22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2008

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2008

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
August 31, 2008

Jesus turned and said to St. Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan; you are a stumbling block to me. You are not thinking as God does but as men do.”

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

Amen

In 1973 I finished the 8th grade at St. Phillip’s in Dallas. It was a very small elementary school with one classroom for each grade. I then went on to Bishop Lynch High School, which had an enrollment at that time of just around one thousand students. It was huge compared to the elementary school. After lunch, before the bell rang they herded us out of the cafeteria and made us wait in a hallway so that when the bell rang we could immediately go into the main hallways and make it to our next class on time.

Something that was in the hallway I found very objectionable, and you would find it so as well because it is objectionable. But, this was a Catholic school and they put these objectionable things in the hall. My biology teacher in the 10th grade was Fr. Edward Robinson, who is now retired and living in the Priory at the University of Dallas. Father Robinson had placed pictures of the remains of children, who’d been aborted, on the walls of the hall. I am sure they are not there today. Fr. Robinson is no longer there. It is very objectionable because abortion is very objectionable…first to God and then to us. It was 1973; Roe versus Wade started in Dallas, Texas. I saw those pictures every day of my life at Bishop Lynch.

There was a young lady, who was ahead of me at the school. I knew her name but I didn’t know her. In 1989 I did run into her when I went to my first parish assignment after I was ordained, St. Augustine’s. She was there with her mother, father, and her child. She’d been raped and this child was the product of that rape. Rape is a terrible thing and fortunately she did not bend to pressure to abort that child. It would be like someone hurting you by committing some crime, which would give you permission the rest of your life to commit crimes. No, she gave birth to the child and she knew that somehow God would intervene and help her and she was right.

Today we hear that a woman has a right to choose and I absolutely agree. Did you hear that? I absolutely agree that a woman has a right to choose! We say it another way, “A woman has a right to change her mind.” Of course that is true but we fail to see the nuance and there is a nuance. What do you call a woman, who has just conceived new life in her womb? You don’t call her a woman anymore; from that moment forward she is a mother, a young mother, new life, etc. A woman has the right to change her mind but every mother here knows that a mother has no choice. They willing make themselves slaves in the service of their children. If you don’t know this then you don’t know what it is to be a mother. But, that is the definition of a mother…a willing slave of her children for as long as God gives them. Mothers are different than women; mothers have new life in them. A woman is a female and can change her mind but a mother cannot; she always chooses her child. Look at how we have been lied to since 1973.

Friday I saw something that made my heart soar; I was so excited. I saw a woman and her husband and their five children. The youngest of the five children was born in April and is a Down syndrome child. This was on national and international TV. Regardless of whatever happens in the future, just the fact that this four-month-old child was on national and international TV, the world will never be the same. You see, in her forth month that mother knew that she was going to give birth to a Down syndrome baby. When the nurse brought the baby to this mother after she’d given birth and placed the baby in her arms, the mother said the same thing my mother said when I was born, “He’s perfect!” That is the same thing your mother said when you were born. That is the same thing my mother said when my siblings were born. To a mother this is so sensible. Of course after that it is up to us, right?

Do you know that after this woman appeared on national TV that within the hour and on Friday, I heard people saying this, in these or similar words,

“She knew she was carrying a Down syndrome child and she gave birth to that child? Why didn’t she do the right thing?”

The right thing is now the wrong thing; the right thing is to kill the child. That is what the culture of death that surrounds us says.

Do you know that when I finished four years of high school at Bishop Lynch, even though Fr. Robinson was so foundational in the pro-life movement in this Diocese, I had other teachers as well as a deacon, who confused me about this issue on abortion? After four years of Catholic high school I was still scratching my head about this issue of abortion.

Last Sunday I mentioned St. Augustine, who is on the cover of the bulletin When I was mentioning St. Augustine a woman went on national and international TV and described herself as an “ardent and practicing Catholic” and totally misrepresented the Catholic teaching on when life begins. Then something happened that I have never seen happen. Now, I didn’t hear her say it on TV because on Sundays I am kind of tied up, but I heard it the following day along with, as I already said, something I have never heard before. The Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia, the Archbishop of Washington D.C., the Archbishop of Denver, the USCCB, and the Bishop of Dallas all came out and said that what this “ardent and practicing Catholic” said was wrong and she had totally misrepresented the teaching of the Church.

To understand why this happened today and not four years ago you have to understand the history four years ago as our country was preparing for elections. An obscure Cardinal, to most people, sent a letter to the bishops in this country to be read to all the bishops in private. The letter said that if there is a candidate that is pro life and there is a candidate who is pro abortion, Catholics must vote for the pro-life candidate. Should Catholics do otherwise then they would have to refrain from receiving Holy Communion…excommunicate yourself…that is the simple version. That is what was in the letter, which was misrepresented to the bishops and there was a lot of confusion four years ago.

In the intervening years there are things that have happened. The pope at that time died, may he rest in peace. The obscure cardinal in Rome, who sent the letter, is now Pope Benedict. He came over in April to visit here and the woman I mention, who knowingly misrepresented Catholic teaching, graduated from a Catholic college in Washington many years ago and so she knows the truth. When the pope came she did something, which she was not forced to do; she bent over and kissed the ring on the pope’s finger. President Bush didn’t do that and she did not have to do it but she was showing that she knew Peter was in her midst. To kiss the pope’s ring is a public action, which says,

“I recognize in the person of the pope.”

Yet, her public action back in April is not in accord with her public statement last Sunday. To her shame she has not recanted and has dug a deeper hole. In fact, it appears that she is contending for the gates of Hell. Remember that big hole I mentioned last week? She is digging a bigger hole than the gates of Hell I spoke about last Sunday.

In today’s Divine Office, chapter 11, verse 20, the Prophet Jeremiah said,

You would be in the right O Lord if I should dispute with You.

You see that on the bulletin cover St. Augustine is disputing with heretics, who knowingly misrepresent the Catholic Faith. We have an example of a heretic in the Gospel, someone debating God. Can you find the passage where Jesus recognizes the heretic?

Get thee behind Me Satan! You are not thinking as God thinks but as man does.

Now, if you think this is all beyond you and you cannot understand it, it is all very simple. Jesus tells us through the pope and Church, that there is never… zero!… never a case, where an abortion is allowed. ZERO! Never! I can give you a many documents to read and maybe you will come away with the truth. The letter that was sent four years ago states that there is never a case when abortion is allowed. We have to be very clear because just as that other teacher influenced me or that deacon or my friends around me after four years at a Catholic high school…your children are no different and can be influenced as well. In fact, it is even worse today so we have to be very clear.

The Lord says,

What merit would it be for a man to gain the whole world and lose his life?

Now you see, and of course everyone here agrees with this. Of course if that is true then why is it when we go to vote we can’t see the number one issue?

What merit would it be for a man to gain the whole world and lose his life?

It is all right here! But, should you decide to go your own way, away from Peter and the preaching of Christ, remember this.

The Son of Man will come with His angels in His Father’s glory and then He will repay each one according to his conduct.

Between now and November you have time to find out in each and every election, who the pro-life candidates are and who the pro-abortion candidates are. In every Mass at St. William’s I could ask that question and the Knights of Columbus would all raise their hand. They promote life! The Knights of Columbus in the northeast, but not exclusively, have to turn and say to some of their own brother Knights that they cannot be a Catholic and be pro abortion. Some of these are politicians, who are Knights of Columbus because it looks good in the resume.

Between now and the election, if you call me or approach me without others around and tell me you are not sure about this or that candidate and want to know who is pro-life, I won’t tell you how to vote. So far I have not mentioned the name of a party; I have not even mentioned THAT woman’s name, but she in on page 12 of the bulletin, in the bishop’s statement. No, I am not going to fall for that and I am not going to lead you away from what Christ teaches in His Church; you can do whatever you want; you have always been free and no one can make it otherwise. But, you can wander away from Peter. We heard about him last Sunday.

You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build My Church.

So, if you want to approach me or call me that is fine but save your letters if you object to what I have said today; this is mild compared to what I could say and many of you know it. This is not to get attention. I am sorry but so many people are asleep, knowingly asleep on this issue. It is the most important issue. Even if someone wants to send me a thousand dollars a week for the rest of my life as long as I vote for abortion, I cannot do it! I don’t care how sweet the deal is. If whatever they offer me means someone else has to die…the price is too high.

Jesus turned and said to St. Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan; you are a stumbling block to me. You are not thinking as God does but as men do.”

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

Amen