14th Sunday after Pentecost 18 Sep 2011 Sermon

14th Sunday after Pentecost 18.9.11 Cynicism

In a world where words are many but the truth is not so frequent it is easy to become cynical about people, their intentions, their reliability; to be cynical about religion itself.

This cynicism can take two forms:
One is to become anti-Church altogether, seizing on every failure by individual Christians as proof that our religion is fraudulent or an illusion. There is no God, no ultimate truth, they say.

Another is when people within the Church say it is impossible to be as good as the Gospel demands; and instead they only partially commit to pursuing the will of God. This is a pragmatic approach; in attempting to be ‘realistic’ they deny the power of God to transform us as people.

Both these views tend to be self-fulfilling. If I live as though there is no God or as if He is not relevant to my life then my relationship with Him will be affected. I will not be calling on His help, will not be asking His forgiveness; will not be likely to agree with His commandments, let alone keep them.

The fact is that no matter how poorly people behave, no matter how bitter against God and His Church people become, it is possible for us to live good lives, to uproot sin; it is possible for the Church to be the purified Bride of Christ.

In Adelaide just lately there has been talk of scandals regarding priests. Across the world for the last decade we have heard of many such scandals. These things are tragic. But they do not change the truth about God himself, nor His promises.

We must not allow the misbehaviour of other disciples to weaken or to extinguish our faith.

If anything it should strengthen our resolve to do better. The fall of another reminds us of two things: that there is an ideal that we should be striving for; and that it is very easy to fall from grace and fail to reach that ideal.

So we believe in the good as attainable and we are made wiser in terms of how to achieve that good. We learn from our sins and mistakes. What can we do to make this less likely to happen again?

When confronted with failure we call more fully, more humbly on the power of God.

We call on Him for mercy for sins committed.

We call on Him for the grace that will change our hearts, so that we will recognize our sin and weep for it. That we will be genuinely contrite and see with new eyes the right way to go.

That we come to see the rightness and even the beauty of God’s commands, and thus be more likely to keep them.

We pray for each another; we exhort each other. We are capable of both good and evil. With a little attentiveness and divine help we can achieve the good.

Part of the process is not to let cynicism rob us of what is really possible as well as desirable.

If the Church were to close tomorrow many would cheer but it would not improve the state of the world.

We are offering the one light that will show the way out, the one real solution. We have only one Saviour. We cannot afford to block the one door to freedom.

We don't have to cover up or excuse fault in the Church. We can admit that bad things happen, even very bad things. All the more we can apply ourselves to repentance and reparation, and to avoiding repetition.

This Church, though full of sinners, does keep before the world the reality and goodness of God. The teaching is there; the graces are there. We know what we have to do and we are enabled to do it. If we resist all temptations to cynicism we will see better days.