I would like to apologize if you were hurt by the words of my homily last Sunday. After being in Pennsylvania, I feel it may have come across as insensitive and appear that I was trying to justify the abuse or discount it. I guarantee that was not my purpose. I feel terribly sad for the victims of these crimes. It hurts me that the members of the Church failed so badly. I know we have our own victims here in the parish of many types of abuse. I apologize on behalf of the clergy and, if you want to talk, I am here. Even if you don’t come, know I continue to pray for your healing and the healing of those who have done these things. Clearly from today’s Gospel, we see that God takes a dim view on those who hurt, abuse and pervert children with the saying, “It would be better for that person to have a millstone around their neck and be cast into the sea.” I definitely do not feel above the weakness of these crimes against the innocent. Just because we are not inclined, doesn’t mean we are not capable. We are the suffering body of Christ and are attacked from within and without. We are attacked from within by our weakness and failures. It was interesting as I was waiting for my bags at the airport, a man came up to me and asked me if I was a priest. I said yes and he told me quite calmly about how his time in Catholic school in the seventies and eighties turned him off of his faith. The religious brothers that educated him hurt him and made him feel humiliated and small. He said that he has come back to faith though and ran some type of treatment for hateful people now.
After talking with that fellow and being in the thick of the sorrow of Pennsylvania, I picked this theme out of the readings. It seems that most of us are getting our experience of God and our vision of ourselves second and third hand through the filters of the wounds of the humanity around us. In the First Reading, Moses tells us, “I wish all people would prophesy,” which means God wishes that as well. In the Gospel, Jesus criticizes the Apostles for trying to stop the man who is casting out a demon in Jesus’ name. Why? Because the experience of God is not in the custody of the Catholic Church. If all you know of God is what I or some priest has told you, that is horrible. I am not the totality of God. I am a broken man. I have powers to bring Sacraments but I am not God. God is the best representative of God. If you know Him, your faith will be solid. If you only know God through me or others your faith will always have a great weakness and that is my weaknesses. God doesn’t want us to sit here and listen merely to me but to Him and we need to make that time available. Same thing about ourselves, if all you know about yourselves, your value, your gifts and talents are from human reactions to you, I guarantee you are in big trouble. We need to hear our value and dignity first hand from the God who loves us. There is no knowledge of God like the knowledge that comes from God alone. When it comes to this relationship, we must go to the top. Because when it comes to your dignity, your value, don’t settle for cheap imitations. Think of the party game, “Telephone.” Does anyone here think that they would get a properly transmitted answer from that game? No, I am pretty sure we would not. Not having a relationship with God is like that, we are losing too much in translation. This is why God wants to speak with you. It is true that He can speak through me and others for sure, but unless you have heard the original you won’t know what is true or false. You won’t know how to hear God through me and others. It is like listening to a song played by others rather than the original artist. The more music you know, the more easily you can pick up on the song that is being played, even if the artist does not sound similar to the original.
So then what does one do to have this relationship with God, to hear the original, hear it first hand? First, we must ask for this relationship. You must often ask God what He thinks of you. Many of us have been poisoned by others so we say a lot of mean stuff about ourselves, which is quite discouraging. Many people call themselves stupid or ugly or worse and the world tries to tell you that it is true but have you ever asked your loving Father what He thinks? You will never be the same once you hear His opinion. Take it from me, it is healing and hopeful to hear the Father’s voice on what we are. I have heard Him say things and I have heard Him say nothing yet each time it brought me peace to ask the question. We don’t need third hand, unloving news. We need to hear from God. Secondly, we need to read Scripture and sit in it each day. Seriously, take a Word Among Us and find a verse and ask God what it means for you, because He wrote that verse with you in mind for you this very day. I know because He speaks to me each time I let Him. It is not because I am a priest. I am sure there are many that He doesn’t get to speak to because there are days, I say to my shame, He doesn’t get to speak to me, either. But it not because He doesn’t want to, it is because I am too busy doing nothing and those days are hard. I get much second hand and third hand knowledge of myself on those days. We are God’s children. Would you be looking for third hand knowledge about your parents or would you rather hear from them? Why is it dangerous to get your knowledge of God only from me or another person? Well, because I am not perfect. I have my relationship with God and what He tells me is often for my own perfection unless I ask Him what He wants to tell you. God desires to speak to each of us each day and that we breathe truth and work on virtue each day. So go to Him. Don’t settle for the knock off artist, go to the original artist. Don’t settle for the telephone game, call Him direct. He is there and He wants to speak truth into each of our lives.