24th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2007

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 16, 2007

I am going to depart from the normal custom. In the bulletin you will find a letter from the finance council, as well as, the financial report for last year. There is a saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” I say that with certainty because I didn’t want to publish this report, although, it is good news. We have no debt, and have just over two hundred thousand dollars in the bank account for St. Williams Church. When I arrived three years ago, we had one hundred twenty-six thousand combined. Even with all the repairs that have been made, the Church remaining open, and a staff of more employees -- we have over two hundred thousand dollars in the account. I am not certain about this, but I believe that St. Williams is the only Church in Greenville that is open seven days a week. Before I came here, the Church had to be unlocked to gain entry and then locked after a visitor left. So, many things have happened.

I didn’t want to publish this report, because again, no good deed goes unpunished. I can hear it now,

“Well, evidentially St. Williams is rich now; we can stop giving.”

Right! That is the very mature and responsible thing to do. Absolutely not! Will people do it? Of course! As a friend of mine says, people will do as they please. Just as the Prodigal Son was not acting rationally and did as he pleased, he squandered what he had. I guess St. Williams could coast until December before we could close down, cutting back all the way. That is not my intention.

If you look over the report you will see that there are projects and repairs that loom on the horizon. Just think of the “honey-do” list on your refrigerator. What if you got all of those things done, plus fixed the floor that is not even and fixed the place in the back that needs attention, as well as the gutter that leaks; if you did all of that you would probably have to go and take out a loan, and when you finally got all of it fixed to your liking you would have another list of “honey-dos”, right?

It is the same thing here at St. Williams. The buildings are older buildings and they have to be maintained. There is the church, the rectory, the education building and the gym. Then, we have the property to upkeep, such as the parking lot and grounds. Something in much need of repair is the roof on the education building and the gym. A retired priest friend of mine once said that the worse thing you can ever do is put on a roof because no one will ever see it. But, it costs money! All those nice roofers come out and do all that hard work in the hot sun and don’t charge anything. If you believe that, you have already dozed off. It is a little early to be dozing off during the homily. The roofs are future projects, but the other things I mentioned are necessary as well.

The finance council is apprised on a week-to-week basis concerning how we are doing and where we are financially, and if you are from Greenville you will recognize their names. A parish has its ups and downs just like anything and there was a time in the history of St. Williams when the bills weren’t paid and things went down. As I mentioned to the bishop, all our bills are paid and we have no debt. St. Williams and Blessed Sacrament in Dallas have no debt. I remember when I got the debt resolved at Blessed Sacrament. When I started there in 1993, I said that by the year 2001, which was the parish Centennial, that I would have the debt paid. When it was resolved, it was just under a million dollars. Living under debt is like working for Pharaoh, having to make bricks with no straw; it was miserable. I’d told the parishioners on the first Sunday that I was there that Divine Providence, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph, and their generosity and prayers would resolve the debt. A year and three months before the Centennial on September 14, 1999, it was resolved and we were out of jail; living in debt is like living in jail. If you have a family and are raising children, you are going to have to assume debt. It is the same thing with starting your own business. I am sure there are many parishes in the diocese that have debt because they are building a new church or some new building. You should know that we have no debt and all our bills are paid, and this is the way it should be. When something breaks and it costs twenty-five thousand dollars, like one of those air-conditioners in the cafeteria, we are not going to the bank; we will open windows before we do that. We will not go to the diocese either; we will fix it ourselves because the diocese expects every parish to take care of itself.

So, that is why, when you look at the amount we have in the bank and are saying, “Oh good!”, you should be proud that we have that set aside, which wasn’t easy, but two hundred thousand dollars today ain’t what it was twenty years ago.

I want to mention something. Every year there is an appeal for the bishop’s CCA, which is the Diocesan Campaign, and apart from over the past three years, when have ever heard me speak about money? I never mention money; if fact you can count the times I have mentioned money and you will have fingers left over. It seems that the more you speak of it, the less you get. I didn’t want to publish this because I know what it is like when people have information and they are not responsible. When I was a kid we would go to the store with my mom or dad and there would be something we want and we would ask if we could buy it. Every kid does this. They would say that we didn’t have the money for it and we would tell them to write a check or use a credit card. We were young and naive.

There is good news here and as the letters say, the bishop is aware of our situation here, and in fact, every parish has to be audited every year and that information is sent to the bishop. We are not here in a vacuum. It is always known where we stand and the people who serve on the finance council are a great help to me. I thank you for your generosity, and you should be proud, but there are things that still need to be done. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we are getting a bid to refurbish the pews, not replace the pews, but refurbish them. When we do that, then we will have to do something with this carpet, right? And I know it is going to pain you, but we have to do something with that flooring under the benches. I am not going to keep looking at that anymore. It served us well, but we can do better and none of that is free.

I am German on both sides and I am stubborn. I am not going into debt! I have no personal debt, but of course I have no money. [Laughter] It could be worse. I put this out so you would know the condition of the parish, and if you were worried about it, your mind is now at ease. I am telling you this because tongues will wag and this will put to rest whatever wagging is going on. It is good news, but I am sure someone will twist it somehow and make it bad news, report it to the media and they will twist it into bad news. We are in a good place and I am not about to go to the bank or ask the bishop to borrow money because we can do it ourselves. If we find there is something we cannot do, we will do without.

Thank you for the interruption today; now we will move on with the homily. I wanted to get that out of the way in case someone left early.


Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus but the Pharisees and Scribes began to complain saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

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

Amen

They accused Jesus of welcoming sinners and eating with them. Guilty as charged! What do you think we are doing right now? Jesus welcomes us and eats with us. This is exactly why Jesus came.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is mentioned in the Pope’s book. If you have “Jesus of Nazareth”, there are several pages dedicated to the Prodigal Son, on page 202 and following. He has some excellent points that are very helpful. If you don’t have the book, it is very inexpensive and informative.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is like the Good Samaritan, we feel so warm when we read about them. Yet, there is so much that we overlook and is below the surface. There are two parables before we get to the parable of the Prodigal Son; the lost sheep and the woman with ten coins and lost one…the ten drachmas. This is not flyover country. A good shepherd has one hundred sheep and he loses one and so he searches for it. He doesn’t bring it back by the scruff of its neck, or bring it home to make lamb chops for dinner, but he brings it back and rejoices, calling all of his friends. Did you see what Jesus said?

I tell you; in just the same way there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents then over ninety-nine righteous men who have no need of repentance.

Concerning the woman with the ten drachmas, Jesus says at the end of that parable,

In just the same way I tell you that there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

So, Jesus is encouraging us to repent. We love the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”, which is also called the “Parable of the Forgiving Father”. Notice what the father does after the son has squandered everything? As the Pope points out, he is free to squander his liberty, and so, he did as he pleased, and threw it all away. He goes on his way back home to work for his father, as one of the hired help. His father is there on the lookout for him and when he sees the son, he runs to him and embraces him, kisses him, and calls the servants, after the son’s brief confession about sinning against him. The father interrupts the confession in order to instruct his servants to find the finest robe and put it on him, and a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.

The Fathers of the Church have interpreted the robe that was placed on the Prodigal Son as God restoring grace to the soul after sins have been confessed. The sandals that were placed on his feet indicate that the son is not a mere slave. He is a son and not a slave; look how quickly he is restored. The ring on his finger is a symbol of his office and being son to the father. All of a sudden what has transpired has greatly changed the generosity of this forgiving father.

Do you remember what Jesus said last Sunday in the Gospel Reading? He said,

If you do not take up your cross and follow after me you cannot be my disciple.

I didn’t say that…Jesus did! Do you remember that I mentioned children are a cross? There are people today, who make money helping other people reject children. Yes! It is obvious.

“On no! We don’t want anymore of them!”

Oh? No more cross, huh? Take these two sons for instance; what a joy they are to the father. One goes off and squanders everything and the other one stays home to pout, and you wonder if the father has a hair left in his head that he hasn’t pulled out yet. This is the parable of the forgiving father, and also the father, who embraces the cross. This is something to think about and consider.

I want to say this in disconnect with Catholics today; in a sentimental way perhaps Catholics are attached to the Prodigal Son, but I would say there is a disconnect with the way Catholics live today. In fact, I will use the symbol of one hundred Catholics…maybe one out of one hundred goes to Confession. Hum. The forgiving Father is like the Maytag repairman, He wants to give, but they are just not calling, right? He is the loneliest guy in town. Out of one hundred maybe one will go to Confession, and most Catholics will think that this sounds fine to them. I am here to tell you that if this is what you believe and this is what your practice is, you are making it up.

Let me just give you a quick comparison. Remember the financial report? You are glad to hear that there is an annual audit; it sounds great. How about a “spiritual audit” every year, as in yearly Confession? Pause for a clearing of throats.

Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Corapi have spoken at length about Confession. They travel all over the world and in their travels they hear people talk about Confession in a very unusual way. Maybe you have heard these two priests mention “confessions”, where nobody goes to Confession. People have been instructed poorly concerning the Sacrament of Confession. Once or twice a year people are encouraged to attend Mass, then, they have some readings and someone sings and waves their arms at the people. Then, the priest stands up and gives general absolution and everyone goes home. They probably take up a collection while they are at it. Sure! Sounds like a great thing, right? Everyone goes to confession and the priest doesn’t have to hear individual confessions. There is no heavy lifting in the Confessional, spiritually speaking.

Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Corapi point out what the Church teaches and has always taught; general absolution is good only if the church is about to empty and all the congregants are about to march into war, which could possibly claim their lives. If an airplane is about to ditch into the sea or crash into the side of a mountain, then general absolution is appropriate. Otherwise, the pastor has to have permission of the Diocesan Bishop in every case. I have heard of cases, in other dioceses, where a priest will leave the Confessional while there is still a line of people and say,

“Oh sorry! I have to start Mass. Here, let me just give you general absolution so you can go to Communion.”

No! That is not allowed; it has happened, but it is not allowed! Many people have gone from one general absolution service to another to another to another, and then when they hear Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Corapi speaking about this, they say they feel like they have never been to Confession or haven’t been in a long time. BINGO! They haven’t been to Confession. What the Church teaches is that if someone receives general absolution, they cannot receive Holy Communion until they make a private and individual Confession to a priest. It is not the “drive-through of general absolution.” If someone goes from one general absolution to another, they have all that ground to cover the next time they go to individual Confession.

Jesus was accused of welcoming sinners and eating with them. Notice the order there; He welcomes sinners. I am a sinner and St. Paul says he is a sinner. I am guessing that you would be in our company. Here is the disconnect;

“Sure I am a sinner…but I am not a sinner.”

Does that make sense? We have to be concerned about this because children are not being formed with parents and grandparents not having recourse to the Sacrament of Confession, because they, the children, don’t see any reason for going to Confession.

A while back I was talking to a 17 year old young man, who is no longer going to the Catholic Church. I just happened upon him. Thank you, Lord! I asked him, in our conversation, if he believed if Jesus was present in the Tabernacle in the Church. He said he did. I asked if he believed that it was truly Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, and he said he did. Then, I asked him if they give him holy communion at his new church, and he said they didn’t. I made the statement that he’d traded down, and he defended the new church stating that they were Christian. I reminded him that Catholics are Christian, too. So, that is not an issue; what is an issue is that he has walked away from the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, and to be able to eat with Jesus. Lets not forget that Jesus welcomes us in Confession.

Children need to receive spiritual formation on a regular basis. Now that I said that, I have opened up a real hornet’s nest, and I know what you are thinking,

“Father, my children and grandchildren don’t need spiritual formation; they go to public school. You know that minutes of silence at the flagpole every morning…well, sometimes we are late.”

Isn’t that what you are thinking? Even the ACLU is jumping on us about the one minute of silence at the flagpole. So, where is the nice spiritual formation? I don’t know if you are aware of it, but in this country a young lady in middle school or high school could be found in the “family way”, as they used to say. Not wanting to bother mom and dad, she could approach the nice counselor at school, who would find a nice judge, who would write a nice letter allowing her to do something she is going to regret the rest of her life, and that is have an abortion without bothering mom and dad. Don’t parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles feel safer because of that? Now, this is the milieu where they are going to be receiving spiritual formation?

As I said earlier, parents recognize that children are a cross. When you start rejecting children, you start rejecting crosses and Jesus tells us that if we do not take up our cross and follow Him, then we cannot be His disciples. This is in last Sunday’s readings, which are in last week’s bulletin. Parents recognize what a cross it is to hear their children say,

“But mom and dad, so and so said this, which is the exact opposite of what you just said.”

Isn’t it interesting how your children will believe a perfect stranger in line at Wal*Mart, rather than believing you?

“I just saw this on TV, I mean it has to be right because it is on TV.”

They will believe anyone, even someone they stop on the sidewalk, and if the person says the opposite of what you say, then children will believe them. Children benefit from good sound input, and so in Confession children and young adults receive spiritual formation. If we don’t provide it, public schools will and their friends will. These friends’ lives could be in a mess. This is not flyover territory. Jesus welcomes sinners and He eats with them.

There is a disconnect in the lives of too many Catholics, who have conveniently given themselves permission to not go to Confession, and yet they give themselves permission to go to Communion. Isn’t that interesting? What the Church teaches is that anyone with knowledge of one or more mortal sins has to first go to Confession before they can go to Holy Communion. I am not making this up; I have better things to do than sit around making these things up.

This is what Jesus teaches us through His Bride, the Church, and I believe it, as I have believed it for the past forty-eight years because it is true! I don’t know how many times I have said to someone,

“Listen, in this confession you are asking God the Father in the Name of Jesus, to send you the Holy Spirit. Now, you have been away from Confession for a while, so what you are doing is asking the Holy Spirit to come into your life, and if there is any sin you have never confessed because you may have forgotten it or left it out by mistake, the Holy Spirit will remind you and you will be glad to confess it.”

Can you ask God the Father to send you something greater than that?

Pretend that you went to your doctor and he told you that you have 24 hours to live, but at the end of 24 hours you will have a massive heart attack and die instantly. So, you have a lot of things to do in those 24 hours, right? Number one the list…hum…I wonder what that is? Hum…go to Confession, right?

“Well Father, that is just an example.”

How do we know we are not going to die tomorrow? It is very necessary to live without fear. Children who don’t go to Confession are living in fear and cannot put their finger on it. Children who go to Confession regularly are taking care of business. Every so often they go back to Confession and they are taking care of things as they come along rather than letting things pile up. I often hear that it has been many months since a child has been to Confession, and then they have only one sin to confess; they talked back to their parents once. Right! What…have you been in a coma?

I have a table outside the Confessional with little sheets of paper and on the paper is an Examination of Conscience. They are provided in English and in Spanish.

Examination of Conscience, which is very helpful, can be found HERE

The best way to get children and teens to go to Confession is to be right there with them. Most children cannot drive, and so they need to be brought to the Church. If you do participate in the spiritual formation of your children and grandchildren, you are going to see the benefits at home. You can always say this when they quote the stranger in line at Wal*Mart or the neighbor across the street.

“Gee, I wonder if Fr. Paul would agree with you on that? I wonder if that is what the Church teaches? Why don’t we ask Fr. Paul the next time we go to Confession?”

All of this can be extraneous. I was coming back from Dallas on Thursday, and I called Fr. Vogel and made his day. I asked him if I could stop by to go to Confession, and he said to come on by. Don’t you know that this made his day? [Laughter] I didn’t disguise and change my voice.

Father Paul speaks with a real high voice as though he is pretending to be someone else.

I didn’t use this fake voice and say,

“Fr. Vogel, I need to go to Confession, can you come to the door and when you get here, can you turn your back and I will go to Confession through the screen door?”

No, that is not how it went. I am glad Fr. Vogel knows who I am because he can say to me,

“Yep! You are doing it again…there it is!”

It is like going to the dentist; I want the same one who put this filling in because I want to know why it keeps falling out. Or when I go to the doctor, I want the same one, and it is the same with mechanics where you take your car. It is immaturity on the part of Catholics to want to fish around for a different priest. I don’t mind though, as long as you are going to Confession, but it doesn’t make sense because the rest of your life isn’t that way.

You can do as you please, and you will. The fact is that Confession on a regular basis is helpful to us. Mother Teresa went to Confession every day and do you know why? She had cable! Of course she didn’t have cable, she didn’t even have air conditioning in the summer! The fact that she went every day is enough to make us realize that Mother Teresa understood that she had great work carried on her shoulders, and without the grace of the Sacrament of Confession she could have easily given in to despair and depression. Mother Teresa fought like a tiger to the end to follow Christ, and it would be wise to follow her to Confession. If you don’t, you are making things up on your own, and you are not following Christ and His Church. If you and your children are staying away from Confession, what is going to keep the kids in the Church? This is not a pledge.

“Oh, we have to keep you members.”

Get away from me if that is your goal. The children need to understand the absolute essence of Confession is that Christ welcomes sinners and eats with them. Many Catholics eat with Christ, but don’t allow Him to welcome them. After working all day you would never think of just sitting down to dinner and digging in with your hands. No! Your wife, or mom if you are a child, is going to tell you to go and wash your hands, and yet some just come right on in and dig in at Mass.

Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with us, and I am so grateful that He is guilty of that. Like St. Paul we are all sinners and yet when it comes to Confession nobody is a sinner. That is just wrong. Here we are at the beginning of a new school year, so let us put it right and start this year out doing things differently.

There are many people devoted to Confession, and if you noticed in the bulletin there were two hours of Confession yesterday before Mass and Confessions after all Masses today. You know how I feel about Mondays, and so grudgingly I will be hearing Confessions tomorrow and then again on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and two hours on Saturday. You can’t say that you can’t fit Confession in to your schedule. Oh, you can say it, but you won’t be convincing.

“Oh I love the Prodigal Son; I love that parable.”

If you do love it and understand it, as the Church understands it, then you cannot reject Confession anymore.


Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus but the Pharisees and Scribes began to complain saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

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

Amen