Sunday Homily: An Hour Is Not Always Sixty Minutes.

We need to follow rules but not get caught up in them.

Many years ago, I was walking to Balboa Park in San Diego. My watch told the time all over the world and of course it was digital.

A man called out to me: “Hey sonny, can you tell me what time it is?”

“Sure sir,” I replied, “One twenty-seven.”

“One twenty-seven? One twenty-five, One thirty maybe? Don’t be so exact.”

Let’s look at this within the context of what the Church teaches.

There is a rule in the Church that mandates that you must fast for an hour before you receive communion. This hour is not exactly 60 minutes, it is about sixty minutes. The reason why I say this is because the watch did not exist when Jesus complained to the apostles that they could not stay awake for an hour. So an hour was 1/24th of a day. It was about 60 minutes but not exactly 60 minutes.

I say this because we are in an election year. There are various orientations people have for the type of government they support.

Laissez Faire Capitalism—an entrepreneur or corporation will fill whatever needs one may have and will finance their service through a price they will charge. However, in Laissez Faire Capitalism say good-bye to the MBTA, Massport, public hospitals and more.

Socialism—Today socialism is where government and corporations compliment each other in helping society

Fascism—A dictator and the corporations work together to run the country

Communism—The government is the corporation and the corporation is the government.

The problem with all these solutions from government is that government produces a one-size fits all solution. However, one size does not fit all.

Our Gospel Is Not One Size Fits All

Jesus taught us to live our faith by loving others and loving God. He really did not give specific ways to do this because every person is different and each person has his or her own way that we need to love as we seek love as well. Governments do not work that way. Therefore, we create a more peaceful society by living the personalism that is Christianity. Loving God and neighbor in ways the government or corporation never can.

However, if we spend our time arguing over rules and interpretation of rules, whether we must fast for exactly sixty minutes or about sixty minutes, we will not live the Gospel. We will not seek to turn from sin and live in the freedom in God. We will be focused on rules

This is what Jesus is saying to the pharisees. You are so focused on living rules and trying to live in a state of purity and cleanness that you are missing the point. You are missing the message.

Our faith cannot be about whether or not the Our Father should be spoken in Latin, we need to skip communion because we finished eating fifty-five minutes ago and so many discussions when at the same time we are not living our faith as Christ calls us. As Jesus says, pay attention to Church discipline but do not get so caught up in how it should be obeyed or you miss the point of living the faith in the first place.

Living our faith

Be people of prayer. Live your faith in ways in which you fulfill your call to live your the commandments of loving God and neighbor.

If you do this you will challenge society.

Several parishes ago, I was in a rectory that had a huge open porch. A homeless man used to come and sleep on the porch. I left him alone because he needed a place to sleep and the porch was good for him especially when it rained.

Neighbors did not like it.

“Do you know there is a homeless man sleeping on the porch?”

“Yes I do.”

“Hey Buddy, there is a homeless man on your porch.”

“I know.”

It went on and on. People were not used to this kind of situation. It was a challenge to them.

However, tell me something I was doing that goes against the Gospel.

The government aka the police were happy about it because they did not have to deal with the situation. However, it was a too much of a challenge to the society.

Following rules is easy. Living the Gospel on an individual basis is difficult. However, are you going to argue over rules and miss the point of living the gospel.

We need to focus on living the Gospel, being people or prayer and doing what God calls of us in the discipline of the Church and commandments but do not get so lost in them we miss the point of living our faith in the first place.

photo credit: smile3377 via BigStockPhoto.com

Fr. Robert J Carr is pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA

The parish podcast is at https://catholicaudiomedia.com