Third Sunday after Epiphany EF
Third Sunday in Course 2013
The Time Always Right to Do What is Right
What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? For the apostles, it meant abandoning their boats and nets, and literally following in His footsteps, all the way to Pentecost, all the way to their own deaths, preaching the Gospel throughout the world. For St. Paul, it meant loving both Jew and non-Jew, trying to live at peace with all men, even those who would throw him in prison several times and ultimately cut off his head. For the centurion of Capernaum, following Jesus meant humbly asking him to heal his young servant, while acknowledging his own unworthiness to have Jesus even enter his house. And his memorable words are repeated at every Mass, as we say almost in astonishment to the Lord Jesus whose risen Body and Blood are our food: Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but say only the Word and my soul shall be healed.
Now think of the first scenes in Genesis: Adam, Eve and God are establishing their covenant, the rules governing the beautiful garden God is gifting them. He tells them to love each other in every way, have lots of children, take care of the garden and eat of its fruit. The only “no” is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They must not sample its fruit, for it is death. God had only our good in mind. Only good; never evil. “You are made in my image and likeness; obey me and you will, in time, be like me.”
We don’t know how long after that the author of evil tempted them. But the serpent caused them to doubt God’s good intention. “Go ahead,” he said, “disobey. You’ll instantly be like God, knowing good and evil.” We don’t know exactly why Eve disobeyed, and led Adam into disobedience. Maybe the serpent looked really kind; maybe he looked really scary. But, unprotected by absent Adam, she did the deed, and then led him to do the same. They had told God that they preferred the short-cut to divinity, and learned the hard way that knowing evil means knowing pain and sin and death all during life, for themselves and their descendants. Interviewed years later by the New York Times, they said, “it seemed to be a good idea at the time, but now we know that it’s always a bad idea to do bad things, even if your intention is good.”
Let’s face it: whenever I have sinned, whenever you have sinned, we didn’t say to ourselves, “this idea is really evil. I want to do something bad. I want to get into trouble.” No. We see something we want to have, or to do, and it looks good to us. But to get to have it, or to do it, we have to say, or think, or do something that God says is bad for us. I want to be popular with my crowd, so I start using God’s name in vain like they do. I want to feel really good, so I engage in illicit sex or pornography or drugs. I want a new car, or video system, or computer, so I cheat on my taxes or pilfer company money. We never intend anything but a good result. I might even take the week’s grocery money and blow it on Lotto tickets, making a deal with God in prayer: God, if I win, I will put 10% in the collection basket. So we not only hurt the family, we ask God to cheat so we can be winners!
Let’s get real. When we do evil, the only thing we can be certain of is that we are doing evil. We can’t know with any certainty that the good feeling, or the new car, or the popularity will follow. And if we’ve been around life’s track a few times, we’ve probably learned from experience that it’s more likely that we’ll feel bad, not get the car, or turn into the kind of jerk that no worthy person will want to associate with.
Instead, with Martin Luther King–who knew very well how good intentions can be interwoven with evil–that the time is always right to do the right thing.
Two boys grew up in the Alamo Heights school district. They were born within months of each other and lived not far from each other, but didn’t know each other until they were middle-aged. Both were good students and attended great schools, achieving recognition in professional careers, serving others. Each was asked to serve on committees of the same non-profit, along with prestigious professionals from all walks of life, all faiths. One said “yes,” got heavily involved and even, in his obituary, asked for contributions to the non-profit. The other politely declined to have anything to do with the largest and most profitable organization in an industry that has directly caused the deaths of a million times more American children than Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary. That serpent-like organization is, of course, Planned Parenthood. They are the largest abortion mill in the country, a group I call America’s Al-Quaeda. Those who support them have the best intentions. They want to help the poor get out of poverty by murdering their children before they are born. Doing evil acts in order to accomplish good–that is the way the enemy draws us into his orbit. That is literally the path to hell.
The response of the Church is the response of Jesus: continue to teach the truth about the Gospel of Life, and pray for those who have been duped into believing that murdering the innocent is somehow justifiable. If we love our enemies as Jesus did, who prayed for us when we were His enemies, even as nails were being driven through his hands, then we will pray for their conversion and healing, pray outside abortuaries and support those who counsel pregnant women. Yes, we must vote for politicians working to restrict this heinous practice, but first we must work and pray to convert hearts and minds to the Gospel of Life, the Gospel of Hope, the Gospel of Reconciliation.
It was just after the Second World War. The troops were coming home and a scene was playing out in the Rooney household in Chicago. One of the daughters was found with child. It must have been a great parish scandal, because in a few days the young woman found herself twelve hundred miles away in the heat of a San Antonio summer. On January 22, 1947, she gave birth to a health son, Michael, who was, ten days later, adopted by a childless couple, baptized with a new name on the Feast of the Purification, and brought up to become Deacon Pat Cunningham. On my twenty-sixth birthday, January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States made it the law of the land that my little brothers and sisters who, like me, were inconveniently conceived, had no right to life. I think you can see why, for me, the so-called right to abortion is personal, and why I have spent so much time and so much ink working for the human rights of the innocent children whose only crime is their inconvenience.
But God will not be mocked. His mercy endures forever. Two days after my twenty-sixth birthday, my precious wife, Carolyn, gave birth to our first-born daughter, Amy. She is now a very pro-life physician taking care of our sick veterans at Audie Murphy, and on Thanksgiving, she and her husband announced that they are expecting their fifth child in April. Much good can come from prayer, and peaceful witness. For nearly a century we all prayed for the conversion of Russia, which had became the most abortive country in the world. Today, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Russia is well on her way to eliminating legal abortion. I only hope that before I breathe my last, this land of the free and home of the brave will again respect human life from conception to natural death.
