November 5（31st Sunday Year A November 5, 2023）

Father Ken’s Message:

Have any of you seen the movie with Tom Hanks called Apollo 13? In the movie Tom’s character says, “Houston, we have a problem.” It was in reference to the space ship being broken but by the end of the movie thanks to great teamwork and some personal suffering the 3 astronauts safely returned to Earth.

Today’s First Reading and the Gospel is another, “Houston, we have a problem” alert. What is broken in these two readings is the Jewish Religious Leadership system 2000 years ago. The name of the problem is “clericalism.” In the First Reading priests are behaving badly, and in the Gospel the scribes and pharisees in Jesus’ day are mistreating the Jewish believers. According to Jesus, the religious leader’s words and actions were not in sync and it was causing a scandal.

40 years after Jesus was crucified, the Romans waged war against the Jews and almost completely annihilated them. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. including the new Temple. Jews left the area and many moved to Europe. By the end of the 1st century Christianity emerged as the prominent religion and adopted many of the Jewish customs regarding liturgy and leadership as their own. Therefore, clericalism gradually infected our Catholic Church too.

What is a definition of “clericalism”? Clericalism is an attitude of superiority of deacons, priests, and bishops who seek to be the most important person in the room. They have fallen to temptation of power, money and beautiful clothes. Sadly, clericalism also infects some of laity too who think they are better than others. It is a form of paternalism or maternalism to keep believers like children. This power abuse is the root of recent sexual abuse cases. Pope Francis spoke about the problem of clericalism in the Church in his homily a week ago in Rome at the end of the Synod.

In another homily about clericalism in the New Testament time of Jesus Pope Francis talked about the story of Judas Iscariot. He went to the Chief priest asking, “how much will you give me if I bring Jesus to you? And these men the Chief priest promised 30 pieces of silver. However, after when Judas realized his mistake after the trial, he went back to the Chief priest to return the money and ask for forgiveness but the Chief priest refused his request. Of course, Judas did something terrible but his story shows the corruption by clericalism to the religious leaders in Jesus’ day (Matthew chapters 26 and 27).

So, what can be done? What can each of us do to has purify and protect our beloved Catholic Church of clericalism? In the Gospel today Jesus tells us the cure for this disease. He says: “the greatest among you must be your servant.” We must return to believing and practicing the idea that the highest honor as members of the Catholic Church is not leadership but service. Service to humanity was one of the most striking signs of Jesus’ life story. St. Paul in today’s Second Reading also writes about this service image as “like a mother feeding and looking after her own children.” Really our priesthood begins at Baptism when we were oiled with holy chrism. Therefore, all of us ordained priest and all Catholic laity also hold the power of the priest in　ourselves to sacrifice our time, money and works of love for the greater glory of God.

The other easy thing we all can do to deal with our own “Vatican, we have a problem” situation is to look upon one another as equals, as children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, and spiritual children of our Blessed Mother Mary. Our roles and works are very different but we are all contributing to this yet unfinished piece of art we call the Catholic Church.

Thank you very much. Have a beautiful week ahead.