There are two things that must be clearly understood and believed in order for what I am going to say today to make any sense. First, God – the cause of all things who is without beginning or end – created mankind in His own image. Mankind, being made in God’s image, has a rational soul and free will. Also, God created mankind perfect and without any fault whatsoever. At the beginning mankind had only to follow God’s command and he would have lived in peace with one another and with all of creation. And following God’s command would have been very easy to do because in the beginning the will of mankind was perfectly attuned to God’s own will.

The second thing that must be clearly understood is that mankind chose, in defiance of God’s command, to follow his own path. As a result, all of creation, which was created to serve man’s needs, has been cursed and is destined for destruction. Also, mankind’s intimate union that he shared with God in the beginning has been destroyed. Because of this all of mankind is born into Original Sin. This was never God’s plan for mankind. But even though it was man that broke with God, because He loved us and because of His original plan for us He vowed to save us from eternal separation from Himself. Without that promise from God and the fulfillment of it, mankind would have lost all hope and it is very important that we remember that fact.

Now you may wonder why I have taken the time to explain what you already know. I have done so because in the Pope’s recent letter Porta Fidei he explains that we can no longer assume that anyone knows anything whatsoever about the Faith. This is evident by the fact that many so-called Catholic politicians, at least the ones we are familiar with here in this country, continually say foolish things like, “I’m a faithful Catholic but I think abortion is ok.” And of course the problem isn’t just with those in the national spotlight. On a regular basis, while I am visiting the hospital, I encounter people that don’t know their Faith. And I am sure that many of you have a family member or someone you know that thinks some very strange things about the Faith. Knowing this I think we can all see the Pope’s wisdom in what he has said. We can no longer take for granted that the people we encounter know anything about the Faith. Because of this I have started today by explaining the predicament that mankind finds itself in: God created us perfect but we sinned and are therefore separated from Him.

But, as I have already said, God promised to save mankind from his sinfulness and with that promise mankind has hope. This process started with the Old Covenant between God and His chosen people which had a system of continual animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. But, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.”1 Therefore, as we just heard in our reading today from Hebrews, Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”2 In this one sentence is summed up for us the reason that God became man. Mankind could not save itself and therefore God intervened so that we would not be eternally separated from Him.

But, with our redemption having been won for us almost 2,000 years ago, the belief in the salvation of mankind by God has become for many something equivalent to a fairy tale or a myth: no more than a made up story to help people cope with the senselessness of the universe. As a result of this type of thinking Western society is becoming more and more secular and it is apparent that many of those who claim to be Christian are giving less and less thought to the redemption won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, entire countries that once proudly called themselves Christian, our own included, have now entered an era of darkness. Proof of this is seen when looking at the results of the recent elections: we can see that people are now completely willing to put their hope in a mere man who four years ago proclaimed hope for everyone if only they would vote for him. He did nothing remarkable, performed no miracles, and died for no one’s sins, in fact it is quite the opposite because just like King Herod who tried to kill the infant Jesus by slaughtering the innocent in Bethlehem, this man has shown that he is completely willing to sacrifice the lives of the unborn for his own political gain and now he is even trying to take away our freedom of religion. And even though this is the case the people of this nation have once again chosen to hope in him to solve all their problems. But, in a similar manner to what St. Paul said, if it is only in this life that we have hoped then we are most of all to be pitied.3

Therefore, we would do well to remember what we are told today in the letter to the Hebrews, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”4 In this is our true hope. It is in fact the definition of hope. Christ has died for us and He will return to take us to be with Him forever. But notice that it says He will come “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” If we only care about the things of this world what will become of us when Christ returns? If we show no concern for Christ in this life and instead look to the rulers of the world to solve our problems what will Jesus say to us when He comes again? If we ignore Christ in this world would we honestly expect Him to say to us in the next “Welcome into my Kingdom”? Would we not expect Him to say instead, “Depart from me for I never knew you”? For this reason we must treat as very serious our Faith in Jesus Christ.

But we can’t stop there. Because of the state of the world in which we live and because Jesus has commanded us to do so, we must take the true hope that we have in Jesus Christ out to the rest of the world. Just as the Church did 2,000 years ago she must do once again. We must re-evangelize the peoples of this world. We must convince the world of death, judgment, heaven and hell. If we don’t then this world will become even more depraved and more immoral because it will continue to lose sight of the true hope that is found only in God. Yes, we will suffer for witnessing to the Truth of Jesus Christ, perhaps to the point of giving our own lives. But we, as followers of Christ, must follow His lead. He gave us the example of carrying the Cross and said that His true followers would do the same. Therefore, let us and all those who call themselves Christian, be the ones to bring true hope back to the world.

1Hebrews 10:4, RSV-CE
2Hebrews 9:26b, RSV-CE
3See I Cor. 15:19
4Hebrews 9:28, RSV-CE

This is my last opportunity to preach before the upcoming elections in November. Due to this fact my mind has been very focused on the many concerns of the coming election and I want today to discuss how a Catholic should vote. All week I have tried to connect what I want to say to today’s readings but the sermon became too convoluted. I could have worked it out eventually, if I had more time, but that would have also required much more time to preach it. So what you are receiving today is much shorter than it could have been.

Now for those of you who know me or who have heard me preach what I am about to say may come as a surprise or even cause you some concern. Therefore I ask that you listen carefully to all I am about to say. The first thing I want you to know is that I am not a Republican. But connected to this you should also know that I am not a Democrat. I am first and foremost a Catholic and I vote accordingly. But what does that mean? After all, Catholics have started to identify themselves as either liberals or conservatives. But there is a problem with this type of identification in that Catholics cannot be differentiated between right and left or conservative and liberal because to do so would imply that either way is acceptable. But that is not the case. If you claim to be Catholic then you should simply abide by the teachings of the Church and if you are not willing to do that then why stay in the Catholic Church? Why continue to call yourself Catholic? Why continue to come to Mass week after week and present yourself at the altar to receive Christ’s Body and Blood? You either are Catholic, with everything that entails, or you are not.

But before we address the question of how a Catholic should vote there is another question that must be answered first, that being should a Catholic vote at all? In answer to this and other questions I will be referring to the USCCB’s document called Faithful Citizenship. Now I know some people have strong feelings about this document but I ask that you listen to what I have to say.

So, should a Catholic vote? The short answer is yes. Faithful Citizenship states, “In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.” The purpose of this participation in political life is to influence our society with the teachings of Christ that we have received through His Church. Faithful Citizenship then goes on to state, “As Catholics, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group.” In addition to this it must be said that our moral convictions, in other words our conscience, must be formed correctly by the teachings of the Church. Just because you think something is right doesn’t make it so unless it is in agreement with the teaching of the Church. Faithful Citizenship goes on to say, “When necessary, our participation (in politics) should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths.” And these fundamental moral truths are what I want to talk about in regards to how a Catholic should vote.

In order to be able to pick between the various candidates I want to focus on what is commonly called the 5 non-negotiable issues. They include the following:

-Abortion
-Euthanasia
-Embryonic stem cell research
-Human cloning
-So-called homosexual marriage

These five issues are to be seen as completely, totally and intrinsically immoral by all Catholics. In other words these issues are intrinsically evil and there is never a time in which they can be viewed as acceptable. And Faithful Citizenship states that “Those who knowingly, willingly, and directly support public policies or legislation that undermine fundamental moral principles (such as the ones I have just listed) cooperate with evil.” Which means that if you vote for a candidate that supports these issues then you are cooperating with evil and therefore are sinning.

Now some people might want to say, “But what about war and capital punishment? Aren’t they intrinsically evil?” I will let Pope Benedict XVI answer that question. Before he became Pope he said the following in regards to who may rightly receive Holy Communion,

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.1

Therefore, these five non-negotiable issues, since they are intrinsically evil, cannot be supported by any Catholic: not with your own private opinion and not with your vote. And Faithful Citizenship states that we should not “ignore a fundamental moral evil” when we are voting. And in another place it states “that the moral obligation to oppose intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on our consciences and our actions.” So, if a politician believes that abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning or homosexual marriages are ok then Catholics should not vote for that particular politician.

But what about the situation that arises at times where both candidates believe that a particular intrinsic evil is ok, what do we do then? Faithful Citizenship states the following,

When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.

For instance, suppose that both candidates support abortion. One candidate thinks that it is ok at anytime and for any reason. The other is willing to concede on the point in cases of rape or incest. Now the Church teaches that the position of both of these politicians is false. The Church teaches that abortion is always wrong and that there is no acceptable reason for obtaining an abortion. So which candidate should you vote for? According to what I just quoted we should only support the candidate “deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position.” In other words, we should only vote for the candidate who does the least harm: that being the one who only supports abortion in cases of rape or incest.

I know that there are a multitude of issues to consider in the coming elections but as Faithful Citizenship states “all issues do not carry the same moral weight.” I believe the five issues that I have listed are enough for any Catholic to make the correct decision in how to vote as long as they know how the candidates stand on those issues. And just to be clear I want everyone to understand that what I have said in this sermon is not my own private opinion; it is the teaching of the Church. And with that there really is nothing left to say. May God inspire all Catholics and in fact all Americans to vote in a way that is morally upright.

1 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles

Last week we heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, of which today’s Gospel is the continuation. And because the people did not rightly understand the miraculous feeding, we have just heard today that they went in search for Jesus. Jesus had provided for their physical needs through the multiplication of loaves and therefore they went looking for Him – hoping that He would continue to do so. Jesus then sets them straight by saying, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you.”1 He is telling them not to be worried about their physical necessities, which should remind us of what He says in St. Matthew’s Gospel, “…do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”2 We need to understand from this is that there are things that are much more important than our physical necessities.

Yet mankind cannot seem to understand this lesson very well. Even today many people still go about looking for a secular messiah that will fix their problems by supplying all their physical needs. And unfortunately this incorrect mindset has found its way into the Church. What I mean is this: there are those within the Church, both clergy and laypeople, who are out of balance concerning issues of social justice. For instance, I have heard one priest say that doing works of social justice is the work of Jesus. And it should be mentioned that this was stated in such a way that implied that doing works of social justice is the only thing that the Church should be doing. But that is not true. In fact, to teach social justice as the entire extent of the Catholic Faith is nothing less than heresy.

Now some people might complain and question why I would say something so harsh. After all, the works of social justice are just actions that are done to make the world a better place, right? Doing social justice helps people and isn’t that what Jesus taught us to do? You know – the Golden Rule. Yes, that is true. But to emphasize social justice to the extent of which I am speaking is in fact heresy because it ignores what Jesus actually came to do.

Jesus did not leave His rightful place in Heaven and become a man in order to make this world a perfect place. He did not come to make sure everyone has a job, a house, a car and health insurance. Jesus did not come to us out of any concern whatsoever for our physical necessities. The reason that He became man was in order to offer Himself as the one and only sacrifice to save mankind from sin and eternal death. And that is why we hear Him say in today’s Gospel, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.”

Each one of us needs to heed that message. We need to stop worrying about our physical necessities and start being concerned about our spiritual necessities. Jesus came to give us eternal life. And every week at Mass He supplies to us that “true bread from heaven”3 that brings with it the eternal life that we need. If we receive His Body and Blood at Mass in a worthy manner, meaning without mortal sin on our soul, then we receive His grace, which brings us ever closer to Him. And if we do this faithfully throughout our lives then it most certainly leads us to Heaven. That is what we should be concerned about for ourselves – but also for our neighbor.

The salvation of all mankind should be one of the most important priorities for all Catholics. Bringing others to Christ is the primary way that we can love our neighbor as ourself – just like our Lord taught us to do. But before we can do that we must learn to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. And this can be accomplished by learning and practicing our Catholic Faith in our day to day lives. We must continually strive day after day to come into closer contact with our Lord so that we become more and more like Him. And once we have started down that road of knowing Christ better and of understanding our Faith better then we can and should share it with those around us. Because if we don’t then our neighbor, who we are supposed to love as we love ourselves, may very well be lost for all eternity.

And how do we share our Faith with others? First of all by teaching our families the Catholic Faith. Also we should be ready to give an answer to people who have a question about the Faith. Next, we should let our Catholic Faith be reflected in how we behave in our society. The reason for this is because being Catholic is not just a part of our life. Instead, our Faith should completely define who we are. We do not have two lives: one in the Church and another in the world. We have one life and that is as Catholics in and among the people of the world. Therefore, if something is wrong then we need to say that it is. If something is right then we need to defend it. We should stay away from the immoral behavior of others and promote moral behavior through our own actions.

But there is another very practical way that we can share our Faith with others. Sharing our Faith could be something as simple as giving a cup of water to a stranger. Or it could be clothing the naked, giving food to the hungry and shelter to the homeless. And of course that has brought us back to the issue of social justice. Am I here contradicting what I said earlier? Not in the least. Jesus did teach us to provide for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. And even though mankind is a unity of body and spirit the primary reason that we perform these works of mercy must be out of concern for the salvation of their eternal soul. The Church doesn’t feed the hungry just so they will have a full belly. The Church takes care of those in need because we see in them someone for whom Christ gave up His life. That, and that alone, must be our primary concern. Remember what Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.”

1 John 6:27, RSV-CE (CE – Catholic Edition)
2 Matthew 6:25, RSV-CE
3 John 6:32, RSV-CE

In the calendar of the Church year there are very few Solemnities that will take the place of the regular Sunday liturgy. And of those Solemnities most of them have to do with either our Lord Jesus Christ or His Blessed Virgin Mother. And it is quite rare indeed for a Solemnity of one of the Saints to supplant a Sunday liturgy – such as today. The reason for this is because it is on Sunday that we continually celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. The death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins that comes from it is the foundation of our Catholic Faith. It is the ultimate action of God on our behalf. It is so important that God’s commandment to “keep holy the Sabbath” is no longer kept on Saturday but on Sunday – the day of our Lord’s Resurrection. And because of its significance the Church, speaking with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, has declared from time immemorial that the Catholic faithful are obligated, under pain of mortal sin, to attend Mass on all Sundays, while also not forgetting other Holy Days of Obligation. And this is why the Sunday liturgy is usually not superceded by any other celebration. An occurance like this is reserved for only those Saints of utmost importance in salvation history and when it does occur we should take full recognition of the significance.

And so it is today that we celebrate an event very important in the history of salvation: the birth of St. John the Baptist. But even before his birth the Gospels show us how important St. John the Baptist is. His birth was announced beforehand by an angel to his father Zechariah. The angel told Zechariah that John would “be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”1 And we see this fulfilled at Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth when John leaped in his mother’s womb at the presence of Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By so doing John bore witness to the Messiah being present and this is significant because John was to be the forerunner for our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, this was his main purpose: to prepare the way for our Lord and to bear witness to Him.

John was also the last of the prophets under the Old Covenant. All the prophets of the Old Testament were sent as indicators of what was to come; in other words, they all pointed to Christ. But it was John that was chosen to directly proceed our Lord in order to prepare the people to receive the message of God that was revealed to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was also John’s duty to have the people acknowledge their sinfulness and receive baptism as a sign of repentance. And on at least one occasion, and I would imagine many others, those who were unwilling to acknowledge their sinfulness he personally challenged: for example, he challenged the marriage of Herod to Herodias, who was Herod’s brother’s wife. It is recorded in St. Mark’s Gospel that “John said to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’”2 And because of this willingness to stand up for the Truth he eventually lost his life.

And, like all the Saints that succeeded him, he has left for us an example of how we are to live our lives. And there are many lessons that we can learn from St. John the Baptist but I want to speak of just a few that are most appropriate for the times that we now live in.

In a very ironic turn of events, today – April 15, the day which is traditionally tax day – happens to coincide with Divine Mercy Sunday. Of course, as we all know, about the most mercy you will receive from the government on your taxes is that in years, like this one, when April 15 falls on a weekend then tax day is moved to the next business day of the following week. But even though people are aware that the government is merciless about taxes there are always many people who try to cheat on their taxes or try to take a deduction that they aren’t too sure is correct. People do this thinking that the government won’t notice their deception. And even if we haven’t acted in such a way on our own taxes, this same type of thinking has probably been used by most of us here: for instance, a child who takes a cookie when his mother isn’t looking, even though he has been told he cannot have one. Another example would be a person who walks out of a store with full knowledge that one of the items he is purchasing didn’t ring up at the register. Or the man who lies to women in order to take advantage of them or the politician that makes all sorts of outlandish promises in order to get votes without any intention of keeping those promises and the list could go on and on. To a greater or lesser extent all of us here have probably done something similar.

And of course, if ever we are caught in our deception, we expect mercy from the one we have deceived. When caught perhaps we have said something like, “Oh, come on. I didn’t do anything that was really that wrong.” Or, “What’s the big deal, it’s not like I killed someone.” Or maybe this, “Well, everybody else does the same thing, so I’m not going to feel bad about it.” And although some people may be willing to be merciful and forgive us with such poor pleas for mercy, these excuses, along with any others we may have concocted, will never elicit the mercy of God.

But to this statement someone may protest, “But I thought God was all loving and all merciful. Doesn’t He forgive all sins?” In response to this it must be remembered that while God is all merciful He is also a completely just Judge and if we are lacking in what is necessary for His mercy and forgiveness then it will not be given to us.

Before I continue I want to be clear about something. God can be merciful to us in any number of ways, the total of which could never be counted. But in light of His ultimate mercy of forgiveness given to us through the death and Resurrection of His Son and also Jesus giving that power to forgive or retain sins to His Apostles and the bishops and priests that would follow them, I am talking today only of His mercy that we receive by way of forgiveness of sins.

So what is it that is necessary on our part to receive that mercy and forgiveness that God has supplied to us through His Son? It can be summed up for us in one word – contrition. Because this is a word that is not used much in our society and may be misunderstood let me take the definition for it right out of the Catechism. “Among the penitent’s acts contrition occupies the first place. Contrition is ‘sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.’”1 What this means is that first of all we must be sorry for committing the sin in the first place, not just sorry if we get caught. We must also detest the sin, or in other words we must hate the sin. We must remember that sin has no place with God and that He hates all sin. And if that detestation of sin is in place then the last thing, the resolution not to sin again, will already be in present within us. If we detest the sins in our lives in the same way that God does then we will not want to committ them again. And we must remain resolute to not sin again because if we go to confession fully intending to committ the sin again then even if the priest gives the absolution for the forgiveness of sins it will do us no good.

The Catechism goes on to explain for us two types of contrition: perfect contrition and imperfect contrition. Perfect contrition is what “arises from a love by which God is loved above all else.”2 This is the type of contrition that we should all aspire to in our own lives but which is probably only achieved by a few on this earth. But knowing that this is only achieved by the greatest of Saints should spur us on in our own lives to come closer and closer to that perfect love of God above all else.

The second type called imperfect contrition is described as being “born of the consideration of sin’s ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner.”3 This means that the sinner recognizes that his sins will lead to eternal separation from God. And because of the fear that comes from this recognition the sinner is driven to plead to God for mercy and forgiveness.

But connected to contrition is the fact that we should never presume on God’s mercy. In other words, we should never allow ourselves to think, “Oh well, it’ll be OK to sin this one time because I can always just go to confession and receive forgiveness.” You must never give in to that because it is the thinking of the devil. You should never give in to sin just because there is forgiveness; instead you should plead for God’s help and mercy in resisting the temptation in the first place.

In the end what it really all comes down to is that if we want God’s mercy and forgiveness in our lives then we should want to be like Him in all things. We must be sorry for the sins we have committed, we must be resolute in not sinning again and we must practice our Catholic Faith according to the teachings of the Church so that we can become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. And if we do these things then we can be assured of God’s infinite mercy because at the end of our lives when we are judged by that most just Judge He will no longer see a sinner with a multitude of excuses for the wrongs that have been committed but instead someone who has been formed in the image of His Son.

1CCC, §1451
2CCC, §1452
3CCC, §1453