Following is the prepared text from Bishop Olmsted’s homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
October 25, 2020
“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:38-39).”
These words of Jesus tell us what matters most in life; and the Apostles Simon and Jude show us that, with the help of His grace, love of God and neighbor is not only possible, it also bears abundant fruit. How good for us, then, to hear these words of Jesus as we honor our patron saints the Apostles Simon and Jude, remembering their heroic love of God, gladly dying as martyrs for love of Jesus and as faithful witnesses to the Gospel.
The loving God who gives us the commandments also gives us the help we need to understand them, when confusion about them arises, as has happened in the past few days due to Pope Francis’s recent comments about homosexual persons and “civil unions.”
For a few moments, allow me to direct your attention to 4 words found in Jesus’ teaching about loving God: “…with all your mind.” Too easily we do not associate the mind with the act of loving. Tough reasoning seems to some the opposite of charity. But, wisely, Jesus commands us to love God, not only with all our heart and soul but also “with all our mind.” If we fail to use our minds, we cannot love. This is why the second encyclical of Pope Benedict is entitled Caritas in Veritate, Charity in Truth.
If you try to separate truth from love, it becomes empty and counterfeit. You cannot have one without the other. To be thoughtless is to fail to love. Marital love, friendship, and love of enemies require thoughtfulness. We must take time to weigh tough issues, to make good judgments about right and wrong, and to discern between true and false. To love in truth, especially in an age at odds with the virtue of fidelity, demands the hard work of turning our mind to the constant teaching of our faith contained in Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is especially true when questions arise about married love and homosexual unions. The Catechism states,
“In His teaching, Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning… The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God Himself has determined it: ‘What therefore Good has joined together, let no man put asunder’.” (#1614)
As we see, marital love, that is the total gift of self as expressed in sexual intimacy, is found only in a marriage between a man and a woman, whose relations are open to having children.
Regarding homosexual unions, the Catechism tell us that
“Sacred Scripture [and] …tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (#2357).
The Catechism goes on to affirm that (#2358) those men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies
“must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.”
In keeping with this teaching, Pope Francis insists that men and women who experience same-sex attraction should not be shunned by their families but loved as children of God.
Jesus tells us all: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” What a blessing to know that the clean of heart will be able to see God and rejoice in His presence for all eternity. All of us must strive for the grace to embrace this beatitude of Jesus and live it faithfully today. And should we ever stray from its wisdom let us turn with confidence to the grace of conversion, repentance and new life found in the Sacrament of Confession. As we strive to follow Jesus command to “love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind,” there is no substitute for the hard work of study, discernment, and prayerful thinking with the Church that frees us from the errors of our own day, and that leads us, if we persevere, to the fullness of life and truth found in communion with Jesus.
Jesus calls the devil “the father of lies” because the evil one never stops trying to deceive us. Thanks be to God for the gift of a mind to think, the constant teaching of the Church to direct our discernment, and the light of the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts and decisions. When the Holy Father shares his thoughts in an interview, we do well to listen with respect and seek to understand; at the same time, such comments are not the same as exercising his duty and authority to teach definitively on faith and morals in full communion with the bishops.
Returning for a moment to the Feast Day of the Patron Saints of the Cathedral, just a few words about St. Jude, often known as the patron saint for desperate and hopeless cases. St. Jude also is remembered for a brief letter to Christians of the first century that is found in the New Testament. His letter addressed common problems of the early Church: disunity and immorality among her members. Listen to St. Jude’s words,
“…there will be scoffers who will live according to their own godless desires …who cause divisions …devoid of the Spirit. …beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (vs. 17-23).
For us living in a confusing time, when society and even the Church are torn with factions and division, St Jude reminds us that the mercy of Christ can change us, renew us, move us to forgive one another, to bear with each other patiently, and to speak the truth in love.
No Apostle was a self-made man. Each was transformed by the patient love and rich mercy of God. In the end, none of them was known for their inflated egos. Apostolic love is the opposite of narcissism. They became known for their wholehearted love of God and their courageous defense of the Gospel, even when contrary to popular errors and falsehoods of the day. St. Paul wrote with both frankness and gratitude (1 Cor 4:9), “As I see it God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all… we are fools on Christ’s account.”
If you visit the City of Rome and approach the Basilica of St. Peter from the Tiber River to the East, you are welcomed by the graceful arms of the Bernini colonnade, with more than a hundred statues of saints atop each side and across the basilica’s façade. With all this beauty and symmetry, you are not likely to notice the enormous stones that make up the foundation of St. Peter’s. But, if you take time to look at them, up close, there is little to delight the eye. They are just huge stones that provide a foundation for the exquisite statues and stained-glass windows, the flying buttresses and intricate mosaic. Still, each of the huge stones is carefully carved and fitted harmoniously together to allow the beauty of the world’s most famous church to endure, to shine forth and give hope to the world. Those stones remind us that the Church is “…the household of God… built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the capstone” (Eph 2:19-20).
Every family, every household within the Church, no matter what crosses we bear or hardships we endure, finds its firm foundation on the love of Christ and the truth of the Gospel. The God who gives us the two great commandments to love Him and one another also give us hope as we fulfill them with His grace. They are, in fact, a sure path to happiness and holiness of life. Jesus says, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:7). When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion and are cleansed and made new by Him in the Confessional, we become what God we created us to be, His beloved sons and daughters, the ones to whom He said, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). Walking in the presence of the Lord, we can be love in our homes, among our extended family and neighbors, and in the larger world.
