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| Bishop Tobin |
(Second Sunday of Advent (B): This homily was given on December 3, 2011 at St. Pius X Church,
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Second Sunday of Advent 2011]
Our bishop, Thomas Tobin, wrote a
column in the November 10 issue of the Rhode Island Catholic entitled, “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell . . . Don’t Sin.” In it
he did nothing surprising: He first of all reiterated the Catholic Church’s
timeless teaching on the issue of homosexuality (a teaching which is firmly rooted
in Sacred Scripture and the Natural Law).
He also criticized those activists and politicians and others who are
trying to force everyone in our society to accept homosexuality and the
homosexual lifestyle as normal and moral.
And he challenged individual Catholics to stand up for the truth in the
public square, and to do their best to help people they know who experience same
sex attraction to follow the path of virtue in their lives. He said, “If you really love someone you have
an obligation to challenge their sinful ways and encourage them to follow a
more virtuous path.”
In the final paragraph of the
piece, he summed up his message with these words: “Members of the Church,
particularly those in positions of authority—bishops, priests, deacons,
catechists, and especially parents—have an obligation to understand and present
what we believe about the sinful nature of homosexual acts. We have an equally
important obligation to foster respect for persons with same sex attraction. We
should love them, respect them, pray with them, and welcome them into our
churches. But we do them a grave disservice if we do not urge them to embrace a
lifestyle marked by the Christian virtues of chastity and purity.”
The following week a letter
opposing the Bishop appeared in our diocesan newspaper. It was written by a man named Henry Miller,
who lives in Youngstown, Ohio. (I’m not
sure how he obtained a copy of the Rhode Island Catholic, but he did—perhaps it
was the online version.) Listen now to
some of what he said:
“Now, as to whether, as the
bishop suggests, we have an ’obligation to challenge their (gays’) sinful ways
and encourage them to follow a more virtuous path’ I can’t imagine the bishop
has actually thought this advice through.
It suggests that we be adversarial and that could lead to our being
punched in the nose. After all who are
we to judge who is living a sinful life and who is not. Not everyone who is living a homosexual life
is committing a sin if he (or she) believes he is not. This is second grade moral theology which we
later learned as adults is called ‘primacy of conscience.’”
I’ll leave aside the remark about
being punched in the nose. As far as I’m
concerned, that’s too ridiculous and juvenile to merit a comment.
But what about his other
point—which is really the key point of his letter? I hope and pray that you were horrified by
his words here. Listen again to what he
said: “Not everyone who is living a homosexual life is committing a sin if he
(or she) believes he is not.”
Say what, Mr. Miller? I hope you’re not serious—but I’m afraid you
are. Are you telling me, sir, that if I
think that something is right, that fact alone
makes it right? Are you saying that the
ultimate criterion for a morally good act is whether or not I believe it’s a
morally good act?
I certainly hope not, sir, because
that means that anything—and I mean ANYTHING (even the worst moral evil)—can be
justified.
Let me now illustrate the
absurdity of Mr. Miller’s statement by replacing “homosexual activity” with a
few other sins:
- Not everyone who intentionally flies a passenger plane into a skyscraper in New York City is committing a sin if he (or she) believes he is not.
- Not everyone who rapes is committing a sin if he (or she) believes he is not.
- Not everyone who steals millions of dollars through a Ponzi Scheme is committing a sin if he (or she) believes he is not.
- Not everyone who murders innocent people is committing a sin if he (or she) believes he is not.
What Mr. Miller calls the
“primacy of conscience” is really the “primacy of the badly-formed conscience.” He
says this is “second grade moral theology.”
Well, if that’s true, then someone should tell Mr. Miller that he needs
to go back to kindergarten and start over again with his moral theology lessons!
Of course, the really scary thing
is, he’s not alone. There are many
people—and that includes many Christians!—who think this way.
And we wonder why our world is in
such a mess? This is the kind of
mentality that tears families and societies and nations apart!
This is also the kind of
mentality that keeps many Catholics away from Confession.
Each Advent we encounter John the
Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah, who “appeared in the desert proclaiming
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (as we heard a few moments
ago in our gospel reading from Mark 1).
That passage goes on to say that people from the Judean countryside and
from Jerusalem went to the Jordan River to be baptized by him as they “acknowledged
their sins.” It doesn’t say they
acknowledged the things they “felt” were sins, or the things they “believed”
were sins—as if they themselves had the power to determine what was right and
what was wrong. It simply says they acknowledged their sins—indicating that
there was an objective moral standard they had somehow violated. They didn’t determine what that standard was,
God did. It was built into the very
fabric of reality as God had designed
it.
Jesus came into this world to
save us from our sins. His name literally
means “Savior.” But he can only save us
from our sins if we acknowledge them,
as the people who went to John for baptism did.
And we need to acknowledge them as
they truly are, not as we would like them to be. That’s difficult, for sure—but it’s also
liberating; because, when we repent of those sins and receive forgiveness from
God for them, we can finally put them behind us—forever!
We encounter John the Baptist
every Advent to remind us that there’s no better way to prepare to receive
Jesus more completely into our lives at Christmas than through sincere
repentance for our sins. To assist you
in that task this Advent I’ve inserted a very good and thorough examination of
conscience into this weekend’s bulletin (yet another reason to take your
bulletin home with you!). On that sheet
is God’s objective standard
concerning right and wrong. It’s not
mine; it’s not yours; it’s not the standard of Mr. Miller, the guy who wrote the
letter I read from earlier; it’s not even Bishop Tobin’s personal standard!
It’s the Lord’s—and his
alone. Which means it’s the truth that
will set us free!—free from our guilt, free from our sadness, free from the
eternal consequences of whatever it is we’ve done.
But it will only do that for us
if we have the courage to look at our lives honestly, in light of what’s
written on that sheet, and then repent, making a good confession if we need to.
For those who are interested in
doing that, I will be in my confessional next Saturday at 3:30, as I am every
week; and then, on the following Saturday, Fr. Giudice and I will be here for
two hours, for your convenience, from 2:30 until 4:30 pm.