(Fourteenth Sunday of the Year
(A): This homily was given on July 9, 2017 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly,
R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Matthew
11: 25-30.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourteenth Sunday 2017]
Life
is Beautiful is an Academy Award winning
movie that was released back in 1997.
Pope John Paul II saw it at the time in a private screening, and it
quickly became one of his favorite films.
The story itself is set in Italy, just before and during the Second
World War.
About halfway through the film, the
main character, a Jewish Italian waiter named Guido, and his young son, Joshua,
are taken away to a concentration camp. The
remainder of the movie deals with Guido’s many attempts (some of which are
quite funny) to shield his son from the horrible reality of the situation they're in. For example, when they’re on their way to the
camp, Guido tells Joshua that his dad once took him on a “trip” like this, and
that if he stays quiet, and doesn’t cry and obeys all the rules, he will win
points. And when he accumulates 1,000
points, he will win the first prize: a real tank that he can ride on. Little Joshua believes what his father tells
him; consequently for the remainder of the movie he thinks he’s a participant
in a game rather than a prisoner in a death camp.
It’s a great story! It’s a great story of a man who loves his son
so much that he wants to protect the boy’s innocence—at
almost any cost. Guido doesn’t want his
precious child to be wounded and corrupted by the evil that’s literally all
around him, and so he does whatever he can to shield him from it.
We need more men and women today
who have this same protective attitude
toward young people, many of whom are having their innocence stolen from them at
a very young age: through what they’re exposed to on television, on the
internet, in movies, in popular music, in school, through their friends—and,
sad to say, even sometimes by what they’re exposed to in their own families! As Judie Brown, the president of the American
Life League, put it in an article I read recently:
On a daily basis, we see the innocence of children eroded. Television, Internet articles, and social media combine to allow children to enter a world of sexualization [and, I would add, a world of violence] at an earlier age – and adults and parents just seem to accept this. Indeed, even some embrace it and welcome it into their schools and their homes. When will we realize the damage we are doing? When will we say enough is enough?
She goes on in that article to talk
about an America’s Got Talent program
that she and her husband had recently watched—a program in which a 12-year-old
boy proceeded to come on stage, tell dirty jokes, and then get a standing
ovation from many of those in attendance.
She writes:
What's wrong with this picture? A 12-year-old child shocking only some and sending an audience of hundreds to its feet is perhaps a tiny peek into the culture we live in today.
Unfortunately, because our
culture is what it is at the present time, it’s nearly impossible to completely
preserve a child’s innocence—unless, of course, you lock that child up for the
first 18 years of his or her life (which, incidentally, I am not advocating!). My point here is that even the best parents
and teachers and priests and friends can’t shield a young person from every negative influence that’s out
there right now.
Although we can do some things
to limit what children are exposed to (like restricting their internet access).
And we MUST do these things if
we really love our young people--because their relationship with Almighty God hangs
in the balance (both their relationship with him here on this earth, AND their
relationship with him in eternity)! You
see, Jesus makes a connection in the Bible between childlike innocence and openness
to God. For example, in today’s
gospel text from Matthew 11 our Lord says,
I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,for although you have hidden these thingsfrom the wise and the learnedyou have revealed them to little ones.Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
Then later, in chapter 18 of
Matthew, Jesus says these famous words:
Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
According to Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior, innocence and openness are closely connected in the spiritual
realm—which is precisely why these assaults on the innocence of children are so
prevalent today! They’re not
coincidental. They’re part of Satan’s
strategy: his 21st century strategy against the human race. The devil knows that the more innocent a
person is—that is to say, the less influenced and corrupted a person is by evil—the
more open that person will be to God’s transforming grace. So he’s desperately trying to destroy
innocence in as many people as possible as
early on as possible, in order to gain a foothold in their lives.
Because he knows that if he can
gain a foothold—and keep it—he can eventually take their souls.
Which is always his ultimate goal.
So what about those who have
completely lost their innocence in this way—is there any hope for them? And how about the rest of us who’ve been negatively
affected by the day-to-day evil we’ve encountered in our lives? Is there any hope for us to be more open to
God?
Thankfully the answer to both
those questions is yes!
Here’s where the beauty and
power of the sacrament of Reconciliation come into the picture.
Confession, unfortunately, cannot
restore every aspect of childhood innocence.
That’s the bad news. You can’t go
back in time and start all over again.
But the good news is that confession
can restore the most important aspect
of childhood innocence, namely, SANCTIFYING GRACE: that’s the grace that makes us
pleasing to God; it’s the grace that makes us open to God; and, most important
of all, it’s the grace that makes us ready for heaven!
So if you’ve lost your innocence
to any extent whatsoever, make sure you get to confession SOON—and have your
innocence restored, to the extent that it can be restored in this life.
