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At last Sunday’s Republican Presidential Debate televised on the FOX News Network, Senator John McCain of Arizona let fly one of those rhetorical zingers that provokes lusty laughter in the audience but really is designed to reveal what the one serving up the zinger believes to be his superior moral stance. In case you didn’t watch the debate or hear the zinger, the Senator said:
A few days ago,
Senator Clinton tried to spend one million dollars on the Woodstock
concert museum. Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a
cultural and pharmaceutical event….I was tied up at the time. The political pundits quickly judged McCain’s quip to be a “winner.” Later in the week on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio talk show, the editor of the Almanac of American Politics, Michael Barone, called McCain’s quip “a rare triple play in politics.” First: not only did the Senator mock the values and lifestyle embodied in the Woodstock event, but also tied New York Senator Hilary Clinton to those values and lifestyle. Second: Senator McCain identified himself with the values and lifestyle associated with duty and honor, but did so without ever saying so. Third: the Senator implied that he was a fiscal conservative who wouldn’t allow federal dollars to be spent on nonsense like a museum to honor the Woodstock event. Well, perhaps Mr. Barone was correct and Senator McCain’s quip was one of those rare triple plays in the political world. But, in the world of religion, Senator McCain’s quip raises some important moral ideas for us to consider, especially in light of today’s scripture readings. One of those moral issues has to do with the idea of building a museum to memorialize behavior of the type characterizing what historians and commentators now call “Woodstock 1969.” For most of the 500,000 “flower children” who attended that countercultural event which began on August 15th and ended on August 17th, while the experience did feature some arguably good music, what really characterized Woodstock 1969 was the rampant use of psychotropic drugs and hallucinogenic narcotics as well as lots of free sex to boot. It would seem to me that taking pride in such behavior is the opposite of what religious people should do. Instead of looking back at those events with misty eyes and celebrating them, we should see the truly awful choices made by so many young people and the illegal and immoral behaviors they engaged in. This ought to arouse feelings of embarrassment and a sense of shame. Instead of parading around the front of the synagogue like the Pharisee in today’s gospel as if they are sin-free and desirous of building a museum to honor their debauchery—let’s call the behavior what it was and continues to be—all of those flower children should be crying out to God like the tax collector from the back of the synagogue, “O God be merciful to me a sinner.” Looking back at Woodstock 1969, the Pharisaic hypocrisy demonstrated by the flower children participating in that event didn’t consist simply in flaunting disobedience to the law and morality. No, in that extremely secularized and permissive culture, what was admired, applauded, and celebrated was the rejection of the law and traditional moral norms by exalting independence, individual liberty, and freedom of choice. For those flower children, the operative word was “transgression.” To “transgress” law and morality represented the height of independence, of individualism, and of choice. In truth, the event was an exhibition of self-idolatry, that is, worshipping oneself as if one is a god and, in this case the Roman god, Bacchus. Senator McCain said: “Now my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event….I was tied up at the time.” The Senator certainly was tied up…as a POW for five and one-half years in the infamous Hoa Loa Prison—meaning “Fiery Furnace”—where U.S. POWs endured conditions that were not only miserable but the food was also so bad that prisoners sarcastically nicknamed the prison the “Hanoi Hilton,” in reference to the well-known and upscale Hilton Hotel chain. While the flower children were celebrating debauchery and making idols of themselves and glorifying their bodily desires, McCain was paying with his body the cost extracted by the demands of fidelity: duty to God and country. Senator McCain’s quip raises an important moral question: Why would taxpayers ever pay tribute to vice by constructing a museum to memorialize a countercultural event that was nothing more than an “in your face” assault against law and morality? “Come now, my friends” the Senator asks us, “what does the mere suggestion of building such a museum say about the person promoting such an idea?” For those who are young and may be wondering what all of this has to do with you, your parents and I grew up in the Woodstock 1969 generation. Most of us did not buy into the countercultural message that tossed the law and morality to the winds. We did not use psychotropic drugs nor did we use hallucinogenic narcotics. We did not have premarital sex, even though we may very much have wanted to. Called names for doing what fidelity requires—and, yes, some of us were laughed at, spit upon, and slandered for doing so—we weren’t saints but, for the most part, we remained faithful to what our parents, teachers, and pastors taught us. For us (and for you, too), the truly good news is that we didn’t end up spending time in rehabilitation clinics nor did we need to visit abortion clinics. Yes, our peers called us “boring” and “out of touch” Neanderthals, but despite all of the pressure exerted to conform, we knew and experienced that somehow God was with us and was our source of strength. And, today, looking back, we can say like St. Paul:
[The] Lord stood by
me and gave me strength and I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The
Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his
heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. [And the
congregation responds: Amen!] That is your challenge today! Our culture—perhaps the whole world—is saying to you, “Things have changed. Forget the old rules. Nothing will happen to you.” You live in a very frightening world, one offering so many choices that promise you freedom that it’s difficult for you to understand how those choices ultimately will enslave you...if you do not remain faithful! As your parents and I learned because we lived in the culture that promised the freedom that ultimately produced Woodstock 1969, “It did happen.” Almost forty years later, some of our “friends” have not recovered and may never recover from their addictions. Many are just awakening to the horror of having murdered babies they created during drug-induced stupors and orgies. And, most can’t say “No” to their children today because, as parents, they don’t want to be Pharisaical hypocrites having already given their moral authority away at Woodstock 1969. In 1883, the United States Marine Corps adopted as its motto the phrase “Semper Fidielis” (shortened to “Semper Fi”) meaning “Always faithful.” For every Marine, from a mere private first class to a four-star general, Semper Fi is more than a motto. It represents a way of life that is made evident in each Marine’s commitment to country, to the Corps, and to each other. Mother Teresa once wrote: “God does not call us to be holy. God calls us to be faithful.” Our goal is not to be a saint, as the Pharisee believed and paraded around the front of the synagogue as though he were. No, as noble as the desire to be a saint is, that will always be a losing battle for us human beings, as the tax collector in the back of the synagogue knew all too well and candidly admitted. For disciples, our goal is simple: to be faithful. This is a way of life that is made evident as we stick with the program taught by Scripture and Church teaching, our parents, and our pastors, as we admit that we are sinners and, when we fall, to ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Semper Fi is what life in this world and discipleship is all about. That’s why the People of God—all of the members of the Church and that’s both you and me—are not called “saints.” Hopefully, that will come after we die. No, the members of the Church are called “the faithful.” Like St. Paul, there have been, there are, and there will be times in our lives “when no one came to my behalf, but everyone deserted me.” When we make the choice to be faithful to what Scripture, Church teaching, our parents, and our pastors teach us, we will live, we will compete, and we will finish what St. Paul calls the “race.” Then, on that day when Jesus appears, we will be rewarded for being faithful and living the gospel evident in our conduct. To hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant”—which is nothing but another way of saying Semper Fi—that’s our goal. Yes, we will be tested and sometimes we will fall. But, always remember what Jesus taught: the man who went home that day from the synagogue justified was the sinner, the one who recognized that he was a sinner, admitted his sin, and asked for God's mercy and forgiveness. To pretend we are not sinners—that events like Woodstock 1969 should be glorified and celebrated by having museums constructed in their memory—and to pretend that we have no need for God’s mercy and forgiveness is to open the door to the prideful arrogance of the Pharisee who was neither faithful nor a saint.
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HOMILY
