3rd Sunday in ordinary Time, Homily given at St. Peter's, Glenburn

1. Today’s gospel begins with a brief but arresting summary of the mission of Jesus to his contemporaries. It bears repeating. “The time has come…and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News.” As we gather for worship today that message is directed also to us.

 2. The time has come. Jesus contemporaries understood that phrase well. Their whole spirituality was about waiting for the time, waiting for the hour. They were waiting for God to declare his hand. They were waiting for the fulfillment of the promises. They were waiting for the appearing of the Messiah. The cry, “the time has come” would have got their attention, and this was in truth the fullness of time, the time of God’s favour because his Holy One was now in their midst. And the only suitable response to that was conversion and faith. Repent and believe the Good News.

 3. The time has come. What time are we in? I think we are in a key time, possibly a defining moment, for our society and for the Church in our society. Recently the Scottish Parliament has enacted legislation that allows for same-sex partnerships to be registered in what are officially termed civil partnerships. The purpose of this legislation is to give same-sex partnerships recognition in law similar to the legal status previously accorded only to the institution of marriage, including the right to apply for the adoption of children.

 4. I cannot help feeling that with this legislation, our society has crossed a line which takes it in a totally different direction from the vision of the human person and of the family within society which is implicit in the Gospel and explicit in the teaching of the Church on the human person, on human sexuality, on marriage and on the family.

 5. In a word, I feel sadly that the Church and contemporary society are in danger of waving goodbye to each other. You could say that was already happening with the existing legislation on divorce, abortion, genetic experimentation, and in the current pressure towards the legalization of the direct killing of terminally ill people. But the dangerous and deeply unwise social experimentation and engineering involved in these same-sex civil partnerships seems to me to be taking the alienation between the Church and society to a new and potentially disastrous level. 

6. So the time has come. The time has come for what? Well, if the Church and contemporary society are waving each other goodbye, are you ready to belong but not really belong? The other Christian Churches in this land have largely given up the fight on these things. So the time has possibly come to stand alone. Are we ready to stand alone? Do we have the conviction, and the spiritual energy? Am I being fanciful if I say that in the not too distant future there will be some kind of legal challenge against the church for its opposition to civil partnerships and for its teaching on sexuality, marriage and the family, judged homophobic by the intolerant canons of political correctness? Are we ready to be persecuted in our own land? Do we have the courage of our faith, do we have the unity of purpose to stand with the Pope and with our bishops? We have in the past, but can we now?  Have we become too complacent and comfortable? Have we compromised too much with the spirit of the age? Have we lost our edge? Are we made of the stuff of the martyrs? We are in a new time, and these are the questions which arise for this time.

  7. Jesus says to us in the Gospel:  The time has come. Repent and believe the Good News. Come follow me.  I will make you fishers of men. The Church can only fulfill its mission in the world if it has the spiritual integrity and the depth of faith which allows us to respond to the Lord with a ready and generous heart, and to be faithful as we face what is a new and testing time for the Catholic Church in Scotland and for all people who believe in Christ.

 St. Peter’s, Glenburn

22^nd January 2006