“All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea.”

These are the words from our parish patron saint — Saint Bede the Venerable. He’s talking about worldliness — the “spirit of the world” as Saint Paul put it in our second reading this weekend:

We heard him say: “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.”

Saint Bede is telling us that this “spirit of the world” is just plain downright unstable… it’s like a sudden storm at sea. It comes up all of a sudden… you don’t see it coming, and then BOOM… You’re under the water.

But what exactly is this “spirit of the world?”

Well, the spirit of the world (or “worldliness”) could basically be defined as any perspective or stance which is preoccupied with the material, the carnal, and the temporary… which neglects (or even ignores) the supernatural realities of God.

To be worldly, therefore, is to live our life from a perspective that fails to see things as God sees them.

And left to its own devices, “worldliness” even becomes a kind of religion of its own… We end up serving (and worshipping even) the “spirit of the world” rather than the Spirit of God!

Monsignor James Shea tackles this idea in a recent book called “The Religion of the Day” — where he identifies a set of accepted dogmas that our modern age just sort of takes for granted… He describes a concoction of ideas and beliefs that are just in the air we all breath… it’s in the water that we drink — It’s the “religion of the day” as he calls it.

It’s a really helpful little book, because sometimes we can come to accept ideas and beliefs and assumptions without really noticing that we’re doing it! 

We can just sort of absorb the wisdom of the modern world — the ideas of this age — without consciously examining them. …Without first asking: “Wait… is this true? Why do I believe these ideas? Where exactly did these philosophical claims come from? Are they in alignment with God’s plan for my life?”

One of the most interesting points that Monsignor Shea makes in this book is that the current “religion of the day” is ironically deeply dependent on a Christian worldview. In fact, he says the modern ideologies that so many people believe today are really only possible in the context of a decaying… a declining… Catholicism.

He writes this: “The modern religion that we face in the West is necessarily a post-Christian phenomenon. It has borrowed profoundly from Christianity, and its existence is unthinkable without the Jewish and Christian religion that preceded it.”

He then goes on to say: “Much of what we take for granted as normal human behavior — being kind to the needy and poor, avoiding cruelty, recognizing the basic rights of all people — was anything but normal before the coming of Christ. Modern atheistic ideologies are living off the capital of Judeo-Christian beliefs for their moral ideas, though they usually don’t know it.”

In other words, the religion of the day — the current “worldly wisdom”  that is so widely accepted by just about everybody — rests upon and presupposes a Judeo-Christian foundation… even though they badly distort Christian beliefs and more often than not, folks who believe them end up mocking and dismissing Christianity as irrelevant, oppressive, and backwards-thinking…

Little do they know, however, that in cutting their ties to authentic, historical Christianity — by severing themselves from long-held Catholic understandings about morality and virtue — they’re actually cutting off the branch they’re sitting on… and they are setting themselves up for collapse!

That quote by Saint Bede comes back to mind here: “All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea.”
And this is really interesting (to me anyways)… because when you look at history, we see this at work time and time again:

Bad ideas are always ultimately self-defeating.

Tyranny always ends up toppling itself.

Worldly wisdom always fails.

Evil always overplays its hand…

As one of the Psalms put it so well: “They dug a pit in my path, but fell in it themselves.”

This is the fascinating and counterintuitive WISDOM of the Cross, isn’t it? 

Think about it for a second!

Jesus goes willingly — freely — to the pain and torture of the Cross, even though He is totally and completely innocent! He submits to a shameful death — he is mocked and scourged — and the world laughs! The religion of the day celebrates! What a fool this Jesus is! Look at him! He can’t even save himself! …They’re so sure they’ve won! They’re so sure that they’re on the right side of history!!!!

But in reality…

Evil overplayed its hand on the Cross…

The Devil fell into his own pit he dug!

God was able to spring his ultimate trap on sin and death!

Because when Christ died on the Cross, he was actually disarming the power of worldliness forever.

Humility triumphed there on the wood of the Cross.

Worldly wisdom collapsed.

This is what Jesus was talking about in our Gospel this weekend: 

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

Building our houses, building our identities, building our belief systems on a worldly set of ideas — on the religion of the day — on this modern secular creed — will inevitably end in collapse and ruin!

Ya know, so many people today are so very worried that we’re on the verge of some sort of large-scale societal collapse…We hear this all the time.

People are afraid our country is collapsing.

People are afraid of the family collapsing.

Of our institutions collapsing — the healthcare system, the justice system, our school system, our economy

There are fears that the world will collapse into another world war!

There’s really no way of knowing for sure what the future will hold, but I do know that there’s one surefire way to stand strong even if the world DOES collapse all around us:

We need to build our life on Jesus.

That’s how we avoid collapsing.

We need to reject the spirit of the world…the religion of the day.

As I was preparing this homily, I have to admit — the Lord was like: “Hey, Anthony, I want you to share this.” And I was like: “Do I have to?” And He was like: “Yes.” So I said: “Alright…ok.”

So I felt prompted to address the thorny topic of yes… “Pride Month.” The world marks this month of June by that name: Pride Month.

And listen…I know there’s a lot of division today. I know people have different struggles. I know people are confused and hurt and angry…we all have very strong feelings about this topic — It raises our blood pressure and it makes for bad dinner conversation…

But in an effort to counter the spirit of the world which… I mean, it is very dominant and it is very loud this time of year — I wanted to simply read for you all here what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says — the rock solid eternal wisdom… And when we hear these words, I pray that the Holy Spirit will encourage us and challenge each and every one of us, no matter where you’re at on this particular topic. So here it goes: 

First, the Catechism does make clear that the “tradition has always declared that “same-sex acts are intrinsically disordered” and that they are always going to be contrary to the natural law.

Alright, clear enough. That means that it’s always and everywhere morally wrong to “act” on those types of desires. The temptation itself is not a sin, but the acts always will be morally wrong.

It then goes on to say that any man or woman who does experience those desire “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

Ok, good. This sounds great. There’s no “hate” involved here. We are commanded to love our neighbor as ourself… to see and respect the image of God in the other… to acknowledge that person’s invaluable dignity!

Then finally, the Catechism says this: “These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives.”

What is God’s will in their lives?

This is going to blow your mind. Are you ready?

The same as it would be for anybody else… 

It’s the SAME moral standard that applies to any other follower of Christ:

Chastity.

Self-mastery.

Sacrifice… Holiness.

Humble submission and commitment to God’s natural plan for marriage and procreation.

And thankfully, there are some incredible resources in the Church today whose mission is to help support anyone who does experience same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria or anything like that… so that they can faithfully live out God’s will for their lives. 

Two that come to mind that I really encourage you to go home and check out are “Courage” and “Eden Invitation.” Both of these awesome apostolates seek to respect and love the individual person and their own particular experiences, while also holding fast to the Divinely revealed truths that the Church has received from God about marriage and biological sex.

These resources are here to help folks regardless of their past or present to encourage them in their journey… to encourage them to do the will of the Father.

Because ultimately… that should be the goal for all of us — 

To do God’s will.

Jesus warns us sternly in the Gospel this weekend:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven”

And this holds true for every single last one of us. If we want to actually go to Heaven, we need to lay aside our own ideas… we need to renounce worldliness in our hearts… and do the will of the Father in Heaven.

And I promise you this:

If you put God absolutely, uncompromisingly first — if you choose His will over your own…

If you put Sunday mass before your career, and before your kids’ sports routine… 

If you intentionally set aside substantial time daily for prayer and contemplation.

If you choose to wait until marriage…

If you make hard sacrifices in view of your own holiness and the holiness of the people around you…

If you resist all the distorted worldly ideas about men, women, marriage, and children…and adhere instead to the mind of Christ and His Church:

…You will be building your house on VERY solid rock.

You won’t collapse, even if all the world collapses around you. 

The rain will fall. 

The floods will come. 

The winds will blow and beat upon your house. 

…Things won’t be easy. In fact, they’ll get really really hard. Temptations are sure to come… even mistakes and sins will happen…

But your house won’t collapse.

Because “it is set solidly on rock” Jesus says.

 

Your stability will be rooted in God and His eternal wisdom, not upon worldly wisdom, which is always like sand. Sand changes shape so easily. The Creed of the “religion of the day” is always changing…

But Christ’s words are solid: 

“Heaven and earth will pass away… but My Words will not pass away,” Jesus says. … “Your words, Lord… are spirit and life!”

You can build your entire life on Christ and His Church.

You’ll find safety and life here.

You’ll find peace, forgiveness and joy. Protection and stability.

You’ll find something worth dying for!

…Something worth giving everything else up for!

Build your life on the “religion of the day” — and it’s sure to be completely ruined.

Build your life on Christ, and it is sure to never ever collapse.