HOMILY:
The television program “Undercover boss” has become another reality show that has become an international hit. Millions of people tune in each week to see a high ranking executive or owner of a corporation taking an entry level position in their own company. They do this job for about a week and get to experience what their own employees experience and get a sense of how people feel about the company from an extremely unique vantage point. So, for example, the owner of Dunkin Donuts might get a job as a cashier at one of their shops for a week and then get to see first hand what goes on when the boss isn’t around; hear what the employees really think of the company; see what it’s like on a daily basis with customers.
In the course of the couple of years the show has been on the air, it’s obvious why the shows been so successful. For millions of hard-working people who are employed by larger corporations, it’s nice to imagine their boss doing something like the owner of the chain of convenience stores named 7-11 did – donning a red apron on for a week, getting behind the cash register, grabbing a mop and seeing firsthand for themselves what people on the “front lines” of these business’ experience. Even more exciting for viewers to see is that company change as a result of the experience. Several companies showcased on the show have addressed issues that were really affecting workers that perhaps had been ignored up to that point.
This one executive worked one day packing boxes in his company’s warehouse. At the end of the day, the 37 year old called his mother and said “Mom there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this again tomorrow.” The experience caused him to mandate that all his executives rotate into some of the call centers the company has on a regular basis, just so they will always keep their employees in mind and what they go through. The owner of White Castle was so moved by the stress and health concerns of his employees that there company created a place online where their workers could access health information from a Doctor or nurse directly and then took it a step further and re-evaluated the medical coverage his employees received which resulted in White Castle paying their employees some of their out of pocket co-payments.
Its amazing that with just the visit of the boss to their people could transform the whole company.
In a similar way, Jesus, the not-so-Undercover Boss attempts the same thing. In today’s Gospel, we come to the conclusion of the back and forth that Jesus’ has been having with the Pharisees and scribes that we’ve been hearing in the last few Sunday’s at Mass. The debates, the dialogues have not gone well. Jesus has been engaging these “employees” and they continue to reject his authority. Rather than being open to changing – not just for their own salvation, but even more, as individuals who were supposedly representing the Almighty – they reject the boss’ Son’s advice, His counsel, ultimately rejecting Him personally...
Jesus realizes that this will leave people confused. So he separates the Word of God from the teachers. They preach but they don’t practice; they tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulder’s but they will not lift a finger to move them.
So Jesus isn’t discounting the importance of following the laws, the commandments found in the Scriptures. He’s not saying “yeah those 10 commandments; those laws of the Lord in the Torah - you don’t have to follow it because the Pharisees and Scribes aren’t doing a good job in following them.” Jesus is frustrated with this. He has come to save the world, and finds that some of the employees have not only puts their souls in danger, they undermine the Word of God in the minds and hearts of God’s people.
I can’t help but think that’s part of the problem we as Catholics find ourselves in this day and age. The failures of some of our leaders - Bishops, priests – coming to light, and amplified as it has been by an all too eager media – has left many faithful Catholics shocked in disbelief and those who were perhaps a bit on the side lines in the first place in terms of their faith feeling even more cynical about the relevance of faith and religion in their lives at all.
God has always had high expectations of those He calls into leadership. Jesus wasn’t the first one to express how the “not-so-Undercover” Boss, God the Almighty Father wasn’t happy. In the first reading we heard the prophet Malachi rip into the priests in the Old Testament pretty fiercely because they “have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by [their] instruction).”
But the Lord isn’t letting the rest of us off the hook either. We can’t look at the failures, the disappointments, the sinfulness of some in leadership to be a reason for us to reject the calls we hear from the Gospel to conversion, change our lives; to bring this Saving message to the world. Because it’s amazing to see how some are trying to do just that. Use the sins of some to diminish the Word of God. Just a few weeks ago on one of those talking heads news shows, there was a lively debate about the fact that the new healthcare legislation that is slowly being implemented. Promises were made when it narrowly made it through congress that there were going to be religious exemptions in the law. They cited an example that Catholic Hospitals that provides and has provided critical medical care to the poorest of the poor for centuries – before any politician ever even imagined the government getting involved – they were promised at the height of the debate that they would be allowed to be exempt from having to perform abortions or to give out contraception. Because we as Catholics know that abortion is the killing of an innocent human life and contraception is a means to make sex into a self-centered act rather than drawing a husband and wife closer together and bringing new life into the world. On this news program, when one of the politicians was asked about these Catholic concerns his response was “well I’d tell the Catholic Church they should focus on stopping priests from raping kids.”
Hearing such things hurts and angers me. Partially I’m hurt and angered that the actions of the few that have given any credence to such an appalling statement. But the other reason that hurts and angers me is that when people say things like that, whether they are a politician or some professor at a University, is that they are using the reprehensible actions of a few to be reprehensible themselves; and they're ignoring the entire argument that went before it - that conscientious objectors of ANY religion should not be forced to act against their conscience while administering compassionate care They are no different than those in the Church who they pointed out were failing by there example – they too are leading people astray.
Following the way of the Lord is hard. People do fail at it - which is why we as a Church who have to call people to acknowledge those failures, also need to amplify the tremendous Love, the Mercy, the Forgiveness of our “Boss.” How blessed are we that he doesn’t hide His presence or limit his visits to a random week. He remains with us here - in His Word and in His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. May we recapture our amazement that he visits, he remains with us - with the promise to transform the world...if we would just cooperate with Him.
