Marriage in Mayberry

Trying to be good Catholics

Mark 6:1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.  When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.  They said, “Where did this man get all this?  What kind of wisdom has been given him?  What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!  Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  And are not his sisters here with us?”  And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”  So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

            We received a very strange phone call at the church office this past week.  Someone representing a Christian organization left a message saying they were very upset by the Supreme Court ruling that now all fifty states have to allow same-sex marriages.  Have you heard about that decision?  If you haven’t you must have taken a vacation to the moon this past week because everyone is talking about it!  This caller was very angry that the Supreme Court decision was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is a Catholic.  And the person insisted we petition the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, whom they called “Mr. Joseph Kurtz” (but they meant Archbishop Joseph Kurtz) to excommunicate Justice Kennedy for not upholding Catholic teaching on marriage.  The person ended by saying that if the Catholic Church did NOT excommunicate Kennedy, many good Catholics would leave the Church.  Unfortunately, they didn’t leave a number to call back, because you know how much I love to return those calls.

            But that call left me pondering and praying over two things.  First, do “good Catholics” really leave the Church when they find a teaching that’s disagreeable to them?  Would you leave the Church?  I would think a “good Catholic” would choose to stay no matter what, and not “church hop” to a faith that fits his own fancy.  All a good Catholic has to really do is “pray, pay and obey,” as we used to say.  But second, I also wondered: if the Church DID excommunicate Kennedy, how many “good Catholics” would leave the Church then?  Aren’t there many Catholics who agree with the Supreme Court decision, and celebrated this past week?  You see, we’re not really worried about “good Catholics” leaving, one way or the other, because good Catholics don’t leave their Church.  In other words, the Church does not determine doctrine by popularity polls or go with the latest cultural fad; the Church teaches what the Holy Spirit has revealed through Scripture and Tradition, handed down for two thousand years by the Apostles and their successors.  You see, a good Catholic would never leave the Church because in 1 Timothy 3:15 St. Paul says the church is “the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”  What makes a Catholic “good” is that he does not leave.

            Have you heard this little joke about marriage that’s making its rounds on email?  The writer says: “It just dawned on me why Mayberry (the fictional town of the Andy Griffith Show) was so peaceful and quiet.  Nobody was married!  Here are the single people that come to mind: Andy, Aunt Bea, Barney, Floyd, Howard, Goober, Gomer, Sam, Ernest T. Bass, the Darlin Family, Helen, Thelma Lou and Clara.  In fact, the only one married was Otis, and he stayed drunk.”  You see, the Church’s teaching about marriage is not meant merely for your happiness – just ask Otis! – but mainly for your holiness (to help you become a saint), and ultimately to get you to heaven, the only place you’ll find real happiness. Good Catholics know the Church’s teaching doesn’t always make them happy, but it will make them holy, and that’s why good Catholics don’t leave.

            In the gospel today, we see that even Jesus had to face the displeasure of his disciples and even his own family.  He returns to his hometown of Nazareth and you might expect he’d receive a hero’s welcome, or at least a ticker tape parade down Main Street of Nazareth.  But instead Mark writes, “They took offense at him,” just like people take offense at the Church’s teaching about marriage today.  And how did Jesus react?  “He was amazed at their lack of faith.”  But notice what Jesus did NOT do: he did not conduct an opinion poll to see what the majority of his followers believed and change his teaching accordingly.  He did not set up a think-tank to study the problem and suggest the best solutions.  He was simply amazed at their lack of faith.  You see, Jesus did not come to make the majority of the people happy, not even his own kin; he came to call the wayward children of his heavenly Father back home to heaven.

            My friends, before you pick up stones to throw at the Supreme Court, or sign petitions to get “Mr. Joseph Kurtz” to change the church’s teaching to allow gay marriage,  take a closer look in the mirror.  Are you as good a Catholic as you think?  I’ll bet you dollars to donuts there’s at least one Church teaching that makes you squirm in your seat; heck, there’s probably more than one.  For example, how happy are you with the Church’s teaching against contraception?  Yeah, that pretty much took care of everyone.  Where do you stand on abortion?  How enthusiastic are you about helping illegal immigrants?  “Ouch!” many would say.  How about capital punishment no longer being allowed?  Toby Keith and Willie Nelson couldn’t sing “whiskey for my men and beer for my horses,” a song about hanging people who commit crimes.  How did you feel about the pope’s latest letter on the environment and climate change?  Maybe Al Gore will become Catholic now.  How about missing Sunday Mass being a mortal sin?  How about the teaching on hell, and that Jesus says a lot of people are going to end up there?  Not you and I, of course, because hell is for other people.  How do you feel about purgatory, and that most people will go there after they die, and not straight to heaven?  When was the last time you went to confession?  That’s always a crowd favorite.  Don’t worry, folks, I struggle with all these things, too.  In other words, Jesus could look at each one of us, and be amazed at our lack of faith, not just those who want gay marriage.  Good Catholics know our faith is not perfect, so we repeat with that father in Mark 9:24, who wanted Jesus to heal his son, saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”  Only if we stay in the Church will Jesus be able to “help our unbelief.”

            A friend of mine wanted to join a very strict religious order called the Carthusians.  They have a rule of life that has not changed in a thousand years.  When someone new joins the order and wants to change the rule to modernize it, they are told: “We do not change the rule, the rule changes us.”  That’s the way a good Catholic looks at Church teaching: we do not change Church teaching, Church teaching changes us.  And it has to change all of us, even poor Otis.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!