The homily I post this week is not from Sunday but from last Friday. During my morning prayers, the Gospel for that day struck me as particularly beautiful and powerful. It’s a reading with which we are all familiar. Jesus responds to the Pharisees who ask him if a man can divorce his wife. They said this, we are told, to test Him. That same question is being put to Jesus’ vicar today, Pope Francis. Can a man divorce his wife, marry a second woman, and receive the sacraments? It’s a hard question, and one that has split Christians right down the middle for centuries, and it is again causing havoc both in church and state.
 
Jesus knows it is a fundamental question, one that defines not only marriage, but man himself. If a man’s spousal love for his wife can end, it throws into doubt God’s spousal love for all men.
 
Jesus replies to the Pharisees that God’s definition for marriage is an unconditional and unbreakable fidelity. The Pharisees argue for a lesser definition, but Jesus insists on God’s plan, not man’s. “They are no longer two but one flesh,” Jesus says. “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” For the last 80 years civil society has been arguing that man must be able to separate what God has joined. Legalized divorce is called a “reform.” How much suffering has resulted, especially among children, because of this “reform?”

We are not surprised when secularized governments get this question wrong. We expect the Church, however, to get it right. She is held to higher standard, to the words of Christ. He says that “whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.” It is a grievous crime against the other spouse, and against the children. Separation cannot always be averted, for marriage takes the good will of both spouses. But if marriage is redefined as dissolvable, than most won’t summon the courage to make the heroic sacrifices necessary to keep the marriage together. I’ve known many men and women who have made just those heroic sacrifices at very low points in their marriages. They’ve kept their love for the other constant, hoping for better days (and always better days will come, if we are patient). They were able to do that because they believed in Jesus first, and embraced the indissolubility of marriage that He taught.
 
Four cardinals have asked Pope Francis to reaffirm Christ’s definition of marriage. He has chosen thus far not to respond. Other cardinals have said that the Church’s rules on marriage are too harsh, and unrealistic. Who came up with these rules? they ask. The answer is clear in Friday’s gospel: Jesus Christ; he affirmed God’s law that was established for us before the beginning of time. The Church has been following His definition of marriage, a high calling to be sure, since her foundation 2000 years ago. Can a priest, can a bishop or cardinal, can a pope, redefine Christ’s definition of marriage? He would find himself to be arguing not with men, but with God.
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The Law: imposition or gift?

“Do not think,” the Lord Jesus declares “that I have come to abolish the law…. not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law” until it is fulfilled. Someday the law will be entirely “fulfilled”—it will have served its purpose and can be dispensed with—when we are all in heaven. Here below, however, as we struggle to love, and make our perilous way through the dark parts of this life, we need the law. We need to respect and keep the God’s laws, and we should love them. God’s law is an indispensable road map that will take us to heaven.

We can do this, with God’s help

We began the Sermon on the Mount two weeks ago with the Beatitudes (“blessed are the poor in spirit” etc), the so-called Ten Commandments of the New Testament. The beatitudes, however, fulfil rather than replace the old law. In the Gospel today, Jesus gives us the divine intention behind the old law, scraping off the rust, as it were, to reveal God’s shining purpose within them. It can be hard for us to understand the purpose of even simple traffic laws—why can’t I turn right on this red light? Why is the speed limit 25 on this street? If even traffic laws have good reasons, imagine the divine reason behind “Thou Shalt not Kill, ” “Thou Shalt not commit adultery,” and “Thou shalt not swear.”
 
The Prophet Sirach, in our first reading, assures us that God does not command the impossible. “If you choose you can keep the commandments; they will save you, if you trust in God … Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” It’s not impossible to choose the good, even in very difficult circumstances. The trick is to trust God. Say to yourself: My Father does not ask me to do the impossible. For that which he commands, he provides the grace. The saints are luminous proofs that a man can trust God. Maximilian Kolbe, for instance, trusted God with his life, believing that “no greater love has a man than to give his life for another” as he gave his life for another man in Auschwitz. So in today’s Gospel, Jesus explains the fullness of Commandments Five, Six, and Eight.
 
First, “thou shalt not kill.” Seems reasonable enough, but there are hard cases. Yesterday a bunch of us witnessed to the Fifth Commandment at the Valencia Street abortion clinic. Angry protesters shouted us down, hurling obscenities. Surely they know it’s wrong to kill, but they think we cannot be expected to keep this law in hard cases. We witness to the fact that, if we choose, we can preserve life rather than destroy it. Keeping this law is a great gift, not an impossible burden. This law frees us from a culture of death.
Second, “thou shalt not commit adultery.” Even St Peter said to Jesus “Lord, if that is the way it is between a man and his wife, better not marry!” But Peter later witnessed that God gives us the grace to love our wives and our husbands, even when they don’t love us. Your marriage does not depend on your spouse’s love for you—you can’t count on that—but on your love for him. This depth of love is the fulfilment of the law, and it is a gift from God.
Third, “thou shalt not swear.” In our mendacious society, lamentably, swearing and lying are universally accepted.  We have become accustomed to “fake news,” social media slander, “urban legends.” We are not surprised to learn that a corporation, a politician, a media star has simply falsified something for personal gain. How can we not lie and swear when everyone else is? But Christians witness that God will give us the courage to tell the truth, for He is worthy of our trust, He, the Way, the Life, and the Truth.

God’s gift of Wisdom leading us to Heaven

​God’s law is our treasure. It is a precious gift both in that we cannot keep it without His grace, and in that this gift frees us from becoming one more rat in a rat race, a society of trained apes who lie, cheat, steal, and kill each other. We finish this morning’s reflection with St. Paul. “Brethren, we speak a wisdom …which God predetermined before the ages for our glory--What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard…what God has prepared for those who love him. The law makes us wise, so that we can get to heaven. And heaven is our loving Father’s ultimate gift to his beloved children. Let us try to trust Him! 

A few weeks ago, in the Walk for Life West Coast, we walked through the streets of San Francisco to witness to the goodness of nature. Nature gives us children, and we should not destroy those children. Abortion is unnatural.
 
Tomorrow we will stand in front of San Francisco’s only remaining Planned Parenthood facility in support of defunding an unnatural practice. We witness to the goodness of nature, that it is unnatural to kill offspring in the womb. No other animal does this to their young, except perhaps by way of exception (which proves the rule).
 
Tomorrow we will no doubt have lots of opposition, and perhaps there will be more counterdemonstrators at Planned Parenthood than pro-lifers. As I have noticed in the Walk for Life, many who demonstrate against pro-life activities are homosexual activists. I have often wondered: What does abortion have to do with “gay rights?” And it occurred to me that both promote acts that force an unnatural human will on natural biological processes. No other members of the animal kingdom (except by way of exception, which proves the rule) engage in same-sex activity.
 
At the abortion clinic, just under the Planned Parenthood logo, is a little rainbow flag. Why does an abortion clinic identify with ‘gay’-rights? Well, both manifest a similar impulse, and a similar temptation—to manipulate nature, to force the natural world to do what it was not designed to do.
 
Soon after the human race invented the atom bomb, some suggested we use it as a super excavation tool—say, to create new harbors or deep mines or shipping canals by simply blowing massive holes in the earth. But we thought better of it. Violent or explosive acts often cause more damage than good. The better way is usually to work patiently with the planet’s environmental rhythms, respecting natural processes. Just because we have the technology to blow a hole in something does not mean that we should.
 
Why don’t we apply this respect for the environment to questions about the human person? After all, we are all part of nature’s fabric, governed by the same natural laws. Or do we think that, because we are clever, we are above nature’s laws?

Salt and Light

Jesus insists today: “Your light must shine before men….” Is his light shining through us? Do the people we work with see a joyful radiance in our eyes, a deeper peace in the way we speak to them and the way we make decisions? Can they feel the radiance of the Holy Eucharist emanating from us, warming them in our tone of voice and brightening the room in our smile? Some of us are naturally extroverts, and some naturally introverts, but I’m speaking of a light everyone who knows God will not fail to express in their own way. To express this joy, we must try our best to recall our faith in God in every circumstance.
 
Years ago, before Travelocity and other online airline ticket sites, I was at a travel agent’s ticket counter. She was having a lot of trouble finding a flight, and I was growing agitated. My eyes narrowed, my lips compressed, my fingers started tapping on the counter. Then, by the grace of God, I remembered: it’s all in His hands. Relax. Trust. A little Mona Lisa smile crept into my face, and I became calm. She noticed it and said “you seem so at peace” as she tapped away at the computer. And I gave praise to God that his grace had come to me and overflowed. He had used me as an instrument of his peace. “Lord, make me a channel of your peace.” She relaxed as well, and in a few minutes found a flight. God was with us.
 
Jesus defines his disciples as “salt for the earth.” Can people taste Jesus in us? Can they savor goodness and truth and beauty in the way we run our businesses, in the way we interact with them on the bus or at the supermarket?  It is not enough to just keep the faith—we must spread it. Jesus gives us his light and warmth at every Mass, in every prayer we make to him. It is for us to believe in his grace within us, and to summon that bit of courage to express it to others. The human body cannot survive without salt and light, and the social order cannot survive without the Christian witness. Our culture becomes less than human, and we ourselves become dehumanized, without the savor and brightness of Christ and his Christians.

The Law of the Gift

Last week we had a little parish stewardship retreat, and I was convicted by something the speaker said on Saturday afternoon. She said “if you want peace, give peace.” St. John Paul called this the Law of the Gift: we attain wealth to the degree that we give wealth away. Sound irrational? Not really, because everything we have has come from God, and it’s all going back to him. God’s gifts only function when given away. He clearly states that in our first reading, from Isaiah 58: “Thus says the Lord: share your bread with the hungry, and do not turn your back on your own: then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound be quickly healed.” God has given us everything, but our first instinct, as wounded by original sin, is to hoard. We keep every last crumb tightly to ourselves. But if we can summon the courage to pry open our hands, to give even just a little, then the floodgates open. “If you share your bread, then your light will shine, and your wound be healed.” So if you want joy in your life, give joy. If you want peace, give peace. If you need help, give help, and what you first give you will always later receive.

Liberal or Conservative?

​Some people call Christians liberals (who like to change things) and some call them conservative (who like to preserve things). Notice that salt both changes food (flavors it) and preserves it from changing (from decaying). A good liberal throws out what is rotten and a good conservative preserves what is healthy. Christian witnesses must both conserve the good and freely reform the bad. A flavorless, dim Christianity is not only unfaithful to Christ, but disastrous for the world. Weak Christian witnesses, for example, permitted the Nazi holocaust in Christian Europe. Weak Christian witnesses are permitting the abortion holocaust in Christian America today. I cannot say how you must witness to the Gospel in your private and public life, but you must give witness, as the Holy Spirit gives us utterance, to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Let them taste Christ in you! May the Blessed Mother guide us in faithfully witnessing to her Divine Son, through her spouse the Holy Spirit, in obedience to her Eternal Father.

Yesterday morning I began Mass in a dark church praying for light. Peter my server trained his little flashlight on the five blessings to be prayed over an array of wax candles. It was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, “a light to the nations and the glory of His people Israel.” We bore our lit candles into the darkness toward an illuminated altar, where Mass would begin. “After the perilous darkness of this life,” I prayed, “may we deserve to attain to never-failing light: through Thee, O Christ Jesus, Savior of the world….”

A global darkness is spreading. As a boy I lived with the dark specter of nuclear war from Soviet Russia. The darkness spread in the 70s and 80s as “enlightened secularism,” Europe’s version of Marxist materialism. This darkness has taken children off the streets, it has cast a shadow over the joys of marriage, it has splintered families, it has spread terror among nations. The Polish people were brave enough to chant “we need God” to their Soviet overlords, but how many can articulate our need for Something Greater in Europe or America today?