Deaf—by Choice

(Twenty-third Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 6, 2009 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Mark 7: 31-37.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-third Sunday 2009]

John said to his neighbor, “I just bought a brand new hearing aid. It cost $4,000, but it was worth every penny. It’s perfect.” The neighbor said, “What kind is it?” John said, “Twelve-thirty.”

Three old men were out walking one day. The first one said, “Windy, isn’t it?” The second one said, “No, it’s Thursday!” The third one said, “So am I. Let’s go have a beer.”

Bill was having hearing problems for a number of years. He finally went to a doctor who fit him for a set of hearing aids. A month later Bill went back to the doctor, who tested him and said, “Bill, your hearing is perfect. Your family must be so happy that you can hear again with these new hearing aids.”

Bill replied, “Well, Doctor, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t told my family about them yet. I’ve just been sitting around listening to them talk—mostly about me. I’ve already changed my will three times!”

Some people are physically incapable of hearing—like most of the people in those 3 little stories I just told, and like the man in today’s gospel whom Jesus healed near the Sea of Galilee.

But others are deaf by an act of the will. That is to say, others are deaf by personal choice.

This is something you encounter often as a priest—unfortunately.

It happens when you meet a person who has heard you preach or teach on a certain topic, and has obviously tuned you out.

For example, I’ve had some men and women who sit in these pews every Sunday tell me in no uncertain terms that they hate other people.

On those occasions I think to myself, “I’ve talked about forgiveness dozens and dozens of times over the years. I know they’ve heard me say those things; I know they’ve heard the gospel passage where Jesus says, ‘If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you.’ So how can they possibly think this way?”

Fr. Ray, it’s called “self-imposed deafness” or “selective spiritual hearing.” Take your choice.

And speaking of “choice,” I have the same experience when I’m told about parishioners of this parish who proudly refer to themselves as “pro-choice”—or who actively support politicians who are of that persuasion.

Self-imposed deafness.

Ask yourself this morning: Is there anything that causes me to be deaf by choice?

Is there any authoritative teaching in the Bible or in the Catechism that causes me to choose to be deaf?

It could be something as simple as showing improper favoritism to others—the kind of thing that St. James speaks about in our second reading today. If a person is showing this kind of favoritism to someone else in order to manipulate them or to gain something financially, they will probably not want to hear about it from St. James or anyone else, and the temptation will be to turn a deaf ear to the one telling them the truth.

We can choose to be deaf on an issue like favoritism; but more often than not people today choose deafness with respect to one or more of the “hot button issues” of our time: abortion, artificial contraception, in vitro fertilization, sterilization, euthanasia, homosexual activity, etc.

In fact, if the statistics are true about the number of Catholics who don’t accept the Church’s teaching on these and other key moral matters, then I’m sure there’s a lot of self-imposed deafness out there. And I think most good priests would agree with me, based on what they hear—or perhaps I should say what they DON’T hear!—in the confessional.

That’s because the number of Catholics committing certain sins according to the polls don’t match up with the number of Catholics actually confessing those sins in the confessional.

Some of the difference is probably rooted in ignorance: many Catholics, unfortunately, have been poorly catechized, and so they don’t know that certain actions are sinful.

But that’s definitely not the whole story! Other Catholics have been taught properly—they have been properly catechized—however, they choose to disregard what they’ve heard.

They’re deaf—by choice.

This, incidentally, is one reason why so many Catholic young people have gone astray. If our young people are going to be properly formed in the truth, we adults have to teach it—but first and foremost we have to believe it.

If we’re not fully convinced of it ourselves—that is to say, if we have chosen to be deaf to certain aspects of the gospel—that will affect our ability to teach it to the next generation.

Notice the connection in this gospel story between the man’s hearing and his ability to speak. The Bible says that when he first met Jesus this deaf man also had a speech impediment.

In all likelihood, he had that impediment precisely because he was deaf!

Usually those who can’t hear also have difficulty speaking properly—simply because they can’t hear themselves (or anyone else) talk.

Well, believe it or not, the very same truth applies in the spiritual realm: Those who are spiritually deaf by choice, will also have difficulty speaking the gospel. They will have a hard time teaching the truth to others in a convincing manner.

At the end of today’s gospel story the people who witnessed this incredible miracle said, “[Jesus] has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

If we want him to, Jesus will cure us of whatever spiritual deafness we may currently be experiencing, as he cured this man of his physical deafness.

He has the power to do so.

But we have to freely choose, by grace, to allow him to exercise that power for us and in us.

Just as we are deaf by personal choice, so also we are healed of our deafness by personal choice.

Healthcare Reform

(Twenty-second Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 30, 2009 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8; James 1: 17-18, 21b-22, 27; Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-Second Sunday 2009]


Will it be healthcare reformation, or healthcare deformation?

That’s one way to frame the big question which has been on the minds of many Americans in the last several weeks.

I decided to address it in my homily today, after a conversation I had with one of our ushers two Sundays ago just before the 8:30AM Mass started. He told me that he had been watching a television program on EWTN a few days earlier, and on it there was a panel discussion about the health care bills which are currently being considered in the House of Representatives and the Senate. What he heard during that hour made him realize how important this issue is for the future of our nation, and so he said to me, “Fr. Ray, why haven’t we heard more about this from our bishops and our priests and from other people in authority in the Church?”

Well, you know me, I always try to address important, contemporary issues from the pulpit—even if they’re tough ones, so I prayed about it, and I told the Lord that I would deal with the topic of healthcare some Sunday in the future when he gave me the right Scripture readings to work with.

Well, he did it today; the Lord provided me with a great set of Biblical texts to use in discussing the matter.

So I will now fulfill my promise to him and talk about healthcare reform—but not from a political perspective (I’ll leave that to the pundits on the cable news channels). Rather, I’ll speak about it this morning from the perspective of Sacred Scripture and our Catholic faith.

Let me begin by saying that I think most Americans are in agreement that our present healthcare system could use some improvement, although most Americans will also acknowledge that healthcare here in the United States is the best the world has to offer at the present time. And the proof of that is in the number of foreigners who come here for medical treatment. If they get seriously sick and are able to afford it, they make every effort to come to the good old U.S. of A. to get the surgery or therapy they need.

And I can’t say I blame them.

So reform is necessary; it’s the nature of the reform that has many people concerned and upset.

And I can’t say I blame them, either.

Here, I think, is where our 3 Scripture readings come into the picture. In the first, from Deuteronomy 4, Moses exhorts the Israelites to live the commandments and to be holy, so that they will be known to the rest of the world as “a wise and intelligent people.”

Of course, they didn’t always do that. In fact, many of them were unfaithful to the commandments over and over again.

But one thing the Israelites never did was to try to change the commandments of God. There’s no record in Scripture of anyone trying to officially nullify the 10 commandments that Moses delivered to the people on Mt. Sinai.

But we have nullified the 10 commandments in our civil laws in recent decades, haven’t we? Or at least we’ve nullified some of them. For example, it’s now legal in America to kill the unborn; it’s legal to withhold food and water from a dying person. And it’s legal to do a lot of other immoral things.

Right and wrong are no longer clear to us as a nation; consequently, right and wrong are no longer properly enshrined in our civil laws.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that so many people don’t trust the government? Is it any wonder that they don’t trust their civil officials to do what’s right and to act in their best interests and in the best interests of their loved ones?

Notice what St. James says in our second reading. First he says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” Then he adds, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God . . . is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Many of our civil leaders claim to believe in the word of God and claim to practice their Christian religion faithfully. But we know some of them don’t live by the policies and laws they support. That’s why there’s something within a lot of us that doesn’t trust them to act in the best interests of orphans and widows and others who need special assistance in our society.

We all know intuitively the truth Jesus proclaims in today’s Gospel (which applies both to them and to us): “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, and folly.”

So the bottom line is that we need to be praying for the conversion and reform of all our citizens—especially our leaders—just as much as we should be working for the reform of our healthcare system.

In fact, we will never have the second without the first; we will never have healthcare reform without the moral reform of our citizenry—even if the healthcare system that’s eventually signed into law is nearly perfect.

If it’s being run by immoral people, it will never work.

All that having been said, let me offer in conclusion some principles that should guide us as Catholics in evaluating the proposed legislation coming out of Congress. I’ll put these principles in question form. These are the questions we should ask before making the decision to support a particular reform plan.

1. Is the principle of subsidiarity being respected in the plan? The Catholic Church believes in what’s called “the principle of subsidiarity,” which basically means that problems should always be addressed at the lowest possible level. And so the Church would say that you—in conjunction with your doctor, your family, and your priest or moral advisor—should be making your healthcare decisions. Those decisions should not be made by the state.
2. Will healthcare be rationed in the plan, especially for the elderly, the handicapped and the terminally ill? We should not support a plan where a board of bureaucrats gets to decide whether or not grandma gets chemo treatments or a heart transplant. (This, again, involves the principle of subsidiarity.)
3. Will the proposed healthcare plan force doctors to provide for or refer for procedures like abortion that they consider to be immoral? In other words, will doctors and other medical professionals be forced to violate their consciences if they want to avoid going to jail? If the answer to those questions is yes, then we definitely shouldn’t support the plan.
4. Will Catholic hospitals be forced to provide medical services which are contrary to the Church’s moral teachings? If they will be, then we should not support the plan.
5. Will the proposed healthcare plan use tax dollars to fund abortions? If so, we should not support it.
6. Will the proposed healthcare plan give us more choices and options or fewer choices and options regarding insurance coverage and medical procedures? (Here’s one time when we should be “pro-choice!”)
7. Will the new plan help to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, which drive up the cost of healthcare for everyone? (There are, of course, legitimate lawsuits where people seek just compensation for acts of malpractice--but many are not legitimate, and it's those that need to be eliminated.)
8. Will the proposed healthcare plan harm or destroy businesses—especially small businesses—and the economy?
9. Will the poor really be helped and have better access to quality healthcare because of the plan?
10. Will more of those who are currently uninsured have a chance to purchase affordable insurance because of the plan?

I began my homily with the question: Will it be healthcare reformation, or healthcare deformation?
Let’s pray that our civil leaders will be guided by the grace of God in the upcoming weeks and honor these 10 important principles, so that our healthcare system will be reformed and not deformed.

It’s Easy to Walk Away From Jesus; It’s Sometimes Hard to Come Back.

Josh Hamilton

(This homily was given on August 23, 2009 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Joshua 24: 1-2a, 15-17, 18b; John 6: 60-69.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-first Sunday 2009]

The rich young man did it when Jesus challenged him to give up his possessions and follow him.

The apostles did it when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane on Holy Thursday night.

Many of Jesus’ other followers did it at the end of the Bread of Life Discourse in John, chapter 6—after our Lord told them that he would nourish them with his own Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. They found this teaching “hard” and difficult to accept—as we heard a few moments ago.

And what was the “it” that all these people did?

They walked away from Jesus.

They walked away from him physically (in the case of the apostles on Holy Thursday they probably RAN away!); but they also walked away from Jesus Christ in their hearts—which was even worse.

What does it take for us to walk away from Jesus?

Sometimes it doesn’t take much, does it?

I was reminded of this two weeks ago when I came across an article on MLB.com about Josh Hamilton, the outfielder for the Texas Rangers who inspired so many people last year with his incredible performance in the Home Run Derby contest at the All Star Game—and, more importantly, with the way he had turned his personal life around. In 1999 Josh was the number 1 draft pick of the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but he soon became addicted to alcohol and cocaine while playing in the Devil Rays minor league system.

He was in and out of rehab several times, and many thought his pro-baseball career was finished. What saved him—literally—was his faith in Jesus Christ.

As his wife Katie said last year during her husband’s All Star season, “Just watching the transformation that God has made in Josh’s life . . . I mean it’s just been so awesome and such a gift from the Lord to see what [God has] done in him.”

And then came that night last January in Arizona, which was the subject of the MLB article I read online the other day.

Josh was at a sports training facility for the month, working out and trying to get in shape before the start of the 2009 baseball season, and he decided one evening to have a drink with dinner.

A fatal mistake for an alcoholic.

Well, a dozen or so drinks later, he was doing things in the bar that he definitely should not have been doing—much of which was captured by a photographer, who recently posted the pictures on the internet (of course!).

To his credit, Josh admitted his wrongdoing to his wife the next day. He also called the general manager of the Rangers to tell him what happened.

And he says he hasn’t had a drink since.

He was quoted in the article as saying, “Obviously I’m embarrassed about it personally. For the Rangers I’m embarrassed about it and for my wife and my kids. Obviously it was one of those things that reinforce that I can’t have alcohol. . . . I feel like I’ve been humbled. . . . I got away from the one thing that kept me on the straight and narrow and that was my relationship with the Lord. That should always come first. Hopefully some good will come out of this.”

For Josh Hamilton, all it took was a few days without prayer and one little drink at an Arizona bar to get him to walk away from Jesus.

For the rich young man, all it took was a personal challenge from Jesus regarding his materialism.

For the crowds in John 6, all it took was a challenging sermon from Jesus on the reality of the Holy Eucharist.

For us, all it might take is a temptation to go somewhere we shouldn’t on the internet, or a little peer pressure from friends or coworkers or even family members: peer pressure to do things contrary to the teachings of our Catholic faith.

For the Israelites in the Promised Land, all it usually took for them to walk away from God the Father was a little temptation to idolatry—even after they committed themselves to the Lord publicly and sincerely, as we heard them do in today’s first reading when they said to Joshua, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord for the service of other gods. . . . We will also serve the Lord for he is our God.”

And they did—until the next big temptation came their way.

Even if our faith is relatively strong, walking away from Jesus can happen in an instant.

Jesus says to Peter in today’s gospel, “Do you also want to leave?” (In other words, “Do you want to walk away like the rest?”) And Peter, speaking for the whole apostolic group, replies with those powerful words, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

Peter didn’t completely understand the teaching Jesus had just given on the Eucharist, but he knew that if Jesus said it, it had to be true.

He had faith in our Lord—and that was great. But that didn’t keep him from walking away later on, did it?

It is extremely easy to walk away. And very often it’s just as hard to come back, because it requires humility.

As it says in paragraph 1450 of the Catechism, “Penance requires . . . the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction.”

If we’ve missed Sunday or holyday Masses without good reason, hated our neighbor, committed some serious sin of the flesh or some other mortal sin, today is a day for us to pray for a humble heart. But even if we’ve only walked away from Jesus in small ways, we should pray for the same grace of humility, so that we learn to make Confession a regular part of our spiritual life—and so that we don’t slip into something more serious.

Peter and all the other apostles (except Judas) eventually came back to Jesus after they walked away.

Josh Hamilton, thanks be to God, came back to Jesus in January after he walked away.

Hopefully some of the people who heard this Bread of Life Discourse 2,000 years ago eventually had a change of heart and came back to Jesus after they walked away.

May we have the good sense—and humility—to do the same thing whenever we need to by making a good and honest Confession.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation brings us back—even if we’ve been far away from Jesus for a very long time.

And if you need any further encouragement to go to Confession regularly remember this: A saint is not someone who never walked away from Jesus Christ in his life. Just ask Peter about that! In fact, some of the men and women who eventually became canonized saints in the Church walked away from Jesus many times. But every saint came back to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior one more time than he walked away.

Which means there’s hope for all of us.

The Holy Eucharist and ‘the Argument from Ignorance’

(Twentieth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 16, 2009 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read John 6: 51-58.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twentieth Sunday 2009]


If I don’t understand it, it can’t be true.

That’s a variation of what is sometimes called “the argument from ignorance”—and it’s a very bad way to try to make a point or win a debate with someone, because it’s logically fallacious.

Let me illustrate this with a few examples.

Imagine someone making the following statements:

“I don’t fully understand the theory of relativity, so the theory of relativity can’t be true.”

“I don’t fully understand the formulas of calculus, so the formulas of calculus can’t be true.”

“I don’t understand how a rocket could carry enough fuel to take 3 men all the way to the moon and back, so Apollo 11 and all the other so-called 'moon missions' were hoaxes. They didn’t happen; it was impossible.”

Thankfully most people, even if they’ve never taken a course in Logic, know this is a faulty way to come to a conclusion.

Just because I don’t understand something, doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.

I may not understand Einstein’s theory of relativity, but my inability to understand it does not make it false.

The same is true of the formulas of calculus. I may not understand them (although I once did, when I took calculus in high school); but my inability to remember what they signify does not mean they’re false.

And so it is with the other example I gave, and with the many others we could all think of.

So what’s your point, Fr. Ray?

My point is this: In almost every area of life, the argument from ignorance is not considered acceptable, and if someone tries to use it—by making statements like the ones I just quoted to you—that person is immediately challenged and the mistake is pointed out.

Notice I said “in almost every area of life.” I said that because in our modern American culture the argument from ignorance is used all the time with public approval in at least one very important area of life: in matters of faith.

“I don’t understand how one God could exist in three divine persons, so the dogma of the Blessed Trinity can’t be true.”

“I don’t understand how God could become man and be born of a virgin, so the Incarnation can’t be true.”

“I don’t understand how a man could walk on water, so the story of Jesus walking on water in the Bible can’t be true.”

“I don’t understand how miracles could happen, so obviously all the miracles that are written about in the Sacred Scriptures never occurred.”

People—even highly educated people—say these kinds of things all the time. And they’re regularly praised in the media and in other places for being highly intelligent and insightful!

When, in truth, they are simply people who are using very bad logic.

The argument from ignorance is used quite often by non-believers with respect to the Trinity and the Incarnation and miracles and a lot of the Church’s moral teachings. But, to some extent, this is to be expected, since these non-believers lack the gift of faith.

The real tragedy is that, when it comes to the Holy Eucharist—the sacrament of the Lord’s own Body and Blood—this argument from ignorance is sometimes used by baptized and confirmed Catholics who do not accept the Church’s teaching on the Blessed Sacrament!

They say, “I don’t understand how ordinary bread and ordinary wine can change and become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, so the Church’s teaching on the Holy Eucharist cannot be true.”

Of course, as sad as this is, it really shouldn’t surprise us, because when Jesus Christ taught the crowds about the Eucharist 2,000 years ago, some of the Jews who heard him responded in the very same way—by using the argument from ignorance!

That’s clear from today’s gospel reading.

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

And how did many of his listeners respond? The answer is found in the next line of the passage. It reads as follows: “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’”

That’s the argument from ignorance, is it not? Because what were they actually saying to our Lord? They were saying, “We don’t understand, Jesus, how you can give us your flesh to eat and your blood to drink, so your teaching can’t possibly be true!”

If I don’t understand it, it can’t be true.

The thing is, my brothers and sisters, when it comes to the Eucharist—as with many other aspects of our faith—we will never have a complete understanding on this side of the grave. We can understand some aspects of it—that’s true—but to a great extent it will always remain a mystery.

For example, the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, describes the change that takes place at the consecration of the Mass as “transubstantiation”—in other words, the “substance” (or “inner reality”) of the bread changes and the substance of the wine changes, and they become the Body and Blood of Christ; however, the “accidents” (or “physical properties”) of both remain the same.

But even though this description helps us to understand how the Eucharist can still look like ordinary bread and wine after the consecration and yet be something else, it does not remove the mystery entirely.

I share all this with you today in my homily for two reasons. Number one, to warn you about the argument from ignorance, so that it doesn’t undermine your faith in the Eucharist, or the Trinity, or some other essential teaching of your Catholicism.

And secondly, I share it so that you can be aware of this fallacy in your conversations with people you meet who would like to discredit or undermine your Catholic beliefs.

If they try to use it, you can challenge them and point out their mistake.

When it comes to the Eucharist, incidentally, there has been at least one notable unbeliever in history who never made the mistake of embracing the argument from ignorance.

His name was Albert Einstein.

I’ve read in a number of places that Einstein was fascinated by the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Blessed Sacrament. Many people are not aware of this. He was intrigued by the idea of a substance that you can’t see; a substance that has no shape or size or color. He once even asked a priest—a Fr. Charles McTague—to send him any books in German that McTague could find for him on the Holy Eucharist, because he wanted to learn more about it.

Einstein was not a Catholic, he was not a Christian, and he did not understand the Church’s teaching on the Holy Eucharist (at least not initially).

But he never said, “I don’t understand it, so it can’t be true.” He was too smart to buy into that fallacy. His attitude was, “No, I don’t understand it, but it just might be true—so I’d better learn more about it.”

My prayer today is that our attitude as Catholics will always be, “No, I don’t fully understand it either (and I never will here on this earth); but Jesus Christ said it—he said that the Eucharist was his Body and Blood—and so I believe it, with all my heart.”