Homily for Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 20, 2015

Homily for 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 20, 2015

Papal Visit

 

            The big exciting news for the Catholic Church in America these days is that Pope Francis is coming! Surely you’ve been seeing the news coverage of the Pope’s historic visit. This might be a good time to reflect upon the Pope’s role in world and in the Church, especially since there is a great deal of anticipation for the visit of the Holy Father!

Personally, I wish I could go see him, but it’s not to be. I was blessed back in 1995 to be in Oriole Park in Baltimore when Pope John Paul II came to visit. That was such a special experience, but since I was eleven years old, I remember being far more excited about being in a major league baseball stadium for the first time than in actually seeing the Pope.

We as Catholics should always love the Pope. The word “pope” comes from the Latin word for “father” – and thus, as his spiritual children, we should have a filial love for him. The Pope is often called the “Vicar of Christ” – in other words, he “stands in” for Christ, teaching with His authority. Therefore, if we love Christ, then we should love the Pope, Who stands in his place.

Jesus gave authority to the first Pope, Peter, in Matthew 16 when He promised Peter “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven”. Consider how awesome that is! Jesus is leaving His Church, His entire mission of saving the human race from eternal damnation, in the hands of a mere man – the Pope, the successor of St. Peter.

Now, over the centuries, we have had saintly Popes like Pope St. John Paul II (the Great) and we have had wicked popes like Pope Sixtus V who spent all the money in the Vatican treasury and had several girlfriends on the side (generally frowned upon when being Pope!). And we have had Popes who were pretty mediocre. But the Church has carried on, despite the weaknesses and failings of each individual Pope.

Just before the French general Napoleon marched on Rome in the 1800s to take the Pope captive, he famously had a debate with a churchman who was trying to talk him out of the plan. In frustration, Napoleon exclaimed, “Don’t you know that I can destroy the church!” The cardinal replied, “The clergy have been trying to destroy the church for 1800 years. We haven’t succeeded, and neither will you!”

This is, to me, one of the greatest arguments to prove that the Holy Spirit really is in charge of the Church – that despite church leaders who have often been weak, corrupt, sinful individuals, the Church itself has continued on with its mission of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the People of God. The Church must truly be a divine institution, because if it were merely the creation of human beings, it would have been destroyed by our own sinfulness!

You see, the Pope is not the head of the Church – Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. The Pope must be obedient to Christ, and Christ promised (in Matthew 16) that “the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church”. For this reason, while other churches come and go, nations rise and fall, fashions become popular and then fade away, the Catholic Church will always remain as the protector and bulwark of truth.

Because the Pope must be obedient to Christ, he is not free to change the teachings of the Church. The Pope is given the task of handing on, preserving, and enlivening the teachings of the Church – not changing the teachings. This is an important fact that the main-stream media does not seem to understand. The media has been portraying Pope Francis as someone who will “change” the teachings of the Church – whether it’s about married priests, divorce and remarriage, gay rights, Mass attendance, abortion, the environment, or any other controversial topic. The media seems to think that the Pope can just change any teaching he wishes, because the media sees the Pope as merely the CEO of a large corporation instead of an obedient servant to Christ. Yet the reality is: the Pope cannot change Church teaching! He is responsible for handing down the unchanging teachings of Christ. Although each Pope puts his own personal emphasis on Church teaching – such as Pope Francis’ wonderful focus on the poor – he cannot contradict what has been taught in the past.

We believe that the Pope, in union with the Bishops, have a special gift that preserves them from error when they teach in the name of Christ. This gift is called infallibility. This does not mean that everything the Pope says is true – if the Pope says that the Yankees will win the World Series, that doesn’t mean it will happen. Rather, infallibility means that when the Pope, in union with the Bishops, teaches something solemnly about faith or morals, the Holy Spirit guards them from making an error. This gift of infallibility does not mean that the Pope is a perfect person. The gift does allow us to be confident that whatever the Pope, with the Bishops, officially teaches as Church doctrine is actually what Jesus teaches about a certain topic.

So do not be deceived by media reports in the next few days, because the media wants us to believe that Pope Francis is taking the Church in a new direction. No, Pope Francis has always been faithful to Christ and His teachings. The Church only has one direction – Heavenward. That’s why the Church exists – to get us to Heaven – and that is precisely where our Holy Father is leading us!

But that is countercultural. Our first reading today is a beautiful meditation on why the Pope and the Church is often criticized in the media. The media generally wants to advocate for an “anything goes” mentality, a “this-world-is-all-there-is” viewpoint. And when the Church declares that our life’s goal is Heaven, and we get there by being a faithful disciple of Jesus, that goes against the values of the media. So the media tries to force the Church to “get with the times” and stop preaching about the Cross and other “old-fashioned” values such as discipline, purity, holiness.

But as we have watched, over the centuries, nations rise and fall…I’m sticking with the one thing that remains unchanged and solid: the Catholic Church, led by Pope Francis, who is the representative of Christ on earth, and who teaches us the true path to Heaven.