This day’s Gospel passage is a continuation of the one heard last weekend. Our Lord, you may remember, was in the synagogue, acting as lector and homilist. When he began his talk, everyone nodded heads approvingly. But then, and for some unspecified reason, opinion suddenly shifted and there appears to have been general dismay. Saint Luke does not tell us what provoked this reassessment, but in short order it appears that anger and indignation had reached the point that the people rose up in a furor against Jesus with the intention to murder Him.

The situation for Catholics in the world bears a likeness to the situation in the Gospel–with the necessary adjustments being made. Our Lord once said that we are the light of the world, and that, as such, we had to let truth’s light shine for the benefit of others. Sometimes, ever less so, we are fortunate and get the kind of response our Lord first received from his audience. "Bravo! Well done, teacher." That kind of feedback seems to be returning to the Church ever more rarely. Instead, we are finding that the Church, and her doctrines, is made to stand alone. At one time, and not so very long ago, the Church could count on other Christian bodies to affirm with her the basic moral and doctrinal truths that were the common inheritance of Christianity. Not any more. Examine the evidence. What other Church of any notable size, teaches that all deliberate abortion, without exception, is equivalent to murder? In a similar way, there is no other Christian Church that unequivocally condemns artificial birth control, or test-tube fertility procedures. The Catholic position on divorce has withstood the longest challenge: the Church simply doesn’t believe in it. And now there is the definition of marriage that’s being questioned by many. Also, it seems hard for some to come to a definition the human birth. The Catholic Church doesn’t have these troubles and hesitations. Her teaching is clear, even if her membership is at times not entirely observant. The reason that we have the edge over other Christian bodies–let alone over the secular world and its media–is that we have the magisterium of the Church, the voice of the Pope that ‘mouths’ the will of Christ.

First and last readings of today’s Mass have a common idea, and it’s this: those who have been given the job of preaching need to be tough because they are likely to be opposed. God told Jeremiah that when he would be talking to the people he had to be like fortified walls surrounding a city; or like a pillar of iron; or like a bulk of brass. This imagery conveys impregnable strength; unconquerable tenacity. And why these mighty metaphors? Because someone who has to talk on behalf of God has to be courageous enough to meet the inevitable hostility from listeners who are not disposed to accept the word of admonition.

The Church in our time is in much the same position of our Lord before his hostile audience. She must preach the message of truth, and the world hates her for it. The anti-Catholic animus of today is not generated so much by the old anti-Catholic misrepresentations of her doctrine and religious practices so much as her unflinching proclamation of fundamental truths about which only a short time ago no one disagreed with her. In only fifty years’ time, many Christians in our country now accept divorce, contraception, and abortion. They are also warming up to euthanasia and homosexuality. Is there anything evil that is left for reappraisal? I dare say, yes. In biblical history, there was known in the most depraved times to be a regression, a trajectory that included at its end the abuse of children, cannibalism and out-and-out idol worship. We haven’t reached these depths yet, one might say, in a sigh of relief. But, from what I have heard, even these things are beginning to make headway. The sexual exploitation of children is being given serious consideration as a respectable thing to permit, even as a matter of justice, of equality of rights. And it is said that the consumption of human flesh is being reported in certain places of the world [China]. As for the worship of idols, the adoration of man-made gods, this has various possible manifestations that could be forthcoming, but the resurgence of the so-called black arts of magic and witchcraft have already made great headway, as TV watchers are well-aware.

Against all these evils–and I can’t think of any more perverse than these–there stands the Catholic Church: persistent, confident, without compromise, clear. And thus she stands now almost alone. It may not be so easy to hear her message of truth over the noise of the world that would like to suppress her voice, but it’s there. "Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?," the people sneered in this Gospel, reacting to Jesus’ teachings.

The fact that the devil has been so cunning and successful as to have convinced some Catholics to defect and to attack their own Church is a sign that we are in deep trouble. No matter how few there will be who will be true to Christ, the light cannot ever be overcome by the darkness.

I think of another scene in the Gospels, when Jesus asked his disciples, "will you also leave me?" We are seeing a great apostasy in the Christian world today, and there is our Lord and the Church standing bravely against some mighty formidable evils. Will you be with Christ, will you stand with the Church? The time may soon come when you will not be able to evade these very questions.