A reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his miracles had been worked with their failure to reform. It will go ill with you, Chorazin, and just as ill with you, Bethsaida. If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago. I assure you, it will go easier for Tyre and for Sidon than for you on the day of judgment.
As for you, Capernaum, are you exalted to the skies? You shall go down to the realm of death. If the miracles work in you had taken place in Sodom, it would be standing today. I assure you, it will go easier for Sodom than for you on the day of judgment. And this is the gospel of the lord.
Praise to you lord Jesus Christ. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. I wanna go back to the opening prayer of this mass that we've been reciting from the fifteenth Sunday of of the year, the ordinary time as we call it. And as I hasten to add, there's no such thing as ordinary time.
This prayer goes as follows. God our father, your light of truth guides us to the way of Christ. Your light of truth guides us to the way of Christ. Now my question is, where do you find the light? Because if you can't find it, it's no good to you.
If it's beyond your reach, if you don't know how to contact it, if you're not aware that this is the light that you're supposed to be following, what good is it to you? And the answer is, it's no good to you. It's useless. You're floundering around. You're wasting your time.
Might just as well get yourself and go into the nearest bar and have a couple of drinks. That would be more beneficial. Notice what our lord is saying to these people, and he's emphasizing miracles. They didn't get the message, but they saw the miracles. What are we doing today for the most part?
Now, boy, I'm not talking about this little group here this morning. The the great question that ought to be on our minds, first of all, is there a truth of God in this world? And secondly, how do I contact it? Because if there be that a truth, if there is a if there's a God and there's some kind of truth about him, and if I cannot make contact with it, again, it's no good to me. It's useless.
So, first of all, there has to be a God and there has to be his truth, And then secondly, I have to be able to recognize it. I have to know when I've got it in order to follow it. Because if I only think I have it, if it only appears that I have it, if only I can give you a statistical summary of probabilities for having it. Who cares? Who wants to lay their life on that kind of a gamble?
I don't for sure. For sure. Now today, this is today, people are have turned away from the truth. I'm speaking in our mostly of our own country because these these things differ enormously from from nation to nation, from time to time. But in The United States Of America today, as regards truth in general, I'm I'm not just talking about religious truth, whatever that is, but there there is a general attitude that there's no such thing as an absolute truth.
There is no such thing as an absolute goodness or morality. That is commonplace today, absolutely commonplace. And if you don't believe me, you're missing the boat because you're misreading your enemy. You see, today people aren't laying their lives down on the truth. And no matter where you go, you'll find the same thing.
We instead of talking about truth, we talk in terms of levels of probability. And how do we measure probability? By statistics. And where do you get statistics or data, as we call it, or data, as some say. Where do you get that?
From your senses. From what falls under the under your under the five senses or however how how however many they'd be. So we're right back to what is called positivism. That there's no such there's no truth beyond the truth which is apprehended by my senses. And of course science today has gone way beyond it.
Most of the what they call their truths are not apprehensible sensory at all, at all. But the thing is that we're living in a world that rejects absolutes. As a as a as a not as I can know them, but as a reality. That's out of the picture. Then the second thing is even if you so that if there be no such thing as an absolute truth, if there be no such thing as an absolute goodness, then let's not talk about standards of morality.
All we can talk about about the norm. See, norm is the word we like today, norm. And what's a norm? Norm simply means some kind of a figure which in any given series comes up most frequently. That's all it means.
It doesn't mean it's right or it's wrong, it is true or it's false, just means it comes up, occurs more frequently or more most frequently than any other items. That's all the norm means. And that is what people in many instances today are pushing their religious truth into. Only it's even less than that. It's less than that.
It's nothing in many instances they say, but a myth. Let's come back to this. We pray that we may see the light of Christ to lead us to the truth. Now do you see, in the sixteenth century, this was taken very seriously. And although it's very difficult to put your finger on it, if if you mean this, do you do you understand this, that God is going to give each individual person his own special revelation?
That we are all going to be illuminated from within by some action of God individually and personally? People have held that, and plenty of people still do. For example, they will say, in doubt, open the bible, read read the text, and you God will tell you what it means. Well, you see, this sounds just great, but it's so absolutely false on if you just think. You take you just see what happened in the sixteenth century.
These men were sincere. They were intelligent. They were well educated, and each had the book. And they couldn't agree scarcely on anything except the negations that they made about the Roman Catholic church. Oh, they were united on that, but that's negative.
They had nothing to offer as a group, as a unified group. There's no such thing as the unity of Protestantism in the sense of any positive doctrine. They couldn't agree on anything. There was a a heroic effort made to bring them together to try to get some consensus on the Eucharist. They couldn't get it.
So that if if we're gonna depend on private revelation, you might just as well take my advice and go into the nearest bar and have a few drinks. You won't be losing wasting your time. What are you reduced to? Well my friends, the reason I'm head up about this is I've just been reading an article where some of these I'll tell you who it is, it's Doctor. McBride, Father McBride from Notre Dame.
See? He went down to Australia and gave a few lectures and he was very much resented because his telling and remember he's supposed to be representing Catholic doc. Remember that. That that the real source of truth is the consensus of our theologians. Who in the world gave them any authority?
Where did they get it? So just as a absolute common sense point of view, let's look at some basic things. Did Jesus Christ come into the world and is he the son of god? Yes or no? If you answer yes, did he give us a message?
Yes or no? If you answer yes, what was his message? Go out and gather up a handful of theologians and listen to them and get a consensus, and that's what I'm telling you. Is that what Christ said? There is nothing like that in the New Testament.
Nothing at all. Christ did not leave us a book. He left us a handful of men, and they were very ordinary men. Yea gods, they were very ordinary. There wasn't an elevated, prestigious scholar socialite among them.
There wasn't a single man among them with a fairly, I'm excluding Saint Paul, with a decent education. There wasn't a man among them like that. But that's the handful that Christ said, this is my church. I know for sure that he said something else. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
I know that he sent them out, going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them, teaching them everything that I've taught you. And behold, I am with you until the end of the world. These are indisputable facts. Facts. Alright?
Not a book. Christ said nothing about a book. He he he gave us a society, and he said it will endure to the end of time. Who who hears you, hears me. That is for sure.
And so we come back to the this is the doctrine of the Catholic church. That the that the that the it's the living presence of Jesus Christ in the world at any given time. It speaks with his authority, but it speaks through human instrumentalities. The church is made up of human beings, not of saints. And so down the ages, where do you look for the the truth?
Not the truth of man, not the truth of a consensus, not the truth of statistics, not the truth of the norm, but God's truth. Where do you look for it? Look for it in his living society. And where is that? It's in if if it's it's not it's either in a living church or it's nowhere.
That's the only thing I can say as a common sense, practical, hard headed man. And when you look around, where do you find it? Where can you say that God's truth lies in the consensus of some self made theologians? How can you say it's in a book? It's got to be in a living authority.
And where is that living authority? I answer that question. Look at the record. Look at the record. Be a positivist.
Be a pragmatist. Look at the record of two thousand years, and the light of truth is on the Rock Of Peter. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.