St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

September 23, 2018 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Last spring I flew to Rome and stayed with a community of Italian Dominicans.

I walked all over Rome, admiring the beautiful and ancient basilicas, churches, and public buildings.

Many had massive inscriptions carved in the stonework, mentioning the pope who commissioned, dedicated or paid for the building.

It reminded me of a story about St. Dominic, but in order to tell that story, I have to remind you of an episode in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

There, we hear of St. Peter and St. John entering the Jerusalem temple to worship.

A man crippled from birth begs at the gate and asks Peter and John for alms.

Peter says to him, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.”

Peter takes him by the hand and raises him up on ankles and feet suddenly made strong.

 

St. Dominic went to Rome around 1215 to petition Pope Innocent III to confirm the establishment of the Order of Preachers.

While walking around the already magnificent Medieval Rome, Innocent commented to St. Dominic, "Peter can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none.'" 

Dominic turned and looked straight at the Pope, and said, "No, and neither can he say, 'Rise and walk.'"

 

The disciples around Jesus were convinced that God worked powerfully through him.

They witnessed huge crowds following him – and them.

They basked in reflected popularity – and enjoyed it.

It’s not surprising that they should begin to think about their owngreatness.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that human beings are enslaved by our desire for wealth, power, pleasure and honor.

Jesus knew that every leader in His Church would be tempted by those, so he tells his disciples quite forcefully that the Christian leader must be a servant – the last and least of all.

When priests and bishops forget this, a different culture quickly arises: clericalism.

Clericalism is a sense of entitlement, superiority and exclusion.

It quickly leads to the abuse of power – like the molestation of our youth and the covering up of those crimes in order to prevent scandal.

No, not to prevent scandal so much as to prevent the loss of wealth, honor, power and the pleasure those things bring.

 

St. James says that where selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every foul practice.

Our current situation sadly proves him right.

 

As I read the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report on abuse in that state, one of the refrains from victims I saw many times was, “I thought the priest was like God.”

Catholic sacramental theology says the ordained priest acts in persona Christi when celebrating Mass and the other sacraments.

This means the Holy Spirit’s power acts through the humanity of the priest to consecrate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, or to forgive sins, or to heal the sick.

The Catechism of the Church (1550) says, “This presence of Christ is not to be understood as if the minister is preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of domination, error, even sin. The power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all acts of ministers in the same way. While this guarantee extends to the sacraments, so that even the minister's sin cannot impede the fruit of grace, in many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not always signs of fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the apostolic fruitfulness of the Church.”

In other words, my sins don’t prevent the Holy Spirit from acting for your spiritual good.

However, if I’m a jerk, or a walking scandal, your ability to receive what God is offering may certainly be diminished.

So I join you in the Confiteor and ask for the forgiveness of my sins at the beginning of Mass because I need to!

I wash my hands before the Eucharistic prayer and pray quietly, “Lord, wash away my iniquity and cleanse me of my sin” because I need to!

 

I understand that for some Catholics, showing respect to priests is a way of acknowledging we act in the person of Christ in the sacraments.

But it is spiritually dangerous for us priests.

You should also challenge us to holinessand humility.

What’s even more dangerous than receiving your respect is the temptation Iface daily: the temptation to notchallenge youto holiness.

It’s tempting to be popular, to avoid confronting sin like cohabitation before marriage or marriage outside the Church; to not confront greed, materialism, and pride; to remain silent when you’re absent from Mass and confession.

But as a servant in the model of Christ, I must first and foremost serve your spiritual needs, which begin with repentance.

This is the basic need we allhave in order to become disciples of Jesus.

 

After challenging the pride of his disciples, Jesus placed a child in their midst and told them, “however receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.” 

Whom did that child represent?

I’d suggest it represents the person described in the letter of James: the one who is pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, sincere.

They are to be received as Christ because they have become like him.

So as a priest, I am particularlychallenged by the letter of James.

Because if I am going to offer fraternal correction as a shepherd must, it is easier for you to receive it if I do so as one who has wrestled with my own jealousy and selfish ambition.

On your part, try to remember that to receive honest fraternal correction is alsoto receive Christ.

 

And our conversion is vital.

Only when we are poor, detached, powerless, and free of ambition can we receive Jesus.

Only then can the Holy Spirit fill us.

And it is in that Spirit that we can turn to a crippled world filled with the sick, the suffering, the poor, the addicted, the sinful and say, “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”