A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Now, this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. It's not right. The reading this morning is from the gospel according to Saint Luke. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zachariah of the priestly class of Abia.
His wife was a descendant of Aaron named Elizabeth. Both were just in the eyes of God, blamelessly following all the commandments and ordinances of the law. They were childless for Elizabeth was sterile. Moreover, both were advanced in years. You might say that a pregnancy on her part was contraindicated.
Once when it was the turn of Zacharias' class and he was fulfilling his functions as a priest before God, it fell upon him by lot, according to priestly usage, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. While the full assembly of people was praying outside at the incense hour, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zachariah was deeply disturbed upon seeing him and overcome by fear. The angel said to Zacharias, do not be frightened, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth shall bear a son whom you shall name John. Joy and gladness will be yours, and many will rejoice at John's birth for he will be great in the eyes of the lord. He will never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the holy spirit from his mother's womb. Many of the sons of Israel will he bring back to the lord their god. God himself will go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the rebellious to the wisdom of the just, and to prepare for the Lord, a people well disposed.
Now notice the reaction of Zechariah. Zechariah said to the angel, how am I to know this? The epistemological question. How am I to know this? Because you see everything was against it.
This seems absolutely absurd. And he was no fool. Keep this in mind. Remember, this is Luke we're reading, you know, which is the target of so much criticism. He says, I'm an old man, and my wife too is advanced in age, and she's sterile.
As I say, pregnancy was contraindicated. The angel replied, I am Gabriel, who stand in attendance before God. I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, you will be mute. You won't be able to speak until the day when all of these things take place, because you have not trusted my words.
While I'm putting my money on Zachariah. They will all come true in due season. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zachariah outside, wondering why he was delayed. When he finally came out, he couldn't speak to them, he was mute. And they realized that he had seen a vision.
He kept making signs to them, but he remained speechless. Then, when his period of priestly service was over, he went home. Afterwards, his wife, sterile, advanced in years, conceived. She went into seclusion for five months saying, in these days, the lord is acting on my behalf. He has seen fit to remove my reproach among men.
And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. Thank you lord, holy church. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. I just cannot restrain myself from referring to yesterday's events. We woke up to see the Washington Post on our threshold and spread right across the front page, if you please.
Not back in the sports section, or in the style section, or in the real estate section, but on the front page with a great big picture. And the article of course has to do with the situation of nuns or sisters because now we're told they don't like to be called nuns, women religious. It seems there's a problem. Anyway, you've read it. I guess you did.
There's going to be some more of it, so read it all. It's very revealing. Whoever wrote it sir or wrote them, because there's going to be more of them, did their homework, did their homework very well. I want to bring home one little truth to you all. You see it's always the loudmouths who get heard.
Silent people don't get it. We hear the Boston Tea Party. How many men participated in the Boston Tea Party? Of course we had one in Baltimore before that, but that's forgotten. I just want to bring it up being a Marylander.
We were first with the Tea Parties. This is the way it always is. Any of you people who had any experience with committees and all of this, you know how these things work. Now the point is, with all of this talk, and all of this confusion, and all of the notoriety, don't be disturbed. I want to give you one little figure, which Time magazine I I referred to this article, some Sundays ago.
But in November, November 28, Time magazine had a had an article, A Struggle to Keep the Faith. And in the court that has to do with all Catholics. And the in that article, of course, there's a lot about the situation with the women religious in the in the Church of Jesus Christ at of which the Pope is ahead, whether they like it or not. And that was the second thing we were treated to last night, which I hope you saw on the TV. A beautiful, beautiful presentation of the Vatican and the life of our Holy Father in which our our Cardinal Proll took a very prominent part.
A man I admire very much. Now, that article in the Washington Post rests a great deal upon what is called the National Coalition of American Nuns. The total number of that organization, that as far as I've been able to find out, is about 2,000. That's a respectable number. But remember this, at the same time we have an institute on religious life based in Chicago.
They number 25,000, and they're very much what they are called the traditionalists. Just think of those numbers. When we had that debacle over in the shrine when our Holy Father was practically insulted, The person who was involved in it got all kinds of headlines. Did you notice that the day after or so, that there were that complete pages, whole pages in the Washington Post were taken by other religious groups, nuns, just equally as good religious, completely disassociating themselves from that dear lady. I Some of you may have read Monsignor Kelly's book called The Battle, notice, The Battle for the American Church.
Don't make any mistake, this is going on. The battle for the American church, who's going to get it? Is there going to be one? Well, believe there already is. It was published in 1979, and it's documented.
He gives you page and number and date and everything. And you will see that what has been going on has been terrific, no question about it. And some of the most radical developments have been among the women religious. Can you imagine women or anybody who claim to be Catholics, putting going through what they call a mass? Then we're told in that article yesterday that they locked the doors and in order to get in you had to give the secret signal.
Well, why do you have to give a secret signal? What's so secret if you think that you're doing it, go out and do it. You're not You see, it's it's crazy. And here, you see, I could care less, absolutely less, about the garb people wear or how they want to live their lives, that's their business. Let them live the way they want.
But when they come down to doctrine, when they come down to telling us what the dogma is, which dogma simply means teaching or doctrine, that's a horse of another color. Horse of another color entirely. And that's when I start getting my hackles up. So but the only thing I want to say is don't be worried about it. It try to realize that today there are fewer nones, that is for sure.
There are going to be still fewer. And remember, some of the orders, which are most traditionalist, are getting more vocations. Just think of that too. And just think of this, that there are plenty of them, and I can give you names and addresses if you want them, of these women who are just as dedicated as they ever were. They are not reinterpreting the vows.
That's a beautiful word of saying, I don't keep them anymore. Reinterpret. That's the word they use. We still keep the vows, but we reinterpret them. The that in the church of Jesus Christ, you have a great deal of holiness.
That's what the church is all about, holiness. Whatever everything else is is for that purpose alone. Should be. Should be, should be, the problem that it often is not. And so these little numbers, 2,000 against 25,000, that's just these two big organizations.
Let that tell you something. There is still a solid core of devout religious women in the Catholic church. In the name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.