Tony Gutiérrez, Phoenix Catholic Sun
CORRECTED: The last half of the 1st paragraph did not get posted in the original publication of this homily. The previously missing section can be found between the following brackets below: {{ }}
Only 31% Believe in the Eucharist
Last September the Public Religion Research Institute published a study showing that three times fewer Americans are practicing any form of religion than in 1990. Today 24% of our citizens claim no religious affiliation. One in four Americans today do not practice any religion. That is bad for America, because as the founders of our country often stated, right religion is an essential foundation for any just and ordered republic. I’m sure the percentage is higher in cities, especially the wealthy coastal cities like ours. How many people in San Francisco do you think are in church today? Another study last month (from the Pew Center) looked at the Catholic faith specifically. It showed that {{only 31% of Catholics in the United States believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” Despite our extensive Catholic school systems, from pre-K through Catholic universities, most Catholics don’t believe in the one thing necessary: the Holy Eucharist. As fewer people worship together on Sundays, society unravels, from lethal violence in public places to the almost complete failure of marriage, fatherhood, and family life. “Many souls go to hell because no one prays for them” said Our Lady at Fatima. What can we do to help souls from being lost, which is our responsibility in Christian charity?}}
Faith
“The night of Passover was known to our fathers” we hear in the Book of Wisdom. “The holy children of the good were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.” The hope of the world rests in rightly-ordered worship, in the sacrifice of the altar. If you believe in Jesus Christ’s real presence at Mass, and if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, then you believe that the peaceful order for all people, from Beijing to Moscow to New York, depends on the sacrifice of the altar. But that sacrifice, offered for the salvation of men, does no good if men do not receive it. Why have so many people lost their faith in God and turned their backs on religion? Ronald Dworkin, a physician and social scientist at George Washington University, recently wrote that “the problem is bigger than organized religion. Since the 1970s, distrust in the medical system has gone from 4% to 27%. Distrust of Congress from 14% to 47%. And distrust of organized religion from 11% to 28%.” Who can blame them? When “organized religion” adapts itself to the world—plays politics, keeps budgets, attracts customers, sometimes employs second-rate people and covers up scandal” it does just what all worldly organizations do. People have lost faith not so much in God as in secularized religion, meaning religion that has lost its faith.
Religion does not fix problems
Churches that act more like businesses or social service agencies than houses of prayer do not meet our need for God. Religion’s purpose is to bring people to faith in God, not solve social problems. “Religion does not exist to fix problems,” Dr. Dworkin concludes. “Many problems cannot be fixed; when they can, secular institutions often do a better job. Religion exists to put problems in perspective,” in the perspective of faith, to see things sub speciae aeternitatis, “in light of eternity.” “Brethren,” St. Paul writes in our second reading, “faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. By faith Abraham obeyed,” even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He put even this terrible sacrifice in the perspective of God’s supreme will, which a rational man will not gainsay.
Yesterday I visited a dear lady who has not been able to leave her bed for many years. She is 93 and told me that every bone in her body aches. “Why am I still here?” she asks me every time I visit. “I pray a lot, but God doesn’t seem to hear me.” What can a priest say to her? What can religion offer her? Only this: we are entirely in the hands of God. The best prayer is to thank God in all circumstances, to praise Him day and night, to trust that God will provide. “Make of everything you do a sacrifice” our Lady told the children at Fatima. “Take what he gives and give what he takes, with a big smile” Mother Teresa told her sisters. I looked at Annabel as she lay on her sickbed, oxygen tube in her nose, and said the only real thing a priest can say: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you besides.” All our hope is in God and his kingdom. Surrender your body, your mind, your heart to him, again and again, and He will save you. If she sees that the priest himself tries to accept his own suffering with serene faith in God, even to rejoice in his afflictions, she will listen. Her eyes were burning pools, and she smiled gently: “I’ll try to do that” she said. We have to keep these doors open and the confessional lights on, because people need God more than they need food and drink. When the social order fails them, the Church will be here, as she always has been, to provide the one thing necessary for the human soul.
The Kingdom
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” An earthbound Church is in the end contemptible. What people need from their priests, and children need from their parents, is faith in God, and hope for the life of the world to come. This Thursday is the Solemnity of the Assumption, Aug 15, the mystery of Our Lady’s rising to heaven, body and soul. I want everyone to go to Mass on Thursday because we need to believe in heaven, and see everything in our lives in anticipation of eternal life. Where she has gone, we hope to follow.
Only 31% Believe in the Eucharist
Last September the Public Religion Research Institute published a study showing that three times fewer Americans are practicing any form of religion than in 1990. Today 24% of our citizens claim no religious affiliation. One in four Americans today do not practice any religion. That is bad for America, because as the founders of our country often stated, right religion is an essential foundation for any just and ordered republic. I’m sure the percentage is higher in cities, especially the wealthy coastal cities like ours. How many people in San Francisco do you think are in church today? Another study last month (from the Pew Center) looked at the Catholic faith specifically. It showed that {{only 31% of Catholics in the United States believe that “during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.” Despite our extensive Catholic school systems, from pre-K through Catholic universities, most Catholics don’t believe in the one thing necessary: the Holy Eucharist. As fewer people worship together on Sundays, society unravels, from lethal violence in public places to the almost complete failure of marriage, fatherhood, and family life. “Many souls go to hell because no one prays for them” said Our Lady at Fatima. What can we do to help souls from being lost, which is our responsibility in Christian charity?}}
Faith
“The night of Passover was known to our fathers” we hear in the Book of Wisdom. “The holy children of the good were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.” The hope of the world rests in rightly-ordered worship, in the sacrifice of the altar. If you believe in Jesus Christ’s real presence at Mass, and if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, then you believe that the peaceful order for all people, from Beijing to Moscow to New York, depends on the sacrifice of the altar. But that sacrifice, offered for the salvation of men, does no good if men do not receive it. Why have so many people lost their faith in God and turned their backs on religion? Ronald Dworkin, a physician and social scientist at George Washington University, recently wrote that “the problem is bigger than organized religion. Since the 1970s, distrust in the medical system has gone from 4% to 27%. Distrust of Congress from 14% to 47%. And distrust of organized religion from 11% to 28%.” Who can blame them? When “organized religion” adapts itself to the world—plays politics, keeps budgets, attracts customers, sometimes employs second-rate people and covers up scandal” it does just what all worldly organizations do. People have lost faith not so much in God as in secularized religion, meaning religion that has lost its faith.
Religion does not fix problems
Churches that act more like businesses or social service agencies than houses of prayer do not meet our need for God. Religion’s purpose is to bring people to faith in God, not solve social problems. “Religion does not exist to fix problems,” Dr. Dworkin concludes. “Many problems cannot be fixed; when they can, secular institutions often do a better job. Religion exists to put problems in perspective,” in the perspective of faith, to see things sub speciae aeternitatis, “in light of eternity.” “Brethren,” St. Paul writes in our second reading, “faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. By faith Abraham obeyed,” even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He put even this terrible sacrifice in the perspective of God’s supreme will, which a rational man will not gainsay.
Yesterday I visited a dear lady who has not been able to leave her bed for many years. She is 93 and told me that every bone in her body aches. “Why am I still here?” she asks me every time I visit. “I pray a lot, but God doesn’t seem to hear me.” What can a priest say to her? What can religion offer her? Only this: we are entirely in the hands of God. The best prayer is to thank God in all circumstances, to praise Him day and night, to trust that God will provide. “Make of everything you do a sacrifice” our Lady told the children at Fatima. “Take what he gives and give what he takes, with a big smile” Mother Teresa told her sisters. I looked at Annabel as she lay on her sickbed, oxygen tube in her nose, and said the only real thing a priest can say: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you besides.” All our hope is in God and his kingdom. Surrender your body, your mind, your heart to him, again and again, and He will save you. If she sees that the priest himself tries to accept his own suffering with serene faith in God, even to rejoice in his afflictions, she will listen. Her eyes were burning pools, and she smiled gently: “I’ll try to do that” she said. We have to keep these doors open and the confessional lights on, because people need God more than they need food and drink. When the social order fails them, the Church will be here, as she always has been, to provide the one thing necessary for the human soul.
The Kingdom
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” An earthbound Church is in the end contemptible. What people need from their priests, and children need from their parents, is faith in God, and hope for the life of the world to come. This Thursday is the Solemnity of the Assumption, Aug 15, the mystery of Our Lady’s rising to heaven, body and soul. I want everyone to go to Mass on Thursday because we need to believe in heaven, and see everything in our lives in anticipation of eternal life. Where she has gone, we hope to follow.
RSS Feed