CLOSED MINDS - HARDENED HEARTS
My homily was brief this past Sunday, as Sister Christine spoke to the Parishioners at the end of Mass. However, I will try to relate the basic theme of what I said. The Gospel was about a ‘trick’ question posed to Jesus: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?” You can almost hear the glea behind the pretend sincerity of those who asked the question! They were sure that no matter how Jesus answered, he would be in trouble with some or all of the following: his followers, the emperor, the religious and civil authorities, and anyone else that heard his reply. Fortunately, Jesus avoided a disastrous situation when he asked his inquisitioners for a denarius (which they gave him), and asked: “Whose head is this, and whose title?” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
It is diffiult to deal with people who ask questions with closed minds, hardened hearts, and hidden agendas. Just before Mass on Sunday one the parishioners gave me this joke:
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, “When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah.”
The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”
The little girl replied, “Then you ask him”
Trick questions, phony sincerity, closed minds……..are weapons for those who wish to discredit, destroy, and mock. It really helps to know the motives and state of mind of a person asking a question and that’s not always easy.
This month Bishops are gathered in Rome for a Synod, and there are alot of News people asking questions, and they will keep asking questions (and inferring answers) for a long time after the Synod is over. We have a responsibility to be informed. Where will we get our information? Hopefully, many catholics will make an effort to inform themselves, and not rely on the secular media, as their one and only source of information. Please refer to Blog of October 7th, 2005 for some good sources-links.
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