A reading from the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. One day, when Jesus was praying in seclusion and his disciples were with him, he put the question to them, who do the crowd say that I am? They replied, John the baptizer. Another say, Elijah. While others claim that one of the prophets of old has returned from the dead.
But Jesus then asked them, but you. Who do you say that I am? Peter spoke up. The Messiah of God. Then Jesus strictly forbid them to tell this to anybody.
That's very strange. The son of man, Jesus continued, must first endure many sufferings, be rejected by the elders, the high priest, and the scribes, and then be put to death. But then on the third day, be raised from the dead. And then Jesus continued, whoever wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross every day, and and then above all, which makes the cross sensible and reasonable, follow me. Whoever would save his life in this world will lose it.
But whoever loses his life in this world for my sake will save it. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. And it is very mysterious. Now I'm going to begin with a text from Saint Paul's letter to Titus, which I think highlights and focuses the center of my, of course, well chosen remarks. Paul, I say, is writing to his disciple Titus, who's on the island of Crete.
So he says Paul is saying then, for this reason, I left you, Titus, in Crete so that you might set right what needs correction. For a bishop, as god's steward, must hold fast to the true message and teaching so that he can exhort with sound doctrine and refute opponents. Now notice that. So that he can exhort with sound doctrine at the same time, refute. You don't keep silent.
Refute opponents. Now here comes the punchline. For there are among you many unruly men, idle talkers, deceivers, who must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families, teaching what they ought not to be teaching. And as I was saying, this is the opening sentence or paragraph from Paul's letter to his friend Titus who was on the island of Crete. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
Saint Paul, in the course of his life as a Christian, the follower of Christ, which is called the new way, wrote at least 13, possibly 14, or maybe more letters. And in almost all of those letters, almost all of them, in one way or another, Saint Paul is facing up to problems, to difficulties, which the Christian communities were experiencing. It was no joke in those days to be a Christian. It is no joke to be a Christian today when Christian means to belong to the church of Jesus Christ, not merely to be baptized. If you're going to have the complete fulfillment of the message of Jesus Christ, you wanna be associated with his church, which was founded on Peter.
At least he said so. Now these difficulties, which the Christians, whether they be convert converts from Judaism or converts from the from the Greek world, Gentiles, they had, first of all, major problems with their whole environment. We cannot really have a a proper conception of of their the problems they had to continue living in the world in which they were living, going to their jobs, earning a living, bringing up their families without there was practically no place to escape to. They couldn't they couldn't emigrate. Where would they emigrate to?
They'd have the same problems. They were living in a pagan world reeking reeking of sensuality and gross immoralities. But it was a pagan pagan world. It wasn't a world that denied their existence of a supreme being or supreme beings. Keep that in mind.
They weren't a bunch of atheists. But it was a tough life. It was a very tough life because the whole conception of Jesus Christ with his with his ideals of chastity and purity and a married life and of justice to all. And that in the in the kingdom of god, there is no such thing as slave or free, male or female. This was completely you can't imagine how contradictory that was of their environment.
And so they had plenty of problems from the outside, whether they could eat this meat and all kinds of things, circumcision, you know, problems after problems. But they also had problems from within, and they were the worst as they are today and have been. Most of the great destroyers of the faith of our of our people, meaning me too, has come not from without but from within, beginning with our dear and late friend Judas. The the so called reformation of the sixteenth century did not begin with a bunch of pagans. It didn't begin with a bunch of people who were opposed to the church.
It didn't begin with a bunch of unbelievers. It began with an Augustinian monk with solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which he promptly just forgot about forgot about it and went on his own sweet way, and we call it Protestantism, the man's name, Martin Luther. Now our archbishop today is facing a very serious problem with the father George Stallings. He's intimated that he wants us to bring it to your attention by a statement he issued. Now father Stallings has been known to the archbishop who was his rector in Rome when when father Stallings was a seminarian in Rome.
He has been known. They have known each other when father Stallings returned here to the archdiocese and the arch and and bishop Hickey became the archbishop of Washington, later on the cardinal, and has been here and known to the they've had an association for eighteen years. And the cardinal in his statement says that he has done everything and has been his very great earnest desire to support father Stallings as a priest, as an individual priest in in doing what he saw he had to do as a priest, and at the same time, to keep the welfare of the church in mind. Now last Wednesday, past Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday. Time goes so blooming fast, I can't keep track of it.
But last Wednesday, we were on on by newspapers, by TV, on national news. We were treated to an expose of the reverend father Stallings, telling telling the people that he, for various reasons, is going to set up his own parish, Imani. Temple Imani. Imani temple. He's separating himself from the archdiocese authority, and he's going his own sweet way.
At the same time, the archbishop issued this statement, which is in the standard. It's a good statement. And I'm going to spend I mean, I'm going to give you parts of it because you may not be able to find time to read it or something. Now the first thing that the cardinal says is that it is let me say that the cardinal sent each priest in his diocese a copy of that statement in the hope, I'm quoting, that it will assist us in offering guidance to our parishioners and asking prayers for father Stallings. It is my hope, the archbishop continues, that father Stallings will serve the people of god within the church and not try to exercise his priestly ministry through some enterprise of his own making.
Now I wanna point out right now a very Martin Luther took a very solemn vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and ignored them. Every priest at his orde let me begin that again. There's the the ordination right is not only long and very boring even for those who are being ordained, but and it's very solemn. But let me tell you, one of the most solemn parts of that is at the end, after the man's been ordained. When each man who's been ordained comes forward and puts his hands between the hands of the ordaining prelate and says that he solemnly promises to obey his ordinary or his religious superior.
It's about as solemn as you can get. It's not a vow, but it's a certainly is a solemn promise. A vow is only a solemn promise. And that is it said to to my and to his successors. So when a priest of the holy Roman Catholic church jumps the traces, he is he is violating, he is running roughshod over his most solemn promise to obey his ordinary or his religious superior.
And when any priest stands up and says, will not serve to his ordinary, he is standing up and absolutely rejecting his own solemn commitment just as Martin Luther did. Now I'm going to read just the last part of the statement. The cardinal says, I regret. Incidentally, after this statement was made public, subsequent to Wednesday, father Stallings came on and had an interview with the with the press in which he reaffirmed completely his decision to set up his own parish church, Imani temple. And then he said that he cannot be separated from the church.
That, of course, is not true. But what he probably meant was that he no one can destroy his priesthood. No one can ever change him from being a priest, a validly ordained priest. And he's perfectly right in that no matter what the man does. But remember, priests can go to hell.
I regret that this decision, says the cardinal, is now a matter of media speculation. Listen. I am especially disappointed that despite our long relationship, because conversations have been going on, this didn't happen overnight as you all can guess, that despite our long relationship and ongoing conversations, I first learned of father Stalling's decision from the news media. I do not believe that father Stalling's personal difficulty should lead to sweeping judgments on the ministry of the Catholic church in the black community. My conviction is that this situation has more to do with the needs and expectations of father Stallings than with broader questions about the adequacy of Catholic ministry to black Catholics.
No one should mistake this independent and heedless initiative in the name of progress in developing the African American expression of Catholic faith. It is a diversion. It is also a serious error to turn away from the Catholic community to some opportunistic experiment in personal ministry. Notice that pre we don't Catholic priests do not have a personal ministry. It is ironic, continues the cardinal, that this announcement comes just days after a major session of our national bishops conference on the church in the African American community.
That was up in New Jersey and was reported in the New York Times for last Sunday. At this meeting, The United States bishops committed themselves to new and stronger effort to support the black Catholic community. Significant it is also significant that this announcement comes in the midst of the annual rejoice conference of this archdiocese, where hundreds of leaders come together to share their experiences and their ideas on how African Americans can be authentically black and truly Catholic. For those who wish to root the church more deeply in the African American community, these, so many other efforts, are worthy of support. Imani Temple is not.
One of the Church of Washington's greatest gifts is the deep roots, vital worship, and remarkable witness of our black Catholic community. I would very much regret if public attention to father Stalling's decision were to obscure the leadership of our black Catholic priests, religious, lay men, and lay women. I will do all that I can to continue to reach out to father Stallings at this difficult time and to his legitimate needs and the needs of the church. My concern will be the life, the health, the integrity of the church of Washington, and of my black Catholic sisters and brothers who look to the church for authentic Catholic doctrine, for the Eucharist and Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments, for pastoral care, and for recognition of their heritage and remarkable gifts as both Catholics and African Americans. And that is the end of the cardinal's statement.
It's about three pages, and I read two of them to you. You got the gist of it. Now needless to say, we here have here there's nothing new. They're they're really, these things don't disturb me in the least. When you think of what what what has going on in the Catholic church from the very beginning of the last supper with Judas, what can surprise you?
And there's no reason to be afraid or mistrustful. The church isn't going to go down the drain because one priest speaks up. It's been going on for some time and from many sources. Look what we've gone through with father Charles Kern. You haven't heard much of him since the decision was made.
They come and they go. And for priests to set up a separate church, that's nothing new. It's it happened in the end of the last century, and it'll happen again. The main thing is that people recognize where the truth is, where authority lies, And we have to reaffirm this. In spite of all our democratic ideas, the church is not a democracy.
Christ didn't say go out and take a vote on anything. Never once did he say anything remotely like it. And you can't explain that away and eliminate it because he was just a a victim of his climate and the atmosphere of sociological processes of his day. Our blessed lord simply said to old Peter, and notice what Peter notice the firm foundation that Christ picked for his church, the man who denied that he even knew Christ. Remember, Judas never did that.
But it was Peter that our Lord chose. And he said, on this rock, I'll build my church. And he said, the gates of hell will never prevail. Notice, he never said that the church wouldn't be tossed around like a cork on the water sometimes. Never.
All he said was that the powers against his church will not prevail. But let me tell you, plenty of people can get drowned in the tumult, in the turmoil, in the turbulence. And furthermore, we have to keep this in mind. Our blessed lord didn't leave his apostles or his church a book. He said, going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them everything that I have commanded you.
He didn't give them out a bunch of of Xerox copies of of what he had taught them. And he said, I will be with you until the end of time. And then he also said, there's much more that I have to tell you, but you can't bear it now. But the holy spirit will come and bring you the whole truth. Again, we didn't have a distribution of statements or pronouncements.
It's the living church that counts, not a book. The book stands on the church and not re in the reverse. And it's the living voice of Jesus Christ that counts, Not of theologians, not of dissenters, but of the living authentic church. And there's no secret where that is. It's easy to see it.
You can't avoid it. You're sitting in the church today. It's a physical entity. It's not just a a moral union of believers, and that's where we come back. It is not always going to be pleasant to say to our superiors, I obey.
That's one of the hardest things on God's earth to do sometimes. Sometimes. Obedience is not easy. That's the reason peep some people take even vows of obedience. Obedience.
And so we look to a church which has authority. And if it does not have the authority of the son of God, then away with it. Let us destroy it. I've said many times, I have a certain admiration for the enemies of the church who look upon it as a misleading guide to people because they see nothing divine about it. That's what they have to do.
To simply say as I have been told that we must have reverence for the church because it keeps us civilized, I say, so what? I would much rather to be uncivilized. It's a lot more fun. If all you can say about the church is that that's a human institution, as as far I'm concerned, forget it. It's not worth the trouble.
On the other hand, if the church of Jesus Christ, the physical entity that we know in this world in the twentieth century at the June 1989, If it is the voice the living voice of the son of God speaking down the centuries, then all we can say is to say with Thomas, my lord and my god, I believe, help thou my unbelief, and strengthen my spirit of obedience to Peter. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the spirit. Amen.