From: djm@TRENT.ATT.COM (Donald J. Magee)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.catholic
Subject: Re: condemnation of homosexual acts is n
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:24:23 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
              26, 93 11:55 am

>
> Don Magee writes:
> >Somewhere those delivering homilies need to strike a balance.  At
> >least in the Arch. of NY, we need a little more Tradition and a little
> >less secular life.
>
> Such as....farming, finances, familial relationships, etc?  Seems to me the
> gospels were full of such "secular life."  Do you have any doubt that had
> Christ come today His gospels would have reflected life as it is today?
> Homilists I admire the most follow Christ's way of doing it, which took into
> account the analagous ways in which we learn.  Could you be missing some very
> good sermons because you fail to see the underlying messages?
>
> His Peace,
> Fred Chavez
>

Could the first part of my message have been overlooked?  The part
about marital relationships and contraception, about abortion and the
long tradition of the Church?


Could I "be missing some very good sermons because" I "fail to see the
underlying messages?"

No.  I am not so thick that I can't recognize a homily which includes
in it parts of everyday life, but concentrates on the Scriptures and
Tradition.  We as Christians are called to be as they say, in the
world and not of it.  If the emphasis of the homily is on how much
each person is contributing on average with all sorts of statistical
slicing, and not on why we should contribute to the support of Holy
Mother Church, then the emphasis is in the wrong place.  Clearly
"farming, finances and familial relationships" are important, but they
are important in how they affect our relationship with God, whether or
not they bring us closer to or farther away from Him.

If the homilist described (related to tithing) the ancient Jewish
practice of 1/10 from every tribe in Israel to support the Levites
(priest's tribe), we could see the long tradition in our Jewish
roots.  If he described the early Church sending support to the Church
in Jerusalem (when they were being persecuted), the tie from wallet to
Church tradition could be made more concrete, definitely better than
saying, "last week we collected $2,732.21 which is $1.89 from each
adult in attendence, please try to be more generous in the future."


> Homilists I admire the most follow Christ's way of doing it, which took into
> account the analagous ways in which we learn.

I guess I just haven't found many homilists I admire.

I can give a concrete example.  A polish priest in my parish told us
of a trip he took to the local Mall.  When he came out he found a
person had squeezed in very tightly next to his car, and the person
had left his windows open.  It was nearly impossible for the priest to
get into his car.  He was a very big priest.  Anyway, he told of the
temptation to drop his ice cream cone onto the guy's seat (middle of
the summer).  How he thought how messy and sticky it would be, how the
person would have been furious with the sticky ice cream on his seat.
He told how, by grace, he overcame the temptation.

There, a homily relevant to the Scriptures of that day, relevant to
everyday living, living as a Christian.  Not all that difficult.  Very
clear application of the Gospel message to life in the world.

That's all I ask, an application of Scripture to the life of the
Church, to the life of the individual Christian.  Not a discussion of
why we should all contact the Dept. of Trans. to get a left turn lane
made, that can be done in a note in the bulletin.  And before anyone
says that people don't read the bulletin, IMNSHO, it is more important
to make sure the people hear what is the most important, that which
might just have an impact on our life as a Christian, and as far as
the Dept of Trans. is concerned, as an old prof. of mine used to say,
"to hell with it."

<down off international soapbox>

Peace,
    Don

trent!djm@jolt.att.com
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