28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Matt. 22:1-14 The man without a wedding garment
Full homily text: Imagine, if you will, you are living in a Little sea coast village off the west coast of Greece—about five hundred years ago. And it is the early, early morning of October 7th. You get up early to see what you can see. You had heard it was going to happen, but you really didn’t know when and you had no idea what it was going to look like—but you look out the window at the bay and in the mist and early morning fog—you can just about make it out.
Are you attracted to a life of prayer and contemplation? The words Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere – “to contemplate and to share with other the fruits of the contemplation” – is the motto of the Dominican Order. Take the 7 Quick Questions survey of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and find out whether you might have a calling as a Dominican Sister.
There they are—hundreds and hundreds of galley ships. These are the Muslim Turks coming from the south and they are loaded down with tens of thousands of sailors and soldiers and tens of thousands of slaves to pull the oars.
Europe will be theirs
On those boats you can hear the braying and neighing—horses and camels and mules! Oh my God! They have even brought their cavalry! Oh, yes, these Turks have to come to play. They intend to take over the Mediterranean: Italy, Spain, eventually Germany, and why not France and Poland? Once they pierce the soft underbelly of Europe—right here in the Bay of Lepanto—between Greece and Italy—Europe and all its people and all its history and all its riches will be theirs. Europe will finally be Turkish and Muslim, and Christian civilization will have died once and for all.
The Turks figure this will be easy pickens. They are sure that the Catholic countries and Catholic Princes don’t have enough gumption or guts to take them on. They certainly don’t count on Catholics uniting in prayer or under arms with the Pope to defend what is left of Catholic life in Europe. These Catholics are soft and lazy and don’t believe in much anymore. So the fighting ought to be quick.
The Pope, of course, knew that this invasion was coming and he begged the last of the good Catholic Kings to mount a defense at Lepanto. But the Pope also asked all the Catholic people to pray the Rosary as never before and to ask Our Lady, the Virgin, to protect them and grant them victory. And so there they all were that fateful morning in Lepanto. At the end of it all we would be Muslims or Christians—but this was the moment.
Turkish ships sinking
Did you know that the first Catholic ship had a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe pinned to its main mast? It was obvious that Catholic hopes were pinned to The Virgin Mary. It took five hours of fighting—a morning of unbelievable noise and confusion and carnage—canon and artillery blasting away—ship against ship—oars against oars—grappling hooks being hurled and pulling hapless boats to their doom— sailors and marines in hand to hand combat. But behind the walls of smoke, hundred of Turkish ships were sinking and filling the Bay with their dead horses, camels and drowning riders.
Catholic life was saved that day. The Pope who had been standing at his window looking out across Rome to Greece, declared that victory really belonged to Our Lady, the Virgin Mary. It was her Rosary that saved the Catholics against overwhelming odds—one more time.
That is why we have that statue over there—because October is the month of the Holy Rosary and last week on October 7th, we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary—which was originally called Our Lady of Victory. And it was called Our Lady of Victory because we won that day. And because we won we are not Muslims today.
Muslims not real enemy
But that was five hundred years ago and we face a far deadlier enemy today than the Muslims of the Sultan of Turkey— (even though the politicians will try to convince us otherwise). The real enemy that we are up against in the Twenty-First Century is called “secularism”.
Secularism is an attitude, a way of life, a way of politics that is the worst enemy we have ever faced because it is the understanding that God does not matter to our lives or to our world. Secularism teaches subtly and thoroughly that God is irrelevant to the way we live or love or conduct our lives.
Secularism means that we live our lives and go about our days and make all of our policies and plans and decisions— particularly the public ones (the ones the politicians like to make) as if God did not exist. In America we call it separation of Church and State. All that really means is that God does not matter and He is not included in our decision making.
The God of the grandpas
We go through our days and nights with never a thought or consideration of God and whether or not this action or policy is good and godly or godless and immoral. And we blithely go along with it all: The media say its ok—the politicians say its ok—so we say it is ok. So what if the church and the pope and the Bishops say this or that is wrong. My party— my president—my alderman says it is fine. And that is secularism in a nutshell.
We create a world where God is not in charge. Therefore only the smartest or richest or most powerful or most evil rule us. Secularism means not so much that there will be no God above us—but that the worst among us will become our gods. And we will become their slaves. In a secular society—even if individual people believe in God—belief doesn’t matter because more and more, God means less and less. He can be the God of the Grandmas and Grandpas—the God of the Bushas and Abuelitos. But He will be powerless over us because what we want is all that counts.
For the first time in the history of the human race we—and by “we” I mean America and its cultural cousins in Europe and even Asia—are developing a culture that has no gods—no belief in anything or anyone above us. This is secularism.
As long as it’s legal
Without God to help us understand right from wrong—we think we can do anything we want—as a country—as a people, and as long as we have declared it is legal—we can do it.
Is it any wonder that we think we can invade any country we want— or force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or sterilizations? Or make Catholic orphanages give over their children to homosexual couples? And they tell us that we have to obey because that is now the Law of the Land. Well who made it the Law of the Land? The moral pygmies who want us to think that they are God? The same crowd who tell our young people that they don’t have to get married or if they are married don’t have to stay that way? The secularists? The ones who don’t care whether or not God exists? They say its ok? And so we have to follow?
Have the secularists ever created anything beautiful or happy? Have they ever fostered anything but greed and ugliness, war and terror? What have the secularists done to promote strong families and noble parents and lovely children? Not a thing. All they have given us is a media culture that gives us countless opportunities to spend our money on cheap Chinese junk so that they can get rich. That is a secular society for you.
Happy children
And so different from a Catholic society—a Catholic way of life. A Catholic life is a good life and a happy life and creates beauty and salvation wherever it is lived. Because in a Catholic world—we have our hearts focused on the next life—and therefore this life is lived meaningfully and purposefully and beautifully.
Who does not yearn for the day when we can look out the windows of our little Catholic cottage and see happy innocent children playing their games and praying their prayers and not worrying about cutting themselves or when they can get their first tattoos—and see them under the protection of the True God who smiles on them as they sing Catholic songs in time to the rising and the setting of the sun. That’s Catholic civilization! And it still exists in some parts of the world—in pockets in Old Catholic Europe—here and there in Poland, Ireland Italy.
Rosary is a key
Did you know that still in some places like the Philippines—most of Mexico and in many countries of South America—they are still so human and so Catholic that abortion is still against the law? So how do we save what is left of Catholic Life? Well maybe we take a hint from the Pope five hundred years ago—and start praying the Rosary again—but as never before. Bead by bead, Hail Mary by Hail Mary—mystery by mystery. If we want to save Catholic life we must begin by living it—in our hearts and in our homes. And the rosary may just be the key.
The rosary certainly saved a whole continent from the Muslims! Maybe the Rosary can save us from secularism!—It is certainly worth a try!