Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

How do you respond when someone asks you an awkward question about your

faith? Do you get annoyed? Side-step the question? Come up with a witty

response? Or maybe use it as a good teaching moment, as a “hook” to draw

them in and get to know the Catholic faith better? Archbishop Fulton Sheen

once famously said:

“There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the

Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly

believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different

thing.”

So it does pay to both know your faith and be skilled in defending it – maybe

then it might be possible to win people over.

In the first reading, some people arrive, teaching that, in order to get to heaven,

you have to follow not only all Jesus said, but also be a good Jew and follow all

the Jewish practices as well. Clearly, these people are quite opinionated, as

“Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them” and it

seems they didn’t get very far with them, so they decide to go to Jerusalem and

take the matter to a higher authority. It’s reassuring, isn’t it, to know that we

aren’t the only ones who sometimes fail to convince others when it comes to

the Catholic faith – Paul and Barnabas had the same problem.

Back in their day, they couldn’t go to a suitable reference text, such as The

Catechism of the Catholic Church. Besides, it still happens today, that new

issues are brought up that haven’t been covered or fully covered before by the

Church. One example in more recent times is the whole trans issue, but the

Church roughly a year ago issued a document, Dignitas Infinita, reaffirming

human dignity and saying we should support and help people, but not

encourage some of the extreme solutions and ideology around this issue.

So in the first reading, the Apostles and elders meet in Jerusalem, discuss and

pray about the issue with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and then send back

their message to the whole Church as to what has to happen next.

Later on in the Acts of the Apostles, it says that the message is received with

joy. But we can see from St Paul’s other letters that there were those who still

insisted on all Christians having to follow Jewish practices, despite what the

Church had said. The rest, as they say, is history, but we can also see how the

Church’s understanding of these matters developed. The challenge to Church

teaching led to a deeper understanding of how the Christian faith works and the

role of the Jews in all of that.

In our own personal lives, we can find something similar happen when people

ask us questions, or try to catch us out. It can mean that we have to do our

research, learn more about our faith, and find out exactly what it says and what

it doesn’t say. On one of my parish placements I remember speaking to

someone at a parish social event. He said to me that his questions might

challenge my faith, but I put him to the test. In fact I actually agreed with most

of what he said, because it didn’t conflict with the Catholic faith. One example

he gave was that he thought that many Anglican churches in this country look a

lot more like churches than many Catholic churches. That’s a fair point.

Whilst we do have some churches that look like real gems, there are others that

are a bit dull and uninspiring. I often say to people about this church that when

it was built, architects had overcome the mistakes of the sixties and seventies,

so rather than getting a square box made from concrete, we have a church

tastefully done in brick, wood and stone. The Catholic church this person was

referring to was one that had been built in the 1960s.

So what happened following this conversation? After I finished the placement,

I was told the person became a Catholic. Now it might be that he kept some of

his bigger reservations to discuss with the Parish Priest, but at least I got the

process going.

So if people do ask you awkward questions about your faith that you can’t

answer, I’m here to help. I can’t guarantee to provide a solution to every

situation, but I do have other people whom I can ask as well.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk