A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Our lord journeyed through the towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god. The 12 went along with him and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and of various illnesses. Mary called the Magdalene from whom seven devils had had gone out. Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, Cascur Cusa, and then there was Susanna and also many others who were assisting the apostles out of their means.
In other words, they were putting bread on the table. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. I am the guilty party for asking missus Walsh to call your attention to that word doctrine of Saint Paul in that today's reading. Did you listen to it?
Did you hear how Saint Paul is talking to those early Christians and speaking very forcefully. He didn't say go out and teach religion. He didn't go out and say spread the good news. He said teach the doctrine. And the Greek word simply means teaching or doctrine.
It doesn't mean religion. There's a big difference between saying religion and doctrine. Doctrine is a confining thing. Doctrine mean it's a it's something that you can get a hold of. Doctrine is enough affirmation.
You can argue about it. You can reject it. You can argue for it. Tell me what religion means. So there's no question what Saint Paul says in here.
You teach the doctrine, not what you think, not what your experience is, not what your experience of the lord is, not what your experience of this or that is, teach doctrine. That's not what's being done today at all at all. Let me read you from the latest edition of the Catholic Standard. A nun whose name I have here, but I won't mention it, but from a nearby parish in celebrating the this Sunday which is gonna be called catechatic Sunday. Notice they don't call they call it catechatic Sunday.
She was asked what her what her, understanding is, notice, not of doctrine but of religion. And the dear nun said his father. I'm going to read the whole thing. But before I do this, remember what our lord said. To his apostles, going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptize them and so forth, and teach them everything I have taught you, and I'll be with you to the end of the world.
Notice, Christ doesn't say teach what you've experienced, not your opinion. You teach what I taught you, what I have handed down to you, tradition. Now no no later than the January 1 when we fully expended, had the new catechism of the Catholic religion now, and we still don't have it thanks to feminist language troubles. What did the cardinal archbishop of Washington? He wrote a letter to the principles of our parochial schools, to Catholic schools in the in his archdiocese, and to their parents.
What did he say? Nothing should be taught in those schools except what has been approved by the magisterium of the church. Not what you've experienced, not what you think religion's all about, not what you like, not what you enjoy, but what the church has officially approved. Now listen to what this dear sister says. This is in the late latest edition of the standard on the front page.
She says, more than words and you see how they shy away from language because their argument is you can't communicate truth with language. See, that's this deconstructionism. She may not know the word but that's what this is. She says, more than words, catechesis is the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ in my life. Who cares about her life?
I want the doctrine of Christ. But the good nun says, catechesis is the proclamation of the good news of Jesus in my life. Can you imagine anything so subjective? This is on the front page of the standard. Being a part of the wake awakening, waking up of who god is for us.
Presenting experiences. Oh, that's the beautiful word. Presenting experiences where one finds joy in our faith. I find a lot more than joy. I find a lot of sorrow in my faith.
Christ died on the cross. She goes on, and a sense notice, sense means sensibility having to do with the emotions, with the feelings, And a sense of belonging within our Catholic Christian community. Join the Masons. Join a fraternity. Join a sorority.
Join the Boy Scout. Join anything. You can have community or spirit. Has anything has nothing to do with religion. Well, then she continues entering into the discovery of the richness of our sacramental life, whatever that may mean, and what it means to live out our baptismal call.
Indeed, both a challenge and a joy for me is the catechetical ministry. It may be a ministry, not at notice there's not a word in there about doctrine. There's not a word there about teaching the truth. There's nothing there about truth. It's experience, what religion means to me.
Why in the world should a teacher be teaching what religion means to me? When you're supposed to be teaching, I presume the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Isn't that blatant? You'd say, can that be possible? I've just read it word for word.
That's where we are. We're not we are have we have now two generations of Catholic young men and women who are ignorant of Catholicism. All they know now is my conscience, my fulfillment. All they know is is this well, it's just a just a throwback to a very primitive time of religious operation. There's no there's no sense of remember, doctrine is is something that we teach.
It is it is something which I hand on. When I was standing on a podium in a class talking about Aristotle, I wasn't supposed to be telling them my opinion. I was supposed to be telling them what Aristotle said or quoting from his books. If you're an engineer and you're trying to tell somebody teach somebody the law of the density or the relationship between heat and pressure and stuff, you're supposed to not tell why experience, how it gives me joy, but what's the formula? What's the quotation?
I mean, the equation? Does it work? Then you tell then this is what's this is of all that they could have asked, the number of people they could have asked and maybe gotten a different answer, notice what they chose to put on the front page of the standard. Not a word there about doctrine. Not a word there about teaching the truth of Jesus Christ, not my experience.
Not a word. Why do you think we have the this behind it, there are years of of turbulence behind this catechism which which you still don't have in English. It'll be out in Russian before you get it in English. Thanks to our this business of feminine language. I don't know when we'll get it.
It's a crime because now it's gonna lose its thrust. People will have forgotten about it. It should have been out around it was completed around January in that Clark's def Clark's translation. But the translation was was rejected by Rome, not only because of the feminine language, but because of the doctrinal doctrinal inadequacies, because of the Clark and Company. My friends, this is the world you are living in.
This is the world your grandchildren and your children are in. You may some of you out there have been victims of this. This that lack of teaching. They threw you see, they don't wanna use we don't have the the confraternity Christian doctrine. No.
They don't want that word doctrine. Now that's been changed. Confraternity, I think they I don't want the Christian religion or something. See, this word religion, I it has as many definitions as the word love. But when you talk about doctrine, whether you agree with it or not, it is something certain.
It is fixed. It is definite. It is something you can get a hold of. It is something you can debate. It is something you can contradict.
It is something you can accept. You can't do that with an experience. Nobody can transfer their experience. There's no way you can tell a blind person what your experience of purple is. Not the experience.
You can tell them how you may feel about it if you're poetic. Take to heart. Remember what Saint Paul is saying there. Notice how he hammers and the Greek word is which simply means teaching or doctrine. It does not mean religion.
It means doctrines, a set tenets. See, today, people love this ambiguity. They love love. God is love. God is benevolent.
He's forgiving. You know, all this mishmash. And that is not the Catholic church. Why some of these people stay in the church, I don't know. Because they I just got a letter yesterday from from a friend in in in church?
Saint Louis. They'd gone to a Catholic church, not around there. It's absolutely Calvinistic. No pews in the church, no no statues, the altar is practically hidden, you can't find the blessed sacrament because these things have all been pushed aside. That's the church you are living Our church here, it is not typical of what we will call the American church.
We are here trying still to be faithful to the rock Of Peter because the same Jesus Christ, the same son of god who says, go and teach what I have taught you, not what you think, not what you experience, not how it affects you. Just transmit, communicate, be channels of what I have taught you, you pass down, and I'm with you all end days. On this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against. Who hears you, hears me. These was these are you can't escape these words of Christ.
There's no argument about them. The way you interpret them, yes. But there the Greek is perfectly clear. But we're not hearing today. We've gone beyond that.
We have now a continuing revelation based upon the experience of the people of God and all this mishmash. And what's happening? Well, you know what's happening. You know what's happening. We have about at least 50% of what is called social Catholics.
So I don't know of how much interest this is to you, but it's a vital interest to god's church. And if the Catholic church isn't god's church, then what in the name of god are we doing here this morning? And to belong to god's church is to embrace god's god's truth, not sister so and so, not father so and so, but god's truth. And where is God's voice in the world today as it has been in the contemporary world for two thousand years? Solidly on the rock of Peter.
And we still get English for Great Britain, for The United States, for Canada, for Australia, and other speaking nations of the world. We are still waiting for the English translation of the latest pronouncement of Peter transmitting god's truth. In the name of the father, of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.