9th Sunday - homily

A few weeks ago, a student came to see me. He is a Protestant who is interested in the Catholic Church but has many questions about our faith. I gave him some books to read, one of them is this little booklet called "Confession of a Roman Catholic" by Paul Whitcomb. Whitcomb is a biblical scholar and former Protestant minister. His story is similar to that of Scott Hahn and others: he used to be anti-Catholic until his thorough study of Scripture led him to become Catholic. Like Hahn and others, he learned that the Church is deeply scriptural and that Scripture is deeply Catholic.


In this book, Whitcomb shows how all of the Catholic sacraments are based in Scripture. After the student read the book, he immediately emailed me, saying how much he enjoyed it and that it answered so many of his questions. The book is a bit technical and dense, but very good. I have some copies of it here tonight. If you know someone or are someone who questions where the sacraments like the Eucharist and Confession are in the Bible, then take a copy for them or for yourself.

Many Catholics don't know the history between Catholics and Protestants. For 1500 years, we were all Catholic! But, then in the 16th century, some Catholics "protested" against the Church over the issue of indulgences. The protesters, led by Martin Luther who was a Catholic priest, were right to object to the scandalous selling of indulgences that was going on in the Church. But, then Luther and the reformers went too far in their protest. Luther started his own church as did other reformers; now there are about 30,000 Protestant denominations. They denied six of the seven sacraments (all except Baptism), claiming that if the Church can be in error about indulgences, then it can be wrong about the sacraments.

Also, Luther changed Scripture to fit his new theology. In tonight's second reading, St Paul writes that "a person is justified (saved) by faith apart from works of the law". He is trying to steer people away from focusing on the old law. Martin Luther added the word "alone" to this line from Romans 3:28. His theology was that we are saved by faith alone and attacked the Catholic teaching of justification by faith and good works. He was correct in putting the focus on faith in Christ and grace and that no one can merit salvation through good works, two positions that are very strongly held by the Catholic Church. In recent years, the Catholic and Lutheran Churches have signed a joint declaration on justification to express their agreement that salvation comes about only through the grace of Christ.

But, the doctrine of faith alone is still prevalent among many Protestants. I met a Protestant minister years ago on an airplane. He said that all someone needs to do to be saved is to confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I said that while that is a beautiful thing to do, it is not the only thing we need to do to be saved. I asked him where Matthew 25 fits into all of this. This is where Jesus says that judgment is based on how we treat the poor; those who took care of the poor will be saved and those who didn't will be condemned. He had no answer.

Jesus gives us a big answer about all of this in today's Gospel. He says that "not all who say 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven". Salvation is about doing the will of the Father...about hearing the words of Jesus and acting on them. For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has been acting on the words of Jesus. His words are the source of all that we believe and do. This book by Paul Whitcomb shows that. All of the sacraments are based in the words of Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church shows that all that we believe is based in the words of Jesus. It expresses our theology; theology literally means "Word of God" which is Jesus Christ.

The first reading also confirms that we need to do what God has commanded. If we keep his commandments, we receive a blessing; if not, we receive a curse. If we obey the third commandment, for example, and keep holy the Sabbath by coming to Mass, we receive Grace. If we intentionally miss Sunday Mass, then we lose the state of grace and enter into mortal sin. Skipping Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin.

Finally, brothers and sisters, when we come to Mass, we act on Jesus' words at the Last Supper: "take this all of you and eat it...do this in memory of me". For 2000 years, the Church has an unbroken tradition of celebrating the Eucharist. We base our actions here on the words of Christ and our belief on his four words: "this is my body". It's not "this symbolizes my body"..but this is my body. The Council of Trent responded to the Protestant Reformation’s attack on the Eucharist by affirming that Jesus is “truly, really, and substantially” present in the Eucharist. Only the Catholic and Orthodox churches have the tradition and belief in the Real Presence. The Eucharist is our rock...it is THE rock, Jesus Christ! Receiving the Eucharist is a blessing which helps us to act on the words of Christ, to do the will of the Father, and to enter the kingdom of heaven.