Ordinary 14

The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Ezekiel 2:2-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Mark 6:1-6a

The first in a series.

We’ve seen the headlines. It’s some configuration of: Biden, bishops, communion, and abortion.

My thoughts today are of necessity complex because the issues, theological, political, canonical and moral are complex. They are relevant and important for our understanding of what it means being a contemporary Catholic Christian.

American Catholics have always had a difficult balancing act.  Which comes first: church or country?  Our commitment to a democratic, pluralistic society born out of the Enlightenment or a commitment to Christ and his body, the Church? Many values of one commitment are perceived and do collide with the beliefs and values of the other commitment.

We must ask, how does a Christian, especially a person in elected public office that is to represent people of various faith beliefs or no belief, walk along this precipice? Political life in a modern democracy is complex and indirect. Governing is the art of compromise formed by making coalitions. Members have different priorities and complex tradeoffs are an inescapable part of political life. We do not live in a theocracy as much as many people taut we are a Christian country. Therefore, what are the limits that need to be recognized by the Church of Catholic politicians, leaders and representatives who work in our government?

We do not live in a medieval monarchy where faith and state are one. And even then one needs only to recall the conflict between Henry II of England and Thomas Becket of Canterbury, or more recently, Archbishop Oscar Romero and a military led junta.

Whether a medieval hereditary Christian king or a democratically elected Catholic President; whether a relatively homogeneous society or a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-racial, pluralistic culture, there are bound to be conflicts over questions of authority, belief and values.

Our present situation has only been made worse by political polarization and partisanship and the uncharitable presumptions made against fellow Catholics about their motivations.

Yet all Catholic Christians, not just elected Catholic officials, are called to live publicly the moral life of the Gospel that we profess. We are all public moral agents. Should there not be expected a coherence between the values and beliefs we profess and the public and private lives of all Catholic Christians, least of all from ourselves?

Are we only a Christian in Church and at home while leaving our beliefs and values at the door of our places of employment, neighborhood, social media and public spaces? Our professed beliefs would then have no value, even to us.

Religion, faith, and belief are not private affairs as so many people in our culture, including Catholics, believe. Curiously, we have no issue constantly taking in through public and social media a vast array of values contrary to the Gospel; values that often have form the Christian rather than the Christian forming society. Yet when it comes to the values of our Christian faith, it is suddenly a private matter. We’ve forgotten that Jesus taught whoever does not publicly acknowledge him, he will disown.

To follow Jesus Christ is a public commitment to a public way of life. I am not suggesting we force our beliefs on other people, particularly by law, for that is not how Jesus proclaimed his message. Likewise, John XXIII taught that listening and making our positions persuasively was the path to dialogue with the world. Thus, Jesus let people walk away from him and his teachings if they chose.

All Catholics therefore, not just Catholic elected officials, are to bring our Christian values to the discussion table within the public forum. All Catholics are to strive for social justice, racial and economic equality and be a voice for the poor. That is one way in which we are called to transform our society. We have been doing that for centuries. Why do Judeo-Christian values undergird Western civilization and culture? Because Christians spoke and lived out the values we today call, medical care, democracy, social justice, care for the poorest among us, the dignity of work, and the common good.

This vision of Christian activism is given voice in one of our Eucharistic Prayers.

[O God,] Open our eyes to the needs of our brothers and sisters;inspire in us words and actions to comfort those who labor and are burdened…may your Church stand as a living witness to truth and freedom, to peace and justice,that all people may be raised up to a new hope.

The Christian life is to offer a new hope to everyone in our world.

Yet a conflicting aspect of this prayer is that as American citizens, I expect, we hear and understand the words, truth and freedom and peace and justice quite differently than that meant by the Hebrew prophets and Jesus in the Gospels. Freedom as understood in the words of the Constitution is not the same as freedom in Christ Jesus. Jesus offers us peace but not as the world offers peace. Biblical justice is not the same as the equal scales of Lady Justice. And truth for the Christian is a person, Jesus Christ. Quite different from the crisis of truth we are experiencing in our nation.

And therein lies the roots of the conflict that has risen between Catholic elected officials and our bishops.

Consider the following.

How do we live out being a Catholic Christian who is also an Enlightenment American citizen?

What do you and I consider our primary commitments? Is it possible to balance multiple commitments without betraying any one of them? And if not possible, which commitment do you betray? And can we live honestly with that choice?

While other members of government bring values that are either similar or contrary to our Christian values into the public forum, how do we view the role of a Catholic elected official in this situation?

These are complex times and there are no black and white answers.

Let us continue this conversation next week.

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PLEASE NOTE: Homilies presented here are also being videotaped and put up on the Saint Mary, Oneonta website: http://www.SMCCOneonta.org.