The First Amendment

Homily to theASCENT participants at Brentwood for the 31st Sunday of Year C.

When I first became aware of news and politics – we’re talking 40 years ago – it seemed that if a politician resigned in disgrace, he – it was usually a he – disappeared from public life and wasn’t heard of again.

About 20 years ago, it felt like things had shifted. Now a politician who had resigned in disgrace might be re-appointed to a senior position a couple of years later.

And now? I can think of one politician who, having resigned in disgrace, got the very same job back within a week!

So I want to ask you a question: should politicians be given second chances?

Yes?

No?

It depends…

I think it depends. It seems that these days, getting found out by the media is a public disgrace and your resignation or dismissal is a slap on the wrist. Then because you’ve had your punishment, you can come back. I’m not sure that’s OK. It’s like being sin-binned in a sports match, which is factored into the tactics of the game.

But what if the person is genuinely sorry and is willing to learn from their mistake? Would I rather have a public official who’s made a mistake, owned up, and is sincerely trying to do batter, or a new replacement who hasn’t yet fouled up in public?

There’s a danger we treat the confessional the same way. We endure the shame of outing our sins to a priest – embarrassing or what? – and we get absolution. Then we’re out of the sin bin and back on the field of play, ready to foul up again. But if we do confession the right way, we’re not just confessing our sins – the Church says we also need a firm purpose of amendment.

What’s that? In simple language, it means I’ve decided to do things differently. And the proof I really have made that decision is that I can actually tell you how!

Take Zacchaeus. As a Jewish tax collector collaborating with the Roman authorities, he was something between a mob enforcer and a bailiff for Government debts. He was a pariah – not a piraña though just as dangerous – a pariah. Toxic. But not too toxic for Jesus.

The outsider finds himself inside, and in the emotion of the moment he makes a big promise. He would not only pay back anyone he’d cheated but also give generously to the poor. Did he do it? The Bible doesn’t tell us – but we do know Jesus took him at his word.

In that moment, Zacchaeus had a firm purpose of amendment. He had a plan for what he was going to do. As disciples of Jesus, we need to do the same. I’ve been a priest hearing confessions for more than 15 years now, so I want to share with you some help to do things differently to address three of the most common sins I hear.

PRAYER

First, what to do if you know you’re not faithful to prayer? Let me introduce you to the 4 Ps.

Plan to pray. If you don’t, you won’t.

Prioritise prayer. If you don’t pray first, you won’t pray.

Progress your prayer life. Don’t be over ambitious. Start with a short time of prayer and build up over time to doing more each day.

Partner with someone – someone you can meet with to pray, or a friend to hold you accountable.

ANGER

Next, what should you do if you find yourself getting angry with people?

There are two ways forward here. The first is if you’re getting angry with other people’s behaviour. Is it possible to get them to change?

One wrong way about it is to get in a shouting match when you’re in the heat of your anger.

Another wrong way is to bluntly tell them what you want them to do differently. Do that often enough and it’s called nagging!

So what can you do? In Sion Community, our members learn about something called Brave Communication.

What does that mean? It means, if someone’s behaviour is driving you mad, you wait until there’s a calm, quiet moment between the two of you and then ask if you can share something with them. Then say “I feel like this when you do that.” If the other person cares about you, they’ll want to change. But they need to find the right way to change.

Do you like being nagged?

Do you find it easy to change your own bad habits?

No? So be gentle when you’re waiting for someone else to change theirs.

But sometimes we get angry about other things, where a conversation with someone won’t change the problem. In these cases we might need to look at anger management. You can search online for help, but make sure you find a trustworthy site. The NHS has one – or if you don’t want to trust a Government site, the American Mayo Clinic also has great resources online, as does the mental health charity, Mind.

IMPURITY

Finally, what can you do if your main problem is that you keep looking at impure things?

First of all, although that’s embarrassing, know you’re not alone. There’s a really useful website out there, run by Christians, called the Naked Truth Project. Earlier this year they held a conference for church leaders. 24% of the people taking part had viewed impure images in the past month – that’s church leaders. Being a mature follower of Jesus doesn’t mean you’re free from the struggle against lust. That doesn’t mean it’s OK. But it does mean your sins of impurity haven’t made you the worst, unreformable, Christian in the church.

When you get caught into impurity, it’s easy to fall into one of two traps. One trap is to say “I’ve sinned so I’ll just carry on being impure.” The other trap is to despair and say “I’m the worst Christian, I deserve shame and condemnation.” No, avoid both traps. Instead of going down the path of sin or self-condemnation, kick out the thought. You might even say to yourself out loud, “That’s not who I am. That’s not what I choose to think.” Whatever impurity is playing on your mind, you don’t have to be defined by those. At times you may have to kick out those thoughts 10 times in the course of five minutes. That’s OK. Keep kicking!

Naked Truth offer two resources worth knowing about.

One is a free online course of five video-based sessions, called CTRL ALT DELETE. Anyone with an internet link can watch these.

The other is the chance to take part in an online support group for 8 sessions with a facilitator and 6 people of the same sex struggling with similar issues – the project is called CLICK TO KICK. There’s no cost, though they hope you could make a £10 donation. But for legal reasons, they can only offer these groups to people aged 18 and over. I don’t have time to read out the testimonies of people who’ve found hope and freedom through the course, so you should check them out yourself!

Whatever sin we’re trying to deal with, if it’s a sin we keep falling back into time and again, we can feel like we’ve lost the right to be helped, because we’re unworthy of God’s forgiveness. And part of that is true. You are not worthy. 

But that’s OK!

It’s not about worthiness. Zacchaeus wasn’t worthy of what Jesus did for him. That’s the whole point! Jesus reaches out to us in our unworthiness, because he loves us – and the stories of Jesus having dinner with tax collectors or stopping an adulteress from being stoned are there precisely to remind us it’s not about us – it’s about Him.

We’re not alone. I want to leave you with the prayer that St Paul, with his companions Silas and Timothy, prayed for the new Christians in Thessaloniki:

God chose you, and we keep praying that God will make you worthy of being his people. We pray for God’s power to help you do all the good things you hope to do and your faith makes you want to do. Then, because of the undeserved grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, you will bring honor to the name of our Lord Jesus, and he will bring honour to you.

2 Thess 1:11-12 CEV

We may or may not give a second chance to our politicians, but Jesus will always offer a second chance to you. All you have to do is choose to change!

Something About Mary

Is it blasphemy? Is it heresy? Or is it just wrong? How should we react when modern media portray the Blessed Virgin Mary in a way which contradicts Catholic teaching?

Catholics believe many things about Our Lady which are not stated in Scripture but which are handed down as part of the unwritten tradition of the Church. These include the beliefs that:

• Her parents were named Joachim and Anna.
• She was conceived without original sin.
• She was presented in the Jewish Temple as a girl.
• She did not experience labour pains, since these are consequences of original sin; furthermore, the birth of Jesus was a physical miracle which did not rupture her womb.
• She remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus – so any references to Jesus having ‘brothers and sisters’ must be loosely interpreted as ‘cousins or kin’ or possibly as step-siblings through Joseph.
• At the end of her earthly life, she was taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

Since 2019, an independent media production called The Chosen has sought to dramatise the life of Jesus and his (chosen) disciples as a multi-season series. Inevitably, any attempt to portray Scripture on screen requires the producers to make assumptions about information not given in Scripture, in set design, in additional dialogue, and the back-stories of various characters. A dramatisation of the Bible is not “the Bible” by its very nature, and not, in my opinion, a violation of the Scriptural command to “add nothing” to the pages of the book.

The editorial team for The Chosen is not controlled by any particular Christian denomination; they use Catholic, Evangelical and Jewish advisors, and have collaborated with Mormons for use of their stage-set replicas of the Holy Land. But the portrayal of the Virgin Mary inevitably forces the producers to make a decision to accept or reject Catholic traditions. In Season 2, Mary is portrayed as indicating that she did give birth in the ordinary biological way. A sneak peek of Season 3 (now removed from this livestream) foreshadows the introduction of the “brothers of Jesus, James and Jude” not yet portrayed on-screen. Catholic fans of The Chosen fear that the producers will take the literal interpretation of Scripture that if Jesus has “brothers and sisters” they must be the children of Mary. The most vocal Catholic critics therefore warn of “blasphemy” against the Mother of God with more to come.

Blasphemy is a strong word. Is it justified here? Paragraph 2148 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives a clear definition of blasphemy. It is a wilful statement intended to insult God – or by extension, someone holy – by deliberately speaking untruth about God or someone holy (or linking someone holy or the Name of God with criminal behaviour). But it seems to me self-evident that the producers of The Chosen have no intent to insult the Virgin Mary; they simply seek to portray her in the light of Scripture and human experience, without accepting Catholic Tradition as an authoritative source which might modify the portrayal.

Does the production constitute heresy? This defined in paragraph 751 of the Code of Canon Law, requiring obstinate persistence in holding a belief contrary to Catholic teaching by a “baptised person”. Strictly speaking, this means any baptised Christian (Catholic, Episcopalian, Orthodox, Evangelical, Pentecostal or Protestant) who was patiently counselled to accept a Catholic teaching would be a formal heretic once they persistently refused to adhere to Catholic teaching. The recent custom and practice of the Catholic Church, however, is not to use labels like “heretic”, but rather conciliatory language like “separated brethern” when dealing with Christians who have never made a personal profession of the Catholic faith. To “obstinately persist” the production team of The Chosen would have to be exhorted multiple times to follow Catholic interpretations of Scripture, and refuse to do so.

In a recent post, Bishop Robert Barron has once again appealed to online Catholics to “be kind” in the way they interact online. Throwing the terms “blasphemy” or “heresy” around when criticising The Chosen is distinctly unkind. Both terms suggest a wilful intent to defy Catholic authority, whereas the production team are simply seeking to portray Scripture surrounded by plausible creativity. It might be best to think of The Chosen as a kind of alternate history – “What if the Virgin Mary had not preserved her virginity?” – if indeed that’s the direction the new season will choose. If we expect The Chosen to present a drama 100% in keeping with Catholic teaching, we’ll be disappointed.

It’s not just Bishop Barron’s opinion, either. To publish the faults of another person without sufficient cause, is called the sin of detraction. Paragraphs 2477-79 of the Catechism make it clear that we have a moral duty to speak well of others and to present them generously in the best of lights.

Will the next season of The Chosen promote ideas about Our Lady which we know to be untrue as Catholics? Undoubtedly. So this is an opportunity for us to bear witness to the Catholic Faith in two ways: to proclaim the truth, preserved in Catholic Tradition, about the Blessed Mother; and to bless the producers of The Chosen by honouring their great work to present a Biblical drama while pointing out that another interpretation is preferred. God bless the producers of The Chosen – and Blessed Mother, pray for us!

The Mustard Challenge

Homily at St Mary’s, Crowborough, on the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C.

On this very weekend, eighteen years ago, I was in trouble.

At the time, I was a student at seminary. We were allowed to go out after Sunday lunch – but we had to be back for evening prayer at half past six.

With another student, I’d driven to a meeting to plan a youth retreat. One of the young women involved had asked for a lift home. I worked out that we had time – but only just – to drop her off and get back for evening prayer. After all, she needed our help, and it was the right thing to do.

We got lost!

Eventually, we found the right road. But we arrived back at the seminary five minutes after the start of Evening Prayer. The other student and I had to make a decision – should we go into the chapel late, and hope no one noticed? Or should we say our own evening prayer separately?

We chickened out and decided not to go into chapel. So we took out our prayer books and said the official Prayer of the Church together.

Near the end of Sunday Evening Prayer, there’s a line which is taken from the Gospel of the day. It was just as well we hadn’t gone in to chapel that evening, because we collapsed in fits of laughter when we read out loud the words: “We are useless servants – we have only done our duty!”

Laughter aside, there’s a serious matter at hand here. Jesus wants us to know that God, Our Father in Heaven, expects us to do our duty. Is it our duty to become slaves to Jesus, so in heaven we have to serve his dinner? No, Scripture makes clear that in the banquet of heaven, we will be the special guests and Jesus will serve us! But to be worthy of honour in heaven, we are invited to behave as good servants of God on earth.

We’re entering into a week of mission, for which you have chosen the title, “Faith Into Action”. What does it look like when we put our faith into action? For many followers of Jesus it means helping the poor. At our Sion Community headquarters in Brentwood, we partner with another local church which runs a food pantry – food from shops and restaraunts which is going out of date is made available to people who could use it. Last month some regular suppliers cut the amount they were willing to donate by two-thirds! The leaders knew they would still have the same demand for food, if not more, from their hard-pressed clients, so they prayed for God to do something – and that very morning God answered their prayers with not one, not two, but three unexpected deliveries of bulk food! That’s faith in action!

Jesus said, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed’ you could work miracles.

You don’t need to be a follower of Jesus to help the poor. Indeed, there are millions of volunteers in the world who follow no faith or other faiths, who do wonderful work to help people who cannot help themselves. Perhaps you’re a volunteer too. In which case, I have a question for you to ponder. Do you help other people because you love people, or because you love Jesus?

It’s great to love other people. In fact, it’s the second most important thing that Jesus asked us to do. But if you want to work miracles in the lives of others, it’s not enough to just want to help people. You also need faith in Jesus, at least faith the size of a mustard seed. If you have this kind of faith, you will want to worship, and you will joyfully invite other people to come and be part of this church.

We’re here, this week, from Sion Community, to plant mustard seeds.

We’d love to visit each one of you at home, to discover what Jesus means to us and to you.

We’re here to offer different kinds of experiences of prayer, so you can connect with Jesus in new and different ways.

Do you know how to hear Jesus as he speaks in the pages of the Bible? Tuesday is all about learning to listen.

Do you struggle to overcome guilt and shame in your life? How could Jesus use someone like you to work miracles? Wednesday is all about overcoming our failures by receiving God’s Divine Mercy.

Do you know how to love Jesus? Thursday is all about adoration, how we place Jesus before us so we can look on him with love.

All of this is building up to our great parish celebration on Friday night, which will call us to action. But to put our faith into action, first we need to plant the seed of faith. For some of us, this week will be planting seeds. For others it will be watering the seeds already there to see how they have grown. And for some, it will be calling forth life from seeds which are dormant. If you’ve received the Sacrament of Confirmation, that mustard seed is already planted within you! Hear again the words written to Timothy:

Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you… God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord… You have been trusted to look after something precious; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Selected verses from II Timothy 1

If we want to be good servants for God, it’s not going to happen spontaneously. We have to choose to incubate those mustard seeds, to fan the flame of their fire. By coming to this week’s mission events, by receiving a visit at home, by spending time in prayer and asking God to bear fruit in you – you will work miracles. But it starts with a decision. Ask for a home visit. Come to a mission event. Take time to pray. Put your faith into action – if you dare!