Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3 Homily

May 3

English

It seems that the more people I talk to, the more I hear – usually in quite general terms – about a growing angst in our culture. It goes something like this: There is such a division in society today. I think we’re all aware of this division on different levels, certainly politics being one of the largest divisive factors presently – but there are sure others. Then, the other day, as I was reflecting on this more, I remembered something I learned once upon a time in history class – not in sixth grade – but probably at some point in high school – that the United States was referred to as the “American Experiment”.

An experiment is a test to prove or verify something. And so, to explain what this experiment sought to prove, take the following excerpt from an 1860 article in the New-York Daily Tribune titled “The American Experiment”. It asked the following question: “Is the democratic principle of equal rights, general suffrage, and government by a majority, capable of being carried into practical operation?”

Now, I learned from my science classes that in an experiment you have starting assumptions – agreed upon facts – that enable you then to test something unproven, by forming a hypothesis. In the case of the United States, one of the central agreed upon facts from the outset was that we are all one nation under God – in particular, the God of the Bible. And even though there were different implications of belief in the one true God of the Bible – for example, among Puritans, Congregationalists, Baptists, Anglicans, and Catholics – the truth held that God’s Law was supreme. And in fact, our civil law was largely based on the moral law which comes from God’s Law – that stealing, lying, and murdering, for example, are wrong. 

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?

According to a Gallup poll in 2021, for the first time in the survey’s 80 years, a majority of Americans said they no longer belonged to a house of worship. Down from 70% in 1999, now only 47% of Americans belong to a church, synagogue or mosque in our great nation. 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? It’s quite possible, because presently people are so confused on what’s really true anyway. Trust in formerly reputable institutions, such as the media, the government, and the Church, are very low. People are under the impression that co-existence means letting others do whatever they want to. And absolute truth is being replaced by nothing more than personal preference.

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 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. For example, you cannot be whatever gender you want to be – as if it merely depends on how you feel. Is that where we are? Should how someone feels dictate public policy and the direction of our country? Should we not instead try to help people process through their gender dysphoria rather than merely say because someone genuinely feels something it must be true, and we all must accept it and change everything to accommodate it?

My friends, as we are told in our second reading today, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone... a stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall. They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.” Jesus is that cornerstone. And the Christian faith is the bedrock of our democracy. If we seek to replace it with something other than Jesus, God will let us reap our own foolishness. I know we all want to be nice and not judge and just let others make whatever decisions they want to make, because we want to do what we want to do too. But, God’s law is what is needed for the true flourishing of each individual and for societies at large. And if we remove God, who is love and goodness and truth, we cannot pretend that we can still have those things without Him.

And so, please do not be deceived, you cannot straddle the fence. Either it’s God’s truth that guides our lives, our institutions, and our society, or it’ll be whatever the new majority thinks. In the grand scheme of things, truth is binary – it is either of God or not of God. In the American Civil War, the battle was over the evils of slavery, and brother fought against brother. At this time, however, the enemy is not our fellow Americans of whatever ideological persuasion they might be. 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.

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.

In the end, it seems to me that the Great American experiment is doomed to fail unless Jesus Christ remains the cornerstone of the house of our society and our culture. Please remain close to Him and His Church so God may use us as He wills for our good and the good of our nation. God bless you.