September 27, 2015
HOMILY:
- This week on social media has been all news of the Pope in Cuba then USA.
- The address to the combined houses of Congress stood out for me.
- Early in his speech he said that:
“We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism.”
- The Pope is speaking of all religions and people.
- We may claim for our faith a special experience of God and His love, but we do not exclude the grip of sin that compromises that faith.
- We may see that other Faiths breed a deep fundamentalism and extremism but we should not ignore the good works and virtuous life that they foster.
- In the Gospel of Mark that we read today we see both the care for the person – especially the needy – coupled with the exclusion of others of good will.
- It is Jesus himself who states that “whoever is not against us is for us”. Wherever love is shown – in offering hospitality, service and care – even in the glass of water, the presence of God is found.
- And the opposite, when people are oppressed and judged, the presence of God is compromised by ideological extremism (where ideas are more important than people).
- In the reading from Numbers, Moses, the prophet from God anoints others to speak about God.
- Eldad and Medad, though not part of the Chosen people, still receive the spirit of God in their own way.
- Though they are not part of our faith, not one of us, they receive God’s spirit.
- This is yet another example of the God whose presence does follow out religious and ethnic boundaries.
- Even the Letter of James rails against a belief in God that surrenders to every kind of temptation.
- Surely the message is clear. That the Divine presence is marked out and defined by the signs of love and mercy – not by our sense of being right in who we are.
- The Pope was right, when speaking to the Congress, violence is often spread by religion; all religions. And the religions have not always respected the freedom of each other to exist and flourish.
- We have too easily created two camps, good and evil.
- This polarization into good and evil causes arguments, ill-feeling, judgment and a lack of respect.
- Why not embrace a new model for thinking and engage, dialogue and encounter each other. “Anyone who is not against us is for us.”
- In families this might mean a greater tolerance of difference; in society, on issues that currently divide our community, a greater respect for the goodwill of our opponents, especially over moral issues. In our world, warmer relations with those who are different.
- The Pope has asked the American Bishops to stop building walls, even on critical moral issues, and encounter this culture so that the truth may flourish and grow in human hearts.
- This does not mean capitulation on abortion, marriage and parenthood. On the contrary, walls do not foster the exchange of ideas, but encounter in truth and love, can change hearts.
- In our parish families too, there can be no walls, propped up by extremism that refuse to admit the voices of the young, and the old, in a healthy dialogue whose measure is, as always, the fruit of love and understanding.