In these strange times, we need the teachings of the Church to help us navigate, priests who show how our faith can sustain us in a disordered world. Our parish is fortunate in having such a priest, Rev. Timothy Marcoe, who sees the world as it is and tells us how Catholic teaching will help us live in that world. I’m going to summarize one of his recent homilies, but I urge the reader to go to the original (see here.) He talked first about “The Great American Experiment,” and what is required to keep it going.
THE GREAT AMERICAN EXPERIMENT: DOES IT NEED FAITH IN GOD?
“But America is an experiment in democracy – where the majority rules. Such a model works fine when the majority is still under the starting premise that we are all one nation under God and that God’s Law is supreme. But, what happens when the majority no longer believes that?”—Rev. Timothy Marcoe, Homily, 7 May 2023.
And it may well be the case that now a majority no longer believes that God’s Law is supreme, according to a 2021 Gallup poll, (if such belief is identified by membership in a church, synagogue or mosque). Accordingly, we can ask whether secularists/materialists will now determine whither the U.S.
“That means that you and I are now in the minority in America. And unfortunately, with rampant secularism, consumerism, materialism, and hedonism in our great nation, this trend is likely to continue…And so, if in a democracy the majority determines the laws, as well as the lived experience of those laws, will a future majority overturn God’s truth with man’s truth – whatever they happen to then think is true?”[emphasis added]—ibid.
Fr. Marcoe suggests that if this happens, we should turn to Catholic teaching to sustain us.
JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE
Contemporary culture (media, education, academia,…) asserts that truth is not absolute, but to be determined by social values.
“In contrast to this world-centered view is what we hear Jesus say in our Gospel today, who unequivocally declares that He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so, if the very Son of God became man to teach us the way to the Father, and made His Church to be His voice on earth, how deceived is a society that looks for another way – for another truth. Truth is not what you want it to be.” [emphasis added]—ibid.
Fr. Marcoe reminds us that our fellow Americans are not our enemy. Rather,
“…as Scripture truly teaches, ‘our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits.’ In other words, there is a spiritual war going on for the soul of our nation to keep God in the center of society, of our institutions, and of our lives.”—ibid.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As Fr. Marcoe emphasizes, the battle is the Lord’s; it will be His victory, not ours. Therefore we should pray for our country and for ourselves to carry on:
“Fortunately, though, this is not a battle we fight solely with human means either. Rather, because the victory already belongs to the Lord, we must fervently pray for our country, and we must pray that we ourselves have the needed strength to witness to the only truth that saves – God Himself – and make Him the true center.”—ibid.
Again, I urge the reader to go to the linked sites to get the full force of Fr. Marcoe’s sermons.
I plan to do another post on another of his homilies, a commentary on Pope Benedict XVI’s prediction (speaking as Cardinal Ratzinger) that the Church will become smaller.
NOTE
This article was published previously on The American Catholic.
6 thoughts on “Our Priest Tells it Like it Is”
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Hi, my favorite cranky old physicist. A wonderful article and you have a wonderful priest Thanks for the links, I will follow up for sure.
During Covid, I discovered someone similar – if you have the time, listen to Father Jim from St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in Boston
I beat you by one year – I converted to Catholicism in 1994. And I look forward to your next essay.
Thanks for the kind words, Ida. At 93.2, the creative juices are drying up, so I’m not sure when I’ll be publishing next…But I hope the Holy Spirit will inspire.
Intellectualist, if this bear of little brain understood what you were trying to say, I could reply to your comment. But thank you anyhow. I hope I haven’t ruffled your feathers too much.
The concept of equality and the principle of do unto others is the humanist basis of the US and is Lord over all other false gods of religious doctrines. The hateful Catholics who reject the Lord’s edicts as written in our founding American documents are anti God. Those “under God” heretics aren’t holy they’re evil. Man made God in his own image not vice versa.