Have been hesitant to send this homily out. But am
receiving very kind words of encouragement
regarding it and so thought maybe I should share it with
you. It was not written out when delivered.
However, due to the immediate response of my parishioners
(many were elated, some close to tears)
I went back to the rectory and typed it out. Please
pray for me.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Homily Delivered by Fr. William J Kuchinsky
At Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
Romney, WV
On the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time “B” - January 25, 2009
Jon 3:1-5, 10; 1 Cor 7:29-31, Mk 1:14-20
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh
shall be destroyed . . ."
What should I say? What would you like me to say?
Would you like me to say that God is unaware and unconcerned that a President would sign an Executive Order so that, with
the stroke of a pen, taxpayer money now will be used to kill babies in the womb; and your money and mine is now to be used
to promote the evil of abortion throughout the world? Do you want me to tell you that the Word of God does not say the
shedding of innocent blood cries out to Heaven for vengeance? It does. I can not change that. I can not
withhold His warning.
The President
promised to do this and yet many voted for him. Would you be more comfortable if I said such people are not at all complicit
in the evil that has already been advanced?
When the Good Lord was leading me into the Priesthood I understood something that stuck me with fear. The more I immersed
myself in God’s Holy Word the more knowledge I gained: His word was demanding. The closer I drew to Him
the more responsible I had to be: because in coming to know more fully His just commands, His loving teaching, the more
responsible I was to conform myself to Him. Each step forward meant I could not turn back. I felt the demands,
I knew I was a sinner, I knew well the discipleship was a challenge and a burden (~ although a sweet one).
Archbishop Chaput said: "Most of us treat the Church the same way we treat our flesh-and-blood mothers . . . we don't
want her advice, especially when it interferes with our comfort." I knew that if I was called to be a Priest, I
would have to preach the Word that had “convicted” me and in it’s loving challenge engaged me in the struggle
to do God’s Will: it was at times “uncomfortable.” It was a fearful thing to struggle with the
realization that I was now called to proclaim a message to others which would make them “uncomfortable.”
I knew very early on, almost as if by instinct, that to be a Priest would mean to be Crucified with Christ.
In reality, all of us, by virtue of our Baptism, share in the “common priesthood of believers.” Each of
us are to be “crucified to ourselves” and to the world. Each of us, as proper to our common priesthood,
offers prayers and sacrifices. Many of us have perhaps come to realize that Our Blessed Lord was telling the truth when
He said we would be persecuted. [“The servant is not greater than his Master. If they have persecuted
me, they will persecute you also”]
I long ago decided, in view of struggles I had in accepting what the Lord seemed to be calling me to, that if I became a Religious
Priest (Is€™m a secular Priest, not a part of a Religious order) I would take the name of “Israel”
– “one who wrestles with God.” But, standing here, I am glad to say that in my wrestling matches with
the Almighty that it is good He always wins.
So now, after resisting the Lord, I have been “spit out” here in Romney as Jonah was from the belly of the whale.
Don’t get me wrong: I like it here, I love you, you are good people.
But, what would you like me to say to those young men and women (maybe even older men and women) who exercise particular actions
which are only proper to marriage? that it is okay? Should I comfort them by saying “God understands?”
Yes, He understands. He understands our weakness. He knows the power of that drive within us and how emotions
can come to cloud reason; and that after the fall of man we now are faced with disordered passions which can cause us to act
in a manner not in keeping with our dignity as human beings: and all the more so in our dignity as Christians.
Last week we heard from the Letter to the Corinthians: “But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord:
and the Lord for the body. Now God hath raised up the Lord and will raise us up also by his power. Know you not that
your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God
forbid! Or know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is made one body? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without
the body: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
Would you like to hear from me that God’s Holy and inerrant Word no longer applies? Should I tell you that St.
Paul was just an old fuddy-duddy who didn’t really understand human nature? Would you like to hear me argue that
we’ve come a long way since then and that the Church is just locked into an outmoded and archaic morality?
I can not do so.
And then there are those who, contrary to the teaching of Christ, decide to move in with each other and “play house.”
When they come to know the heartbreak and tears that will likely arrive: am I to console them that there is nothing
to learn from the pain of a broken heart and that the tears are just some strange thing that happens and are not because of
the wound of their sins? Sin equals tears.
I can not judge (so as to condemn) those who fornicate: but we can judge the behavior to be sinful. Only God knows
the heart: but there is a Heaven and there is a hell. The Good Lord wants us to go to Heaven: that is why
He teaches us what we in our passions might not see: it is not “okay” to have sex outside of marriage.
Now the homosexual agenda is being advanced from the highest office in our land: even before the day of the Presidential
Inauguration ended the White House’s policies were posted on their website showing it will continued to be advanced:
even accelerated. Just as was promised us in the campaign.
We can love the homosexual. We can hug a daughter or son afflicted with this disorder: we can walk hand and hand
with them along the way. We can comfort them as they lay dying from AIDS when family, “lovers,” and friends
have deserted them . . . I worked with such dying, and I know that pretty much the only love shown them was by the strangers
attending them in their hour of need.
But we can not approve of their behavior. We can not as a Nation condone so-called “homosexual marriage”
or “unions.” We can not call “blessed” what God has pronounced an abomination. What is
the fruit of such so-called “love”? Where is the natural “complementarity” that exists between
a woman and a man? We can not allow them to visit our homes to spend the night under our roof as we would a husband
and wife. We can not do so any more than a mother and father would allow a daughter’s boyfriend to spend the night
with her at home in the same room: it is not love to encourage or lead others to believe that sinful acts are permissible
or acceptable.
Would you like me to say that unnatural sex acts do not “cry to Heaven for vengeance?” They
do: the Bible clearly states this, the catechetical tradition of the Church retains the teaching . . . I can not suspend
the natural law or change God’s Word anymore than I can change the laws of gravity.
When I was growing up it was a general rule that when my brother and I heard Mrs. Deal whistle down the street for her sons
to come home in the evening we were to go home also . . . or that certainly when the street lamps came on we were to be in
the house under threat of spending the night on the front porch. My folks would ask where I was going, who I was playing
with. Would you like me to say that it is okay for you as a mother and father to allow your young sons and daughters
unfettered access to the Internet, with all the dangers and smut that lurks there? Should I tell you it is a good thing
that you have cable television to “baby sit” the kids while they sit hour after hour taking in the slim oozing
out of the screen. Or, that it is okay they remain in front of that “tabernacle” of glass and plastic devoted
to viewing as if in worship - while they are never encouraged to sit before Lord of Love who remains unvisited, un-thought
of, unloved, in the Tabernacles of Catholic Churches throughout the World?
I know some parents might not know what their children are exposed to. It is hard to believe how bad things have gotten,
so please take an objective look (you may well be horrified). Please check it out, just like my Mom and Dad would ask
where I was going and would “keep tabs” on whom I hung out with. Don’t let your children hang out
with an evil gang: with a media which seeks to “own” them.
Would you like me not to remind you of the words of Our Lord Jesus who said: “Whoever leads one of these
little ones astray, it would be better if he had a millstone tied around his neck and be cast into the sea?” These
children have been entrusted to you by God and He desires that you help Him bring them to that true home in Heaven He has
prepared for us.
“I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.” [1 Cor]
Would you be more comfortable if I mentioned nothing of married couples using artificial contraception? Should I proclaim
it “wise” for any of us mere mortals to tinker with a force that lies at the heart of the marital relationship:
one that contains within it the same power that has called whole universes into existence? Would you be at ease if it
weren’t pointed out, among other things, that the use of such things can more deeply wound the fallen tendency in the
man in such a way that he comes to view his wife as little more than an object of gratification? Should I point out
that by rejecting Natural Family Planning a husband can loose that discipline that could help him to more and more view his
wife as an equal partner and one who possesses an inherent dignity which is to be always honored and reverenced? Would
it be a welcomed message that you are reminded that the Good Lord is not indifferent to the tears and utter brokenness of
the children who find themselves victims of a marriage that lies tattered because the spouses failed to listen to their good
Mother the Church?
Jesus proclaimed: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe
in the gospel." Am I to tell you “don’t worry, be happy?” Would it be helpful to you
if I were to say “not to worry” - it might be another 2,000 years until we are all called to account for what
we have done and what we have failed to do? I can not do that. We need to change, we need to repent: “The
Kingdom of God is at hand.”
I am a sinner. I continue to struggle to conform my mind and my heart to Jesus, and to the teaching of His Church.
I have enough to be concerned about in facing the judgment of the Lord. I might fail in many things, but I can not fail
in my duty to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel from this pulpit.
Would you be more at ease if I were to say that it is alright for a person who is conscious of committing a serious sin to
dare come to this Altar to receive the Lord in Holy Communion? Here, at this Altar the Lord comes to us: the Lord
before whom the Angels and Saints bow down with awe in worship singing “Holy, Holy, Holy!” While the devil
and the demons shudder and flee in horror...
Would you like me to tell you that it is acceptable for even good Catholics who are not in serious sin and are free to receive
the Body & Blood of Christ to not try to summon with all the powers of their minds and hearts the reality that it is Jesus
we approach here. We are weak, the Good Lord knows this, but I can not tell you that it is a good thing that we allow
ourselves to mindlessly receive Him without even trying to muster within our hearts at least a “thank you” for
the Bread from Heaven which has been given to us.
Are we to give up the fight for our souls even as it seems we may have already surrendered our beloved land? I don’t
think so. Please God, that will never happen!
“ . . . when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put
on sackcloth. When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
He
repented of the evil that He had threatened to do to them; He did not carry it out.”
What should I say? What would you like me to say? Need I say anything more?