Hypocrisy and Scandals
Funny story. Last week at YG, I asked what topics you guys wanted addressed for this week, and Andrew suggested hypocrisy and how we deal with it in the Church, especially when it drives friends and family away from the Church. So as I prepared for the talk, I selected the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (or Tares, or Darnel--depending on your translation). Turns out, this was the Gospel for this past Sunday! I thought, "Cool, confirmation!" Then, at the 10:30 Mass, Fr. Watters gives a homily that was nearly word-for-word the message I wanted to get across at YG! God was definitely talking this weekend!
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
In 1996, a Christian rock band called DC Talk put out a cd called Jesus Freak. One of the songs on the cd was called "What if I Stumble?" reflecting on the reality that as Christians, many people watch our lives, even in the minutest of details. Often, they wait for us to screw up so they can have an excuse to not believe. Unfortunately, too many Christians provide such people with ample excuses. The song begins with a soundbyte from Brennan Manning, who says, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge He is with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." And he's right. Unfortunately, our bad choices and our sins aren't just between us and God (as if that wasn't bad enough!) but they are seen and observed by others, and our entire faith, the truth of Jesus Christ and His salvation, is accepted or rejected based on you and on me, and how we live. As the saying goes, "Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible somebody ever reads!"
So what do we do about the sinners and the hypocrites in the Church? It is tempting to tell people turned off by the hypocrites, to not listen to or look at their example, but to look at "true" Christians. The problem is, as Jesus points out in His parable, that the bad Christians can often look surprisingly and disturbingly like the good Christians. The darnel is a plant that when ripe looks identical to the wheat, but it never grows the grain in its head. Only at the harvest, when the grain weighs the stalks of wheat down and the darnel stands upright can the wheat truly be distinguished from the weeds. Right now, in our Church on earth, we have to suffer those weeds. But, thankfully, in God's world, weeds can change to wheat! But we ourselves must be careful, for as St. Augustine cautions, the wheat can also wither into chaff.
What is the solution, then, to the problem of hypocrisy in the Church? What do we say or do when people leave the Church, or refuse to come in, because of priest scandals, "Catholics" who go to Church regularly, but leave and live as if they'd never gone to Church, and others who tarnish the Church with their sin?
The most important advice I can give you, and the only real thing you can do, is Do not be yet another example of such hypocrisy! Rather, through staying close to Christ in the Word and the Sacraments, praying for the Church and the world, allow Him to love and live through you, so that rather than being a negative example, you can be a positive example--who shows the world what the Church truly is--ambassadors and representatives of Christ Himself!
Be an example like Blessed Mother Teresa, who, because of her profound love of Christ, gave everything she had and worked among the poorest of the poor in India. Because of her great love and commitment to Christ, agnostic, sceptical journalist Malcom Muggeridge converted to Catholicism within a week of meeting her!
Be an example like St. Maximillian Kolbe, who offered his life in exchange for a Jewish man sentenced to death in Auschwitz. That Jewish man later converted to Catholicism, and spoke up at the ceremony of Fr. Kolbe's canonisation!
Be an example in ways that only you can be, in the mundane, humdrum life you think you lead. As a Christian, your life is never humdrum, but everything you do, every word you say, when done for Christ, is an act of war on the Devil. When we faithfully live for Christ, we live heroic lives, and the world takes notice--even if we don't realise it.
If we allow ourselves to be discouraged by hypocrisy in the Church, and we leave it, we'll be leaving our source of Life--and the devil will score a victory--both over you, because he will have cut you off from Christ's body, and in the Church, because it will have one less true believer!
If, on the other hand, we stay close to Christ and His body, no matter what fury the devil throws your way, you will be safe in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91), and, through your heroic example, you could spark a revival!
I leave you with the words to Scandal by Critical Mass, which they wrote to reflect on the priest sex-abuse scandal.
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
He put another parable before them, 'The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well. the owner's labourers went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does this darnel come from?" He said to them, "Some enemy has done this." And the labourers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?" But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at the harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn."'
...
Then, leaving the crowds, He went to the house; and His disciples came to Him and said, 'Explain to us the parable about the darnel in the field.' He said to them in reply, 'The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the Kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the Evil One; the enemy who sowed it, the devil, the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the upright will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!'
In 1996, a Christian rock band called DC Talk put out a cd called Jesus Freak. One of the songs on the cd was called "What if I Stumble?" reflecting on the reality that as Christians, many people watch our lives, even in the minutest of details. Often, they wait for us to screw up so they can have an excuse to not believe. Unfortunately, too many Christians provide such people with ample excuses. The song begins with a soundbyte from Brennan Manning, who says, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge He is with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." And he's right. Unfortunately, our bad choices and our sins aren't just between us and God (as if that wasn't bad enough!) but they are seen and observed by others, and our entire faith, the truth of Jesus Christ and His salvation, is accepted or rejected based on you and on me, and how we live. As the saying goes, "Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible somebody ever reads!"
So what do we do about the sinners and the hypocrites in the Church? It is tempting to tell people turned off by the hypocrites, to not listen to or look at their example, but to look at "true" Christians. The problem is, as Jesus points out in His parable, that the bad Christians can often look surprisingly and disturbingly like the good Christians. The darnel is a plant that when ripe looks identical to the wheat, but it never grows the grain in its head. Only at the harvest, when the grain weighs the stalks of wheat down and the darnel stands upright can the wheat truly be distinguished from the weeds. Right now, in our Church on earth, we have to suffer those weeds. But, thankfully, in God's world, weeds can change to wheat! But we ourselves must be careful, for as St. Augustine cautions, the wheat can also wither into chaff.
What is the solution, then, to the problem of hypocrisy in the Church? What do we say or do when people leave the Church, or refuse to come in, because of priest scandals, "Catholics" who go to Church regularly, but leave and live as if they'd never gone to Church, and others who tarnish the Church with their sin?
The most important advice I can give you, and the only real thing you can do, is Do not be yet another example of such hypocrisy! Rather, through staying close to Christ in the Word and the Sacraments, praying for the Church and the world, allow Him to love and live through you, so that rather than being a negative example, you can be a positive example--who shows the world what the Church truly is--ambassadors and representatives of Christ Himself!
Be an example like Blessed Mother Teresa, who, because of her profound love of Christ, gave everything she had and worked among the poorest of the poor in India. Because of her great love and commitment to Christ, agnostic, sceptical journalist Malcom Muggeridge converted to Catholicism within a week of meeting her!
Be an example like St. Maximillian Kolbe, who offered his life in exchange for a Jewish man sentenced to death in Auschwitz. That Jewish man later converted to Catholicism, and spoke up at the ceremony of Fr. Kolbe's canonisation!
Be an example in ways that only you can be, in the mundane, humdrum life you think you lead. As a Christian, your life is never humdrum, but everything you do, every word you say, when done for Christ, is an act of war on the Devil. When we faithfully live for Christ, we live heroic lives, and the world takes notice--even if we don't realise it.
If we allow ourselves to be discouraged by hypocrisy in the Church, and we leave it, we'll be leaving our source of Life--and the devil will score a victory--both over you, because he will have cut you off from Christ's body, and in the Church, because it will have one less true believer!
If, on the other hand, we stay close to Christ and His body, no matter what fury the devil throws your way, you will be safe in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91), and, through your heroic example, you could spark a revival!
I leave you with the words to Scandal by Critical Mass, which they wrote to reflect on the priest sex-abuse scandal.
Scandal
I had a dream last night
I was standing in a sea of white
The calm warmed my soul and made me feel whole
Then I saw a shadow
Flicker like a distant crow
It made a stain that spread like acid rain
Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!
It made a welt so deep
That all I could do was weep
And before my eyes I saw a crowd arise
They saw a bluish scene
They saw none of what had been
I begged for them to stay but they faded to grey.
Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!
Then the Holy One
Touched me and He was gone
The purity flowed through me and into the sea
Then others just like me
Restored the white back to the sea
The calm warmed my soul and made me feel whole
Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!
Labels: Salt and Light, St. Andrew's, The Church
posted by Gregory at 2:31 p.m.
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