The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, September 27th: Numbers 11:25-29; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48)

MILLSTONES FOR SALE – ONE SIZE FITS ALL

At the very end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus proclaimed that it is the duty of believers to make disciples throughout the world and teach people to obey everything Jesus commanded. This is called evangelism, the process of bringing other people into a relationship with Christ. We’ve discussed this concept before. I know it makes most of my fellow Catholics cringe. You see, most American Catholics would rather shove sharpened pencils into their eyeballs than speak to another person about religious faith.

So this week I’ll try not to make anyone cringe (or permanently blind) by reminding us of our duty to spread the faith. Instead, let’s talk about the topic Jesus addressed in this week’s gospel reading: the opposite of evangelism, the process of pushing people farther away from Christ. (I suppose we could call it “ev-devil-ism.”) Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

Although it is not a good thing for believers to avoid evangelism (Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them,” and new converts are the fruit of evangelism), nowhere in Scripture does it say that we will forfeit Heaven if we’re just too chicken to proclaim the Good News to a lot of people. But Jesus’ words this week clearly state that those who cause others to be separated from the Lord are in a heap o’ trouble. I don’t know about you, but when I go swimming I get tired after treading water for only a few minutes. Trying to keep my head above water with a five-ton millstone strapped around my neck would be, shall we say, rather challenging.

In this present day and age, the dominant secular culture is working overtime to draw people away from God. Our major social institutions—the news media, public education, the entertainment industry, the political system, etc.—have become downright hostile towards religious faith during the last few decades. However, we should not be surprised the key decision-makers in these various institutions are trying to destroy the faith of millions; they wear their disdain for the Judeo-Christian worldview clearly on their sleeves. They are wolves in wolf clothing.

The real danger—and the people to whom I believe Jesus was referring—are those who wear the mantle of religious leadership and yet push people away from the Lord and cause them to sin. You’d be surprised at the number of people preaching from church pulpits and teaching in so-called Christian schools who don’t believe in God—at least not in the God clearly described in the Bible. They are wolves in sheep clothing.

Schools such as Harvard and Yale were founded centuries ago by Christians for the expressed purpose of spreading the Gospel. But everyone today knows these schools are bastions of political correctness, secular humanism, moral relativism, and post-modern nihilism. Christian parents who watch their faith-filled children turn into bitter little pagans after four years at one of these schools should not be surprised.

But many parents who send their kids off to self-proclaimed Christian and Catholic colleges are stunned when their once-believing offspring come home spouting trendy drivel about the joys of abortion, Marxism, homosexual behavior, and the illogical claim that the idea of “absolute truth” is absolutely untrue—all-the-while denouncing anyone who takes the Bible seriously. Haven’t these schools ever heard of “truth in advertising” laws?

Close friends of mine sent their daughter to a well-respected Catholic high school in my area. Imagine their surprise when the Religion teacher announced to the class one day that he did not believe Jesus really rose from the dead, and that the Bible is nothing more than interesting ancient literature, similar to Greek mythology.

Catholic universities have been in the middle of a nasty dispute ever since Pope John Paul the Great instructed that the schools must stay true to Church teachings. Gee, you would think this is no big deal—they do, after all, identify themselves as Catholic schools. But surprisingly, the leaders of many colleges, including Notre Dame, Boston College, and Georgetown, are loudly protesting that this infringes on “academic freedom.” Apparently they want the freedom to keep collecting large donations from unsuspecting loyal alumni while assuring their secular colleagues at, say, Harvard and Yale that they are not old-fashioned and intolerant (you know, like the Pope). I suspect that kissing up to pagan academics and denying the true Gospel is not going over real well in Heaven right about now. I wonder what size millstone these guys wear?

Unfortunately, far too many young people (and old people for that matter) are being led astray by pious-posing wolves because they don’t know the basic doctrines of the faith. As a result, when some authority figure teaches that New Age Oprah-ism is a valid religious expression (you know what I mean, the self-absorbed, quasi-therapeutic, “If it makes me feel good about myself then it must be good” brand of spirituality), they simply accept it.

It is high time we re-emphasized facts rather than feelings, evidence rather than emotions. Only when believers know WHAT they believe and WHY they believe it will they be inoculated against the current crop of popular false teachings. The Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other foundational documents are a great place to start. Don’t delay. There are a lot of wolves and a lot of millstones out there these days.

Oh, by the way, don’t forget that Jesus wants us to evangelize by talking to other people about our faith. Oops, sorry, I forgot, I wasn’t going to make you cringe this week. Hey, get that sharp pencil away from your face. You could put out an eye.

©2009