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I’m going to discuss two seemingly disconnected ideas. The
first idea concerns TV viewing as it relates to the health and
educational achievement of young people. The second idea
concerns euthanizing dying or profoundly disabled babies, even those
who do not require intensive care. Bear with me for a moment, if
only because how these two stories link together has very much to
teach us about building our individual and collective house upon
rock in a culture and nation where the majority of citizens would
rather have us build our individual and collective house upon sand.
The first idea was discussed in a recent article by the movie critic
and radio talk show host, Michael Medved, “The Simplest Step to Curb
Media Influence.” In that article, Medved suggests that changing
something as simple as TV viewing habits of young people will
improve their health and educational achievement.
It seems highly improbable, doesn’t it, that such a seemingly small
thing—parents who change the TV viewing habits of their children—can
achieve such positive outcomes? But, Medved asserts, it isn’t
improbable. The real problem, he argues, is that all too many
parents wrongly feel powerless to do anything that would reduce the
destructive impact of media addiction upon their children.
Medved cites some research studies that paint a pretty dismal
portrait concerning the impact TV has upon young people.
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Did you know that the presence of a television in the bedroom
increased a young person’s weekly viewing by nine hours, from 21
hours per week to 30 hours per week? That’s a 43% increase.
That is, young people spend an average of 18% each week watching
television or roughly the equivalent amount of time spend in the
classroom each week during the school year!
·
Did you know that youngsters between the ages of 12 and 14 who have
a TV in their bedrooms are 2.63 times more likely to take up
smoking, even controlling for additional risk factors such as
parental smoking and low parental supervision?
·
Did you know that young people who watch TV regularly in their
bedrooms score significantly and consistently lower on math, reading
and language arts tests?
·
And lastly: Did you know that a TV in a young person’s bedroom
correlates positively with obesity? And that’s to say nothing about
what all of those young people are watching on that TV in their
bedrooms!
Of course, if parents were to insist upon limiting TV time or even―horror
of horrors―removing
the TV from the bedroom, they would have to possess strong moral
fortitude and courage to withstand all of the tears, the griping,
and the complaining that is sure to ensue. Most of you can
probably hear it already: “But all my friends get to watch all the
TV they want” and “You make me feel left-out and weird.”
Why are so many parents afraid to stand up against what everyone
else is doing? Furthermore, why are so many parents afraid to
encourage their children to feel left-out and weird? Just what’s
wrong with feeling left-out and weird when you are 10 and 12 years
old? When else is a young person to develop the moral fortitude
and courage to be different precisely by standing apart from the
crowd? Parents should be savvy enough to know that something as
simple as learning to change one’s TV habits at age 10 provides the
necessary lessons in moral fortitude and courage for young people to
be able to resist following the crowd’s drug and sex habits at age
16!
Suffice it to say, parents find it easier to blame broadcast
executives for the content shown on TV and to expect them to
discover a new sense of taste and responsibility for our individual
and collective house. But, the simple fact is that parents have
only themselves to blame for not providing the moral leadership
their children need if they are to reduce (or, if necessary,
overcome) the destructive impact of media addiction. God has
appointed parents not broadcast executives to be the
first and the best moral teachers of their children. In today’s
gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that the
judgment will be tough. After all, failure is failure; excuses
are excuses; and, words are cheap.
Chuck Colson recently discussed the second idea. You might remember
him for his role in Watergate that landed him in jail where he
converted to Christianity and founded a Prison Fellowship in 1976
that has grown into the world’s largest prison ministry.
In
his article “Deadly Trend,” Colson discusses the “Groningen
Protocol.” Never heard of it? This refers to the practice
developed in 2004 by doctors from the Groningen University Medical
Center in the Netherlands who euthanized dying or profoundly
disabled babies, even those who did not require intensive care. The
criteria used for euthanization were purely subjective and continue
to remain subjective in the Protocol: the doctor judges the baby to
have no chance of survival; the doctor determines that the baby may
survive after intensive treatment but perhaps with a grim future;
or, the doctor believes the baby is suffering in a way that is
severe, sustained, and cannot be alleviated. What this is, of
course, is infanticide with a medical doctor making the subjective
determination that an infant’s life is not worth living and not
because of the baby’s suffering, but solely because of the burden
and cost that baby will place upon society. If this sounds absurd,
the Groningen Protocol only extended to babies the option for
euthanasia that was already extended to Netherlander teens and
adults for decades.
“Okay. That’s overseas, on the Continent. The Netherlands...ever
been to Amsterdam? That would never happen here in the USA!”
you might be thinking.
Did you know that a New York Times article and a New
England Journal of Medicine report both have recently given
credence and sympathy to the proponents of infanticide? Did you
know that the Hasting Center Report—the most respected
journal on bioethics—recently published an article in which the
authors not only support lethally injecting dying babies but also
the disabled?
Forget the fact that these medical doctors have sworn the
Hippocratic oath which states, “I will neither give a deadly drug to
anybody who asks for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this
effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.
In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art….” What
would you say if, a decade or so down the line, doctors in our
nation’s medical system regularly “put down” patients—babies,
teenagers, and adults—like dogs because our culture and nation has
redefined terminating the life of an infirmed human being—it could
be you or me—as “an act of care and compassion.” While we
might believe that we are powerless to do anything to stop evil as
it manifests itself in our culture and nation, the simple fact is
that God has appointed us—that’s you and me—to provide moral
leadership for our fellow citizens so that evil doesn’t
manifest itself.
As Jesus reminded his disciples in today’s
gospel,
the
judgment will be tough. After all, failure is failure; excuses
are excuses; and, words are cheap.
What is the genesis of such moral and ethical outrages?
That’s where those two ideas come together. These moral and ethical
outrages have their genesis in parents who don’t exercise moral
leadership and teach their children to be courageous enough to be
different from the crowd. Then, ill-equipped to confront these and
other moral and ethical outrages as they play themselves out and
spread throughout culture, citizens—both young and old—have
completely forgotten that every human life is made in God’s
image and likeness and, therefore, is worthy of the utmost
protection. The simple fact is that when parents and citizens
alike do not, as Moses said, “Take these words of mine into your
heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be
a pendant on your forehead”, parents build their families and
citizens build their nations upon a foundation of sand. And, “as
the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the
house,” Jesus said, “it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
What fool—parent or citizen—would ever build one’s
house—family or nation—upon sand? “Anyone who listens to these
words of mine but does not act on them,” Jesus responds.
God has placed His law in our hearts and sent His only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ, to teach us what it means to be wise so that when we
encounter moral and ethical challenges, we will not collapse due to
any lack of moral fortitude or courage on our part. Instead, as we
build our lives upon the solid rock of God’s law and Jesus’
teaching, we will provide the moral leadership our children and
fellow citizens need, that is, if our families and nation are not to
collapse and be completely ruined, all due to our foolishness.
Jesus’ message in today’s gospel couldn’t be clearer. When it comes
to evaluating our behavior in this life, fine distinctions or
careful qualifications―clever
and lawyer-like manipulation of words―are
meaningless because failure is failure, excuses are excuses, and
words are cheap. Like those whose trade is to ply in such
equivocations, Jesus reminds his disciples, there will be no lack of
people—it could be you or it could be me—who will recite a long list
of empty accomplishments. The only thing that matters, Jesus says,
is “doing the will of my heavenly Father.”
Pope Benedict XVI has recently written: “[As Jesus’ disciples, we
are] to let the Word of God penetrate our lives and in this way to
know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we
must go, and what path we must take in life.” The story of a
house built on sand which cannot withstand the storm aptly
illustrates the sad situation of any person—like you or me—who never
really accepts, lives, and challenges others to accept and to live
according to God’s wisdom as this has been revealed in Jesus. “My
Father in heaven will say, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you
evildoers.’ ”
For those of us who need to strengthen our moral fortitude and
courage so that we will do the will of our heavenly Father, Moses
provided a sound bit of advice: “Take these words of mine into your
heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be
a pendant on your forehead.”
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HOMILY
