23rd Sunday Year C - Homily 5

 Homily 5 - 2019

Today, Child Protection Sunday, brings National Child Protection Week to an end. You will find a prayer relevant to the occasion on the back of this week’s Parish Bulletin. Do you remember how Pope Francis, a couple of years back, suggested that we Catholics might do a regular act of penance to remind ourselves of the sins of sexual abuse that have occurred in the Church and to support particularly all victims of abuse? I think it was a great idea.

The Royal Commission strongly charged the Church to change its culture that hid the sins, and protected the priest and religious abusers rather than the children they abused; and that contributed to the climate where such behavior was more likely to occur. One response to that challenge on the part of the Australian Bishops has been to call the National Plenary Council. I notice in today’s Parish Bulletin that there will be a gathering here after Mass on the last Sunday of this month precisely to follow up on the Listening and Discernment process in preparation for the Council. Do make that a priority if you possibly can.

Changing the Church’s culture… Today’s Gospel passage is relevant in its own way to that challenge. In both brief stories in the passage, you will have noticed how Jesus emphasised the need, in relation to the first project, to “first sit down and work out the cost”; and in relation to the second, once more “to first sit down and consider”.

In undertaking change, I think there are two things that we need to “consider”, and to be very clear about – not just what we want to happen in the future, but, equally importantly, we need to identify and to name what we need to change. And for many parishioners, it is this issue of what needs to change that stirs up strong emotional reactions. When we are talking about cultural changes, we are talking about what we are familiar with, what we have taken for granted and feel comfortable with, perhaps what we have always done, perhaps even what unconsciously we take as defining “the Catholic way”.

Differences of opinion here may not be just academic or theological issues but can be felt very personally, and lead to vigourous disagreements, even arguments.

The early Church faced similar problems. Family members from Jewish families who became Christian disciples abandoned many of the attitudes and practices that other family members who did not change took very seriously, were proud of and defended strongly. Families were divided, frequently beyond repair. That involved pain, real pain. It was one clear instance, one frequent instance, where Christian disciples unavoidably faced the need to “carry their cross” if they were to follow Jesus seriously.

In lots of ways, I think that the outcome of the Plenary Council will test our maturity as Catholics. If the Council voters do bite the bullet and introduce significant changes, people who have been basically content with what has been long familiar will possibly feel disoriented and insecure, and find themselves reacting emotionally. If the Council holds back from significant change, those who have been anticipating something more will feel disappointed and tempted to lose hope, and some may quietly walk away.

Have we been trustingly and honestly praying that the Spirit will guide the Church? Is that what we really want? Or do we want “our side” to “win”? Are we willing to accept and to live with whatever the outcome? There is solely one ‘winning’ in the Church – and that happens only when we grow in mutual love. If we are disappointed, we “carry our cross” – and continue to respond in love. Yet Jesus makes no secret that growing in love does mean “giving up all our possessions”, not necessarily the material ones, but those that really matter to us, the emotional responses and intellectual convictions – and keep on surrendering ourselves and our Church to God’s Spirit.