Trust a Catholic to focus on the negative side of the "salt and light" gospel reading today. I don't think it's sound pastoral practice to warn against being "too salty" or "too bright"! That's hardly the problem of American Catholics (or American Christians in general). It may be something you could advise to some specific person, and I've known a few at Wheaton, but it's hardly something to preach to a complacent suburban American congregation. Would Father offer this advice to a St. Francis, a St. Ignatius Loyal, or any other number of saints I could cite that we would call "overzealous"? And to put down renewel movements like Cursillo, Marriage Encounter, etc., no matter how many caveats you throw in about how great they are, is uncool. A pastor should encourage his congregation to be MORE salt, MORE light. Unfortunately, this homily just encourages the Evangelical stereotypes of Catholics as being fundamentally unserious about their faith.
Zeal should never be discouraged; complacency should never be encouraged, no matter how unintentionally done.
No comments:
Post a Comment