A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Mark. The theme of John the baptizer's preaching was, one more powerful than I is to come after me. I am not fit to stoop and even to untie his sandal straps. I have baptized you in water. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
During that time, Jesus came from Nazareth to Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. Immediately on coming up out of the water, he saw the sky rent in two and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. Then a voice came from the heavens, you are my beloved son. In you, my favor rests. And this is the gospel of the lord.
This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Well, last Sunday, I spoke to you about epiphany. Epiphany meaning revelation.
And, it's interpreted to mean in the context the the revelation, the appearance of God through his incarnate son Jesus Christ to the world. In the figures, the images of the magi. And I pointed out that we know for sure that there that there were at least two of them, that they came from the East. And one thing that is perfectly sure, it cost them a lot of labor and time and study and effort, hazards, dangers. It was an enormous adventure.
But they put they put everything they had on the line in following the star of Jesus. But the point I wanna make is they didn't sit at home sipping a mint julep and being comfortable beside the fire. They followed the star at great effort and cost, and they found Jesus in the manger. And then I got hooked into mother of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, and that's as far as I got. Because I used her as a living you know, she's buried right up the road in the Basilica At Emmitsburg.
I used her as a telling, forceful, dramatic example of someone who followed the star, not knowing where it was going to lead. And when everything seemed to go wrong, she still followed the star. And that led to enormous consequences, enormous consequences. Well, the second part of my well chose remarks didn't get said because the clock ran out on me. So we will pick it up from there.
What has this to do with us today? And the point I want to make as clearly as I can is what Holman Hunt's picture brought home, that Christ, is the son of God stands at the door and knocks, but the latch string is on the inside. I have to get up. I have to make the effort. I have to put my life, everything I have.
I have to put that on the line to open the door to the son of god. He will not open it himself. There is no latch string on the outside of Holman Hunt's picture painting, and that was not a mistake. That's what the artist wanted to bring home. It's up to me to open the door to Jesus Christ.
And that means effort. That means struggle. That means putting my life on the line. But let's not let's not get lost in heroics. Very few of us, speaking of myself, I hope it never, never happens, will be asked to actually put our life on the line.
All we will be asked to do is to live our lives daily for Jesus Christ in the life that we have. Now I want to bring start with a quotation from Cardinal O'Connor, very recent. It's it has nothing to do with the latest document on AIDS. Has nothing far more important to say. Cardinal O'Connor of New York said this, the most critical weakness of the church in The United States today is not lack of attention to the social gospel, but a lack of education in the faith.
But a lack of education. Now education in the faith. Notice he said education. Not feeling, not emotion, not sentiments, but education. And he says that's the greatest weakness of the church in America today, and he is, in my estimation, absolutely right.
But when you lose your star, when you lose the guidance of Christ's faith, you're lost. Where do you go from there? I don't care how sincere you are. That's between you and god. But you're never going to get to New York unless in some way you get on the way to New York.
And so cardinal O'Connor says that is the greatest weakness of the church The United States today. Now he says that in the face of another fact. I emphasize fact, F A C T. I'm an aristotelian, you know. I've been accused of that many times.
We begin with facts, existential facts. Just before our holy father made his visit last fall, there were there were all kinds of polls taken up. Gallup got into the act. Time did one. Every all four of the big networks did one.
New York Times, Washington Post did one or two. Everybody got into the act of taking polls, which amounted to running around in the and picking up and having interviews with so called Catholics. I put Catholics in quotation marks. Now all kinds of results were given by these polls, but they all agreed on one thing. They all agreed that Catholics in The United States today are far better educated, far better off economically, socially, career wise, than they have ever been, and especially since the last generation or two.
No one that's beyond a shadow of a doubt. And yet with all this with all this education we're supposed to have, cardinal O'Connor says that the greatest weakness of the Catholic church is the lack of education, the Catholic education, and is absolutely right. Absolutely right. Because here's what we're facing today. Well, let me bring in another article.
I spoke to you about this law in August. It was in the New York Times Magazine section by Joseph Berger. And it was about Catholics, American Catholics today or something like that. Joseph Berger, American Catholics today. And this again was one of those interview articles, but it focused upon a dentist in Connecticut, very successful lady named Barbara Devine, married with a couple children, who is she claims to be a Catholic.
Again, quotation marks. And the article had a great deal to say about doctor Devine. It focused on her. Her early education, how she worked hard in New York to get through school and college, how she became a dentist, how she moved up in the social and to the elite state of Connecticut with a wonderful practice, and how she was an extraordinary minister in a Catholic church in Connecticut, although she had serious doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, among her other doubts. Now let me quote one little statement from this dear lady.
Says, doctor Devine, I feel that as you become intellectually and educationally developed, you become less resigned to the restrictions of the church. They have less validity for you. Now what do you make of that? This woman who's supposed to be educated saying a thing like that in the face of men like Evelyn Waugh, Mugridge, Chesterton, just to mention three names we're all acquainted with. Did they become restricted when they became Catholics?
Their best work was done after they became Catholics. Did it restrict a Dante? Did it restrict a Saint Thomas More? But here is a prime example of what Cardinal O'Connor is talking about. Here's a very successful dentist.
Now supposing of 12 her her formal Catholic education, whatever it was, that remains an open question too. But whatever it was, it stopped it with her high school. Supposing a graduate from secondary school walked into her office one day and started to tell her how handle a very complex dental problem. What do you think she would do with that upstart? And yet this dear lady feels completely comfortable in proclaiming to the world and speaking for the what she calls the educated and developed Catholic, her thoughts on the truth of Jesus Christ.
That it's restrictive. Well, of course, is restrictive. Two and two are four. If you wanna be different, make it five, but you're gonna have trouble with your computer. But this, you see, what has happened is this.
We have indeed moved forward socially, intellectually, academically, career wise. That is beyond all dispute. Beyond all dispute. But very few of our Catholics, in their good, sound secular education, have kept up with their theological education. They are immature.
Many of them are living upon the only religion they got in grammar school and doing nothing about it. Why? Because today, to be a good automobile mechanic, you have to know something about cars and be trained and have some information. But anybody can be his own theologian. Catholics, so called Catholics, are going ahead and making their own religion as they go.
As they go. Do it yourself Catholicism. Now this is not just an opinion of mine. I can justify this with all kinds of background material. This people will say, well, I know I'm right.
I just had an argument last evening in which it wound up with my learned, shall I say, opponent, saying, well, I don't care what you say. That's how I feel about it. Well, that's the time to go out and have a good drink of scotch because otherwise you're wasting your time. Who cares how you feel about it? But that that's the theme of the day.
People are solving their moral problems. Do what you comfortable with. God will understand. God will understand. As if there was no truth, no justice, no beauty in God, as if he could be self contradictory.
Now I'm not exaggerating the scene. Now here's my point. It's not enough to feel good about something. It's not enough to feel comfortable with what you say is the truth. What you're supposed to have is the truth.
And that may make you frightfully uncomfortable. Uncomfortable. It may almost throw you into despair, but it will make you free. Now let's come back to something very basic. If someone says they're a Christian and says they're a Catholic or a Mason or a KFC or a student of a certain university, that means you have a certain allegiance.
That means you have committed yourself to a certain definition of some sort. And it should be your best effort to conserve what you have and to build upon it. And therefore, if God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, if he did, answer it yes or no. If the son of Mary was truly the incarnate god, yes or no. Did he actually live and have some apostles?
Yes or no. Did he give a commitment to some of those apostles? Going therefore, teach ye all nations. Teach them everything I have commanded you, not what you feel good about, not what you get from kind some kind of osmosis with your mother's milk. Teach them everything that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world. You wanna be restricted? Do you wanna repair a car? Do you wanna be a good dentist? You've gotta know something about being a good dentist.
You have to know something about an engine. If you wanna know the truth of Jesus Christ, you've got to know something about it. You've gotta get hold of it. And that means effort. That means putting your life, your money, your labor, your sweat on the line.
It means when Christ stands at the door and knocks, you will make the effort to open the door because unless you make the effort, that door is going to remain closed. Closed. Now people today talk about conscience. This came in the article that I read about Cardinal O'Connor. Conscience is fine.
When people use the word, ask them what they mean by it. Just just ask them. Ask yourself. Take a piece of paper. Write the word conscious down.
Write down what you understand by conscience. Conscience means you know something, that you have certain information which doesn't come automatically. It doesn't come just by living or being a good dentist. You've got to study, you've got to learn, you've got to buy books, you have to read them, you have to listen, you have to argue, debate, you have to weigh. I ask, how many Catholic homes own a Catholic encyclopedia, the new Catholic encyclopedia?
How many homes have it? You'll say it's frightfully expensive. So is an automobile. So is a TV. So is a VCR.
So is a good armchair. How many Catholic homes have a real good catechism? There are a number on the mark. I mean real good ones today, like Harden, for example. That does not the cost of an arm, but how many homes have it with excellent indexes?
How many Catholics today who are good at what they're doing, good professional people with good backgrounds of education, How many of them how many of them have a relic a grasp on their Catholicism to match their grasp of their career? How many have it? And extremely few. Extremely few. And that's understandable.
You cannot life's very difficult, and it takes a lot of time to go into certain questions. I know that. Descartes knew that. Bacon knew that. That's Francis Bacon.
But what I am saying is that somebody's got to do this because truth is not easy to get at today. In a world, in a society in which you're living, which is almost 100% hedonistic and materialistic. And no one will deny that. Not that everybody in this world, but our society USA is. And it was never more blatantly clear than during the Christmas holidays.
And so these good people who were interviewed last August, who were so glib in telling them what they feel is Catholic truth, what gave them the right to to to speak up that way? What gave doctor Devine any kind of authority to speak as she did? And yet, as I say, everybody is his or her theologian. It's a do it yourself Catholicism. Make it up as you go.
Pick and choose what you want. The church absolutely condemns artificial contraception, abortion, homosexuality. Absolutely condemns them. There's no question of the Catholic church's doctrine. Not at the not the slightest.
Yet we're told that most most by these polls reject the ideas, one or other or all, without ever investigating because they feel. They're comfortable. And in many instances, it's because it fits into their life, which is basically hedonistic and materialistic. And yet Christ says, and on this happy thought, will end. My kingdom is not of this world.
Take him at his word and live in his world with effort. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.