7th Sunday of Easter

In the homily at his inauguration Mass in Westminster Cathedral on Thursday, the new leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, called for ‘respectful dialogue’ and ‘creative conversation’ between Religion in Britain and our modern, secular society. And in its leading article the following day, the Guardian newspaper, while agreeing that what the Archbishop was seeking was desireable, spoke of how difficult it will be to achieve it. Reflecting on where the difficulty lies, the article contained the following sentence: “On two of the central moral questions of the day, sexuality and scientific research, the Catholic leadership clings to an absolutist position that alienates liberals, even those brought up as Catholics,” words which, whatever side of the divide you are on, few would disagree with, especially those who took part in our recent Church History Course. So what is going on here? And why is the Church so often at odds with the modern world? Well, that’s what I hope we can come to a deeper understanding of this morning, aided and abetted by the readings we have just heard. And so we turn first to the gospel.

In it, Jesus twice prays for us that we may be consecrated in the truth. But at the very heart of the Church’s problem with the world lies a fundamental disagreement about what constitutes truth. The Church famously thinks in centuries and changes very slowly and one of the consequences of this is that its answer to the question ‘what is truth?’ is one which our western developed world largely abandoned a very long time ago. For the Church, whose thinking, for historical reasons we don’t have time to go into, is rooted in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, who lived in Athens four hundred years before the birth of Christianity, truth is objective and unchangeable. Ultimatetely, truth is revealed to us by the God who is truth and our job, as creatures, is to seek that truth and conform our minds to it. Aristotle, in fact, defined truth as the mind conforming itself to reality. And while, in the scientific field, this understanding of truth remains as valid today as ever it was and is the whole basis of scientific research, in the world of morality and ideas such thinking makes no sense to millions today. Just think of the number of moral issues on which the world’s thinking has changed over the last fifty years, the most obvious example being society’s attitude to the very issue the Guardian mentioned, human sexuality. Things which were once strictly forbidden,and not just by the Churches, are widely accepted today, a change which makes no sense to those who still base their thinking on the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. From their perspective, and this is the position of the Catholic Church, right and wrong are not decided by an opinion poll. Some things are right and others are wrong regardless of what we think and our job is not to change them to suit ourselves or to be in tune with the latest fashion, but to conform to them. And the great example of this in modern times was Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’ which caused so much trouble for so many people, including some of you here. I don’t want to go into the issues behind that Encyclical today, but it is important to understand why the Pope said what he said despite the fact that a Commission set up by himself had advised him to say something very different. He said it because he believed he had no option but say it. The Church, in his mind, had already spoken on the subject in an earlier statement by Pope Pius XI and even if he wanted to – and he probably did – he could not change that. To do so would have been to suggest that what had been true once was no longer true and that, for him, was not possible. He thought that to do so would be to undermine the teaching authority of the Church, the great irony being that that is exactly what did happened after ‘Humanae Vitae.’The problem, of course, is that history shows that many things the Church once thought were true turned out not to be and vice-versa. But that’s another story. I just hope that this homily will help us understand where the Church is coming from and why it is so often in conflict with a world where truth is often reduced to what we want it to be.

And there’s another example in the first reading where we hear how the eleven went about choosing a successor to Judas. By first praying and then drawing lots, rather than having interviews or psychological assessments, as we would do today, the early Church is acknowledging that this important decision is the work of the Spirit and will be made through a process of discernment rather than through discussion or debate among themselves. Truth, in other words, comes from God. Praying and then drawing lots, the equivalent of tossing a coin, is, admittedly, a pretty primitive form of discernment. But the truth the early Church is trying to express here is obvious and continues to be the basis of the Church’s understanding of ministry right up to the present day. Whether it be priesthood, lay involvement at Mass or exercising leadership of some kind in the community, no one can take this upon him or herself. It is not like applying for a job or planning a career. At least it shouldn’t be. Ministry in the Christian community is no-one’s by right. God, the source of everything that exists, calls those to ministry whom he chooses to call and it is the Church’s job to discern that call in individuals and confirm it.

And again, without going into the issue itself, I invite you to at least understand where the Church is coming from on the contentious issue of women priests. Pope John Paul II spelt out for us several years ago how he saw it. For him, the Church had no power to ordain women, even if it wanted to. Such a decision is God’s, not the Church’s, and, for him, if not for many others in the Church, God made known his decision when Jesus chose only men as apostles. Only time will tell, of course, if this remains the Church’s position. There have been many changes of direction over the centuries and there will be others in the future too. But the important thing for us today is not whether the Pope was right or not. It’s to come to a more mature appreciation of the Church’s problem with the very nature of truth in our modern society.

We can’t resolve it. But we can, at least, understand it.


BIDDING PRAYERS


In his homily on Thursday, the new Archbishop of Westminster called for a dialogue between believers and unbelievers which goes beyond superficial slogans. He called for a society where people genuinely listen to each other and are prepared to attribute to each other the best and not the worst of motives. And so we pray for this grace for ourselves: the grace to enter into the minds of people who think differently from ourselves and rejoice in the elements of the truth we find there.................Lord hear us

Whether truth is absolute or not, whether it is purely objective or can change according to the circumstances we find ourselves in, is a philosophical debate which can and will go on between people of good will. But what cannot be true is that truth is simply what we want it to be. There are times when truth is bigger and greater than we are, times when, whether it suits us or not, we must submit to it. And so we pray for the wisdom to understand this...Lord hear us

Many today confuse legality with morality and vice-versa. But, as many MPs have discovered in recent days, there are things which are legal but immoral. Equally, there are things which are illegal but morally right, as is the case with those who fight against unjust regimes in many parts of the world. And so we pray that the people of Britain will have the moral maturity we need to understand this distinction and not fall into the trap of thinking that what is legal is automatically right.......Lord hear us

The area of our lives where once firmly held truths have given way to what many today would see as moral chaos, has been the area of sexuality. Huge changes in the way we think about sexual morality have taken place over the last fifty years, and, for better or for worse, we are living today with the consequences. We pray, however, that God, in his infinite love and providence, will lead the world to more balanced ways of thinking about sex worthy of who we are as human beings..........Lord hear us

Many here will remember only too well the furore which followed the publication, in 1968, of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae.’ It began a period of controversy and pain in the Church from which many never recovered. Some left the Church in protest while others, who did not go that far, were left with feelings of anger and resentment which still hang around today. And so, all these years later, we ask God to heal whatever hurt remains from that time..........Lord hear us

For many people in the Church today, the issue which causes most unhappiness and disappointment is the way women, as they see it, are prevented from exercising their proper role in the life of the Church. For some this is about the ordination of women, but it is about much more than that. It is about what many see as a male-dominated culture which has no place in the modern world. And so we pray for the grace we need to understand what it is like for those who feel this way.......Lord hear us