Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 3, 2006
”He willed to give us birth by the word of truth, that we may be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you and is able to save your soul. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and before the Father is this, to care for orphans and widows and their afflictions and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
The man who wrote those words died the death of a martyr, which makes a big difference. He put into practice what he preached.
When I was a kid, on Saturday night and without fail, we always watched a program called the “Naked City.” They always began or ended the show with,
There are a million stories in the Naked City, this has been just one.
I always wondered why they called it the Naked City; everyone had their clothes on. [Laughter] This was a long time ago but now it is commonplace for people to have their clothes off on television. We would also watch the “Untouchables”, the struggle between Al Capone and the Mob against Elliott Ness and the FBI. I will talk more about the “Untouchables” later.
You know, for someone who hates TV, I sure talk about TV a lot, right? I can read minds; you should have sat in the back. [Laughter] I heard that!
This summer I saw a friend of mine over the 4th of July. He is a young man from Nebraska and is stationed at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish there. He just finished his first year in the Seminary. He received his college degree in Computer Science and then he went back to the College of St. Thomas More in Ft. Worth, which prepared him to go into the Seminary last year. This young man was at Blessed Sacrament when I was there. He was here at St. Williams the first two years I was here and he chanted the Passion of the Lord on Psalm Sunday. The third year he embraced the Cross and went into the Seminary.
During the 4th of July weekend we were able to visit and talk about how things were going for him and he told me something that shocked me but it didn’t surprise me. As another old TV series us to say,
The names are changed to protect the innocent.
Ok? I will just leave the name out, which is even better. This young man is attending a very good seminary back in the northeast and it is connected to a Catholic College; Catholic in name only, founded by a religious order and staffed by priests. There is a nun there that goes all the way back to Noah. [Laughter] There are a lot of professors also. This young man got his first taste of a Catholic in name only university. They started passing out leaflets there and advertising this play that was going to be put on there. They have been doing this for many years. It is one of those “human traditions” Jesus was all fired up about in the Gospel... fired up meaning mad. People say Roe v Wade and abortion is a tradition too.
At that Catholic in name only university they have the tradition every year of putting on this play and I will refer to only part of the play’s name…”The Monologues.” The word that precedes “Monologues’ is an anatomically sexually explicit word, which I refuse o use in Church or in public. The “monologues” is a play that denigrates women and is pornographic in content. It is a play, which mocks everything the Catholic Church stands for and it is held at Catholic Universities. Why? Is someone being held hostage? Of course not!
My friend got together with some of his friends and they put on something this year called, the “Dialogue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” It is about what we just did before Mass here when we prayed the Angelus. It is an exchange between Our Lady and the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation. Boy, did that Catholic in name only university kick up a stink! First of all, people at this diversity prone university denied them permission. A Catholic university wouldn’t give them permission and then they would give them different permissions and at the last minute withdraw them, leaving them with no safety net. They would schedule a place that a meeting could be held and then at the last minute change it to somewhere else, which was not in any way parallel in size. Equipment was promised and then later it evaporated, with the claim that no one knew what happened to it.
Believe it or not, the play was put on. Sister SO and SO, the one that goes all the way back to Noah turned into a real viper against the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was pro-Monologue and anti-Blessed Virgin Mary. Priests did the same thing there as well as professors and students. This is a Catholic university! This same thing has been experienced at other major Catholic universities in this country and if I named them you would recognize their football team, basketball team, or the name of the university. A Catholic in name only university…why do they bother? Well you know the human traditions also include the alumni.
“Well, they are BIG donors and we don’t want to rock the boat.”
That is the kind of human tradition going on and they wouldn’t stand up and defend the Blessed Virgin Mary or the Church’s teaching against such terrible things. For example, there is a very prominent Catholic university in our nation’s capital, which with open arms invited and hosted that wretched pornographer, Larry Flynt.
“We’re so happy you are here Mr. Flynt” genuflect…genuflect
Am I on a different planet? Again, why do they call it the Naked City? Everyone has his or her clothes on. Why do they call it a Catholic university? Again, this is not part of the Catholic Tradition of a university.
My friend went back to the university for year two of seminary. He left his parish on the Feast of the Assumption after they chanted Evening Prayer as we did before Mass tonight, but they chanted it in Gregorian Chant, in Latin. What a beautiful gift to give the Blessed Mother. It will be interesting to hear round two as this goes on.
We have an excellent Catholic university here in Dallas, the University of Dallas. I mentioned the college of St. Thomas More in Ft. Worth as well as having mentioned Christendom College in the past. There are excellent Catholic universities but they are definitely dwarfed by the Behemoth known as, “Catholic in name only university”, because they have now supplanted our traditions, which promote Christ and His Truth. How sad!
The university is helping to root out and fight error and lies. In fact, the university is to give birth to the truth. On August 15, 1990, John Paul II wrote a letter that is beautiful and one that can be accessed on the Internet, Ex cordia ecclesia…From the Heart of the Church. It talks about how a Catholic university must be…what is the word? CATHOLIC! A Catholic university must be Catholic. In the document the Pope is showing these bishops, in whose Dioceses these universities reside, how to promote a university that will give birth to the Truth and not support lies.
The Dallas Morning News had an article yesterday in the Religion section called, “Satan, Father’s Little Helper”. Essentially it is a puff-piece reviewing a book by an x-Jesuit priest and is saying that the devil is just a furry innocent fuzz ball. Yes, until you cuddle him so close to you he gets out his fangs and sinks them into your neck! Listen to this paragraph about Dr. Kelly who is promoting the book…don’t buy it!
Dr. Kelly’s attempt to exonerate Satan comes just months after the unveiling of the so-called “Gospel of Judas”, and ancient manuscript that argues that biblical back-stabber, Judas Iscariot actually conspired with Jesus to fulfill His mission on earth. When interviewed Judas said, “I was only trying to help.”
THE DEVIL HE WAS! RIGHT? I remember a few years ago when I saw a story written about a priest who had a cat and he named his cat Lucifer. First of all, why name a cat? When you call their name they never come to you. Right? [Laughter] Why have a cat if you are going to call it Lucifer? You never want to say the word “Lucifer” preceded by the words, “come here”. I was just amazed at this. This whole idea that Satan is somehow just working hand and glove with God, is everything against what you see on the front of the bulletin, the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The birth of Mary comes nine months after the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her Feast day is September 8th. We go from the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the birth of the Blessed Virgin and all the way through until the moment she draws her last breath on earth and is assumed into Heaven. Never once, not for a nano-second did any part of her be it a cell or molecule, allow Satan to have any part of her. She was truly a Temple of the Lord the entire time she spent on earth. What a beautiful connection to recall this week. Our Lady’s Assumption is about Our Lady of Victory crossing the finish line, which is Heaven, urging her children on.
There is a beautiful Church in France, a very out of the way place called Chartres and it is named for Our Lady’s Assumption. It is the best example of Gothic architecture in the world…probably.
View Church at the link below
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/chartres.html
It wasn’t destroyed when the terror of the French Revolution was unleashed upon civilization because it was so remote. It is absolutely beautiful and recalls Our Lady’s Assumption. Next to that cathedral was a school. In the eleven and twelve hundreds this school produced saints. These saints were in charge of this school, called the Cathedral School. Many Catholics have never heard this but it is true that the university system grew from Catholic Cathedral Schools in France. The University of Paris, probably the oldest university in the world, grew out of the Cathedral School at Notre Dame in Paris. The Cathedral School was necessary for a bishop because if he was going to have men ordained, who would offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, they had to be able to read and in order to read they had to learn how. They also had to learn to read Latin so the Cathedral School formed by necessity and what the university system has done up until recently has been to preserve the Western tradition, the one that everyone wants to skip in college and take the real courses. Western civilization by the university and especially by the man I mentioned last Sunday, St. Augustine of Hippo. He was the son of St. Monica. His Feast Day was last Monday and her feast was last Sunday.
St. Augustine was an incredible writer, gifted and intelligent and has preserved in many ways the ancient thinkers that came before him. He died in the year 430 so you can see how close he is to the time of Christ. Because of his scope of intelligence and his tremendous cooperation with God’s graces, St. Augustine is studied in every good Liberal Arts program at any secular or Catholic University. He wrote his first autobiography known in the West and it is called, “The Confessions.” St. Augustine is remembered, not for the things he did before he came into the Church and converted…he was a real stinker then. But at the age of thirty he was Baptized and the copious works, which he pinned after he came into the Church, we see the beauty of Augustine and his writings. No course on Western Civilization could be complete without St. Augustine and a reference to him.
This is a May edition I am holding up of Homiletic and Pastoral review. It is a magazine for priest and the laity. There is an article in here by a Fr. Campbell from Chicago. He mentions St. Augustine and St. Monica as well as Blessed Mother Teresa, whose Feast is Tuesday. He is talking about St. Augustine before his conversion. This will help us greatly to understand the connection with the university and the family. He writes,
Because faith is a gift and faith requires the submission of our mind and will, faith must be nourished and protected with prudence and vigilance if faith is to grow stronger otherwise faith will weaken, and like any gift it may even be lost. A life of daily prayer, Sunday Mass, reception of the Sacraments, acts of charity, faith in action (as Blessed Mother of Teresa of Calcutta used to say), deepens our faith.
Doesn’t that sound like it is right out of the second reading concerning being doers of the Word and not hearers only?
However, leading a sinful life is an obstacle to accepting the faith and can result in the loss of the faith.
St. Augustine is a classic example. Before he converted, this is his prayer that he prayed.
Convert me Lord but not yet!
Uh huh! He was having too much fun; he was in the pipeline at the age of fifteen, ready to come into the Church. At that time he was a Catechumen then all of a sudden he met this girl from down the street and together they had a child. There was nothing to do with marriage or buying a home. He had the tiger by the tail and he was having a great time; having all kinds of fun. He says in his Confessions that he was “seeking every pleasure possible”. He was smart, handsome, wealthy and having fun! But his life was a mess. At the age of thirty Augustine converted and then we hear about him. I will finish Fr. Campbell’s comment.
The pride of St. Augustine, his pride and enjoyment of sensual pleasure darkened his intellect and weakened his will and effectively prevented St. Augustine from accepting the Gospel.
It darkened his intellect and weakened his will. This is what grave sin will do. All those sins that Jesus mentions at the end of the gospel today will weaken our will and darken our intellect. The preaching of St. Ambrose and the persevering prays of his mother, St. Monica helped St. Augustine overcome his worldly attachments. He was definitely being stained by the world, like St. James says in that second reading today. St. Augustine nearly lost his faith; he was so close to losing his faith because he gave in to his senses and pleasures. He is only considered great today because of everything that happened after his conversion, when, by the grace of God his intellect was brightened and his will fortified.
Everyone here, especially this Pastor, should rejoice in St. Augustine. If it could happen to him it can happen to me. We have to admit that we are terribly afflicted by human traditions. Let me give you an example; I told you I would come back to the subject of the “Untouchables”. In the Untouchables Al Capone terrified the people of Chicago and Elliott Ness and the FBI fought against him. Well, Al Capone got his start somewhere, I mean he had to rob his first bank. It was probably his brother’s piggy bank. [Laughter] What if, the night before he is going to rob his first bank with his mob buddies, young Al told his parents that he was getting ready to rob the First Bank of Chicago? He is just letting them know. The next morning he arrives at the bank and they get out of the car with their guns and Al looks over to the side and down the street from the bank stands mom and dad Capone. He can’t go into that bank; there is mom and dad standing right there! You can just picture him with his gun saying,
“Mom, dad! What are you doing here?”
Mr. and Mrs. Capone say,
“Well, son, we are just here to support you.”
[Laughter]
Now parents, you think long and hard the next time you get that phone call asking you to cooperate with the terrorist on the other end of that line, who happens to be your son or your daughter. The phone call won’t be about robbing a bank, but you can pick something from that category that JESUS says. They are going to want you to give your blessing. I have heard a lot of crazy, sad, and blasphemous things as a priest. Invariably, I have even heard people tell me that Jesus was there with them as they were getting this or that “procedure” in the “clinic”. You can fill in the rest; forty million abortions, right? They say Jesus wanted her to have ….I can’t even finish the sentence. The reason I am saying this is because mom and dad Capone would not go and help Al rob the bank, but so many times as a parent, the human cords, the human traditions that you have of love are going to tempt you. Satan is NOT on a coffee break and you are going to be tempted. The father of lies is going to tempt you to bless your child while they are doing this or that particular mortal sins mentioned in today’s Gospel.
It is interesting that in Jerusalem there is a Mosque, one of the most important places in all of Islam and Catholics, Jews, and Moslems agree that the place on the Temple Mount is very sacred. It is the rock where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac. We have seen the pictures of Abraham raising the knife and Isaac could not get away because he was bound. He was submitting to his father’s will. Abraham was also submitting to his Father’s Will. God stayed his hand. Right outside of the walls of Jerusalem is this, the Cross of Christ in plain site of that same Mt. Moriah, which is believed to be there in Jerusalem. And you love your children more than old Abraham loved Isaac? I don’t think so. There was nothing God could ask of Abraham that he wouldn’t do. To chose a child or something that they want over Christ is to trade down; is to hold a human tradition above God and that is sacrilege and blasphemy.
Look at the statue of St. Joseph over there; it is a beautiful statue. St. Joseph is holding near to him, the baby Jesus. Do you see how Jesus is cuddling into the chin of St. Joseph? In one arm he is holding a sleeping Jesus and in the other arm he has a lily, which is a symbol of purity. St. Joseph would not have Jesus so close to himself if he did not have purity so close to him. If he had not been living a life of purity Christ would not be there. Like it says in the First Reading,
What nation is there that has its gods so close to it as our God is to us?
I mentioned this last week; the hard sayings from last Sunday’s Gospel resound in this Gospel also. In so many ways we commit these sins and in doing so we are in peril of losing our faith and darkening our intellect as well as weakening our wills and become the people that we shouldn’t be.
Last week I mentioned that the family is called the Domestic Church. I bring this up because in his Second Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul refers to the family as the Domestic Church.
Wives should be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, He himself the Savior of the body. As the Church is submissive to Christ, so wives should be submissive to their husbands in everything.
Then he tells husbands to love their wives, even to the point of shedding their blood for them. Again, I covered all that last weekend. Jesus is the Head and we are the members of His body. The father is the head of the Domestic Church and the wife and the children are the members.
Domestic Church is a very exalted title. Up until recently I never considered it, but if you have the title then you have the responsibility because if the family is the Domestic Church as Gaudium et Spies says, then it has to live according to the teachings of Christ. If the family shuns the teachings of Christ and promotes evil thought on chastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly, how can it call itself a Domestic Church? The Church is to give birth to Christ like the Blessed Mother gave birth to Christ and as is depicted on the front of the bulletin, St. Anne gave birth to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Feast Day is celebrated this week.
The university, the Catholic university and any secular university worth it’s salt, must give birth to the Truth! All this that I have mentioned about “Catholic in name only” universities, they have really welcomed in the father of lies, who is Satan and the devil. The truth is not in those institutions. Sure, they are still standing…they have foundations and deep pockets. Remember what Archbishop Fulton Sheen said about Catholic universities in this countries back in the 1960s and 70s? Many people got their first introduction into the Catholic faith by watching Archbishop Sheen. He said that the best way for your grown children to lose their faith in Christ is to send them to a Catholic university! When he was saying those things people probably thought that he was good on TV but he was getting old and out of his mind. He prophesied and the prophecy has been fulfilled.
When you see the “Monologues” allowed in a university and the “Dialogues of the Blessed Virgin Mary” shunned and sabotaged, what planet do we live on? The father of lies is afoot; he is not at rest. St. Peter says,
Be sober and alert, your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
“I guess the newspaper didn’t land on his porch yesterday morning. What does St. Peter know about all that stuff?”
We cannot put human traditions in our universities over giving birth to Christ. We cannot, in our homes, allow human traditions to stop the family from giving birth to Christ. I remember going back to Bambi, when Walt Disney used to put out family friendly movies. But now so many of Walt Disney’s movies include all of these, evil thought on chastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly. Can you think of a popular series today that doesn’t include them? It would go off the air.
Humbly welcome the Word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to care for orphans and widows and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen