Going Along to Get Along

please be seated and good morning again see what love the father has given us that we should be called children of god and so we are the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him writes saint john in the first verses of our epistle reading this morning from first john chapter 3. john in writing this is in the midst of a kind of an exuberant exposition of the glorious truth that the lavish love of god poured out in and through the person of jesus christ has resulted in our being called children of god and just as he introduces this topic he says this again the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him i think first right off the bat it's important for us to define who saint john is referring to with the term the world the world he isn't talking about the visible world of creation and people here he's speaking metaphorically in the same sense that both jesus himself and most of the new testament writers use this term the world father john harden whom many of you knew and loved wonderful priest christian author and and teacher wrote a work entitled the modern catholic dictionary and in there he defines the world as follows quote the world of sin estranged from god as the creation of man's self-will it is at variance with the divine will and is what christ meant when he said i am not praying for the world end quote so again saint john writes the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him jesus confirmed this truth again and again throughout the gospels that the world that is the carnal unregenerate world does not know god and thus it remains carnal and unregenerate do we need to go through a list of examples this morning or can we just as they say in court stipulate that that's true let's stipulate okay so the world then neither recognizes you nor relates to you in any truly meaningful way if if you are walking and living your life as a child of god do you want to know why because you are an alien that's right you are an alien or to say it in a way that is less likely to spawn the rumor that father ed has lost his marbles you are a citizen of another kingdom we are called by god to be in this world but not of this world in john 15 19 jesus told us if you were of the world the world would love its own but because you are not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you the very word that the new testament uses in the original greek that we translate in english as church gives testimony to this truth that both jesus and john are speaking of here the word is ecclesia which literally means those called out those called out meaning those called out of the world you and i so brothers and sisters you and i are citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world jesus told pilate that didn't he my kingdom is not of this world and those who are of the world are so because they have either consciously or or unconsciously chosen darkness over light so then please listen to me carefully here approval and affirmation and validation by the world isn't merely unnecessary for the faithful christian it is ultimately undesirable let me say it again approval and affirmation and validation by the world is not merely unnecessary for the faithful christian it is ultimately undesirable or to put it another way if i'm a child of god and i never encounter disapproval or opposition from the world i really need to take a long hard look at my walk and my witness now that doesn't mean that it's okay to be weird or wacky or obnoxious in the name of being a christian nor does it mean that christians should walk around with a chip on our shoulders looking for the slightest provocation to pick a fight with those who don't agree with us i don't mean that at all but it does mean that we must continually acknowledge that what we value what we stand for what we know to be true as god's children are radically different from what the world values and stands for that should be patently obvious to everyone here this morning more obvious today than at any time in our lives and it also means that the church is called to be counter cultural in other words to continually raise the standard of righteousness and godliness humbly yet confidently before a popular culture that is anything but righteous or godly i would submit that the failure to do so on the part of so many catholics over the years including sadly some priests and bishops the failure to do so has contributed significantly in recent decades to the precipitous moral decline of our culture in an effort to be accepted which of course is just a natural human instinct by the way but in an effort to be accepted far too many catholics have remained silent and passive while the society that we live in has become more and more debased to the detriment of everyone in it including ourselves our children our grandchildren and generations to come and to the detriment of the church itself for too long we have sacrificed decency and righteousness and truth on the altar of so-called relevance and tolerance and diversity far too many catholics have been polite and accepting and non-confrontational to a fault and for our efforts we are now witnessing a culture that is in the throes of societal suicide a culture that is rapidly self-destructing before our very eyes rapidly coming apart at the seams and as a society we have also fallen into the trap of regularly electing leaders who are actually active agents of that self-destruction and to remain silent or passive in the face of such destructive moral aberrations as those that have gripped our culture is a sure recipe for squandering whatever moral authority we we might otherwise be able to muster against those aberrations and by the way we need to ask ourselves this question have those decades-long attempts by catholics and other christians to gain acceptance and affirmation and validation by the larger society achieved the desired result and let me ask you another question then especially for those of you who are over the age of 50. does the church today have a greater or lesser degree of acceptance by the culture than it did when we were younger i think we all know the answer to that question it's self-evident never before in my lifetime has the church been so disrespected by the media by the entertainment industry by many of those in government as it is today it is one of the signs and part of the evidence that we are living in a post-christian culture in seeking to be validated by a perverse culture we inevitably end up validating the culture itself it works in reverse in that process the church which is called on by god to have a positive impact on the culture ends up being negatively impacted by it again it works in reverse let me give you a few examples this is the time of year when colleges and universities all over the country announce who the keynote speakers are going to be at their commencement exercises their graduations in a trend that has been growing in recent years many catholic colleges and universities all over the country are announcing the names of individuals as commencement speakers who hold very clear and public opinions that are in direct contradiction to fundamental catholic moral teachings on issues like abortion same-sex marriage transgenderism and so forth those speakers will no doubt be awarded honorary doctorate degrees at the end of their speeches much like the university of notre dame awarded then president obama demonstrably at the time the most pro-abortion anti-catholic president in history when he was their commencement speaker in 2009 so here's my question let's think about this who gets validated when that happens who gets validated is it the catholic college or is it the anti-catholic speaker and by the way in return for that validation the obama administration turned right around and tried to force notre dame and every other catholic college in the nation as well as other catholic institutions and religious orders like the little sisters of the poor to comply with the hhs mandate in direct violation of the church's clear and long-held teaching on abortion and contraception so you see how it works that's how it works many of you are familiar with the name robert george dr robert p george by the way is the mccormick professor of jurisprudence of princeton university he's a member of the u.s commission on international religious freedom at least for the time being and above all a faithful catholic layman several years ago dr george spoke at the national catholic prayer breakfast and here's what he said in part quote the days of socially acceptable christianity are over the days of comfortable catholicism are past it is no longer easy to be a faithful christian a good catholic an authentic witness to the truths of the gospel a price is demanded and must be paid that's because he says the guardians of those norms of cultural orthodoxy that we have come to call political correctness do not assume that identifying as catholic or going to mass necessarily means that one actually believes what the church teaches on issues such as marriage and sexual morality and the sanctity of human life to be a witness into the gospel today is to make oneself a marked man or woman end quote so the forces that stand in opposition to the church including tragically many within the church herself have become emboldened by among other things the decades-long effort on the part of so many catholics to placate those forces and may i say today it is further emboldened by the election of a president who while loudly trumpeting his catholicism stands aggressive aggressively in opposition to the church's most cherished moral precepts brothers and sisters we cannot we must not placate or accommodate evil because when we do do you know what happens you know what happens when we placate evil we get more evil our responsibility as children of god is to confront it lovingly humbly but confidently to show the world that there is a better way yes i said to show the world that there is a better way the way one by the death and resurrection of jesus christ which we celebrate during this easter season that death and resurrection provides every single human being on the planet with the opportunity and the privilege to become a child of god and the best way for us to do that is to teach by our words and to demonstrate by our lives the better way god's way the way that leads by faith to god and ultimately to to heaven the way that leads to god calling us his children and so in conclusion then let's you and i commit by word and example to teach everyone we know the compelling truth that god wants them to become his children by accepting his truth and accepting his love and accepting his redemption see what love the father has given us that we should be called children of god in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen

Channel: Fr. Edward Meeks

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Id: A6SO68zV9ug

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021