topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
29 January
06


 

“He teaches with authority,” the people said about Jesus and the way he taught.  Of course, the contrast drawn in today’s gospel is to those who teach without authority.

That’s the contrast I would like to reflect with you about today, that is, the idea that Jesus calls us to teach with authority and to be effective as his disciples in calling others to conversion.  But, it’s much easier for us to teach without authority and end up being ineffective as disciples.

As many of you may know, the Board of Trustees at Villanova University initiated a search last fall to hire a new President to succeed Fr. Edmund Dobbin, O.S.A., who has served the University for nearly two decades.  What most of you didn’t know is that I participated as a nominee in the process and was interviewed by the Search Committee.

In my interview, I started off stating that “anyone who wants this job ought to be interviewed by a psychiatrist.”  I then discussed my view about what I called the “pastoral role” of a President of a Catholic university, the focal importance of the University’s mission as Catholic and Augustinian in the decision-making process, as well as my understanding of the many demands associated with the job.

About mid-way through the interview, one member of the Committee asked what I would do “to improve student life” since Villanova is a Catholic university.  I responded that I would speak directly with the students and their parents about the findings contained in a study conducted a year or so back reporting that sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) on campus had increased by 390%.  I don’t know what the base was from which that statistic has extrapolated, but I told the members of the Search Committee that, in my opinion, this is not only a health issue.  More importantly, I believe it is a moral issue.  I would be determined, I said, that the entire University community would deal with this issue not simply by implementing policies but also by challenging our students and their parents to “Choose life!”

While the statistic about the increase of reported STD’s might alarm many of you, let me assure you that it represents the pervasive undergraduate culture that professors, administrators, and staff personnel should be dealing with across the United States.  We cannot “wish away” the facts of promiscuity among our young people.  Nor will the imposition of policies and procedures change the attitudes underlying the choice many young people are making today to be promiscuous.  What we can do—and what we must do—as responsible adults and disciples, is to teach as Jesus did…with authority.

Later in the interview, the individual who put that question to me noted in response to a question I had answered about underage and binge drinking on campus: “You attended Villanova in the 1970s and I attended Villanova in the 1960s.  You know that this is nothing new and, quite likely, that nothing’s going to change.  What makes you think that you’d be able to change things?”

I was astounded.  My response was:

I’m very optimistic about young people today.  They are looking for a voice that states the truth and challenges them to a higher level of personal, social, moral, and ethical responsibility.  If I wasn’t optimistic, I shouldn’t be sitting here today for this interview.  More importantly, if I wasn’t optimistic, I shouldn’t have been teaching here for the past 15 years.  No, we needn’t fear young people.  Some will react, yes, but many more will respond positively to the moral challenges we place before them.

Well, as you all know, the Board elected a superb candidate in Fr. Peter Donohue, O.S.A., to succeed Fr. Dobbin.  Fr. Peter is a fine priest, Augustinian, and esteemed professor.  The challenges confronting Fr. Peter require that all of us pray for him and his success as a pastor to the Villanova University community.

That having been said, it ended up that I didn’t even win “Miss Congeniality.”  Rumors now circulating around campus suggest that I was “too much to take,” “too divisive,” and “doctrinaire.”  Furthermore, I have been told privately, it would have been better for my candidacy had I not said many of the things I did say.  If those rumors and reports are true, I am delighted and consider my interview highly successful because that’s exactly what the people in the synagogue said about Jesus when taught with authority.

I relate these events with the intention of setting the background for contemplating how Jesus is challenging parents, college and university personnel, and young people today to teach with authority, and especially about sexual morality.  The contrast, of course, is to those who teach about these matters without authority.

First, some facts.

Dr. Margaret J. Meeker has practiced pediatrics for the past 20 years in Traverse City, Michigan, specializing in teen health issues.  Dr. Meeker and her physician husband, Walter, have four children, three of whom are teenagers.  This quite likely provides impetus for Dr. Meeker’s keen interest in teenage sexuality.  Based upon her practice and research, Dr. Meeker published a book in 2002 entitled, Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing Our Kids.  The statistics are frightening:

·       The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes sexually transmitted diseases as “an epidemic.”

·       One in four sexually active young persons between the ages of 17-25 is infected.  100,000 kids acquire a new sexually transmitted infection each day, that is, the equivalent of a stadium full of young people are infected each day.

·       Many of these diseases are now incurable, oftentimes sterilizing their victims, while others lead to increased rates of cancer (e.g., cervical cancer), and death.
 

Young people today believe they have no choice, Dr. Meeker believes, but to be sexually active as the media campaigns to convince young people that they are missing out on the “good life” if they are not sexually active.  What this neglects, however, is the emotional and psychological fallout associated with sexual activity with multiple partners.  It also neglects the fact that every time a young person has sex with someone, it is like having sex with every person which that partner has ever had.  That is why reported STD’s are of epidemic proportions.

But, that is if teenage promiscuity is nothing more than a health issue.  It’s not just about health, however; more importantly, it’s a moral issue.

The sad and tragic irony is that all of this comes upon the heels of decades of sex education in our nation’s public schools.  Emphasizing the delusion of “safe sex,” many of these programs are aimed at aggressively convincing sexually active young people to use birth control devices—and condoms, in particular—to protect themselves from acquiring an STD.

The simple fact is that all of this “education” has not led to a decline in the rate of promiscuous behavior among young people.  Sex education has only assisted in exacerbating it.  How?  By teaching young people to engage in “safe sex,” educators are communicating the message to young people that they aren’t capable of leading a moral life.  By not communicating positive and affirming moral messages, the adults who young people look up to for guidance and discipline—especially parents, educators, coaches, pastors, as well as religious and civic leaders—are failing young people.

To grasp this notion, think about how we prepare to deal with important health and moral challenges.

We first study the challenge.  We also set about learning how to defend ourselves from it and to combat it.  From a spiritual perspective, we pray about it and ask God to assist us in meeting the challenge.  Lastly, we set our sights high—how we will meet and surpass the challenge—and then do what we need to do if we are to emerge successful.

What we don’t do is to cower in the face of the challenge.  We don’t fear it.  We won’t roll over backwards and talk about “acceptable failures.”  We don’t negotiate.  And, we certainly don’t “dance with wolves” thinking we will emerge unscathed.

What we do is to set a high standard; we prepare to meet that standard; and, we set about living in such a way as to meet and, hopefully, surpass the standard.  That’s the recipe for success when challenges must be confronted head on.  We don't set a low standard; we don't figure out a way to get around the proximate danger.  And, we don’t make success synonymous with failure.  That’s the recipe for failure in meeting important health and moral challenges.

Should any of us be surprised, then, when young people become promiscuous as soon as they can after making that first extended move away from home?  They shouldn’t.  It’s wrong.  And, it’s potentially deadly.  But, the insidious nature of evil is that it makes sense to those who believe themselves to be smarter than God, than nature, or anything else that would contradict the desire to participate in evil.  All we have to do to understand this concept is to read the story of Eve and the serpent.

In bringing all of this up, note that I am not teaching as Jesus did, that is, with authority.  Instead, I am teaching as the scribes taught.  That is, I am relating impersonal facts that do little to change how people think and the attitudes that emerge in immoral behavior.  While those statistics may “scare” some of us, they do little to persuade us to change our hearts and the attitudes underlying our behavior.

So, how would Jesus teach us today with authority about sexual promiscuity and the culture of death that it is breeding within the souls of so many of our young people?

I believe Jesus would tell a parable about parents who’ve failed their children by abdicating their God-given role as the primary educators of their children in matters of faith and morals.  Not educating their children about human sexuality while allowing educators in public schools to provide information that decouples sex, morality, and personal responsibility, it should not be surprising that undergraduates enrolled at our nation’s colleges and universities are increasingly becoming infected with STD’s for which there currently are no cures.  And when parents recognize that the parable is about them, they’d see their hypocritical attitude and behavior when they pretend to be aghast at what’s happening at colleges and universities nationwide and blame academic administrators rather than to admit that these are their children.  They’d have to “own” the problem that they’ve created!

I believe Jesus would challenge parents to change their attitudes towards sex education and the sex education curriculum in public schools.  “It is time,” I believe Jesus would teach, “to reclaim your moral responsibility.”  If you truly love your children, you must change your attitude whereby you allow your moral authority to be undermined by educators who promote “safe sex” to your young children.  “Where is your moral backbone?” I think Jesus would ask parents.  “After all, those promiscuous young people are coming from your homes!”

Several years ago, a priest at Villanova told me that allowing young women and men to live in co-ed dorms and apartments is valuable and important because it challenges our students to confront what they will be dealing with upon graduation.  “Why not do so here where there are responsible adults who can help the students?”  I was incredulous.  Does it make any sense whatsoever to believe that placing the two sexes in close proximity 24/7 is going to decrease the likelihood that they’ll “hook up”?  Oh, come on!  That’s just like saying, “since they are going to be having sex, let’s give them birth control devices to cut down on the likelihood of conceiving a child.”  Why are so many otherwise responsible adults so afraid to say to young people, “This is wrong and you must stop it!”

I believe Jesus would tell college and university administrators that it’s time to put an end to 24-hour visitation, co-ed dorms, and cohabitation.  As responsible adults, the issue is not only a health issue, as important as that is.  It’s also a moral issue.  We have millennia of experience with teenagers and raging hormones.  Why are college and university administrators placing young people in “a proximate occasion of sin” and pretending that young people will be virtuous, especially when they are not being given appropriate moral lessons and challenges?  Have we lost our power of reason?

So, I believe Jesus would tell parables to college and university administrators relating how various failures of moral leadership had devastating consequences for the people those moral leaders professed to care so much about.  When the college and university administrators realized Jesus was speak about them, these women and men would have to consider how they would educate young people about the erroneous beliefs that have led to the current state of affairs.  This would include but not be limited to: working with students to understand the intellectual deceits which have conspired to promote a culture of promiscuity on campus; confronting students with the facts of where their behavior is leading them and will lead them; and, challenging students to determine what they need to do and what responsible adults will do so that a more moral and responsible ethic will guide decision making in matters pertaining to human sexuality on campuses nationwide.  In short, these academic administrators would set a standard and challenge young people to live up to it!

“Where is your moral backbone?” I think Jesus would ask college and university administrators.  “After all, this is all transpiring right under your noses!”

And, I am absolutely sure, Jesus would directly address young people because, after all, Jesus loved to gather young people around him and to teach them with authority.  What I believe Jesus would say to our young people is “Choose life!”  And, as Jesus would unpack what that phrase meant in particular for young people, Jesus would teach them how the choices they will be making are exactly the two choices Moses placed before the Chosen People: “I place before you death or life.  Choose life,” Moses said.

In every generation, young people believe they are invincible and oftentimes dupe themselves in the false belief that there are no responsibilities for the immoral choices they make.  How many times each year do we hear about an undergraduate who takes a bet that he (or, as is becoming more and more tragically commonplace, she) can drink a fifth of alcohol and not be physically affected?

As Dr. Meeker’s research clearly indicates, the responsibility young people bear when they choose to be promiscuous can be deadly.  It’s not just that sexually active young females are at a greater risk of contracting cervical cancer and both young females and young males who are sexually active are placing themselves at greater risk of becoming sterile.  The simple fact is that the culture of death spawning these diseases also kills the hope in young people of being the natural mother or a father of one’s children.  “Is that what you want?” I believe Jesus would ask young people.  “Develop some moral backbone,” I believe Jesus would challenge our young people.  “You have a mission in your life and a responsibility to choose life so that you can fulfill your mission.”

In simple and straightforward words coming from our hearts, we teach as Jesus did when we say as we heard Jesus say in today’s gospel:  “What I say to you is this…human sexuality is a gift from God to be used appropriately only within the Sacrament of Marriage.  This truth about human sexuality is being abused and exploited in our culture.  Choose life!”

Many adults today use clever and sophisticated words and advance arguments posited by alleged experts that are intended to confuse anyone who listens.  That’s their goal: to make it almost impossible to figure out what the truth is or what it requires so that how one feels at the time becomes primary.

So, what I say to you is this:

Parents: don’t listen to these voices because they don’t teach with authority.

College and university administrators: don’t listen to these voices because they don’t teach with authority.

And, young people: don’t listen to these voices because they don’t teach with authority.

These are the voices that lead only to death.  Only Jesus Christ teaches with authority and only his voice leads to life!

When we listen to Jesus’ words and allow his authority to change our hearts, we will know infallibly what is right and we will then need to work very hard at changing what we know is wrong.  When we “do this in memory of me,” as Jesus asked of his disciples, don’t be surprised that people will ask: “What does this mean?  This person teaches with authority, not like all of those others.”

The choice to change is yours to make.  “I place before you life and death.  Choose life.”

That is what it means to teach with authority, as Jesus did.

 

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