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| John the Baptist confronting King Herod |
(Twenty-sixth Sunday of the Year
(B): This homily was given on September 30, 2012, at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-sixthSunday 2012]
This morning I’d like to speak to
you briefly about the ‘politics’ of the prophets (a rather timely topic to deal
with during an election year, wouldn’t you say?).
Now, there’s always a danger in
mentioning politics of any kind from the pulpit—at least there’s a danger if
you’re an orthodox Catholic who believes in the natural law and the Ten
Commandments. Then, you had better watch
it! On the other hand, if you’re a
cleric of a more liberal persuasion when it comes to abortion and other social
issues, then you can say whatever you want about political topics and not a
word of protest is uttered in most secular media outlets.
I find it interesting, for
example, that a certain Baptist minister—who proudly uses the title, “Reverend”
in public—has his own TV show on one of the cable news networks: a show that’s
almost completely political in its focus!
Whatever happened to the
so-called “separation of church and state,” Reverend Sharpton?
Oh well, I guess that only
applies to some of us.
I, of course, never tell anyone
from the pulpit whom they should vote for—although I’ve been accused of doing
that by some people. I’ll never forget,
several years ago, just before a presidential election, an irate elderly woman
came to the rectory one afternoon demanding to talk with me. So I took her into the sun room, we sat down,
and she immediately pointed her finger at me and shouted, “I’m very upset with
you! You want us to vote for so-and-so!”
I said, “Well, that’s
interesting. But tell me, have I ever
said in one of my homilies, ‘In this election you should vote for so-and-so’? Have I ever said anything like that?”
She said, “Well, no. . . . BUT I
KNOW YOU—AND YOU WANT US TO VOTE FOR SO-AND-SO!!!”
Now I will give that woman credit
for one thing: she was making “connections”—very important connections:
connections between what I did say in
my homilies and the circumstances of her daily life.
And I make no apologies for that occurrence,
because that’s exactly what a preacher is supposed to help people do! He’s supposed to help men and women to connect the timeless message of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ with their everyday experience.
The Catechism of the Catholic
Church says this in paragraph 2246: “It is part of the Church’s mission to pass
moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental
rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it.”
So when a priest says something
like, “It’s wrong for a politician to support and promote the destruction of
innocent human life through abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell
research,” or, “It’s wrong for a politician to directly attack the religious
freedom and conscience rights of others,” that priest is simply doing what he
was ordained to do! He’s highlighting truths that should guide Catholics—and all men and women of good will—in
choosing the best possible people to be their leaders. Now if those listening to him at Mass on a
given Sunday make direct connections in their minds between these truths and
certain individual politicians, that’s their business. The priest can’t help that. The fault actually lies with the politicians
who advocate those evil public policies.
The policies are evil because they violate basic, fundamental human
rights, like the right to life and the right to religious freedom (rights,
incidentally, upon which this nation was founded!).
Politicians can differ on the
best way to fix the economy and the health care system, but not on basic human
rights.
Human rights are non-negotiable.
Now if you still have an
objection to priests addressing subjects like this in their homilies, I do ask
that you try to be thankful: Be
thankful that you have to listen to someone like Fr. Ray every weekend and not Samuel,
or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Elijah, or Amos, or John the Baptist, or any of the
great biblical prophets. I say, “Be thankful,”
because, compared to all those guys, I’m a veritable pussycat!
Biblically speaking, who were the
prophets? Well, very simply, the prophets
were people who proclaimed God’s word—God’s sacred truth—to others. They were not
fortune-tellers (that’s a common misunderstanding). Yes, it’s true, they did talk at times about
the future, but always in relation to
what was happening in the present moment!
For example, they often said things like, “Reform your lives, so that
something bad will not happen to you.”
Notice: that message points to
the future, but it’s designed to get people to change their lives in a positive
way in the present moment.
That’s typical of prophetic
utterances in the Bible.
Actually, we’re all called to be
prophets in the world today because of the fact that we’re baptized! We’re called to be the fulfillment of the
desire of Moses that he expressed to Joshua in today’s first reading—in that
line where he says, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit
on them all!”
Each and every one of is called
to speak God’s truth to other people in love (as St. Paul tells us in Ephesians
4: 15). That’s our common Christian mandate.
And yet, as we all know,
throughout history God has appointed certain people to be prophets in a more
formal sense.
I mentioned some of these
individuals a few moments ago: Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, etc.
And what I realized when I was
preparing this homily the other day is that these men, whom we read about in
the Sacred Scriptures, were extremely political
when they spoke and wrote their prophecies.
At least they were political by
our standards, and according to our definition of the term.
That’s something that had never
struck me before—at least not in the way it did the other day.
But it’s so true! Think, for example, of how often the prophets
verbally attacked the wicked kings of Israel and Judah.
They did it constantly—on almost
every page of their writings! They
didn’t just mention principles, like we priests do. They also named names!
The great prophet Samuel, for
example, said to Saul (the very first king of Israel), “Because you did not
obey God in dealing with the Amalekites, your kingship is over! It’s finished!—and there’s nothing you can do
to change that fact!”
That’s typical of how the
prophets confronted their leaders when their leaders disobeyed God.
The prophets also meddled in what
we would refer to today as “foreign policy.”
Jeremiah, for example, gave King Zedekiah advice on how to deal with the
Babylonians and the Egyptians at a crucial moment in the history of Judah. It was great advice; but, unfortunately,
Zedekiah didn’t listen.
Even a good king like David was
reprimanded by a prophet—the prophet Nathan.
It happened (as you will recall) after David had his little “fling” with
Bathsheba.
So even the personal lives of the
rulers were considered to be fair game for the prophets of Sacred
Scripture! Remember what John the
Baptist used to tell Herod? He used to say
to him, “Herodias—the woman you’re living with—is the lawful wife of your
brother Philip! You stole her,
Herod! You’re committing adultery!”
And John never made any apologies
for his words.
Needless to say, the prophets
were really, really serious about their politics. And they were never shy about expressing
themselves on political matters.
Here, in the United States, in 2012, they’d probably all end up
in jail.
So it’s really a great blessing
that you have us priests (and bishops and deacons) to simply remind you of the
truths—the principles—that should guide you in the voting booth and in every
other aspect of life.
More about that—from a special
guest priest—in late October.
I’ll bet you can’t wait.
