Father Campbell's Response to the Anti-Catholic Bigotry
The readings this week focus on prayer.The first reading from the Book of Exodus recounts the story of Israel’s battle with Amalek.
As Joshua engaged in battle, Moses, the man of God, climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron the priest and Hur, and prayed until sunset!
As long as Moses prayed and kept his hands raised up (in prayer – in the orans position) Israel had the better of the fight.
Relying on Aaron and Hur for support and leaning on a rock which represents Christ, Moses continued in prayer throughout the day and Israel was victorious in battle.
The Gospel too, highlights the importance of prayer…Jesus told his disciples the story of the persistent widow, “a parable about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary.”
In both stories prayer is accompanied by some concrete, tangible action.Expressed in a different way; “Prayer is not just words!”
In fact Jesus himself says in Matthew’s Gospel, “when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites/the pagans, who think they will be heard by the multiplication of their words” and again, “not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will be saved but only those who do the will of my Father in Heaven.” For, “Blessed are they who hear the word of God and observe it.”
In the case of Moses he kept his hands raised while Joshua and his forces engaged in battle.In the case of the persistent widow, her prayer is accompanied by frequent travels into town (into the town square) and her incessant, nonstop, relentless pestering of this judge (this public official)!
And so it’s bewildering esp. after reading those two accounts of Scripture, that some people today, including individuals within our own church, would have us believe that Christians should worship in private, and pray without taking action.
They would probably tell Joshua he has no business fighting the good fight, engaging in battle and participating in a war…and they would tell that persistent widow in today’s Gospel to stay home, to stay out of the town square, to keep silent, and to stop meddling in the affairs of politicians and public officials like that Godless Judge.
Similarly, they would like to silence the Christian voice and bring a stealthy end to the Catholic Church’s incessant, nonstop, relentless, and persistent opposition to the Culture of Death and its attacks against marriage and the family.
But as you can see…..that’s not biblical…that’s not scriptural…that’s not Christianity!
Prayer is not just words!Worship is not just lip service!In fact, St. James says:“Faith without works is dead!”
Certainly, the Israelites were victorious at the battle of Rephidim because of Moses’ prayer and their reliance on God and Christ the True Rock but their prayer was accompanied by public action.
Never should we think of our religion as a purely "private matter." Jesus taught in public, healed in pubic, ministered in public, and He was crucified in public.
They tried to remove Christ from the public square…to do this they dragged him out of town, up a hill and nailed him to a tree…but the crowds followed, so they pierced him through with a lance, burying him in a cave, rolled a large stone before its entrance, and stationed two guards outside.
But again their efforts failed! The stone was rolled away! The body was no longer there!The burial cloths were set aside!Jesus had risen!
Today, the narrative remains the same.The Church and Jesus are one, they are unique, but not separate, they are united in a mystical bond.
The Church is an extension of the Incarnation throughout time.Jesus is the head and the Church is his body.And you cannot separate Jesus from His Church any more than you can separate a head from the body.
As members of His Mystical Body, we continue to experience that same opposition, that same hatred and disdain that Our Blessed Lord encountered in his earthly life and ministry.
This past week WikiLeaks released a number of anti-Catholic emails exchanged among members of the Clinton Democratic presidential campaign team also known as “Team Hillary”.
They were calling for a “Catholic Spring” a “revolt” against the Catholic Bishops and they have actually attempted to “plant the seeds of revolution” by “forming groups” inside the Church like “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good” and “Catholics United” to “organize for a moment like this” and to “revolt against the U.S. Bishops.”
I want to share with you an excerpt from Archbishop Chaput’s editorial this week in the Catholic Philly, he’s our metropolitan archbishop in Philadelphia. He is quoting a well respected non-Catholic attorney experienced in Church-state affairs:
“Over the last eight years there has been strong evidence that the current administration, with which these people share values, has been very hostile to religious organizations.
Now there is clear proof that this approach is deliberate and will accelerate if these actors have any continuing, let alone louder, say in government.
These bigots are actively strategizing how to shape Catholicism not to be Catholic or consistent with Jesus’ teaching, but to be the ‘religion’ they want. They are, at the very core, trying to turn religion to their secular view of right and wrong consistent with their politics.”
In other words “Team Hilary’s” hatred and disdain for the Catholic Church and her teaching has expressed itself not just in thoughts, words, and attitudes but in pre-meditated, intentional, deliberate and calculated actions taken to undermine Church teaching, to silence her voice, to eliminate her influence, and to cripple her mission.
If this isn’t good old fashioned anti-Catholic bigotry I don’t know what is.
Just listen to how they described the Catholic Church and her members.
In these emails members of “Team Hillary” have written and I quote:“They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.”
They “throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”
And they described the Church as a “Middle Ages Dictatorship” and conservative Catholicism as a “bastardization of the faith”!
“Love your enemies,” Jesus says, “pray for those who persecute you,” but he doesn’t tell us we have to vote for them!
As the Archbishop editorial makes clear, "It is now evident that we have political actors trying to orchestrate a coup to destroy Catholic values, and they even analogize their takeover to a coup in the Middle East, which amplifies their bigotry, and hatred of the Church."
And that’s why its so important that we don’t confuse or forget the point of today’s Gospel…that we have to keep praying and fighting, like Joshua and Moses, and that we have to be incessant, relentless, and persistent, like the widow, and ultimately like Christ.
We cannot cower: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.” Jesus says, “If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.”
And again elsewhere Jesus tells us…You will have trouble in the world…but take courage for I have overcome the world.
Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you, but rejoice and be glad on that day, for your reward will be great in Heaven.”