of St. Josaphat, that I would be sent a greeting from him.

St. Josaphat was martyred in 1623 and he is responsible for turning an area of the world back in union with the Successor of St. Peter, in union with the Pope. In fact, St. Josaphat and his Diocese of Polotsk was not too far from where little Karol Wojtyla would born and grow up to become Pope John Paul II. So having an identity there united to Rome was very important.

Before St. Josaphat came on the scene the Russian Orthodox dominated the area and of course they looked to Moscow, not to Rome. St. Josaphat, who was born into the Russian Orthodox Church, saw that unity with Peter was what our Lord desired. Our Lord desires One Church; he lets us listen in to His last request. At the Last Supper, just before He is about to go out to the Garden of Gethsemane, He prays. From the Gospel of St. John;

Father may they be one as You and I are One.

It is a bit like a man who is condemned to death on the morrow and he requests a hamburger and french fries as his last meal and they bring him broccoli.

“I thought I ordered a hamburger and french fries!”

The guard says,

“Oh, all that cholesterol is bad for your health!”

[Laughter] HE IS DYING TOMORROW!

Anyway, Christ asked for unity in the Church and so many Catholic Christians and non Catholic Christians just can’t be bothered. In Greenville, what are there, just over one hundred Christian Churches? And…we all have the same bible!

FATHER, MAY THEY BE ONE!

It doesn’t say one, two, three, four, five, six and then add a few commas in there. Do you know that there are over 30,000 different Christian denominations? That is the last figure I heard. But, we are one, we are one! NO! We are not! St. Josaphat understood this and returned his part of the world to union with the Successor of St. Peter in Rome. In fact, just a couple of days before he was martyred he was visiting his archdiocese and he exclaimed,

“If God would accept my life I would gladly lay it down to be a martyr for unity in the Church with Peter.

He was taken up on his offer; a couple of days later or so they knocked on the door of his residence, dragged him out, mocked him, stripped him, ridiculed him, attacked him, and dragged him into the streets where they dismembered him and sicked the dogs on what was there. When they were through having all their fun they put all the pieces together in a net with some very large rocks and took his remains to a nearby lake, which was very deep, and over the deepest part of this lake they dropped this net containing the rocks and the remains of St. Josaphat. The followers of the saint saw exactly where he was dropped, fished him out and his remains are there under the Altar closest to the tomb of St. Peter. Remember what Christ said to St. Peter?

You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. To you I will give the Keys of the Kingdom.

St. Peter was chosen by God the Father and by God the Son. Remember when St. Peter said in reply to the question, which Christ had asked?

Who do you say that I am?

You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God

Christ declared,

No mere mortal has revealed this to you, but My Heavenly Father.

So, anyone that has a problem with St. Peter has a problem with God the Father. They can take it up with Him; but if you would, take it up with Him when you are outside in maybe a four or five mile radius of the church here. I don’t want to be anywhere near when you take it up with Him. God the Father desires unity in the Church; every father wants unity in his family.

I have learned about this martyr for unity through Mr. Likoudis and he gave a riveting talk in a hours time during the third talk in the Msgr. Botik Lecture Series, and on the Feast Day itself…just fascinating! I had never heard of St. Josaphat and I will never forget him now. In fact, I have said Mass over the remains of St. Josaphat; he is dressed in the vestments of a priest with the hat of a bishop and a silver mask over his face. He is a martyr who gave everything for unity.

Mr. Likoudis has done all this research on St. Josaphat and all of this research on East and West unity as well as teach college. Isn’t it amazing how much influence he can have and he is just one person? He is a husband and a father and has plenty to do but it is amazing how much he gets done. So, it was interesting hearing yesterday through another friend that Mr. Likoudis said “hello”.

St. Josaphat was martyred in the year 1623.

Last night I went into Dallas; I am the chaplain for the St. Thomas More Society, a society for Catholic lawyers and judges in this area. The bishop offered Mass in the Cathedral and then we had dinner. Over there you can see a picture of St. Thomas More. It is like the one that was present at the dinner last night. Many of you have a copy of that picture from July 6th when we handed them out. It is not that size of course. [Laughter]

Click the link below to view the picture of St. Thomas More
http://www.wf-f.org/WFFResource/StThomasMore.jpg

Anyway, St. Thomas More is a favorite of mine. He was a lawyer, a judge, a husband, a father and also a martyr. It is amazing what he accomplished in his short life just before Henry VIII cut off his head. He was Chancellor of England and that what the chain around his neck represents. He was second only to the King of England. Henry VIII severed ties with Peter and his Successors and made himself head of the Church in England and when he did he unleashed chaos in England. In fact, last night at the St. Thomas More dinner, I guess there were over one hundred twenty or so judges and lawyers along with their wives. Bowie Kuhn, the former Baseball Commissioner gave the talk. I thought I was going to hear something about baseball, baseball, baseball…. just for the guys who dozed off there…there you go, now you are awake. [Laughter] That is not fair I know; just try that 1-800 number.

Bowie Kuhn is eighty years old. When he got up to talk he answered one of my first questions, which I never asked him but had it on my mind. I wondered where he got such funny name. Well, Weinberger…like I should talk! [Laughter] His name is Bowie Kent Kuhn and I thought,

“You know, you are Catholic, why don’t you have a Catholic name?”

Well, he does. He has lots of Catholic names, Bowie, Kent and Kuhn. He named off more of his ancestors that all suffered great persecution under Henry VIII in England. In fact, just around the time that St. Josaphat was laying down his life in Eastern Europe to show his fidelity to Rome, the ancestors of Bowie Kent Kuhn were getting on two boats, the Ark and the Dove. Not the real ark but ships by these names. They sailed to the colonies and started a religion free state known as Maryland. You could be from any religion and practice there. So his ancestors had it up to the nose with persecution and left England. They’d met the persecution in a valorous way, but they came here to the colonies and established what would be part of the United States.

Bowie Kuhn has made his mark in the world. He spoke about after getting his degree from Princeton University he was welcomed into a very prestigious law firm in New York and he was doing what lawyers do. Last night he was there with his wife of forty-nine years. He made mention of the fact that his success was due to her tremendous help in so many ways.

Getting back to his life as a lawyer in New York; he spoke about first getting started and how he got to meet the heads of the other law firms in New York; this was very heady experience for someone so new to the field. One day another lawyer called him on the phone and Bowie…I just met the man last night and I am calling him Bowie, right? Mr. Kuhn told the other lawyer on the phone that they should just settle the case they were involved in. The other lawyer agreed so they settled on an amount and Bowie said…uh, Mr. Kuhn said he had the ability to speak for his client and asked the other lawyer if he had the same abilities. The other lawyer had that ability and they each gave their word concerning the settlement amount. Some secretary probably stayed up half the night with carbon papers making all the necessary paperwork so they could be signed the next day.

The next day came and Mr. Kuhn called the other lawyer to have the papers signed and the guy told him that he was sorry but he would not be able to sign the papers. Mr. Kuhn reminded the other lawyer that he had given his word and the other lawyer acknowledged the fact but still insisted he couldn’t sign the papers.

“You gave your word!”

Can’t you just hear the buggy whip in the background?

“Hahahaha, you can’t prove it because it isn’t on paper!”

Anyway what did Mr. Kuhn do? He called up the senior partner and explained the situation and the senior partner told him,

“You had a deal yesterday, you have a deal today and those papers will be signed!”

Mr. Kuhn went on to say how personal integrity in this country has really taken a licking over the past fifty years. It use to be that if you gave your word, your word was your bond. Sad to say that this is not the case today. If you don’t have it written down then it doesn’t exist and you can’t prove it. You give your word…you stand behind your word. This is called personal integrity. He moved on from there and spoke about Cardinal George from Chicago and about getting to know the Cardinal. Well, he has known many prominent people in his life being Baseball Commissioner. That didn’t hurt! He knows Tom Monaghan, who I had dinner with a few years ago. Someone introduced him to me and at the time I had no idea he was the founder of Dominos Pizza. We didn’t have pizza that night. It was a very nice dinner and I am sure he makes a very nice pizza. Then someone told me he was getting the award that night from the Culture of Life Foundation.

Well, Mr. Monaghan and Mr. Kuhn are friends and have been for a long time. Mr. Kuhn convinced Mr. Monaghan, who was working thirty hours a day, nine days a week, to get the best offer and sell Dominos, take the money and spend it, direct the spending of all that money and do with it what he saw fit. So Mr. Monaghan did that and when he spoke at the Culture of Life dinner he told us about a problem that he has. He said.

“I have all this money and on my last day on earth I don’t want to have a single dollar left.”

So I asked to speak with him after dinner. [Laughter] He won’t return my calls, hahaha.

He started Ave Maria Catholic University in Florida, which is going to have a law school and theology department. It will be a good law school for Catholic lawyers and judges. He is going to have an impact on the way lawyers and judges see the law. I have to say that Catholics have to start impacting the culture.

I mentioned that Mr. Kuhn knows Cardinal George of Chicago. Several years ago Cardinal George was named Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago. He was getting ready for an ad Limina visit to Rome. Every five years every Bishop goes to Rome to see the Pope so the chancery got together all the reports on the number of Catholics, Baptisms, and Catholic schools as well as Mass attendance and made it into many reports and sent them to Rome. A couple ships could probably have been filled with all that information. When they take it into the Pope’s office they spread it out on a table. So when Cardinal George walked in he sat across the table from the Pope. The Pope took his arm and he shoved the pile to the side. He looked at Cardinal George and asked,

“How are you having an impact on the culture?”

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…I thought we were going to talk about the reports.”

It was either Aristotle or Jackie Gleason who said,

Homina, homina, homina.”

Right? [Laughter] That is probably what Cardinal George said.

“Wait a minute, that is not even supposed to be on the test; it is all this paperwork right here..Ahhhhh.

How are you having an impact on the culture? Pope John Paul II hasn’t even been dead a year, God rest his soul. Everyone said he looked so old. You know why he looked so old? Every morning he would get up and do back flips, he would pour gasoline over himself and light a match just to get people to understand that he was trying to get them to influence the culture. It was like saying,

“Did I mention I would like for you to influence the culture?”

Every day the Pope would get up and reiterate this and people would say,

“Well, that sounds nice and new; maybe we ought to try that sometime.”

Every day for years the Pope got up and said this and then he talks to one of his Cardinals and asks how he is impacting the culture.

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle

Anyway…we have to see that Catholics are part of the culture and if WE don’t influence we are influenced by the culture.

I am holding up last Saturday’s Religion section from the Dallas Morning News. We had a vote last week on a Defense of Marriage Act in Texas and that is what this is about. Down here where this priest is circling his finger is a little number. It says “Book of Numbers” and it lists two different numbers; the first is from 1987 and the second is from today, 2005. The first number says 39% and we will just round that off to 40%. I will be forty in a few years so that will be easy for you to remember. [Laughter]

There were thirty nine percent of American Catholics in 1987 who thought you could be a good Catholic without obeying the Church’s teaching on abortion. Of course in the interim, Pope John Paul II had been doing those backward flips, setting himself on fire and writing Evangelium Vitae, the Gospel of Life, saying it again and again and of course, he only said it in one hundred fifty languages and Catholics are like,

“No, I think I can still be a good Catholic and disobey the Church’s teaching on abortion.”

I like the way the Dallas Morning News wrote this.

“Forty percent of American Catholics in 1987 thought you could be a good Catholic without obeying the Church’s teaching on abortion.”

Without obeying what’s his name…oh, Peter…AND his Successors. Now the second number is today. Of course after all that feverish energy and us being smarter, healthier and thinner than we were in 1987…well…at least maybe I am a little smarter, hahaha. [Laughter] Anyway…that next number for 2005 has to be below 40% right? Wrong, it is 58% so let us just round that out to 60%. So there are 60% of American Catholics in 2005 think you can be a good Catholic without obeying the Church’s teaching on abortion.

We are not impacting the culture. We almost need to buy billboards that say,

“ABORTION….BAD!”

Maybe that would get the message across to Catholics. No, you can’t be a good Catholic and not be in union with Peter and his Successors. Bowie Kuhn said it this way;

“One day God thought of you and God thought of me and our parents cooperating with that thought, we came into existence.”

What a beautiful way to speak about life. And what have we said in our country over forty million times since 1973? Look at all those bad thoughts God had. It is an interesting way to look at abortion.

“Look at those bad thoughts God had.”

God has never had a bad thought but God thought of you and me and our parents cooperated with His thought and we came into existence. The forty million abortions don’t cover death by abortifactants, the aspect of birth control or contraceptives. Over forty million!

Fr. David Wilton from the Fathers of Mercy and who came to give a retreat at Blessed Sacrament said that in 1973 when the Supreme Court of the USA said it was the law of the land that in any state a child could be aborted from the time of conception to birth, if every Catholic parish on the east coast had rented a single bus per parish and filled it up sending the bus to Washington, the Supreme Court would have rolled over. Now listen…catholic have no problem getting on that bus and going to Shreveport! Well, I mean that is important, right?

Shreveport is a city about 2 ½ hours east of Dallas in the state of Louisiana that offers gambling.

Fr. Wilton was right. And like Mr. Kuhn pointed out… the Dred Scott Decision that said that some people in the United States are more equal than others. That is the decision from the Supreme Court that got it wrong and said that some people are more equal than others. In January the Supreme Court will probably have five Catholics now and we are all rubbing our hands in anticipation thinking,

“Oh, finally!”

Well…lets just look at this figure; 40% of American Catholics in 1987 thought you could be a good catholic without obeying Church teaching on abortion and now it is 60%? We are not having an impact! I was so impressed last night by what Bowie Kuhn was saying. Had it been baseball he would be a winner because every time he spoke he hit the strike zone. If this had been a baseball game and he were the pitcher, he would have pitched a no-hitter; and every time he opened his mouth he hit the strike zone.

He spoke about his Alma Mater, Princeton University. People don’t usually like to talk about their Alma Mater in an unfavorable way because it makes them look bigger and better. Bowie Kuhn talked about Princeton University and the wretch…that is my word not his. I refuse to call ‘this” a man; this person who teaches at Princeton is named Peter Singer and he holds a chair of Ethics at Princeton. This wretch, my words not his, this wretch says that not only should we redefine marriage but there should be inter-species marriage. I won’t go any further because we are in mixed company and children are present. Inter-species marriage! From there it goes down, ok? Peter Singer also says that not only should we continue with abortion at any moment during a pregnancy, but after a child is born, if that child is a problem in any way, you should be able to…well…do the right thing and dispatch that child. This is called infanticide. He hasn’t come up with an age number for dispatching a child but some say up to five years old.

Peter Singer was going to give a talk down in Florida and Bowie Kuhn called up a friend of his that worked in a law firm there. Mr. Kuhn had helped this guy get a job at the firm in Florida. The law firm to which he had recommended to his friend, was sponsoring Peter Singer’s talk. They were publicizing it as well.

“Come on down to see Peter Singer. The first hundred people will be euthanized free of charge!”

When Mr. Kuhn called his friend he told him what was happening and asked him if he knew who Peter Singer was. Well, the guy was a very meek and mild individual, not exactly a Casper Milk-toast but he was close; kind of a Wally Cox figure. But when Bowie Kuhn told him what Peter Sting…Peter Stinger, which is probably better; Peter Stinker! [Laughter] better stop there. When he told his friend what Singer was teaching at Princeton University, his friend wrote a letter to the senior partner and it started,

“How dare you!”

Bowie Kuhn said from there, it went down.

“How dare you invite Peter Singer …..”

So the next day the friend called Bowie Kuhn, probably looking for Tom Monahan’s phone number. He called Mr. Kuhn the next day and Mr. Kuhn told the guy that he guessed they would have to look for the guy another job. The man told Mr. Kuhn that he got a letter back and Bowie asked him what the letter said. The letter said,

“I apologize, it will never happen again.”

That little mousy guy had stood up to the senior partner and he stood up for people who cannot defend themselves. I know I am going on and on and you may think this is not worthwhile. I've been a Priest 16 years. What I heard last night was music to my ears. The Bishop was there along with several Priests and so many lawyers and judges and their wives, easily over 120 in attendance. Bowie Kuhn had to have known that his message which is based solidly on the Gospels of Jesus Christ were going to make some of the people there just a bit hot under the collar. No doubt some there said to themselves the day after the talk:

"“I wouldn’t walk across the street to see Bowie Kuhn if my life depended on it ...not after what happened last night.”

But how many times have I heard that the Catholic Church can’t say this or that because of the holy 501C3 tax-exempt status? Father Paul bows in a sarcastic way when he says this

“You don’t want to put that in jeopardy; lives yes are in jeopardy, but we must all genuflect to the holy 501C3 status.”

I think that was what St. Josaphat invoked just before they dragged him from the house, stripping him nude, cut him up and …well, you know what I am talking about. The fact is that Vatican II happened forty years ago; it finished in 1965. The central plank in Vatican II said that the Church is not merely the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons and men and women religious, but all those who are Baptized are part of the Church and we must have an influence on he world.

Instead, this Gospel today, which I am finally getting around to mentioning, is for you to read and re-read. If we go before God and have not risked what He has given us, like it says about the five talents and the two talents. It sounds like the man gave them five dollars and two dollars. Talents are worth a lot. He took his estate and essentially divided it up among three people and two out of three invested and gave a great return. The other one buried it and sat on it like an egg. He said,

“Here you go; I know you are mean and you expect me to make interest but I am not going to play so I am giving it back.”

You try that with God! If you go before God and you have spare change in your hand, you are going to have to answer to Him as to why you have the spare change in your hand.

“Well, I needed cab fare.”

Mr. Monaghan has it right and Bowie Kuhn has it right. Where is the influence that Catholics are supposed to be exerting in the world?

“Oh, that is only for the pope, bishops, and priests!”

When I heard Bowie Kuhn get up last night and in an articulate manner in an hour’s time calls all of us on the carpet, it was so refreshing. How many times have I heard men and woman say,

“Well, I would do something but my job or this or that prevents it.”

How many times have our priests and bishops done the same thing.

“Well, I am not sure, maybe we can just all say the Our Father.”

How sad! The people that Bowie Kuhn has as ancestors left him no option; he had to risk making some people made because he comes from people who have stood up against tyrants and they raised the bar very high. He has spent the last twenty years or so going around speaking about defense of personal integrity, defense of marriage and family and defense of the unborn as well as those who are born less equal than others. Thank God for Bowie Kuhn and every other layperson like him.

As you can see by these numbers in the newspaper article, we are not impacting the culture. You open the paper and see how gold is up. You open the paper and see how GM is down. You open up the paper and see how Haliburton is doing. [Laughter] You open up the paper and see how the stocks go up and down but I guarantee you that every time you invest with God… just drop the “L” out of gold…no one pays a greater interest rate and yet we are so unsure of ourselves.

“I don’t know about this, I don’t want to speak up because I have this job and…Let someone else do it, let that loudmouth priest in Greenville speak up, he is a loser!”

St. Josaphat, St. Thomas More, Bowie Kuhn and so many others call us and if we don’t respond then just read that last line of the Gospel, you will feel a chill going right up your spine.


He said, “Master you gave me five talents, see I have made five more.” His master said to him, “Well done my good and faithful servant, since you were faithful in small matters I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen