July, 2012
Fr. Anthony Brankin
(Full sermon text) Our God is a God of order. And basically that means that there is an order to the universe—an order by which we even organize our lives.
And we put our lives in order either instinctively or by means of the revealed teachings of the Church. And if those lives are not lived in this order, by not living with God, then we will suffer and suffer the consequences—and that usually means death.
Now, where does this order come from? It comes from the very nature of God who speaks a Word into the void from His own Being—reflecting His own Being—and He brings the Universe into Being. The first words in the Gospel of St. John are: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That Word is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, through Whom the world came into being.
The whole Universe is patterned after God. And in this sense—there is a way that the Universe exists and a way that we must be in the Universe. The Universe cannot be other than it is. (People often think that the more science discovers about the Universe, the less do we believe about God. But it is quite the contrary. The Universe—as we learn more of its laws and complexity and the way it goes on and on and deeper and deeper—the more do we find God—the more do we discern His Hand of Creation—His constant Presence.) The Universe and everything in it is good and it will be always be good because it springs from the good being of God.
Things are not good because God declares them to be good—as the Muslims would say, but because they correspond to the very being of God Himself.
Worldly beauty corresponds to the beauty of God
For example, when we see something beautiful we are delighted because it corresponds to the beauty of God and helps us understand our world and Him who made it. When we experience something that is happy, we are glad because we know that is good for us and will help us fulfill our lives. When we experience love and loyalty, faithfulness and permanence in our homes between fathers and mothers—it helps us to understand life and know how precious it is.
When our world and our life is like God, then that life is happy and whole and full of life, and even holy. We know this by instinct and by revealed teaching and by experience.
Everything reflects the being and order of God—our lives, our bodies, our cells, our families—our relationships. Our life and way of life is like God and is therefore lovely and lively or it is without God and is disastrous and deadly.
Tears mean God has been rejected
Wherever there are tears and hardship and heartache—where there is violence and crime, poverty and hunger or even sickness—where there is disloyalty and betrayal and selfishness and the pursuit of luxury, it is precisely because there is no God and no order. Where our life is off—or skewed—or broken—it is because it is outside the order and being of God.
We all saw about two weeks ago—in Chicago—in one weekend there were twenty-two people wounded and nine killed and two days later twelve more people were wounded—all in assaults and gun battles and stabbings—45 people being shot or stabbed with around ten of them dying from their wounds.
And then—almost as if to crown the summer’s violence, we read the last few days of the young scientist in Colorado who came into a theater dressed in riot gear and assault weapons and killed or wounded almost a hundred people.
Our common culture of no-God
These examples of gang-banger violence and mass murder in Colorado are not unrelated. They really aren’t. Because they spring from the same deadly source that touches all of us and influences all of us—some more than others. And that of course is our common culture of no-god. Now when I say culture I mean that which our lives revolve around.
That with which we are concerned and busy. That which interests us and drives us and about which we think and move and have our being.
And if our culture (what we are interested in) does not contain God in any meaningful way, and falls down in worship before that which is twisted, perverse, deadly, dark and evil, then there will be some among us who will act out that culture. To the degree that our lives are ungodly—then to that degree those lives will be disordered, broken and hurtful.
We can see that our modern western democratic secular culture has spent years—decades—maybe even centuries creating a way of life that does not involve God or God’s laws. And we are proud of it. We are Americans, and we are proud not to let religion have a say in how we do things. We make every effort to separate faith from policy—religion from the country—we celebrate this Great Divorce as the very thing which makes us so wonderful and exceptional.
Separation of public life from God
We have separated our public and political and artistic lives from God—and we have therefore created a climate and culture where God is not present. Thus neither does His order prevail.
Is it any wonder that it all continues to collapse around us? Our families, our churches, our neighborhoods. If there is no God—if He does not count—if He means nothing to the way we live our lives—then there is no Order; and life becomes so cheap (because there is nothing to give it value) that you simply eliminate it when it causes you inconvenience. Without regret, without guilt, whoever is in your way can be swatted down.
If some life in your life is an inconvenience to you—then throw it under the bus! Kick it to the curb! Your wife? Your babies? Your kids? Take em out. Go ahead, get rid of them! Is that not the lesson taught by every pro-abortion politician? That life is disposable. Don’t let your dreams of fun be ruined by having a baby.
Is that not the lesson taught by every no-fault divorce lawyer—that there is no such thing as loyalty and love—so get rid of her! Is that not the lesson taught by every merchant who sells Gameboy and Play Station?—that life is a cypher on a screen and killing is fun and heroic.
No God, no order
If there is no God then there is no order and life is fragile and disposable; and we will have nothing to show for our lives but the pop-pop of another person being killed and the dull thud when he falls to the ground.
Okay. So what do we do? We live here in this godless culture—we didn’t ask for all this murder and mayhem but we’ve got it. So what do we do? Well first of all we cannot cooperate with it any longer. We cannot live life like the rest of them anymore. We have to be different—and our lives have to be different—significantly different.
We cannot say to our children—or grandchildren—well, it is ok not to go to Mass. We cannot say: well maybe we don’t have to eat supper together tonight. We cannot say—well just a little screen violence is allowed. We cannot say—well a little texting at supper is ok. We cannot be part of this disordered culture.
If we cannot change it—(and I really don’t think we can—I think it is too far gone), we are going to have to isolate ourselves and protect ourselves from it—by praying—by going to Mass constantly—by assiduously refusing to get involved in its music and media and TV and cinema. We need to pull out of all the silly social communications, Facebook and twitter where we have thousands of anonymous friends to whom we communicate nothing of any substance. We must toss away the devices and IPODS and PADS or whatever.
We cannot be complicit
We can no longer be complicit in the attitudes and behavior of a culture that has no God—for it has no order and it will spread its disorder into all our hearts and its fog into all our minds. And all that culture can do is kill.
In the wake of all the violence this summer—we must understand that our God is a good God who creates order in our lives and therefore happiness and fulfillment. And anything less than God—is well…deadly.