Fidei Catholicae

We are Going the Way of Sodom and Gomorrah

In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord says to us that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head; and that was in response to someone who said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Today, more than ever, we can say the same thing: The Son of Man – the Roman Catholic Church – has nowhere to lay its head. When we look at what is going on in our world today and couple that with the first reading which we just heard, we realize that what is happening is to be a true follower of Jesus Christ is becoming more and more politically incorrect.

We have the Supreme Court of Canada a week ago telling us that it is now permissible for homosexuals to get married. And then we have the United States Supreme Court just a couple of days ago saying that it is perfectly permissible for people to sodomize one another. This is precisely why the town of Sodom was destroyed. Those who want to practice this unfortunate sort of thing have tried to suggest that Sodom was not destroyed because of its debased way of life, but rather because of a lack of hospitality, that they were not hospitable when the visitors came and that is why the Lord destroyed them. It is made very clear earlier on that that is not the case. If you want to see it completely clearly, if there is any doubt, read the Letter of Jude in the New Testament. It is made very clear why Sodom was destroyed.

We need to recognize that if we are going to be followers of Christ we have to stand for the truth. Now the Church makes a clear distinction that we must uphold. There is a difference between a homosexual orientation and a homosexual act. The orientation is that someone may be attracted to persons of their same sex. This is an objective disorder, but it is not a sin. We need to be very clear about that. To say it is an objective disorder means something is not right. God obviously made us to be attracted to persons of the opposite sex. That is quite evident if one just simply looks at all the various elements of the human person. To be attracted to someone of one’s own sex just does not make sense, and so it is a disorder. There is something that is out of order if that is the case. But it is not a sin, just simply something disordered. If we think about it on the physical level, those of us, for instance, who wear glasses have an objective physical disorder. The eyes do not work the way they are supposed to. There is nothing sinful about it, but it is an objective disorder. One could look at any of the other things. If you have a leg that is an inch shorter than the other, if you are color blind, if there is any kind of physical disorder, it is simply not the way it is supposed to be. This is an objective moral disorder. It is not the way it is supposed to be.

It becomes immoral when one acts upon this disorder. And so one of the problems is that we have lots of people saying today, “Because I have this attraction to someone of the same sex, I have a right to act upon it.” No one has such a right. That would be just as if someone who were heterosexual were to say, “Because I am attracted to persons of the opposite sex, I have a right to act upon it with anyone, anytime.” No, you do not. Sexuality is something that is reserved for two persons within marriage. Because the two purposes of marriage are union and procreation and because two persons of the same sex cannot procreate, they cannot be married. It does not matter what the Supreme Court says in Canada, or as Justice Scalia made very clear, it is just one step away in the United States. And if anyone thinks that this particular decision that our Supreme Court made last week is somehow separate from homosexual marriage, you have got another thing coming – because that will be their next attempt.

We are going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. Tomorrow’s reading will tell us all about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and perhaps the fact that the last fully approved apparition of Our Lady told us that things are going to happen by fire falling from the sky and destroying the greater part of humanity. Considering that a number of European nations have already allowed homosexuality, Canada has, America is doing so, maybe this is why fire is going to fall from the sky. It happened once because of this, perhaps this is the reason it will happen again; we do not know that. But what we do know is that we must stand firmly for the truth. It has become a politically correct sort of thing to accept homosexual behavior. I am told that you can hardly turn on any kind of sitcom now on primetime TV because that is all you see. It is one homosexual thing after the next. What is happening is that people’s minds are being twisted. The media is doing exactly what they want and they are deforming the consciences of the people of America to make us try to accept things that are intrinsically evil.

As Catholics, we must stand up for the truth. It is wrong to kill babies; it wrong to act on homosexual desires; it wrong to commit adultery – all of these things that the Church has always taught and will teach until the end. But we begin to see very clearly what Our Lord said. We need to look at Him now and ask, “Do I really want to follow Christ? Because if I do, there will be no place to lay my head, there will be no place where I am going to be accepted if I am going to be a true Catholic.” Praise God! It is about time, but that is not a politically easy thing to do. We need to throw away political correctness and we need to stand for the truth. That is the choice we have to make. Do we want to go with the tide of America and other countries? Or do we want to stand with Jesus Christ? We know that if we are going to stand with Christ we are going to stand apart, but that is what it means to be consecrated. Each one of us has already been consecrated in Baptism, and we have been consecrated for the truth. Now we have a choice to make. Are we going to stand for that truth? Are we going to live the truth? Are we going to be willing to be ostracized for that truth? Jesus Christ was, and He made very clear what the conditions of following Him would be: We will have no place to lay our head. That is where the Catholic Church stands right now and that is a great gift from God. Now we need to make the choice. Are we going to remain faithful or are we going to waffle? Are we going to follow Jesus Christ and be set apart from the ways of this world?

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier, Monday June 30, 2003, Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Reading (Genesis 18:16-33) Gospel (St. Matthew 8:18-22).

Why Does God Allow Evil? The Answer is on the Cross

In the first reading today, we hear something that is very difficult for some people to hear. The Lord says, I make well-being and create woe. Most of us, when we think about what the Lord does, say, “Well, God is not going to do anything that’s bad,” and that is true. But then why would He create woe? It is because the reason God will do anything is for the good. And so everything that happens is part of God’s providence.

Now it is not that God wants certain things to happen. Obviously, He does not want us to be killing 4,000 babies a day – He does not want us to be killing any babies ever – yet at the same time He certainly is allowing these things to happen. When there are things in our lives that are not good that take place, we have to understand it is part of God’s providence for us. If somebody does not like us, if something very unfortunate occurs, that is part of God’s Will and providence in our lives. That does not necessarily imply that God wanted the other person to do something to us, especially when it is something sinful, yet God, knowing the free will of the other person, allows these things to happen. It is in fact His Will for us that these things occur. The reason for that is because it is something we need in order to grow in virtue.

This, again, is difficult for people to understand. But the reality, and we all know from our own experience, is that the only way we are going to grow is when we have to deal with difficult things. How are you going to grow in patience unless there is somebody who makes you impatient? How are you going to grow in meekness unless there is somebody who makes you angry? How are you going to grow in charity unless there is somebody whom you would rather be uncharitable toward and you have to practice the charity? On and on the list could go of all the different things.

We even see in the Gospel reading that Our Lord is telling Saint John the Baptist’s disciples, The blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, lepers are cleansed, and so on. Those people could not have been healed unless they already had the ailment. It is just like the blind man about whom the apostles asked, “Whose fault is it that this man is blind? Is it his parents’ or his own?” And the Lord said, It is for the glory of God. That is the understanding we need when things happen in our lives: It is for the glory of God.

Now sometimes the things that occur we can look at and say, “Well, it’s my own fault that it happened. If I hadn’t done this or that or the other thing, these things wouldn’t have occurred.” The reality is that they are occurring and God is allowing them. He will bring about a good from them and all of it is part of His providence. This is something that is difficult for us to accept. It is hard to grapple with in our own lives, and yet it is a reality that all of us have to deal with. Absolutely nothing occurs in this world and absolutely nothing occurs in our own individual lives without God willing it. So as we struggle through the difficulties and problems in our lives, what we have to try to do is bring these things back to prayer and we have to ask the question, “Why are You allowing it? What is the purpose?” It is there in order to bring about a good. The thing that we always have to try to discern is what the good is. Sometimes we are not going to understand it until even years after the thing is over, when we can look back at it and begin to understand why the Lord was allowing it. But everything that happens is part of God’s providence.

And so, again, it is something we have to individually try to struggle with. Why does God allow Satan even to exist, let alone to give us trouble? Why does God allow us to sin? Why does God allow painful and even bad things to happen in people’s lives? This is a mystery, and a very difficult mystery for us to deal with; yet, in all of our lives it is a reality. But if we can begin to understand that He is allowing this so we can become saints, that often times as we grow in holiness it is the very worst thing we have ever done that often times becomes the greatest means for humility and for fidelity to God, that when we realize just how awful we can be, it is that which actually helps us to get on track and to stay there because we know what we are capable of. When we see how God brings good out of all the evil that we ourselves give into, it is then that we can understand how He allows these things; not because He wants them, but because these are the means by which we will become saints. They actually become the means by which we can serve Him better when we repent of what we have done or when we accept the evil that falls upon us. It is in accepting those things that we are able to serve Him better, with greater virtue and with greater holiness.

When we see the injustice and the evil, and we wonder why, all we need to do is look at the Cross. Look at, from a human perspective, the greatest injustice and the greatest evil ever done; and yet, from God’s perspective, see the greatest act of love, the greatest act of justice, the greatest act of good that has ever been performed for humanity. And when we wonder why, the answer is on the Cross.

Homily by Fr. Robert Altier, Wednesday December 15, 2004, Third Week of Advent, Reading (Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25), Gospel (St. Luke 7:18b-23).