Q. I have heard it said that homosexual behavior is one of the sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance. Is that true and, if so, what are the others? — T.S., Arizona.
A. In Holy Scripture there are four sins in this category, so called because in each case the victims of these sins cried out to the Lord for help, and their cries were heard. Here are the sins and the relevant Bible passages:
Willful murder — After Cain killed his brother Abel, “The Lord then said: ‘What have you done! Listen: Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil! Therefore you shall be banned from the soil that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand’” (Gen. 4:10-11).
Homosexuality or sodomy — Before He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord said to Abraham: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out” (Gen. 18:20-21). See chapter 19 of Genesis for an account of the destruction of the two cities after the men of Sodom sought sexual intimacies with two angels posing as young men while visiting the house of Lot.
Oppression of the poor — A long time after Moses had fled Egypt to escape the wrath of Pharaoh, and after the king had died, “the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God, he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 2:23-24), and sent Moses back to Egypt to lead the Israelites to freedom.
Defrauding laborers of their wages — In warning the rich of their impending miseries, James writes, “Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4).
Q. It appears that the standard procedure is to base a homily on the readings of the day. Has this always been the case? If so, then when would a priest be able to talk about the teachings of the Catholic Church, such as mortal and venial sin, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, coming to Mass late, and not dressing properly for Mass? When can a priest catechize his parishioners that the Catholic Church is the one, true Church if not during his homily? — W.B., via e-mail.
A. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (n. 65) says that “the Homily is part of the Liturgy and is highly recommended, for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an explanation of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.”
This is reiterated in the Vatican document Redemptionis Sacramentum (n. 67), which says that “particular care is to be taken so that the Homily is firmly based upon the mysteries of salvation, expounding the mysteries of the faith and the norms of Christian life from the biblical readings and liturgical texts throughout the course of the liturgical year and providing commentary on the texts of the Ordinary or the Proper of the Mass or of some other rite of the Church.”
But if you pay close attention to the readings at daily and Sunday Mass, you will see that there are ample opportunities for the priest to touch on all the topics that you mentioned while relating them to the readings of the Mass. Consider, for example, just the Gospels for the Sundays in June 2017.
On June 5 (Pentecost), the Gospel was about Jesus’ appearance to the apostles on Easter Sunday night, when He gave them the Sacrament of Penance (“whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained”). Here was a chance to explain why we tell our sins to a priest, the conditions for a worthy Confession, including the types of sin to be confessed, and the importance of frequent reception of the sacrament.
On June 11 (Trinity Sunday), we heard the famous passage from John 3:16 (“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”). Here the priest could talk about who Jesus is, why He came to Earth, and why belief in Him is necessary to get to Heaven lest we perish in Hell.
On June 18 (Corpus Christi), we hear Jesus say, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven….Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
What better time to talk about the Real Presence, the conditions for worthy reception of Holy Communion, and the proper decorum for receiving our Lord than on the Feast of Corpus Christi?
On June 25 (Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time), Jesus warns that “whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” How about discussing the ways in which people, even those who call themselves Christians, deny Jesus every day by using His name irreverently, or by failing to defend Him against those who deny His existence or who would have His name removed from the public square?
The same opportunities present themselves in the daily Mass readings. On June 14, the priest could have talked about the Ten Commandments in connection with Jesus’ admonition that “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven”? Or how about Jesus’ condemnation of divorce and adultery in the Gospel for June 15? What a great time to set people straight on the increasingly widespread notion that those living in adultery can receive Holy Communion.
As this brief summary shows, there is no lack of opportunities for a conscientious priest to catechize his parishioners on a wide range of Catholic beliefs and teachings. The Mass readings don’t limit the topics of a priest’s homily; they expand them far and wide.
Q. What does it mean to say that a priest acts “in persona Christi” while presiding at Mass or hearing confessions? — F.A., Massachusetts.
A. As the Latin implies, it means that the priest is acting not on his own, but in the person of Jesus, the eternal High Priest.
All members of the Church do not have the same function, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explaining that “certain members are called by God, in and through the Church, to a special service of the community. These servants are chosen and consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the service of all members of the Church [cf. PO 2; 15]. The ordained minister is, as it were, an ‘icon’ of Christ the priest. Since it is in the Eucharist that the sacrament of the Church is made fully visible, it is in his presiding at the Eucharist that the bishop’s ministry is most evident, as well as, in communion with him, the ministry of priests and deacons” (n. 1142).
In his 1947 encyclical Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII said that “it is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person His minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ Himself (virtute ac persona ipsius Christi).”
Forty-six years later, at a general audience on March 31, 1993, Pope St. John Paul II said much the same thing:
“The participation in Christ’s one priesthood, which is exercised in several degrees, was instituted by Christ, who wanted differentiated functions in His Church as in a well-organized social body, and for the function of leadership He established ministers of His priesthood. He conferred on them the sacrament of Orders to constitute them officially as priests who would work in His name and with His power by offering sacrifice and forgiving sins.”
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