Homily: False gods

[00:00:00] Good morning. Welcome to St. Mike's. It's good to have our guests here. Welcome.

[00:00:08] In December of 2023, the presidents of three Ivy League schools, Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania, were summoned before a House committee to explain why they had such growing anti-Semitism on their campus.

[00:00:33] In some instances, their Jewish students were not only outright persecuted, they were bullied on a daily basis. And they were called before this House committee to explain why. And in the course of the interactions, they were asked a basic question, these three presidents. A question which frankly all of us should know the answer to.

[00:00:59] They were asked point blank, do you consider genocide against the Jews wrong? And would it be tolerated on your campuses? All three of them, same answer. It depends on the circumstances. Depends on the circumstances. So let's do the math.

[00:01:27] Yeah. You have the presidents of three of the highest institutions of learning in this country. In some instances, rationalizing genocide against the Jews. Houston, we have a problem. We have a problem. Within one month, two of those presidents were fired. Well over a billion dollars in donor funding was pulled. Still goes on.

[00:01:55] What's your point, Father? Here's one point. Does right and wrong still exist? You know, it makes me think when I hear this, hear this interaction, it makes me think of the words of Jesus. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth for having hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the simple and the childlike.

[00:02:19] I've seen far greater intelligence from illiterate people than from people like that. And they're far closer to God, by the way. Does good and evil just, does this still exist or is this outdated, right?

[00:02:35] You know, there's historians, sociologists and anthropologists, they more or less agree that in the history of mankind we have had roughly 4,000 cultures in the history of mankind. And in each one of those cultures, there's subcultures. About 4,000. And in every single one of those cultures, there are some things that are considered right and some things that are considered wrong, right?

[00:03:04] And in some instances, if you do what's wrong, they'll kill you. For instance, in most cultures, it's considered wrong to kill an innocent human being. Adultery, lying, stealing. Pretty much every culture agrees on that one. There's a few variants, but they all agree on that. In the Catholic world, in Catholic theology, don't get freaked out by the big theology words, okay?

[00:03:28] We call this the natural moral law. The natural moral law. What does that mean? It means when you and I were born, all of us, God put into our hearts a base level understanding to do good and avoid evil, right? By the way, so I'd know, it's worth pointing out that our founding fathers mentioned the natural moral law in the Declaration of Independence.

[00:03:59] Who knew? Okay? This is why we have the Ten Commandments, the Ten Suggestions, right? Okay, raise your hand if you know all Ten Commandments. Alright, raise your hand if you know the first one. Okay, so to quote Maria von Trapp, let's start at the very beginning.

[00:04:28] A very good place to start, right? I mean, you know the first, right? We're about to say it. I believe in... That's right. You have no other gods besides me. One God. The first three commandments about God, the last seven, how we treat other people, yeah? So over the course of the next few weeks, we'll be digging into these little things we call the Ten Commandments. If it's been a minute since you read those guys, you might consider going back to it.

[00:04:57] John Paul II, for his part, he said, Long before the Ten Commandments were written on stone tablets, they were written in the human heart. Makes sense. The natural moral law. People know in their core. I shouldn't cheat on my spouse. I shouldn't kill an innocent human. They know this. So nobody can, when they kneel before God,

[00:05:26] I didn't know, nobody told me. Are you kidding me? I didn't get that memo. Right? They know. On some level. Really fascinating. It's worth understanding the Ten Commandments as program notes, folks. The program notes, guardrails, whatever you want to call it, for each one of us, it's good to kind of go back to that, right? Let's go back to where we started. Let's go back to where we started.

[00:05:55] You know, I remember when I was in the seminary years ago, we had this one closet where all the seminarians, if they put on a few extra pounds and they outgrew their clothes, they would put all their clothes in there, right? So they were free for the taking. So it worked out awesome for me. I have to say it. Every week I had a brand new wardrobe. It was wonderful. So, you know, one day I was in chapel and one of my buddies sat next to me

[00:06:23] and he leans over to me and he's like, dude, you're wearing my sweater. And it was like, I stole that fair and square, buddy. Okay? I stole that fair and square. And then he opens up his book, his Bible, and he shows me the commandment to not steal. And I was like, I'm the exception to that rule. Right? But in my defense, he gave it away. But it's kind of a good reminder for us to kind of go back to this, right? What's…

[00:06:51] Maybe if we sum up the Ten Commandments perhaps in a question, shall we? Maybe the question might be this. What are your priorities? What are your priorities? I'm not married, but if I were married, this is what my priorities would be. God first, spouse second, children third, work.

[00:07:22] Now, as a priest, God perish. And I think it's good, in my humble opinion, take it for what you want. I think it's good to tell our children, your mom, your father comes first, then you guys. I think it's good. It's a good lesson for them. Yeah? We love them. But we need to put our marriage and God relationship first, I think. Yeah? People… Have you noticed this?

[00:07:49] People can make a God, a deity out of pretty much anything. Like, people are really talented at this. It's amazing. They can make a God out of work. They're workaholics. They put their whole identity in what they do. Right? And then they go home like, what… Oh gosh… What's your name? What's your name? Oh, you're my wife. Right. I knew we met. Right?

[00:08:16] They put their whole identity in the work and then of course they retire, they can't work and their whole identity melts. You ever known people that make a God out of technology? You can usually tell because all you see is their forehead. Right? Some people can make a God out of how they look. Body worship. You know? The Kim Kardashian effect, whatever you want to call it. They're just obsessed with how they look. They cannot… They can't let it go.

[00:08:47] 13th century. St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas, one of my heroes, this is what he said. He said there's four primary things that people can make a false God out of. Wealth, honor, pleasure, power. Wealth, honor, pleasure, power. And I want to be clear. These are not bad things. These are good things. In moderation. The problem with a lot of people is they don't know how to stop.

[00:09:17] Look, we all need money. Profit is good for business. You're giving a livelihood to your employees. We all have bills to pay. I got to pay these light bills. Okay? St. Paul tells us money is not bad. It's the love of money that becomes a problem. What do we call it when people can't get enough money? Greed, avarice, whatever you want to call it. They rarely reach a point and say, you know, I'm good. Check.

[00:09:46] They don't know how to stop. Just Ebenezer Scrooge effect. They don't know how to stop, yeah? Wealth, honor. Honors are awesome. Yesterday we had graduations here. My daughter got summa cum laude. Amazing. We get a promotion at work. Yes. These are good things. When does it become a bad thing?

[00:10:12] When we put our peace and identity in what other people think of us. You go down that road, there's no end to it. One day they will love you. The next day they'll put you there. Welcome to Holy Week. Wealth, honor, pleasure. Pleasure is awesome. This is good. This is part of the joy of life. You ever have a morning where you can sleep late? Isn't that nice? I told my mom, I feel guilty.

[00:10:40] I love my pillow more than most people I know. Right? I mean, isn't it nice when you can sleep? You ever been starving to death and you rip into a beautiful steak, creme brulee? It's pleasurable. You have a glass of wine when your spouse comes home from work? It's pleasurable. Pleasure is good. What is not good is when we say a little is good, a lot is better. They don't want to turn it off. That's when we get into addictions and lust.

[00:11:11] Right? Wealth, honor, pleasure, power. Power is good. For the Catholic response, the question is not, is power to be exercised? Catholics would say, how is power to be exercised? Do you use your power for a greater corporate end? Or can you just not get enough? We've seen many leaders just like that. Right?

[00:11:41] Thank you, God, for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Second World War and George Marshall who used their power for a greater corporate end. Thank you, God. How do we use it? Where's the priorities? That's really the question. We're going to dig into that over the next few weeks. I'll close with this. Has anyone here seen this movie that came out last year? It's called Nuremberg with Russell Crowe.

[00:12:11] Rami Malek is in it. Michael Shannon. If you've never seen Nuremberg, go check it out. Great film. Russell Crowe did a great job. So Russell Crowe plays this character. His name is Hermann Goering. And for those who may not know, the Nazi war criminals were put on trial in 1946 in Nuremberg. And Hermann Goering was Hitler's basically vice president. He was the second in command of the Third Reich under the Nazis.

[00:12:41] So he's arrested, put on trial in 1946. And in a point in the movie, the interviewer who's talking to Hermann Goering leans over and says, How could you justify the killing of six million innocent men, women, and children? How do you justify that? And Goering looks right at him and says, I didn't pull the trigger.

[00:13:12] Wasn't me. So here's my question to you. Is that true? Is it true that it wasn't him? It's true in some sense that he didn't pull the trigger. Is he still responsible, yes or no? Yeah. Yes, he is. He created, he helped to create a climate of death where innocent people were killed. Yeah, he's still responsible.

[00:13:42] We don't have to be the one that does something wrong if we are contributing to it as well. Welcome to the phrase from the great Catholic philosopher, Sir Edmund Burke. The only thing it takes for evil to thrive is for good people to do what? Nothing. Our silence contributes to the growth of death and the growth of evil.

[00:14:10] We have a moral duty, a moral duty to be leaders, to walk upstream in season and out of season, and that may include our own families and our own workplaces. All right? We need to understand there is still right and wrong, and there is an eternal accountability to the extent that we live in that.