|
|
|
St. Luke begins his gospel telling his readers that “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” Evidently, some of the narratives floating around at the time St. Luke complied his gospel were inaccurate, if not deceitful. Because of these inaccuracies, what Jesus taught was not known with certainty. So, St. Luke writes: “I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence…so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” Basically, St. Luke is saying, “Look, you can accept this gospel with certainty. I’ve done the legwork myself.” Those inaccurate if not deceitful narratives taught people who were or wished to follow Jesus things about him that were perhaps true in part but untrue in other parts. Some of these narratives, however, completely distorted the truth. Even today, newsmagazines like Time and Newsweek have recently published cover stories reporting on and promoting as truth some of the distortions St. Luke wanted to clarify in his day and other Church Fathers in their own day, including the Gnostic Gospels, the Gospel of Thomas, as well as the more recent contributions, the Gospel of Judas (soon coming to the local cinema) and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Interestingly, St. Luke deletes all the materials concerning the announcement of Jesus’ birth, the birth itself, as well as his growing up years. It’s as if St. Luke decided that those things were important, yes. But, what’s more important is what Jesus did. So, instead of including those more popular materials—that some evidently believed were not true—St. Luke begins his gospel by including what it appears all believed to be true. Namely, that as an adult, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up and to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to
them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” If we are to see Scripture fulfilled, Jesus notes, we need to listen, something much easier said than done today. Did you know that the one of the first skills new recruits learn at boot camp is to stand at attention and to be silent so that they can learn to listen? In the military, to not listen can literally be a matter of life or death. And so it is with our faith. Sure, with so much movement and noise around us, it’s very hard to listen. Then, there are all of those voices telling us what to think and how to behave, most in ways that are contrary to Scripture. If we don’t stop, be silent, and listen, it will be difficult—if not impossible—to know with certitude what the truth is. As members of the Body of Christ, the simple fact is that it is very easy to know what the truth is. We don’t need the New York Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, or PBS and CNN or MSNBC to tell us what the truth is. All we have to do is to stop, to be attentive and silent, and to listen to the Scripture which contains the Word not about God but the Word of God. Scripture doesn’t provide a history lesson but a moral lesson. Scripture is not to be studied but to be experienced because Scripture does not educate but forms the Body of Christ. In our spiritual lives, to not listen is quite literally a matter of life or death in that Scripture will not be fulfilled, as Jesus said in the synagogue that Sabbath day, “in your hearing.” Our task, then, just like that of new military recruits, involves settling down and listening so that we can hear God speak to us and tell us our story so that Scripture will be fulfilled in our hearing! In a culture that places such a high premium on surrounding its members with noise—think of how we allow IPods to fill our ears with noise that drowns out everything around us—it is very difficult to cultivate silence. Worse yet, when we allow the noise of voices that teach us to think and behave in ways contrary to Scripture to drown out God’s word, we become those “Hollow Men” T.S. Eliot described in his 1925 poem. They number themselves among the living; but, as they await Death’s crushing finality, Hollow Men are “living”—yes—but in this “dead land…This is cactus land” where lives and empires end “Not with a bang but a whimper.” In our culture, there are important and influential people and social institutions that don’t want Scripture to be fulfilled in our hearing. And, they are attempting to do so by drowning out God’s word with distortions, half-truths, and in some instances outright lies. Each morning, I normally take about half of an hour to read the New York Times. I do so, however, not because I particularly agree with the content which the New York Times publishes daily, but because I need to be prepared for what many of my colleagues at work will be talking about that day. Reading the New York Times gets me a “leg up” on matters I quite likely will be asked about. And, when I disagree with what the New York Times has published, I have time to prepare for my colleagues’ questions by arming myself with some facts. So, imagine what last Tuesday morning was like. The New York Times—the “Journal of Record” containing “All the news that’s fit to print”—trumpeted in its headline the results of an analysis it had conducted of Census Bureau Data: “51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse.” The reporter, Sam Roberts, started Tuesday’s lead article this way:
For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are
living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times
analysis of census results. In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were
living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in
2000. For the first time ever, the majority of women in our nation are living without a husband! The article’s tone was jubilant, portraying this finding as a sign of continuing social progress, the fuller—though not yet complete—emancipation of women, as well as yet another victory for those seeking greater freedom from the hegemony of “traditional” lifestyles, like marriage. For me, what was especially disconcerting was reading the stories of women profiled in the article. Take, for example, Sheila Jamison. Forty five years old and single, she lives in the East Village and works for a media company. “Considering all the weddings I attended in the ‘80’s that have ended so very, very badly, I consider myself straight up lucky,” she said. “I have not sworn off marriage, but if I do wed, it will be to have a companion with whom I can travel and play parlor games in my old age.” Odd. Is that what marriage is about? Why not just move into a luxurious retirement community Shannondell? The people there arrange for group excursions and the residents have all sorts of opportunities to play parlor games each and every day with whomever they want. Who needs to get married to do that? Then, there’s Elissa B. Terris of Marietta, Ga., who is 59 years old. Divorced in 2005 after being married for 34 years and raising a daughter who is now an adult, Ms. Terris told this story: “A gentleman asked me to marry him and I said no. I told him, ‘I’m just beginning to fly again. I’m just beginning to be me. Don’t take that away’….Marriage kind of aged me because there weren’t options,” Ms. Terris also opined. “There was only one way to go. Now I have choices. One night I slept on the other side of the bed, and I thought, I like this side.” That’s odd, too. Marriage “ages” spouses because there are no options? Is sleeping on the other side of the bed going to provide the fountain of youth as Ms. Terris can continue soaring high into the skies of self-discovery? Then there’s Shelly Fidler, aged 59, a public policy adviser for a New York law firm. After her 30-year marriage ended, she swore off marriage and then moved from rural Virginia to Washington, DC’s swanky and upscale Adams Morgan neighborhood. “The benefits were completely unforeseen for me,” Ms. Fidler said, “the free time, the amount of time I get to spend with friends, the time I have alone, which I value tremendously, the flexibility in terms of work, travel and cultural events.” Well, that makes some sense. But, if one values independence and flexibility, one shouldn’t get married. So, if those really are Ms. Fidler’s values, why did she get married in the first place? By featuring profiles of happily unattached females, the article doesn’t just report the facts of this new husband-free majority. No, the article seems to be lauding it. I have to say that as I was reading those stories, I felt very sad for the women. They don’t see marriage as something great and wonderful and mysterious and sacramental—ordained by God—perhaps the most challenging form of self-discovery known to humankind. No, they see marriage as stultifying to personal growth, likening it to a form of solitary confinement. Knowing that my colleagues would likely ask me about this article, I happened upon Michael Medved’s analysis of the official 2005 Census Bureau numbers. And, lo and behold! It ends up that there is a problem not only with the headline but the article as well. Based on those official 2005 numbers, the Census Bureau reports the exact opposite of what the New York Times reported. In fact, a clear majority of all women over the age of 20—56%—are currently married. Heavy majorities of individuals (male and female) in every age group over 30 years of age are currently married—not widowed, divorced, separated, or single. Among those 34 to 39 years of age, 64.6% are married. Among those 40 to 44 years of age, 67.7% are married. And, among those 50 years and older, 79% are either currently married or widowed. In sum, 73% of all women who are 30 years or older are either wives or widows. These women haven’t bought into the emancipation that important people and social institutions in our culture asserts is to be won—at least as the New York Times sees it—through divorce, separation, co-habitation, or by remaining single. Furthermore, the 2003 Census Bureau numbers also indicate the opposite to be the case. Among “family households”—which the Census Bureau defines as “a home with at least two persons, the householder and one or more additional family members related to the householder through birth, adoption or marriage”—an overwhelming 75.7%—are “married couple families.” For all of the attention given to “unconventional” living arrangements—cohabiting couples, gay couples, single parents, and so forth—these alternatives, when aggregated, comprise less than 25% of all households, and involve far less than 20% of all individuals. “Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!” Gomer Pyle, USMC, would say. Most adults are still either living as married couples, or living alone, most often as widows. The entire New York Times story is based, at best, upon distortions of Census Bureau data, or at worst, upon cleverly concocted lies. The real headline and lead article for the Tuesday, January 18, 2007, edition of the New York Times should have been “The Unexpected and Encouraging Durability of Marriage.” “So what?” you may be wondering. “What does all this have to do with today’s readings?” The noise of those endlessly repeated distortions—that married people are now a minority, that most women don’t have husbands, that half of all first marriages end in divorce—exert a real world influence and, in particular, upon our young people who are trying to make decisions about their adult lives. The deceitful yet relentless media portrayal of matrimony as a wounded, collapsing, outmoded, dysfunctional institution discourages prospective husbands and wives from making those lifelong commitments on which societal health and effective childrearing depend. Those who promote these lies want young people to fear marriage and family life. They don’t want young people to hear God calling them to experience the great and wonderful and mysterious and sacramental, perhaps the most challenging form of self-discovery known to humankind. These voices are trying mightily to drown out the 73% of all women who are 30 years or older are either wives or widows who understand this truth as Scripture narrates it. In Genesis we hear:
God created man in his image;
God blessed them, saying to them: Later, we hear: The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken form the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. (2:22-24) All we have to do is sit and listen to see Scripture fulfilled in our midst this very day! Why is it those people fear God’s word being fulfilled this very day? Because the important people and social institutions behind those voices that want young people to fear marriage and family life don’t themselves believe in the God’s word and its moral lessons. They don’t want young people to experience God’s word. They don’t want it to form young people into Body of Christ. They don’t want a “the culture of life.” No, these important people and social institutions want the world and its secular lessons to rule and to form young people to turn their backs on God’s word by embracing what Pope John Paul II called “the culture of death.” What God wants is for young people to settle down and listen so that they will hear God speaking directly to them and telling them their story so that Scripture—and its promise of the great and wonderful and mysterious and sacramental and perhaps the most challenging form of self-discovery known to humankind—namely, married love, will be fulfilled in their hearing! This is the truly Good News. This is the truly liberating news. This is news that will bring our young people—despite those challenges and frustrations that are part and parcel of any truly strong marriage—the peace of God which is beyond all worldly understanding. But, if young people are going to hear this good news, they need to learn to be silent and to listen, like those new military recruits in boot camp. Spiritually speaking, doing so is the difference between life and death.
A brief commercial
break... Lent is just around the corner, beginning on Wednesday, February 21st! Each year, the people at Magnificat® produce a companion edition for the season of Lent. Similar to a what older Catholics may remember as a "prayer book," the companion edition contains all sorts of prayers, readings, reflections, art, and activities for every member of the family to prepare each day of the season of Lent for the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning. Grandparents might consider purchasing a copy for themselves and copies for each grandchild. Confirmation sponsors might consider purchasing a copy for themselves as well as the person they have sponsored or are sponsoring in the faith. Spouses might purchase a copy for themselves and use it for daily prayer during the season of Lent. Parents might purchase a copy for the family and use it to lead prayer before dinner each evening. At a price of $3 for 1-4 copies plus $1 shipping/handling, $2 for 5-9 copies plus $3 shipping/handling, and $1.10 for 10-49 copies (plus $5 shipping/handling), the companion edition makes a perfect and very affordable opportunity to prepare for the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning as well as an Lenten gift to spur family, friends, and colleagues toward greater spiritual growth during the holy season of Lent. The companion edition has a limited press run that sells out each year. Furthermore, orders are filled in the order received. So, place your order early. To place an order for the 2007 companion edition of Magnificat® for the season of Lent, call 1-970-416-6670 or email specialissue@intrepidgroup.com for ordering information.
|
|
|
HOMILY
