CONSEQUENCES:
NOVEMBER 9TH
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Consequences: November 9th.”
I am planning on talking about 3 things that happened on
November 9th.:
·
November 9th, 324;
·
November 9th, 1732;
·
November 9th, 1989.
I will be giving some history. Relax it’s only 5 pages –
14 pica – Arial font – and you can watch me as I turn my pages.
CONSEQUENCES
Notice the first word in my title, “consequences” – the word
just before the words November 9th.
There are consequences! That’s one of life’s biggest
lessons.
This day – November 9th, 2014 – things are
going to happen that will change lives. People will be conceived, born, say
something, do something, die, and lives will be changed.
Working with our high school kids from time to time – I
notice in articles about teenagers – that the frontal part of their brains – isn’t
completely formed yet – and as a result – they often don’t get the reality of
consequences.
NOVEMBER 9, 324
This day – November 9, 324 – the church of Christ our Savior
was dedicated in Rome by Pope Saint Silvester [314-335]. It was the pope’s church – his residence – his
headquarters in Rome – and to this day on paper it’s considered more important
than St. Peter’s which didn’t come till 1626. In reality when people think Rome
and the pope, they think St. Peter’s not this church of Christ our Savior or
St. John Lateran’s.
This Church we’re celebrating today has a long history. In
313 Constantine had given a palace – the Laterini Palace to his predecessor –
Pope Melchiades [3111-314]. It was Constantine’s wife’s palace – I hope she
didn’t mind. This was to be the place called St. John Lateran.
Just before this time Constantine and his co-emperor in Constantinople
had given the church the freedom to come up out from the underground and to
exist freely and publically.
Consequences…. One reality ends and another reality
begins. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another thing. The Church had to deal with
problems from without – now they had to deal with problems from within.
In Northern Africa there were a group of Christians that
ended up being called the Donatists – after a guy name Donatus. They were the
rigorists. The Church had to struggle openly about the issue of priests,
bishops and Christians who renounced their faith in the Diocletian persecution
of the church right before Constantine. One had to give up one’s prayer books
and make an oath to pagan gods – otherwise you’re a dead man – as Judge
Chamberlain Haller says to Vinny in the movie, My Cousin Vinny.
Then when the church come up from the underground – what
about those priests, bishops and regular Christians who wanted to come back?
Constantine “called a special council of some 130 bishops in Arles in August 314 to
hear another appeal from the Donatists, who were contesting the consecration of
Caecilian as bishop of Carthage” on this very issue. [Cf. page 57 in Lives of the Popes, by Richard P. McBrien.
Regular meetings were held at the pope’s house – the former
Laterini palace on these kinds of issues.
The Donatists said that Masses said by these priests and bishops where
not true masses. Rome said, “Forgiveness is called for.” The forgiveness was a long term forgiveness
process – but many came back to the church. Priests and bishops functioned once
again – without having to be re-ordained.
The Donatists lasted in those parts of North Africa to
the arrival of Islam.
So what else is new? I assume that the Church – and most
religions will have the purists and those who allow flaws – those who are
strict and severe and those who are more relaxed and “liberal”.
The church just met in Rome – in a Synod on the Family.
Using broad strokes, the same basic issues are going on in our Church.
As I see it – and for the sake of transparency – this is
my opinion – I assume that there are many on the other side of the spectrum. I
assume that this issue will always be around in religious and life circles.
It seems to me that Pope Francis and others want to reach
out with mercy and not rigorism – to all those folks who have left our church –
and went underground because of broken marriages, birth control, this and that.
I don’t know this for a fact, but I had read several articles about the last
pope which said that he wanted a stricter – more lean – I won’t add mean - Catholic
church – where everyone is much more serious about our faith.
There are consequences for both positions. Some folks are
like the forgiving father in the Prodigal Son story; some folks are like the
older brother in the Prodigal Son story – who won’t go in and have communion at
the banquet of the Prodigal Son who went underground – to the pigs for a while.
Either way there are consequences.
NOVEMBER 9,
1732
Let me move on now to a second November 9th happening.
A lawyer named Alphonsus de Ligouri in Naples Italy met
in a place called Scala, Italy, up in the hills just above Amalfi this day –
November 9, 1732.
He had been a lawyer in Naples. Then he quit being a lawyer
– perhaps because he lost a case involving a land deal. He either made a
mistake – or more likely, there was a bribe in favor of the other side. He quit
– hit the pits – and then decided to become a priest. He did. Then as priest he
worked his butt off – got sick – was told to go down the Amalfi Coast for rest
and recovery. If you’ve ever been there – you’d say: “Good move.”
While there - someone told him there were a lot of goat
herders and migrants up in the hills that no priests cared about. There were lots and lots of
priests enjoying a comfortable life for themselves in the big city of Naples.
Alphonsus goes up into the hills and finds them – along with lots of people in
small places in the hills that nobody cared about.
When he gets home – after his recovery he gets together
with some priest friends and decides to form a new congregation of priests and
brothers to serve the neglected.
They met at Scala, Italy, November 9, 1732. Since it was
the feast we’re celebrating today – the dedication of the church of Our Savior
in Rome – they decided on calling this new group: The Congregation of Christ
our Savior.
We Redemptorists started that day. Today is our birthday.
It took years and lots of effort to get approved as a new
congregation in the Church. In 1749,
when were finally approved, they had found out there already was a congregation
by that name – so they switched our name to Christ the Redeemer.
We Redemptorists celebrate our foundation day today –
November 9th.
NOVEMBER 9,
1989
My third and last November 9th is November 9th,
1989.
This day in 1989 – the Berlin wall opened up and then came
down.
All kinds of decisions brought about the wall going up in
the first place in the 1960’s and then the opening up and tearing down in 1989.
Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Moscow made some openings – in atmosphere
and outlook from Soviet Union.
When this so called, “Glastnost” blew into East German, the hardliners there didn’t know what to do. The
people did. They got a breath of fresh
air and started marching and protesting. A series of mistakes and statements were
made by the East German dictators and more fresh air seemed to appear. Someone
announced that travel restrictions to the west would be lessened.
There was an article in The New York Times on Thursday by a historian, Mary Elise Sarotte, entitled
“How The Fall of the Berlin Wall Really Happened.” It talks about what happened
that evening – November 9th, 1989. Listen to this one short excerpt:
“When
one of the regime’s most loyal subordinates, a Stasi officer named Harald Jäger
who was working the Nov. 9 night shift at a crucial checkpoint in the Berlin
Wall, repeatedly phoned his superiors with accurate reports of swelling crowds,
they did not trust or believe him. They called him a delusional coward.
Insulted, furious and frightened, he decided to let the crowds out, starting a
chain reaction that swept across all of the checkpoints that night.”
That was key. The gate was opened. The wall came down.
Check Google for all this – as well as the papers today. There should be a lot
about this 25th Anniversary of the coming down of the Berlin Wall.
CONCLUSION
The title of my homily is, Consequences, November 9th.”
Today – November 9th, things will happen that we don’t
know about now till next year or 25 years from now.
My prayer is twofold – that we keep on putting walls up – walls that form homes
and churches, hospitals and shelters – and walls come down – in families – in
churches – in religions – and all discover we’re all one family, one body –
created in the image and likeness of God.