SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
7:30AM, 10:30 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
This past week, a word has re-surfaced, which it would seem has a vague meaning. But a word without much meaning is not much of a word in itself – as the whole purpose of words is to convey meaning.
The word is “clericalism.”
Clericalism can mean the over-esteem of the clergy by the faithful, the artificial separation of the clergy from the people, or even micro-management by clergy in their day-to-day work.
In a word, if you want to curse a priest, deacon, or bishop in the twenty-first century, just use the word “clericalism.” It seems it can mean just about anything in any situation.
But the word does have a meaning. And that meaning is profound.
Clericalism refers to an “ecclesiolatry” – that is, an “excessive devotion to the institutional aspects of organized religion … over and against the religion’s own beliefs and faith.” It can also refer to the “cronyism and cloistered [politics]” that often arise in organized religions.
It results in the creation of cliques and clubs, a separation of people at the top and the bottom, and the misuse of persons, assets, and power in ways that are outright toxic and grossly dysfunctional.
The idea of “my church – right or wrong” without examining the facts and issues; and without giving quarter to the rule of law – leaves nothing but an rotten shell … a failing human-led organization … devoid of God, and devoid of love.
Today is the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
St. James gets our attention with the opening words of Chapter 5 of his Epistle:
Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
But looking at the Greek word here rendered as “you rich”, it could perhaps be translated as “you who are overly satisfied.”
In this we can hear the echo of the words of Our Lord in St. Luke’s Gospel, where He says four times “Blessed are you who …” – in an abbreviated form of the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Plain – followed by four times saying, “woe to you …”
Both our Lord and St. James are pushing back against a certain “self-satisfaction” or a “smugness” in how people were living out their lives. This is less about how full their bank account was, and more about how full of themselves they were.
We see in both the Old Testament and in the Gospel how even a little authority made some of the leaders of Israel … and some of the disciples … jealous of others’ exercising ministry in God’s Holy Spirit … and in Jesus’s Name.
Christians are called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” In His farewell discourse in John chapter 17, after asking God to do just that for His disciples, Jesus asks that we be “consecrate[d] … in the truth” as He then sends us into the world.
For us this can be tenuous. The culture worships money, power, and sex. And these false gods destroy lives – not only in the here and now, but in eternity. These false gods can warp our perceptions on how we are to utilize the gifts of God, the power of God, and our service to God within the Christian community. And these false gods can affect how we interact with one another … and with the poor.
In those situations, we need to indeed “weep and wail over [our] impending miseries” … and “woe to us” when we misuse what has been entrusted to us for the greater Glory of God and the building up of His Kingdom.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us “cut off” any worldliness that stands between us and Him. Let us “pluck out” those false gods and warped perceptions of who we are and who we are called to be in Christ. May our only boast be in Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Cross – “through which the world has been crucified to [us], and [we have been crucified] to the world.”
