IS THE POPE A HERETIC?

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU THINK THE POPE (ANY POPE) HAS SAID OR DONE SOMETHING WRONG 

1. 

   1. Go straight to the horse's mouth: Find out exactly what the Pope said from the original sources, which often can be found on the Vatican website: www.vatican.va, under the Papal tab or under one of the congregations.  I would also recommend www.zenit.org, that simply give the facts, without too much commentary. 

2. 2. Take what you read from commentators/news sources with a grain of salt: I know that sometimes the original sources need translation, both literally and metaphorically.  But like the political pundits who pontificate (pun intended) on Fox News or CNN or MSNBC, your commentators often will translate or comment through a particular ideological lens.  Articles in National Catholic Reporter, for example, will probably lean towards a more progressive/liberal point of view, while the National Catholic Register will lean towards a more conservative/traditionalist one.  Others like Church Militant or Lifesitenews.com will be outright antagonistic towards Pope Francis.  Rather, read the commentaries that come from authoritative sources, such as the Vatican itself, or the Bishops' conferences – you know the successors of the apostles, tasked with steering the Church. 

3. 3. Get out of your echo chamber every now and then: Please disabuse yourself of the fallacy that the conservative perspective is always orthodox and the liberal is always heterodox (or vice-versa).  Both ideological points of view are imperfect and partial imitations of and cafeteria selections from the whole gamut of what the Catholic Church believes and practices.  That is why when Pope Benedict XVI was repeatedly and vehemently attacked by more progressive voices in the Church, most Catholics took those attacks in stride, recognizing them for what they were.  We should do the same for the current conservative-originated attacks against Pope Francis.  But there is the added difficulty of overcoming the assumption that they must be given extra attention simply because they are coming from the traditionalist side, which considers itself the repository of orthodoxy. 

4. 4. Resist the temptation to be more Catholic than the Pope: Remember that your opinion, or that of your favourite theological or ecclesiastical uncle, or that of your ideological tribe, at the end of the day counts for zilch in the grand scheme of things!  The Pope's (and the Apostolic College) is what counts.  He is the one who succeeded the fellow that Jesus entrusted with the job of "Feed my sheep," "strengthen your brethren."  Even when the Pope does not teach ex cathedra, even when he teaches on disciplinary or prudential matters, your default response should be to listen in docility, in the same way that a good child does not by default assume that her parents are idiots, or a student that his teachers are nincompoops.  You owe him at least religious submission.  Thou shalt not be Protestant in your docility and communio or lack thereof. 

5. 5. Resist the urge to have answers by yesterday: Disabuse yourself of the modern penchant for having things done by yesterday.  The Church has been going for centuries and has developed its understanding of the deposit of faith throughout the centuries.  Some doctrines that we take for granted today took centuries to be clarified; the Church is still working out many kinks even today, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, like the Church of every age, the Church today is still studying and working out how to express its eternal teaching for today's man and woman.  Moreover, many disciplines and even aspects of sacramental practice have kept changing and will keep changing.  Before 2013, did you ever think that a pope could resign?  As John's first letter reminds us: "Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (3:2).  Don't expect a clarity that will only be achieved on the other side. 

6. 6. Perish the dualistic, binary, Manichaean principle of "aut . . .aut" (either . . . or): Much of today's society, especially Western society, thinks in black or white terms – some nations literally don't even have a category for mixed-race people, forcing them into one category or the other.  But while we are still on this side of heaven, many things are not black or white, but quite gray, or in the venerable Catholic tradition, "et . . . et" (both . . . and).  That is why for example, the Church can teach both justice and mercy, both respect for the homosexual person and the need for a chase lifestyle, both indissolubility/unity of marriage and pastoral outreach of people who fall short of both principles etc.   

7. 7. Perish any exceptionalism you might harbour: Unlike some of the lone-ranger "churches" in modern Protestantism, or some of the Nationalistic Churches in 16th Century Protestantism (as well as the Eastern Churches), the Catholic Church is universal not only in the theological sense of the word, but also in geographical terms.  The Scriptures and Tradition are the common sources of Catholic faith, liturgy and moral life, and are accessible by all parts of the Catholic world.  Don't be in a hurry to dismiss what you consider to be (Polish, German or) Latin American idiosyncrasies in the Pope's words and actions.  The idea that a pope who hails from that Latin America "does not know how we do things" cannot be equated with "does not know what Jesus Christ intended for the Church."  Latin America, for example, has been Catholic for more than five centuries and has had access to the Scriptures and Tradition for as long.  Moreover, the Church's Catholicity has benefitted from the genius of various cultures, starting with the Jewish, Hellenic and Latin, followed later by the Germanic, Gallic and Celtic, to name but a few.  This particular pope's non-Western cultural vantage point might give him a better perspective to mine deeper into the Scriptures and Tradition, and draw out aspects of the faith that may have been forgotten or not looked at closely enough. 

And if all these steps fail, trust that the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to guide the Church, will use the collective wisdom of the apostolic college, both now and in the future to clarify matters; that is not your job.  Whatever you do, do not bring down the pillars of the building in which we are standing, the Church.  Rather, please pray for the pope and his brother bishops as they carry out this most difficult ministry of building up the Body of Christ. 

Homily Ordinary 25A: The Generous ways of the Lord

Homily for 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2017 

Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20-24.27; Matthew 20:1-16

Introduction 

As a student, I did not like group assignments!  For some of us would do all the work, but the whole group would get the same grade, even the lazy kids.  And so, I can empathise with the feelings of injustice and outrage, felt by the workers in today's gospel, who had worked the whole day in the hot sun, and yet they were being paid the same as those workers who arrived at the eleventh hour.   

Scripture and Theology 

But then we heard in the first reading, the Lord saying: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”  And then the gospel parable actually showed how different God’s ways are from our human ways.  For unlike me, God is like the Master, who is not only just, but also generous.  The workers like me, are envious of the Lord’s generosity.  And so, I have to realize that my thoughts about the injustice of a common grade and my outrage about the laziness of my classmates, are not the ways of God. 

In the parable, the Master keeps his end of the agreement.  He agreed to pay a day’s wage to each of the workers, let’s say $100; and $100 is what he pays them at the end of the day.  That is justice: keeping one's word, treating each person as they deserve.  We must therefore say that God is just. 

But God often does not treat us merely in the ways we deserve; he goes beyond justice and is generous to us.  That is why Jesus has the Master pay the late arrivals a day’s wage, for less than a day’s work.  He does that probably because as heads of families they too needed the money to feed their families, who prayed: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Thus God is both just and generous. 

If God's ways are to temper justice with mercy, fairness with generosity, human beings tend to think only in terms of strict justice that leads to feelings of envy. The early arrivals in the parable, for example, think that they are being treated unjustly, because they are receiving the same wage as the late arrivals.  And yet they are wrong, since in truth the Master was just to them, giving them what he owed them.  Because they have a limited understanding of what justice is, they think that life is a zero-sum game.  If others get more than they deserve, it means they are receiving less.  That is why the Master asks them: "What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?  Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?  Are you envious because I am generous?" 

This parable of Jesus was aimed at the Pharisees.  Like I felt outrage at the lazy kids in the group getting a good grade, the Pharisees also felt that it was unfair for Jesus to invite into God’s Kingdom sinners such as tax collectors and prostitutes, as well as the unclean and unworthy foreigners, non-Jews who did not even know God’s law, much less keep it.  With this parable Jesus teaches the Pharisees that God’s love is much more generous that their human minds could ever imagine.  God has promised eternal life to those who do his will.  All those who respond to his invitation and do his will, whether throughout their lives or only at the last hour, shall receive eternal life. 

  

The story is told of a mobster called Dutch Schultz whose criminal enterprise flourished during Prohibition.  A son of Jewish immigrants, he carved out a life of crime for himself almost throughout his life. He was as brutal and murderous as mobsters come, perhaps as murderous as ISIS in Iraq and Syria today.  Then his life of crime caught up with him.  As he emerged from a restaurant one day, he was showered with a hail of bullets. 

But before he died, he was taken to hospital where a priest came to him and explained the tenets of the Christian faith to him.  Dutch repented of his sins and asked to be baptised.  The priest baptised him and soon after that Dutch died. 

Some Catholics were angry with the priest for what he did.  For as Catholics we believe that baptism washes away all our sins and if somebody should die right after baptism, he will go straight to heaven.  And so, people were angry that Dutch got off so easily, that he found a shortcut to heaven.  This was not fair to all those good Catholics who went to Mass Sunday after Sunday, who keep the commandments all their life long.  “Is this justice?” they asked?   

Actually they might even have found some justification for their feelings of outrage in some passages of the gospels themselves, which suggest that there might be differences in the eternal reward.  In the parable of the Sower, for example, the seed that fell in rich soil, produced different quantities of fruit: "a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold" (Mt. 13:8).  And in the parable of the Talents (Lk. 19:11-27), the two servants who are rewarded for their diligence, receive different rewards, one five cities and another ten cities.  Might this suggest then that God actually rewards us differently, depending on how much effort we put in? 

St. Augustine has a way of reconciling these passages that point to a diversity of reward and today's passage that shows God's abundant generosity (see Augustine, Sermon 87, 1.5-6).  He says that while today's parable is speaking about eternal life itself, those other parables are speaking about the way in which that eternal life will be experienced.  You see eternal life is eternal life; there is no extra long eternal life.  But since in eternal life, we shall be who we are here, there will be some distinctions based on how we lived life here on earth. 

And so, God chooses to do what he wants with eternal life, that is his to give.  Dutch, like the workers who came late needed food for their families, also needs eternal life, life with God.  Those who have been Christians longer do not need twice the amount of eternal life simply because they were faithful longer.  Nor do they receive less, because Dutch received some eternal life as well. 

What about us today?  Should we not try to change our ways into God's ways, even as we are still on this side of heaven? 

Christian Life 

Our ways seem to follow Darwin's principle of "Survival of the fittest" rather than Jesus' teaching about God's generosity.  Our ways seem to follow the utilitarian philosophy that judges people according to how useful they are, rather than according to their innate human dignity.  That is why the weak and lowly in our society have no place, no consideration, because we don't think they deserve it. 

• Take unborn babies and the elderly, for example; because they are not fit enough to fight for themselves, because they don't seem to have any immediate usefulness, we throw them away. 
• Take immigrants and refugees; because they are the other, they are late arrivals, we dismiss them and tell them that they don't belong here. 
• Take the poor and homeless, the mentally impaired and prisoners; what chance do they have in a society that believes only in pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstrap principle, without any consideration for those who, for whatever reason, are not fit enough to do so? 

These might be our ways; but they are not the Lord's ways.  We must go beyond mere justice which focuses only on what people deserve and learn the Lord's generous ways, in which we give people what they need, without envy. 

Conclusion 

From the very beginning, Christians have been known for our concern for the weakest members of society, not because they were Christians, but because we are Christians, not because they deserve it, but because they need it.  Christians have tried to temper justice with mercy, fairness with generosity like the Lord who has been merciful and generous to us.  I hope that we meet the Lord, he will not say: "Have you been envious because I am generous?" but rather, "Well done good and faithful servant; for showing the generosity, I showed you."