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Transcript of Homily
First of all I’d like to congratulate
S.N. [initials only]
who was baptized a few weeks ago...
A member of our religious education class...
Who will be making her First Holy Communion
today.
It’s a very appropriate day to do so,
the feast of Corpus Christi [Latin
for "The Body of Christ"].
So, as we say in Skokie (Illinois),
"Mazel Tov" [literally
means "good fortune" in Hebrew]
S.N. [initials
only] will come up with her family at the beginning
of Communion.
I hope you are all awake.
You’re all focused, are you all focused?
Because this a very strange sermon.
Not long, just strange.
Well, it may be long --- you never know.
It all kind of started at the Great
Adventure Bible Class, about three or four weeks ago.
We were studying the book of Joshua.
And it had never occurred to me that Joshua
really brings right into the limelight, I guess you’d say..
The problem of evil.
Not only does God permit evil...
I mean that’s a problem --- if God is
so good...
All of us have been through this, I think...
If God is so good, and so loving...
Why are all these bad things happening
to me?
I remember, I don’t know if you’ll
follow this, but this cartoon in the Sun Times, "Mr. Boffo".
Maybe I mentioned this one...
Mr. Boffo is hiding behind a big rock,
and there’s a voice in the sky, and lightening bolts and thunder.
And the voice says "Come out in the open
so I get a clear shot at ya."
You know, some of us feel like that, don’t’
we?
Lord...
I remember the line in the "Fiddler
On The Roof":
"Lord, we know we’re the Chosen People,
but couldn't You choose someone else for a while?"
But this is a problem we have.
If God is so good, why is there so much
difficulty in my life?
And, on a grander scale, why is there so
much evil in the world?
And more importantly, if you read the book
of Joshua, and study the conquest in the Land of Canaan...
It seems that God not only permits evil,
but He is its perpetrator.
I remember my mother decided to read the
Bible cover to cover.
And about a book or two in, she gave me
a
call and said, "Richard, do you know what’s in this book?"
"I mean, really, it’s a challenging book!"
I gave a talk in Huntley [Illinois]
a of couple weeks ago...
And I was kind of warned by the people
who had invited me...
There's a woman here who is pacing back
and forth, she has come here to ask you one question.
Somehow I was able to avoid her going into
the hall.
But she sat patiently through a long and
boring lecture to ask her question.
And her question was simply this --- that
she was reading the story of Judith and Holofernes.
Judith was a heroin from among the Israelites.
And Holofernes, a general of, I think it
was, the Syrians.
I don’t know, one of those people who
are always trying to dislodge the Israelites.
But her question was --- how did this story
make it into the Bible?
This woman seduced a general, drugged him
and then killed him.
And this was all for the glory of God.
How in any way can that be Scripture?
This is a good question.
How can this be?
Well, I know a woman, she’s an older
woman now, and a very dear friend...
Who was Jewish, and has become a Catholic.
But when she was a little girl...
Maybe I told you about her...
She was a girl of exceptional intelligence.
And at a very young age, she was allowed
to attend a yeshivah.
NOTE:
A yeshivah is a Jewish institution for Torah study and the study of Talmud
and generally cater to boys or men. A roughly equivalent women's institution
is the midrasha.
Which was unusual itself in those days.
And she was asked the classic question:
"Can God make a stone so big that He Himself
can not move it?"
Now, the Catholic and Jewish answer is:
"No, He would not make a stone so big that
He could not move it...
Because, He has made creation as a mirror
of His goodness."
Creation itself and natural law are extensions
of God’s goodness.
It would be as if you stood in a mirror,
raised your hand, and expected the reflection to lower its hand.
It just makes no sense.
That’s the Catholic and Jewish answer.
The Muslim and Protestant answer is:
"Yes, God could do that. He can do anything
he wants."
I think this is something that a lot of
people don’t know.
That the founders of the Reformation ---
the reformers Calvin and Luther --- were very much influenced by Islamic
thought that had come into the Christian world through Spain.
And Calvin especially, but Luther also,
did not believe in free will.
And they believed that God, being absolutely
sovereign, could do whatever He pleased.
Therefore, if God woke up on the wrong
side of the bed...
Well, He could say that murder and adultery
were good.
And they would be good.
So, the answer of Muslims and Protestants
is YES --- God could make a stone so big that He Himself could not move
it.
Well, this little Jewish girl in a yeshivah
said, when asked the question:
"Can God make a stone so big that He Himself
could not move it?"
She looked at her teachers and she said:
"Yes, He can. And He did --- the
human heart."
And for that, she was thrown out of school.
God made a stone so big that He Himself
cannot move it.
And that is --- the human heart --- in
its freedom.
God has given us freedom.
And on the cross He subjected Himself ---
to our freedom.
Well - why did God give us freedom?
Because freedom is the only necessary precondition
for real love.
Your dog loves you.
I mean, there are a lot of dog owners here,
aren't there?
And heaven forbid if anyone should say
your dog doesn't really love you.
You are the giver of food, and possessor
of the can opener, aren't you?
Your dog loves you.
And you know what?
Your dog’s love is more constant and
more sincere than the love that most people you know have for you.
Your dog is always glad to see you when
you come home.
And does not tell you that the laundry
must be done.
Or the garbage must be taken out.
That dog loves you.
That dog does not love you in the way that
you love.
That dog’s love is not predicated on
freedom - whereas yours is.
The marriage vows that you took, were for
better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until
death do us part.
Where does the love come in?
Does it come in the better or the worse?
In the richer or the poorer?
In the sickness or in the health?
When you keep vigil at the sick bed of
someone you love, you ask:
"Why am I doing this?"
Well, for love.
When you endure sorrow and suffering, the
love that you offer is all the more bright for the darkness that surrounds
it.
You know that.
So, God has given us freedom --- in order
that we might love.
Now... are you listening?
This is a very un-understandable part of
what I want to say this morning.
If Jesus is not the Son, the very Heart
of God...
If Jesus is not the visible image of the
invisible God.
If Jesus is not God's love made Flesh...
Then God is, in fact, a savage.
He is cruel beyond imagining.
It’s very quiet in here, isn't it?
Let me say that again...
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