12th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Denise]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William Roman Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
6 / 19 / 2005 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus said to the twelve, “Fear no one; nothing is concealed that will not be revealed nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops and do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

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

Amen

Last week after the 4pm Vigil Mass, which is the first Mass of the weekend schedule, reminding us also that there is a 6pm Vigil Mass and then on Sunday there is the 7:45 am, 9:30 am, 11:30 am, the 4pm in Quinlan and then the 6pm Sunday evening Mass here at St. Williams, a lady who appeared to be about sixty or sixty-five and was a visitor whom I have never seen before or since, came up to me when everyone had left and said,

“Well, I am sorry, I got here late. You see, I called the answering machine at the Parish office and it gave the wrong times; it gave the times for Easter Masses.”

I said,

“No, that is not the schedule for the Easter Masses, it might not be the current date but it does have the right schedule on it.”

If it had been the Easter schedule then she would have been coming to the 7 pm Easter Vigil. She said,

“Well, when I called, your housekeeper gave me the wrong time.”

So, I started looking around for my housekeeper…[Laughter]…but I don’t have a housekeeper! I haven’t had one since I moved here. She must work while I am away. I have seen this before; what she wanted me to say since she was on vacation is this and I guess it is more appropriate when you say this;

“You know, I think it is ok if you skip Mass this weekend.”

That is what she wanted me to do but I didn’t. I just told her that it wasn’t the case and she walked away. She probably was staying in one of the hotels or motels near by so she could have attended any one of the Masses today and since she is on vacation… Here she is, retired and on vacation and the first thing that gets jettisoned is Mass on Sunday. We must pray for this lady. She is retired but she has the spiritual maturity of maybe a twelve year old. There are a lot of twelve year olds that are spiritually advanced, but this lady still thinks of Mass on Sunday as,

“I gotta go to Mass.”

Poor thing! Poor thing is right! I contrast her with another lady who came to the 6 pm Mass last Sunday and after Mass she said’

“I am sorry we were late.”

There was an accident or something but there was a reason she was late coming to the last Mass of the weekend. That lady couldn’t go to another Mass because the 6 pm Mass is the latest Mass. With that excuse, even if she’d come in after the Gospel, she and her family could have gone to Communion because they were not planning on being late and there wasn’t another Mass to which they could go. Believe it or not, I don’t stand up here and take note of who is coming into Mass late, I have better things to do. And when someone comes in late for Mass you shouldn’t bother with him or her either, we should keep our attention focused on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I am going to tie this in with something that is in your bulletin. If you look at your sheet for Wednesday, June 22nd, you will see the Feast Day of St. Paulinas of Nola and below that says St. John Fisher and S. Thomas Moore. On the other side at the top of the page says “day” and that is because Friday is stapled.[Laughter] Anyway, it says “Nativity of St. John the Baptist.” So Wednesday is the Feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More and Friday is the Feast of the Nativity or birth of St. John the Baptist. I am holding a book here called “Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word” put out by Ignatius Press and it is a partial commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew. The Gospel I just read is the Gospel of St. Matthew. When I look at the commentary for today’s Gospel, this is part of what he says about the Gospel that you just heard concerning nothing being secret that will not be revealed etc.

“This is why the Church uses this passage for the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist on June 24th. St. John the Baptist is the living link between the Old and New Testament.”

He also says that the very opposition the disciples of Jesus are to encounter, this opposition is a guarantee of the Divinely appointed nature of their mission and of the Lord, who gives them their mission. He is pointing out to us that the reason the Disciples of Jesus are opposed is because Jesus was opposed and so this Gospel is used on the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Look at the front page of your bulletin. It says,

I DIE THE KING’S GOOD SERVANT BUT GOD’S FIRST!

These are the last words of St. Thomas More before King Henry VIII had him executed.

I DIE THE KING’S GOOD SERVANT BUT GOD’S FIRST!

It is interesting to see that he was imprisoned and died with St. John Fisher, who share the same Feast Day. Then on Friday is the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. The story of St. John Fisher is literally a story taken right out of the life of St. John the Baptist. St. John Fisher lived in the 1500s and St. John the Baptist at the time of Jesus, 2000 years ago. He was the cousin of Jesus and chosen by God to point out Jesus as the Lamb of God. His disciples began to follow Jesus and he receded into the background in a sense and diminished as Jesus increased. At the end of his life, St. John the Baptist ran afoul of King Herod, who had taken his brother’s wife in marriage. John the Baptist pointed out how wrong it was for Herod to do this and being King, he had the Baptist arrested. We hear that the king liked to listen to what St. John the Baptist had to say, it tickled his ears.

One day King Herod had all of his friends over for dinner and a party and his wife’s daughter did a dance for everyone present. Salome did a dance that we are told was quite remarkable. Most likely, being liquored up King Herod said to the daughter that she could ask for anything she wanted, even half his kingdom and it would be given to her. He was giving her a blank check.

Salome went to her mother, the woman that the King had taken for his wife and the one St. John the Baptist said uh, uh, uh too. Salome asked her mother what to ask for and her mother told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. That is what she got. What a foul person that woman was! The saint’s head was delivered over to the young lady as the payment for her dance.

In the 1500s St. John Fisher was treated similarly. King Henry VIII as a young man had lost his father in the War of the Roses, the civil wars of England, the Dynastic Wars, and the grandmother of King Henry VIII, Lady Margaret approached St. John Fisher who was the bishop of Rochester. He was reputed to be the most intelligent man alive at that time in Europe. She made a request of him and that was to educate her grandson, Henry VIII. He did this and was like a spiritual grandfather to Henry.

You know the story; Henry VIII’s brother died and left a widow, Catherine of Aragon. In order to maintain peace in the realm and to insure a union with Spain, King Henry VIII asked special permission to marry his brother’s widow. Permission was granted and the children born to them would die very soon after birth. Henry received no male heir to carry on his name. So, he looked around deciding that he wanted to divorce his wife and marry another. We all know the story of King Henry VIII. Before long he decided he was going about it all the wrong way; he decided to make himself head of the Church of England and make everyone swear an oath to that church and decision. He would then grant himself his own divorce.

At the age of sixty-six, St. John Fisher was like a modern day St. John the Baptist and told the king that what he was doing was not right. The king, remembering all the kindnesses his spiritual grandfather had done him, had him arrested, imprisoned and had his head chopped off stripping his body naked and left in front of all the people.

“Thank you grandpa!”

On to King Henry VIII's best friend… St. Thomas More; a lawyer, judge, statesman, and father heard that the king was making himself the head of the Church of England and grant his own divorce; he said nothing to anyone, not even his wife who had complained. He told her that her safety and the safety of everyone else was in his complete silence and that he would divulge the contents of his heart to only one person, the King. That wasn’t sufficient for King Henry VIII, who had Thomas more imprisoned and sent to the same fate as St. John Fisher. Before he died, we have his last words.

I DIE THE KING’S GOOD SERVANT BUT GOD’S FIRST!

You see, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More stood up for marriage. Priests and monks in religious houses in England also were made to take the oath of supremacy making King Henry head of the Church of England. Many of the religious orders such as Dominicans, Carthusians and Benedictines refused. On this day in 1535, three monks were executed; Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate. These men were hanged on this day in 1535 but before they were hanged they had seventeen days to really give this some thought, seventeen days to stand up for the Sacrament of Matrimony and I literally mean “stand up”. You see, these three monks…of course what do monks and priests know about marriage? Father makes a sour face These three monks were tied to posts and had a steel collar fastening them tightly to the post; the same with their feet, knees and area around their waste. They could not move an inch for seventeen days for absolutely no bodily function. At any time they could have chosen to take the oath and swear but they didn’t.

What do monks and priests know about marriage? These men stood up for marriage and it is like we heard in the opening hymn, verse three.

“Holy God we praise Thy Name”

The martyrs were confessing their belief in the Sacrament of Matrimony. St. Thomas More was told by one of his friend to just take the vow but in his heart believe otherwise, that was the way. St. Thomas More said “NO”, because what are vows but words we say to each other and to God? Remember this the next time you are invited to go to a wedding. The couple exchanges the vows and the priest, deacon or people are witnesses. We are promising our support to this couple. Next time you get an invitation to a wedding…you know…the wedding after the wedding when a year or two years later the couple divorces and then they invite you to the wedding at the Grand Canyon or the top of a mountain or announce they are going to jump out of a plane and the justice of the peace is going to marry them and they want you to come to the wedding. What happens when they get divorced? Do they jump out of the airplane without parachutes? [Laughter]

You say to them in response to the invitation

“I am sorry but we can’t come.”

They say,

“Why? Why can’t you come?”

Your answer should be,

“You see, we were at your first wedding and you asked us to be witnesses to the fact that your wedding was a Sacrament and something that only God or death could dissolve and we were already witness so we can’t go to this civil service or marriage in another church to another person because you are still married.”

Of course you will be told you are so mean and that you have a problem. But I want to tell you, say you invested everything several years ago because you got a hot tip on the Stock Market concerning Enron. One morning you go to open the paper and read about the Enron crash. Say you have a hundred shares of AT&T, and if you do, please see me after Mass today, then the president or CEO does something that cuts the value by 50%. You are going to get on the phone and say,

“Hey! Get the guy out of that position and get someone in there who knows how to run AT&T.”

And this because your stock has just gone down by 50%. Everyone here who is married and has the Sacrament of Matrimony must guard this Sacrament and pray that others guard their Sacrament as well. I will say in front of you with my hand raised to God, I do not preach on this subject enough; it is a defect of mine. I have to preach on this and before I continue I will say that there are people who should get a divorce if someone’s life is threatened. The Church does not say that they should stay married. But also notice I did not say anything about remarriage. The danger of death reason for divorce is probably only about one part of one percent of the people that get a divorce. People today in this country and in the world find divorce an easy option just like abortion today is used as easy birth control. How sad!

All you have to do is the “self test”. If you are married, go to work and pretend that you and your spouse are having problems. Father snaps his fingers Sorry that I can’t snap them fast enough but I guarantee you before the hour is up someone will tell you to leave the spouse and get a divorce. It used to be that the knee jerk reaction to marriage problems was that those around you would tell you they would pray for you because they knew it would be tough working it out. That USED to be the knee jerk reaction but now in the last thirty or forty years it isn’t the reaction and your Sacrament has been depreciated. Divorce is one way of depreciating it. Oh sure, this current thing that is being promoted…the redefinition of marriage and that it can be between two men or two women; this is a terrible abuse of marriage but so is divorce and promiscuity before marriage. What is promiscuity before marriage other than unmarried people acting as if they were married and exercising the benefits of marriage? Right? How about adultery; it is almost a sacrament in today’s society. Can you say Las Vegas? I just can’t believe it.

These are ways that marriage is diminished and depreciated. This has a connection with that woman in the beginning of this homily who wanted to be absolved of her obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. She wanted me to say,

“Oh, I don’t think God cares if you attend Mass on Sunday or not.”

This lady is very short sighted; she should be preparing for the hardest day in her life. The hardest day in her life and in yours and mine is all the same, the last day. No, no, it wasn’t the 72 hours of labor with your first child although that was hard. Compare that with your last day and you will see it dissolve. It is preparing you for the hardest thing you will ever do which is called, “your last day on earth!” The greatest prayer you can offer to God in preparation for that last day and for all the assaults that the other team is going to throw at you, is Mass and Holy Communion on the day the Lord rose from the dead. There is nothing else that you nor I are going to do this week that will compare to the graces that come from Mass and Holy Communion on Sunday. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I don’t care if you cure cancer tomorrow and world hunger on Tuesday, it fades into the background compared to the graces you receive at Mass and Holy Communion.

Just think of the ways people cast aside the Sunday obligation. Our prayers can help with so many people struggling in marriage or marriages that have been broken up. What prayer can you offer to God for marriages like this that is greater than Mass and Holy Communion on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection? Absolutely nothing!

I want you to notice something at the end of Mass today; whenever the priest or the deacon purifies the chalice and paten at the Altar, you will notice he doesn’t just take the paten and scrape it over a trash can like you might do after a picnic. He doesn’t just throw away the paper plates but with the utmost care, the chalice and paten are purified over a special cloth that has been placed there to catch any crumbs that might fall from the Sacred Host or Precious Blood. Now this Sacrament of the Altar is handled with the utmost care. If I got up here today and said to you,

“I am a priest and I have the Sacrament of Holy Orders and my Sacrament is greater than your Sacrament of Matrimony”,

I would be wrong. All Sacraments must be dispensed and cared for with the greatest respect. So the care that the priest has at the Altar in purifying the vessels is the same kind of respect that there should be in marriages between a husband and a wife. We have to think of who is going to pay the bill. That woman wanted me to give her permission to miss Mass and then later on when she was at her last day and had to go before God she could say to God;

“Oh, no! The priest in Greenville said I didn’t need to go to Mass that weekend.”

If she tries it now knowing what I told her, she will say;

“That priest in Greenville said I didn’t have to go to Mass.”

Then God will ask her if she is sure of that and then say to someone,

“Hey! Do we have the tape on that?”

And God will say,

‘Sure we do!”

And He will say that because there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed and that woman’s eyes will get as big as saucers and see that the priest in Greenville did not give her permission.

We must be very solicitous of those who are married; it is not easy and yes, divorce has touched every family in this church one way or another. Our families have been touched by divorce and we must pray for people who are victims of divorce. It is not easy but we have to add our prayers and do what we can with our prayers, especially this greatest prayer. We have to pray for married people who are struggling in this culture that tells us to get a divorce in an instant. At the blink of an eye, someone will suggest it and tell you to try again. How sad.

We see the sacrament of marriage abused in so many ways; we see people having children without the benefit of marriage. Dogs have puppies, cats have kittens but when people begin to have babies without marriage it is as if they are saying we are just like the lower animals. We are not! Lower animals don’t marry and I don’t care if two doves stay together for the rest of their lives, they are NOT married because they are lower animals and we are not. We have to stand up for marriage otherwise we will have to be the one to pay the bill.

It is interesting fathers; of the three hundred and sixty five days of the year, the telephone company says that Father’s Day is the day that stands out head and shoulders of the rest of collect calls. Yea, collect calls!

“Will you accept a collect call from your son, blah blah, blah?”

“Well, yes, ok.”

“Happy Father’s Day!”

“Just what I need, another bill from my son or my daughter.”

We have to see that a bill will have to be paid for the way that marriage is so sadly treated.

Before Cardinal Ratzinger went into Conclave and was chosen to be the next Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, he addressed the cardinals and Church and said that we are going to have to have a mature faith, a faith that will carry us through difficulties. This is the kind of faith we must cultivate, promote, pray for and support. Every sacrifice and holy hour that you can make along with every Holy Communion you receive, you should remember married people and people whose marriages have ended in divorce. This is not,

“Oh look, we are better than you are!”

Not at all! This is recognizing that God has established matrimony as a Sacrament and that this Sacrament is not being lived as it should be. When this has happened we should be sad and we should make reparation. If you have been to one of those weddings and decide after the wedding that you shouldn’t have attended, just mention it in the Confessional the next time you are in there.

’’I am sorry, my niece got married and then she got married again and I went.”

Just mention it in Confession and don’t do it again. YOU stand up for marriage. What is it? Is it just priests and monks in monasteries that stand up for marriage? No, married people and single people have to stand up for marriage as well as priests and religious people because marriage is a Sacrament and of the Seven Sacraments, God did not give us permission to abuse the Sacrament but treat the rest with the ultimate respect.

We all should see in John the Baptist the call to holiness in marriage. Fortunately for us we have these two Feasts this week; St. Thomas and St. John Fisher on Wednesday and the birth of St. John the Baptist on Friday. We are afraid but,


Jesus said to the twelve, “Fear no one; nothing is concealed that will not be revealed nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops and do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

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

Amen