​Today is the Feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. The former was the gifted Bishop of Rochester in England, and the latter the brilliant Lord Chancellor of the Realm. While every other bishop and every other government official caved into the King’s demands (as did his many wives and mistresses, some of whom lost their heads for their subservience), only one bishop and one civic leader said “no” to the tyrant. They lost their heads too, but they lost their lives without losing their virtue. When John Fisher was named a cardinal by the Pope, King Henry reportedly said “tell the Pope not to bother sending his red hat to London. I’ll send Fisher’s head to Rome.” John Fisher was executed on this day in 1535, and Thomas More two weeks later on July 6.
 
Some say the biopic on Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons (1966), is one of the best movies ever made. The title is apt: Thomas More, and John Fisher, did not change with the seasons. They lived according to perennial truths, and so were men for every political and cultural season. While political power swung crazily back and forth during King Henry VIII’s time, these men rode storms out with composure, including the storm of their own execution. It’s that serene fidelity, that rocklike confidence, that attracts us, especially in our own time of violent political swings from left to right and right to left.
 
Catholics leadership in this country has named June 22 to June 29 “Religious Freedom Week.” June 29 is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, also executed by a dictatorial state (under the Emperor Nero). Tonight in San Francisco the Archdiocese is sponsoring two speakers on Parental Rights, at Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco, at 7pm. A bill in the California Assembly would take children from parents who do not agree with gender ideology. The talk would be worth attending, because we need to know what we are up against. But above all, we must look to the witness of the martyrs to keep our serenity, now matter what happens.

Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a devotion most Protestants and many Catholics find rather odd. My childhood parish had a life-size statue of Jesus on the front lawn, holding his own heart outside of his chest. We kids thought this was just the weirdest thing. So I asked Mom, and she told me it was Jesus offering his heart to me. That made sense. If God is not love, then what good is He? You can have all the candy bars in the world, but if your Mom doesn’t love you, life would still be unbearably sad.
 
“The term ‘Sacred Heart of Jesus’ denotes the entire mystery of Christ,” the Catholic Church teaches, and Pope Benedict said that “the essential nucleus of Christianity is expressed in the Heart of Jesus.” When he became the Pope in 2005, Benedict chose “love” as the topic for his first open letter to all the world. He began with a line from St. John’s first epistle, Deus caritas est, “God is love.” Religion must be a thing of the heart if it’s going to be any good at all.
 
Last night I watched a heartwarming Disney movie from 1962, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. The last time I watched that movie was fifty years ago (Mom took all us little kids to see it), and it still touches my heart. It portrays village life in 19th century Holland, when Europe was still Christian. Movies back then allowed characters to mention the word “God,” and the Brinker family do their best to practice Christian virtues such as humility, forgiveness, diligence, and trustful prayer. But, for the most part, religion is kept safely out of sight. No one goes to church, and the Brinker’s cottage has no Bible on the mantel (which Dutch Protestants of that period would certainly have prominently in view).
 
By 1962, Hollywood had already decided to keep religion safely behind the scenes. We thought we could have it both ways. We thought we could sustain a well-ordered society without the personal sacrifices religion requires. We thought public faith as window-dressing was enough. But 60 years from that charming movie, Disney has found it necessary not only to cancel religion but to belittle faith in God. Just about every movie today speaks the same message: you have the right and the duty to choose every aspect your life. You are your own god, and any religion that gets in your way must be removed.
 
“He who is not for me,” Jesus said, “is against me.” Even in 1962, Disney was ambivalent about religion. Today Disney is decidedly against Christianity. A society that does not choose to be “for God” will inevitably end up being “against God.”
 
The good news is that God is love, and love wins. The “essential nucleus” of reality is divine love, and although cultures make a go of it without God, or try to win wars against God, love always wins. The Sacred Heart is eternal, and after every civilization collapses, the love of God remains. Do you want to be on the “right side of history?” My advice is to take the long view. Cultural movements come and go, but God remains. His love is everlasting. He offers that love, His “Heart,” to all who come to Him. So, as Jesus implores in the Gospel today, “come to me.” There he is, on the front lawn, holding out His Heart to us.

​Legislators in California legalized marijuana in 2016 and will probably legalize harder drugs in the near future. In practice, Fentanyl, Meth, and Crack are already legal in San Francisco, because the poor that we feed every Sunday afternoon in the Tenderloin buy and sell it openly. After taking the drug they curl up in catatonic positions on sidewalks and gutters, insensible to anything around them.
 
Many argue that addictive drugs should be legalized because the war on drugs is failing (with even up to eight years of expensive “treatment,” 80% return to their addiction within a year). Dr. Michael Clune (author of White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin) recently made the case that the “war on drugs” fails because it relies on “treatment” rather than “recovery.” The “treatment” approach is chemical (using other drugs to overcome addiction), while the “recovery” approach is spiritual (recovering spiritual purity by calling upon a higher power). For people who deny the existence of a spiritual dimension to the human person, attempts at spiritual “recovery” are useless. But no one can deny the success rates of 12-step and other “recovery” programs.
 
A friend of mine was addicted to eating. When he topped 300 pounds, he signed himself into a residential recovery program, and he overcame his addiction. He’s been clean for six years. “My addiction was essentially a spiritual problem” he told me later. To enter the Kingdom, Jesus says, we must become like little children: we must recover our innocence, our childlike trust in a benevolent power greater than ourselves. For an agnostic, this is quite difficult. If you doubt the existence of a Holy Spirit, you suspect that we are alone on this lonely planet. Humanity cannot expect help from anything greater than our own technology. In Matt Damon’s words from the movie The Martian, in order to survive in a hostile environment “I’ve got to science the hell out of it.”
 
The Church’s task is to help people recover the freedom of the children of God. The problem is sin, the rebellion against the natural order. The solution is repentance, returning to a childlike trust in God’s will. Every priest and bishop finds this task disagreeable. Who wants to say to a smiling and supportive congregation on Sunday, “repent, you bunch of lazy sinners!”
 
Throughout history some Church leaders have tried to find ways to avoid teaching the hard truths of the Gospel that got Jesus crucified. In October of last year the Vatican’s “synod department” published a document calling for “a church capable of radical inclusion.” In January Cardinal Robert McElroy expanded on that idea, suggesting that the Church bless sexual acts outside of marriage, including (no surprise here) homosexual acts. In response, fellow bishops pointed out that the first word that Jesus preached was not “welcome,” but “repent.” Before we can all sit at table together, we need to clear the air: we are living in ways that contradict the Gospel. “If you love me,” Jesus said, “keep my commandments.” So the Catholic Mass begins with repentance, with Kyrie Eleison. It is necessary to wash one’s hands before sitting down for a meal.
 
I’m reading through the Book of Acts these days, and on almost every page, in just about every homily by the first bishops of the Church, is the call to repentance. The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a call to repentance so that we can be in fellowship with the good God. It’s not easy. Dr. Clune said, of his own addiction to heroin, that the only way an addict can recover is to make getting clean the most important thing in his life. To succeed, he needs to ask for help from beyond himself. In Christian terms, that’s called “repentance,” and it just feels so good!
 
June is the month of the Sacred Heart, and today is the feast of Corpus Christi. For Catholics, June is a month of humility, when we bow before the exquisite humility of God. His Sacred Heart burns with love for the people who reject Him. He comes to us in the Holy Eucharist at every Mass, as a tiny piece of bread, and today we will walk in procession, not waving “pride” banners, but gently bearing the Holy Sacrament through the streets. While many churches in San Francisco will have “pride Masses” this month, the true Church will offer the Mass of the Sacred Heart, the Mass of divine humility. How we long to be clean, and simple, and loving like the Sacred Heart of Jesus!