Most of you
probably know of the Catholic scholar Scott Hahn. He’s brilliant and he’s
charitable. Good combination, that.
He tells the story about how he
found himself sitting at a restaurant eating breakfast with a scholar of Islam.
They were eating breakfast because they were going to have a public dialogue
and they wanted to set some basic parameters and starting points for that
dialogue.
Four or five
minutes into the breakfast, Scott Hahn referred to God as Father, Abba.
Now, that seems innocuous
enough. But the Islamic scholar slammed his hand on the table and said, “Do not
blaspheme!” Dr. Hahn was taken aback—calling
God “Father” is a blasphemy? I mean,
Jesus told us to call God Abba and to pray “Our Father…”
So Hahn asked the
scholar why? The Islamic scholar explained: because Allah is not Abba. Allah
does not love as a Father; Allah is an owner, a master.
In this moment,
Dr. Hahn came to “a great clarity” about how our religions are different: they
differed on this point of God as a loving Father.
* * *
There is a lot of
talk today about what Islam is and what Islam is not. Is it a religion of peace
or is a religion of terror? The reality seems to be that it can legitimately be
both.
How so?
The brief answer:
Islam has no overarching authority or power to resolve disputes in doctrine,
nothing to say “yes, this peace is It” or “no, this terror is not It.” In other
words, they have no Magisterium. As such, any interpretation of Islam—peace or violence—can
be advanced as valid.
Catholicism, on
the other hand, believes that there is a capital-T Truth to Jesus’ question “Who
do you say that I am?” and Catholicism further believes that there is something
that helps us to arrive at that answer, namely the Magisterium.
In fact, the
existence of the Magisterium is a hallmark of our God’s Fatherhood.
What I mean by
that is, if you are a dad, you don’t want your children to have to guess about
how to live: about what is right and what is wrong. Even less do you want them to guess about who you are and about
how you love them. So, you teach them and you make things clear.
Our Heavenly
Father loves us and, through His Son, Jesus Christ, established the Catholic
Church and promised the Holy Spirit to guide Her, such that whoever heard the Church
heard Him (cf. Luke 10:16). This Magisterium, the teaching authority of the
Church, was given by our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ and He promised He
would guard and preserve His teaching through the Church while also presenting
and interpreting His teaching in every age and in every place so that all
nations would know Him beyond a shadow of a doubt and know how to Love Him and
our neighbor in the Truth.
* * *
The Father goes
so far as to say, when giving this power to His Church, that the “gates of hell
will not prevail against her [the Church]” (Mt 16:18).
He said this
because He knew that the Church would be under attack.
In the winds of
secularism that are blowing (secularism being the belief that God doesn’t
matter or doesn’t care and that there are no overarching moral Truths by which
we are to center our life and so on)—In these winds of secularism, every
religion is under attack. Islam included.
Islam, however,
has nothing to protect itself, nothing to defend itself from devolving into
secularism—except itself and however it wishes to do that, by peacefully being
silent or by being violent.
Our brothers and
sisters in the Protestant communities also face the same battle; but without a
Magisterium, they too can easily devolve.
Indeed, the same
can be said about every Catholic that protests against the Father’s Church. All
who separate themselves from the Father’s protection in the Church open
themselves up to the corrupting and terrifying forces of secularism where
nothing really matters, where Truth really isn’t real, where God is no longer
seen as caring or as a Father, and where disunity and hatred reign.
St. Cyprian of
Carthage, when he saw the North African church tearing itself apart in 251 AD,
wrote, “You cannot have God as Father without having the Church as Mother.”
What he meant
was: If we do not have the Church to protect us, then we will lose the Truth
about who God our Father is, about how He is loving and merciful and provident
and creative. And what’s more: if we do not have God as Father, then we will
never be a child of God or see others as children of God either. That’s the
perfect storm for violence. But we know we are called for and made for love.
In a secular
kingdom, those who lead will have no idea how to battle radical Islamic terrorism
precisely because the objective moral grounds on which we could battle are lost. Instead, the battle would come to any person who is not secular. Secular Muslims
and secular Protestants and secular Catholics don’t have to battle. Rather, it’s
those who hold to Christ and to His Father who will have to battle (like the Little Sisters of the Poor who have to battle against
mandates that try and force them and us to violate our conscience and our Father’s teachings
in the Church). To think: the Little Sisters and us are seen as radical precisely because we love Jesus and
His Father’s Church—radical precisely because we are not secular.
That day is now.
And Jesus wants to know: who do you say that I am? Each group in our society
has an answer… but Jesus is asking you and me: who do you say that I am?
The radicals are the ones who respond by "taking up their cross" and following Him.
The radicals are the ones who respond by "taking up their cross" and following Him.
* * *
Why do I mention
this on Father’s Day?
Fatherhood is
connected to God the Father, the one who is creative and the giver of life, the
one who is strong and who uses that strength to pardon, to be patient. and to bless.
Fatherhood was
not something that just happened biologically (we aren't fathers just by growing older); rather, it was something bequeathed. Before
becoming a father, a boy would have to become a man and a man would have to be
man enough to be a husband. Only then could he have the right to have the same
title as God the Father. Exhibit A
should be the priest: we call him Father not because of biology, but because by
grace the priest participates (or, at least, should participate) in the one
Fatherhood of God.
In short,
fatherhood is supposed to be passed on, bequeathed, by our fathers: and that's our dads, our priests, and any male role-model.
When our secular
culture attacked us with doubts of faith, Fatherhood was quickly disconnected
from its divine roots. We were faced with having to redefine Fatherhood. And
redefined it was! Dad didn’t have to be like God the Father; he could simply be
a bread-winner or a sports coach. When contraceptives and cohabitation were
thrown at us, fatherhood was redefined again: fathers could be boys without ever
having become men or husbands first. The winds of secularism blew and
fatherhood was even separated from being male. We were just. like. everyone.
else. The reason for our strength didn’t make sense anymore….
We had become
Adam in the Garden, quiet and weak as Eve was attacked by the devil himself.
And notice: the
secularization of Fatherhood resulted in a massive vulnerability and attack on
Motherhood and Women.
* * *
Where do we go
from here?
If we are men who
have fallen prey to this and been rendered impotent by our secular culture, the
Church is here to help us rediscover our strength and our authentic Fatherhood.
I will admit, it is a battle, but the Church is with us, giving us the strength
of God in the Sacraments and the witness of 2,000 years of saintly men who have
stood up in battle against the devil himself.
For my part, I
ask you to pray for me who am called “Father.” It is so easy to fall into the
two camps opposed to true fatherhood: the one camp that simply turns fatherhood
into a job, a way of owning; and the other which is simply boyish and afraid to
stand up in the winds of danger. This is when I have to go to my heavenly
Father and say, “Father, help me. I’m afraid” or “I need your help” or “I’m not
good enough, please help me to be a good Father.”
Please pray for
me and for all fathers—priests up here and for the men in the pews.
And fathers, let
us band together like a band of brothers and pray for each other: an Our Father
every day. We are in this together. We need each other.
Let us pray for
all our brothers and sisters, including those of the Islamic faith, who do not
yet know this loving Father, that they may see Him.
I truly believe
that, the more we encounter God our Father, the more we will grow to be like
Him: loving, merciful, provident, patient—a good Father. He will bequeath on us
all of His treasures, His kingdom—indeed, His own dignity as Father. Let us go
to Him now, therefore, He who loves us and let us ask Him for His blessing.
Amen.
nice homily Padre!
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