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Staring Into the Abyss Homily by Fr. Ed Meeks 2020-10-11

Peter Athanasius
Peter Athanasius - 1,808 Views
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Published on 14 Oct 2020 / In News and Politics

Fr. Ed Meeks Homily - 10-11-20

A must-see homily by Homily from Fr. Edward Meeks delivered at Christ the King parish in Towson, MD on 10/11/2020. This is the homily that should be preached from every pulpit in America.

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Peter Athanasius
Peter Athanasius 3 years ago  

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT:

00:02 i mentioned to you for the past two
00:04 sundays that i'm going to be speaking
00:05 today on
00:06 the november 3rd election and i want to
00:09 give you a little heads up as i begin i
00:11 will be going a little bit long this
00:13 morning because i have a lot of ground
00:14 to cover
00:16 this will be for me personally the 14th
00:19 presidential election i will have voted
00:21 in
00:21 since reaching the age of majority
00:25 and this one is unlike anything i have
00:28 ever seen
00:30 i actually said the same thing about the
00:32 last election in
00:34 2016 but the events of the last
00:38 four years and in fact of the past six
00:40 or seven months
00:42 have cast this upcoming election in a
00:44 whole
00:45 new and ever more dire light
00:50 i believe that at this moment in time in
00:53 history
00:54 you and i find ourselves as part of a
00:57 society
00:59 that is staring into the abyss
01:03 and that how our nation votes on
01:05 november the third will determine
01:08 whether we collectively step off the
01:10 cliff into that abyss
01:13 or step back from it if only
01:16 temporarily now let me preface my
01:20 remarks by saying
01:21 that it is not my place to tell you
01:25 how you must vote we do after all still
01:29 live
01:29 in a free country with free elections at
01:32 least for the time being
01:34 but it is my place as your priest and
01:37 pastor
01:39 to help you see how your vote may or may
01:41 not
01:42 line up with the teachings of the church
01:45 so i will tell you emphatically that
01:48 what i'm about to say to you
01:49 should not be taken as an implicit
01:52 endorsement of any candidate by christ
01:55 the king church
01:56 or by the personal ordinariate of the
01:58 chair of saint peter
02:00 i'm taking this opportunity to speak to
02:03 you personally
02:05 to share with you my own personal
02:08 opinion
02:09 but it's an opinion both formed and
02:12 informed by
02:13 the word of god and by the crystal clear
02:16 teaching of the church
02:18 for the purpose of helping you think
02:20 through the choices
02:22 because again there are certain
02:24 realities about the candidates and their
02:26 parties
02:28 that directly impact our catholic faith
02:32 and so we must be aware of these
02:34 realities before we cast our vote
02:38 and my first allegiance is not to any
02:42 political candidate or party
02:45 but to the truth of god and his church
02:49 so what i'm going to say is not
02:51 politically motivated
02:54 because the stakes involved far
02:56 transcend
02:57 politics but what i'm going to say i
03:01 believe
03:01 has to be said now let me begin by
03:05 telling you that i have
03:07 struggled mightily with this message
03:11 not because i'm afraid of the truth i
03:13 think you know me better than that
03:17 to the contrary the truth is what
03:19 motivates me every day of my life
03:22 i resonate completely with saint paul
03:26 who said woe is me if i do not
03:29 preach the truth of the gospel
03:32 frankly if i were not sold out to the
03:35 truth
03:36 i wouldn't even be standing in front of
03:38 you today because i would not be a
03:39 catholic priest
03:42 no the reason for my struggle has to do
03:44 with the vitriol
03:46 and with the vicious animosity that are
03:48 evident in our society today
03:52 animosity that has played out tens of
03:54 millions of times
03:56 daily on social media
04:00 and in the violence that has overtaken
04:02 so many of america's cities
04:04 and was even on full display in the
04:07 recent presidential debate
04:10 brothers and sisters we live in a nation
04:13 that is sadly
04:14 tragically divided
04:18 a nation at odds with itself
04:22 jesus words in the gospel of this past
04:25 friday were never
04:26 more true a house divided against
04:30 itself cannot stand
04:34 i grieve for what has become of america
04:39 and so the last thing i want to do is to
04:42 have this message contribute to that
04:44 division in our country and least of all
04:46 to have it cause division in our parish
04:51 you and i are children of the same
04:54 heavenly father you and i are servants
04:58 of the same
04:59 lord and master we are first
05:04 christians catholics
05:07 we are second americans
05:11 and then somewhere down the line from
05:12 there we are republicans or democrats or
05:15 independents
05:16 or whatever never forget that order
05:21 and so it has almost become a cliche to
05:23 declare that we have
05:24 reached a tipping point in our nation
05:26 but it is also
05:28 true and it is time for faithful
05:30 catholics and other christians
05:32 to stand up courageously and
05:34 forthrightly
05:35 to confront the evil that has overtaken
05:37 our culture and say
05:39 enough is enough
05:43 because whether you are aware of it or
05:45 not
05:47 there are powerful forces in government
05:50 at every level
05:52 as well as in the mainstream media
05:55 and in the silicon valley technocracy
05:59 that are working aggressively to silence
06:01 the church
06:03 through legislation lies
06:06 intimidation and censorship
06:11 so for us faithful catholics the
06:14 starting point of our choice of whom to
06:16 vote for
06:17 needs to be that we intentionally
06:20 think with the church think
06:24 with the church something that too many
06:27 catholics have failed to do for far
06:28 too long a fact that has largely
06:31 contributed
06:32 to the dire condition of our culture
06:34 today
06:36 the church has clearly and consistently
06:38 based her teaching on the sacred
06:40 scriptures
06:41 and on the living tradition embodied in
06:43 2000 years of her magisterium
06:47 that teaching has led to an array of
06:49 foundational principles
06:51 when it comes to us as catholics and our
06:54 moral and civic
06:55 responsibilities
06:59 it's not always easy to sift through the
07:01 myriad of
07:02 issues at play in presidential politics
07:06 so it becomes crucial then that we
07:09 properly
07:10 prioritize those issues
07:13 because some are more clearly more
07:15 important than others
07:18 we can respectfully disagree
07:21 and we can have differences of
07:23 prudential judgment
07:25 and opinion around issues like
07:28 the economy taxation immigration
07:32 national defense trade health care
07:35 climate change and so on
07:38 but don't get sidetracked by the
07:42 spurious
07:43 seamless garment theory espoused by many
07:46 in the church
07:48 that asserts that issues like
07:49 immigration and the environment
07:51 are of equal weight with abortion
07:56 because there is a set of issues upon
07:59 which catholics
08:00 must not disagree
08:04 pope benedict xvi specified those issues
08:07 in his 2012 apostolic constitution
08:11 entitled sacramentum caritatis
08:15 in which benedict defined what he called
08:17 our non-negotiable values
08:20 a concept which he repeated countless
08:22 times
08:23 during his pontificate
08:26 among the list of non-negotiable values
08:29 which he identified
08:31 chief among them are the sanctity of
08:33 life
08:35 from conception to natural death
08:38 the sanctity of marriage as a lifelong
08:42 sacramental union of a man and a woman
08:45 and the preservation of religious
08:47 liberty
08:49 they are non-negotiable because they are
08:51 of paramount importance
08:52 in catholic moral theology they are the
08:55 moral principles where the church
08:57 draws a clear line in the sand
09:02 in all of the fog and the confusion and
09:05 spin that surrounds every political
09:07 season we
09:08 must as faithful catholics
09:11 conscientiously vote in such a way that
09:14 best upholds and protects these
09:17 non-negotiable values again
09:21 the sanctity of life the sanctity of
09:24 marriage
09:25 and religious liberty not that other
09:28 issues are unimportant
09:30 but these three are foundational to who
09:32 we are as human beings and to what kind
09:34 of
09:35 society we are constructing
09:38 as pope benedict wrote regarding these
09:40 values quote
09:42 in the face of fundamental and
09:43 inalienable ethical demands
09:46 christians must recognize that what is
09:48 at stake is the essence of the moral
09:50 law which concerns the integral integral
09:52 good
09:53 of the human person end quote
09:57 on these and other critical issues
10:01 there is one presidential candidate
10:04 who stands in very public
10:08 very obstinate opposition
10:11 to church teaching namely former vice
10:15 president
10:16 joe biden along with
10:19 the democratic party
10:22 and so i'd like to share with you the
10:24 five things which every catholic
10:26 needs to know about catholic joe biden
10:30 and how these line up with the
10:32 non-negotiables
10:35 and by the way before i begin
10:38 and for the sake of those of you who
10:40 might be a little bit
10:41 squeamish about what i'm about to say
10:45 let me quote for you a principle from
10:47 the second vatican council's
10:49 pastoral constitution on the church in
10:51 the modern world
10:53 entitled gaudium at spez
10:56 the council fathers wrote this quote
10:59 at all time and in all places the church
11:02 should have the true freedom to teach
11:04 the faith
11:05 to proclaim its teaching about society
11:08 to carry out its task among men without
11:11 hindrance
11:12 and to pass moral judgments even
11:15 in matters relating to politics
11:19 whenever the fundamental right of man
11:23 or the salvation of souls requires it
11:27 okay then the five things that every
11:30 catholic needs to know about catholic
11:34 joe biden number one
11:38 joe biden is unabashedly abortion
11:43 this fact is clear from his long voting
11:45 record
11:46 his public pronouncements his allegiance
11:48 to and support
11:50 of groups like planned parenthood and
11:52 narrow
11:53 and from his party's platform not only
11:55 in this election year
11:56 but in their platform going back decades
12:00 he and they support abortion for
12:04 any reason or for no reason right up to
12:07 and even beyond the moment of birth
12:10 he and they opposed the effort in
12:14 congress
12:15 to pass legislation requiring doctors
12:18 who perform abortions
12:19 to provide medical care to babies who
12:22 survive the abortion
12:24 opting rather to let such babies babies
12:27 simply die outside the womb
12:30 with no care he and they
12:35 are pushing for the repeal of the hyde
12:37 amendment
12:39 an action which would force all american
12:41 taxpayers including you and me
12:43 to fund abortions to pay for them
12:47 along with their anti-life positions on
12:50 euthanasia physician-assisted
12:52 suicide embryonic stem cell research and
12:54 other
12:55 issues the democratic party has become
12:57 the party of death
12:59 and catholic joe biden
13:02 is their standard bearer or as he said
13:05 in the first
13:06 presidential debate i am the democratic
13:10 party
13:12 number two joe biden opposes the
13:16 church's teaching on the sanctity of
13:18 marriage
13:20 while he was vice president he publicly
13:22 endorsed same-sex marriage in
13:24 2012 three years before the supreme
13:28 court ruling
13:30 and in 2016 while still the vice
13:32 president
13:33 he officiated over the wedding ceremony
13:36 of two men
13:38 posting a photo of the ceremony on
13:40 twitter with the caption
13:41 quote proud to marry brian and joe at my
13:44 house
13:45 couldn't be happier two longtime white
13:48 house staffers two great guys
13:51 end quote number three
13:55 a biden presidency would be a danger to
13:58 our already dwindling religious liberty
14:02 he and his party advocate for the repeal
14:05 of the religious freedom restoration act
14:09 which protects the religious conscience
14:11 rights of health care workers
14:13 who decline to participate in abortions
14:16 and of church-based adoption agencies
14:19 that choose to place children
14:20 only with married heterosexual couples
14:24 among other things biden is also on
14:28 record committing to restoring
14:30 the obamacare mandate requiring
14:32 religious ministries and orders like the
14:34 little sisters of the poor
14:36 to provide contraceptive and
14:38 abortifacient drugs
14:40 to their employees despite the fact that
14:43 that is a direct violation of their
14:45 faith conviction
14:47 and of church teaching and by the way on
14:51 the subject of religious liberty
14:54 joe biden is on the record as saying
14:56 that as president he would not hesitate
14:58 to reinstitute a nationwide pandemic
15:01 lockdown if the science demands it
15:05 undoubtedly such a lockdown would once
15:07 again
15:08 close our churches let me remind you
15:13 of what it was like for us to have no
15:16 public masses
15:19 and no sacraments for 11 weeks
15:22 this past spring
15:26 number four although joe biden rejects
15:30 the label of
15:31 socialists his presidency would
15:34 undoubtedly open the door for america to
15:37 very quickly become
15:39 a socialist country evidence for this
15:42 assertion
15:43 is in his signing on to the self-avowed
15:46 socialist bernie sanders
15:48 agenda his selection as a running mate
15:51 of senator kamala harris
15:53 identified by bipartisan groups by
15:56 nonpartisan groups
15:58 as the most leftist member of the u.s
16:01 senate
16:02 his several months-long silence
16:06 on the murder and mayhem being inflicted
16:08 on america's cities
16:10 by marxist socialist organizations
16:14 as well as the all too obvious and
16:17 serious influence being exercised
16:19 within the democrat party by leftist
16:22 extremists
16:25 so why you may ask should that be an
16:28 issue of concern to catholics
16:31 one has only to consider the lessons of
16:33 history and the teachings of the popes
16:36 to answer the question for more than 200
16:40 years wherever socialism has sought to
16:42 gain a foothold
16:44 in france following the french
16:46 revolution
16:48 in the 20th century and today in latin
16:51 america
16:52 in eastern europe in asia or wherever
16:57 the socialists have viewed the church
17:00 especially and specifically the catholic
17:02 church
17:04 as an enemy to be destroyed
17:07 or at the very least to be silenced
17:11 and marginalized socialism
17:15 is a soul-robbing ideology
17:19 that always and inevitably
17:22 leads to totalitarianism
17:26 where the government presumes to put
17:28 itself in the place of god
17:32 in the lives of its subservient citizens
17:36 for this reason socialism has been
17:40 clearly and vigorously condemned and
17:43 denounced
17:45 by an unbroken string of no less than 11
17:49 consecutive popes from pius ix
17:53 in 1849
17:56 to benedict the 16th in 2005.
18:01 mob rule is one of the chief
18:05 tactics and strategies of socialism
18:09 and in a perverse twist of irony the
18:12 same
18:13 socialist mobs who like to chant silence
18:16 his violence reaped the benefit
18:21 of the several months long silence
18:24 of joe biden and his party as the mobs
18:27 carried out their orchestrated campaign
18:30 of violence in america's cities
18:35 again joe biden is probably
18:38 personally not a socialist but he
18:42 and the democrat party can validly be
18:44 called out
18:45 for giving aid comfort and encouragement
18:48 to those who are
18:50 whether they be the demonic forces
18:53 unleashed in the streets of america's
18:54 cities by
18:56 marxist nihilist anarchist
18:58 revolutionaries
19:01 or those in elected office in his own
19:03 party
19:04 who seek to push america so far to the
19:07 left
19:08 as to make it unrecognizable and to
19:10 establish a socio-politic
19:12 socio-economic and political system
19:15 that is openly hostile to the church
19:20 number five joe biden's positions on
19:24 these four moral issues
19:26 as a very high profile catholic
19:29 a man who served in the u.s senate for
19:31 more than three decades then as vice
19:33 president for eight years
19:35 and now as a candidate for president a
19:37 very high profile catholic
19:40 his positions then serve to subvert
19:43 and undermine the faith of nominal and
19:46 poorly catechized
19:48 catholics as for example it gives rise
19:52 to the effort
19:54 the misinformed effort known as
19:57 catholics for biden
20:00 at least one of biden's campaign ads
20:02 picture him with pope francis and with a
20:04 group of
20:05 smiling nuns in an effort to portray
20:08 himself as a devout catholic
20:12 and by the way when you have to tell
20:14 people
20:15 what a good catholic you are does that
20:18 not make you question
20:20 how good a catholic the person really is
20:24 ironically it's another group of nuns
20:26 namely the little sisters of the poor
20:28 who would once again be targeted by a
20:30 biden presidency for enforcement of the
20:33 obamacare
20:34 mandate furthermore senator kamala
20:38 harris his running mate is on record
20:40 calling the knights of columbus quote
20:44 an all-male extremist group
20:49 extremist because of the night's clear
20:51 support of church teaching
20:53 on the non-negotiables that we're
20:54 talking about here
20:57 and by the way deacon bud father rob
21:01 and i are all members of the knights of
21:03 columbus
21:05 and yeah we're all male
21:09 what of it
21:12 i leave it up to you to decide if we're
21:14 also extremists
21:17 also isn't it interesting that the same
21:19 leftist media
21:22 which gives high praise to joe biden's
21:24 catholicism
21:27 while characterizing the catholicism of
21:29 judge amy coney barrett
21:31 as dangerous and extremist
21:36 the perennial failure of many of our
21:38 bishops
21:41 to call out biden and other catholic
21:43 politicians who publicly defy
21:46 the church's most cherished moral
21:48 teachings
21:49 only serves to confuse many catholics
21:51 and many others
21:53 in our society causing them to think oh
21:56 i guess what he holds isn't that bad
21:59 isn't that bad the willful destruction
22:04 of 61 million babies in the womb
22:08 including by the way 23 million black
22:10 babies
22:11 isn't that bad
22:15 i ask you what could be worse
22:20 and it's in its document entitled living
22:22 the gospel of life
22:26 u.s conference of catholic bishops
22:27 declared abortion to be
22:29 the preeminent moral issue of our time
22:34 the right to life undergirds all other
22:37 rights
22:39 that's why it's mentioned first in the
22:42 declaration of independence
22:44 and it represents government's most
22:46 important responsibility
22:50 so don't let anyone
22:53 he a priest a bishop or a cardinal
22:57 tell you otherwise
23:00 abortion is i believe spiritually
23:02 speaking both the primary cause
23:05 and the primary symptom of a society
23:09 in a downward death spiral
23:13 as i said it's time for faithful
23:16 catholics to stand up and say
23:18 enough is enough to
23:22 all office holders and politicians who
23:24 claim to be devout catholics while
23:26 publicly
23:27 and obstinately contradicting the church
23:30 and subverting her teachings
23:35 in conclusion we are as a nation as i
23:39 stated earlier i believe
23:42 staring into the abyss
23:45 stemming from our culture's wholesale
23:47 rejection of god
23:49 and his law a rejection manifested most
23:52 tangibly
23:54 in five decades of legalized abortion
23:59 archbishop fulton j sheen once wrote
24:02 these words almost 60 years
24:04 ago quote
24:07 a nation always gets the kind of
24:09 politicians
24:10 it deserves if a time ever comes when
24:14 the religious
24:14 jews protestants and catholics ever have
24:17 to suffer
24:18 under a totalitarian state which would
24:20 deny them
24:21 to them the right to worship god
24:23 according to the light of their
24:24 conscience
24:26 it will be because for years they
24:28 thought it made no difference what kind
24:30 of people represented them
24:33 and because they abandoned the spiritual
24:35 in the realm
24:37 of the temporal end quote
24:41 and so the bottom line brothers and
24:43 sisters
24:45 vote and when you do
24:49 think with the church while also
24:53 understanding this that no one running
24:57 for public office is ultimately the
24:59 solution
25:00 for what ails america
25:03 only god is
25:06 that's not a statement of resignation to
25:08 the inevitable it is rather a statement
25:10 of hope
25:13 the late father richard john newhouse
25:15 once wrote
25:16 christians have not the right to despair
25:20 for despair is a sin
25:23 and we have not reasoned to despair he
25:25 said
25:26 quite simply because christ
25:30 is risen
25:33 you and i are called to be salt and
25:36 light in a dark and dying world
25:38 and you and i as faithful american
25:41 catholics are engaged in a battle for
25:42 the soul of our beloved nation
25:46 let's take that call seriously
25:49 i'd like to conclude this homily with a
25:51 quote from the old testament that you
25:53 are no doubt familiar with
25:56 it's one of my very favorite scripture
25:58 quotes and one which is most pertinent
25:59 and most compelling
26:01 for today second chronicles
26:04 7 14 almighty god declares
26:09 this if my
26:12 people who are called by my name
26:17 will humble themselves and pray
26:21 and seek my face and turn
26:25 from their wicked ways then
26:29 then will i hear from heaven
26:32 and forgive their sin and heal their
26:36 land
26:38 god bless you and may god continue
26:41 to bless america

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