Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples - Paolo Veronese, 1580 |
Job 7:1-4,6-7
Psalm 147:1-6
1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23
Mark 1:29-39
“If I preach the gospel, this is
no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to
me if I do not preach it!”
Every time I hear this scripture
passage I am forced to ask myself ‘Am I really preaching the Gospel?’ Do I
always teach what Christ wants rather than what I want? Do I preach in a way
that helps others understand the Gospel? And most importantly, do I preach the
Gospel by simply loving every person that I meet?
As I reflect on those questions,
I realize that I am not perfect and often fail in my own commissioning to
preach the Gospel. I let myself get in the way of what Christ desires to speak
and, more grievously, I fail to love as Jesus commands me. Although I fail at
these things, though, the fact is that the mandate of Jesus Christ still
remains. We must preach the Gospel of Christ, and most often that preaching
comes in the form of actions, not words. As St. Francis of Assisi is often
quoted, “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words when necessary.” The
obligation to preach the Gospel is none other than the obligation Christ gave
to His disciples: love one another as I
have loved you. That is how we preach the Gospel – love.
This mandate of Christ has no
restrictions or limits. We do not concern ourselves with gender, race, or
social status. Nor do we limit ourselves to a particular religion or age range.
We must simply love the person who stands before us, no matter their story. We simply love.
The problem is that this mandate
to love others and serve them as Christ would is becoming increasingly
difficult to fulfill in our country. At this moment, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services is mandating that beginning August 2013, every
employer – including Catholic social service agencies, hospitals, schools, and
parishes – would be required to provide coverage for sterilization procedures,
contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs. They’re reducing the gift of human
life to a category of ‘preventative care’ alongside mammograms, flu shots, and
the like; pregnancy is categorized as a disease. Until this point, the
government has generally respected the beliefs and conscience of individuals,
not forcing them to pay for or supply things that directly violated their
religious beliefs. This ‘religious exemption’ has now been so narrowly set that
as Fr. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, noted, not even Jesus and the disciples would be exempt since it requires an
institution to employ and serve only those of their particular faith community.
In other words, the new rule would be ‘Not Catholic – Not welcome.’ In effect,
we would no longer be able to serve the poor and the needy, nor welcome any
non-Catholic. It goes against our Catholic faith – the word Catholic means
universal! – and against the mandate of Christ to love.
To refuse to pay for these
insurance policies, which is an option, is to incur fines of over $2,000 per
employee per year, increasing annually as insurance costs increase. To put that
in perspective, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana alone would pay several
million dollars annually and Catholic Charities of America would pay around
$140 Million. And that is just two of thousands of institutions throughout our
country that are serving the poor and aged, feeding the hungry, sheltering the
homeless, and educating people of all types.
The simple fact is that the
current administration has effectively told Catholics and thousands of other
Christians across America that the government has a say over what we can. If
the government doesn’t approve of it, we can’t practice it in the public forum.
We must leave our faith at the doorstep of our homes. And that’s a very
dangerous line to cross because soon who is to say that they won’t continue to
determine what we can believe and practice.
My brothers and sisters in the
Lord, I don’t mean to be alarmist, but this is serious matter. 155 of the 183 Catholic diocese throughout the United States (nearly 85%) and all 53 of the (non-Catholic) Orthodox Bishops in America have publicly spoken out against
this law and it is imperative that we all do the same. Write the president,
write the head of the HHS, and write our representatives and other political
leaders. Let them know that your right to practice your faith is being violated
by this mandate. Let them know that it is unjust and needs to change. Certainly
we must be pro-active. But most importantly, we must bring this before the Lord
because it is the Lord that changes hearts. We can write and call frequently,
which we should, but it is the Lord that will affect this change. We have
numerous conversion stories in the scriptures, most notably St. Paul. Let us
pray that the Lord will continue to convert the hearts of our nation’s leaders.
However it looks for our, whether it’s time with the Blessed Sacrament, serving
the poor, praying the rosary or a chaplet, praying the Scriptures, or offering
up sacrifices and fasting, let us lift up our prayers to the Lord.
And as we gather here for this
Eucharist, this feast of thanksgiving, may we have hearts that are grateful for
the many blessings the Lord has poured out upon us. And by our prayers, may He
continue to pour out blessings upon us that we, as Catholics, Christians, and
Americans, might always be able to carry out the mandate of love, for in
serving others we serve Christ Our Lord.
***
Thomas Peters at CatholicVote.org has a list of bishops/dioceses HERE who have spoken out on this, including links to most of the official statements that are well worth reading for more info.
Amen, Fr. Brent! Thank YOU for having the courage to preach the Gospel. I hope & pray your homily moves people to action given these efforts by our government to undermine our constitutional right of "freedom of religion" in this country through this HHS mandate. It should give ALLl people of faith serious concern. -M. Warrington
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