Fr. Bill's Weekly Message
for 6/21/98
Dear Parishioners:
I just can't believe it! Did you all
hear about what the Baptist Convention said last week? They actually said
that a wife should give a gracious submission to her husband and husbands
should be servant leaders. How dare they? In this day and age, how can
one get away with saying something so out of touch with modernity?
This is beyond the beyond.
Let's face it, the Bible has to be
interpreted, when it comes to modern times. Didn't Paul, Peter,
and the rest write from a paternalistic, superior, misogynist mentality
that looked for every opportunity to subjugate women and foreigners? And
here come the Baptists saying we should take the Scripture seriously. How
could they?
Perhaps other things Jesus said should
be reinterpreted in the light of modern thought. Let's reevaluate His dictum
that we should love our enemies (Lk. 6:35). After all, this is the end
of the twentieth century and we should look out for number one first -
"To hell with our enemies!"
And this bit about washing the feet
of others (Jn. 13:5-8). Now really! In a world of fast food and
faster money, no one can take the time. It is beneath one's dignity to
wash others. We not supposed to be servants, but chiefs.
Perhaps most outlandish of all is
Jesus telling us that if we wish to be first, we must be last, we must
be the servant of all (Mt. 20:16, 27). Let's get away from taking the Bible
seriously. It is just too much.
Many persons do just that. They
pick and choose what they want to hear and see. Not much new about
that. It is because we take the Scriptures on a surface level that leads
so many to a life of superficiality and irresponsibility, masculine and
feminine.
On Fathers' Day, today, I invite
every father in our parish to take an inventory of his servant (Christlike)
leadership in his family. [This part of the Baptist statement got very
little play in the media]. Do I lead like Jesus? Do I lay down my life
for my family?
This laying down of one's life
includes things like putting career second, making time for intimate
conversation, spending quantity as well as quality time with the family,
loving like God the Father who sent His only Son to die for His enemies
etc. It is becoming a humble servant of and in Love. There is nothing more
irresistible than a submissive servant. Jesus submitted Himself to us.
He laid down His life for you and me. That is the type of love every father
should strive to imitate. The imitation of Christ cannot be some mere
ethical goodness, but a heart rendering (breaking) love of one to and for
another.
To take the Word of God seriously
is not a dream, but an achievable goal. Tertullian wrote, "How wonderful
the bond between two believers, with a single hope, a single desire, a
single observance, a single service! They are both brethren and both fellow
servants; there is no separation between them in spirit or flesh. In fact
they are truly two in one flesh, and where the flesh is one, one is
the spirit."
Congratulations to the Baptist
Convention. It is their desire and dream to live the fullness of God's
plan for marriage. Imagine for a moment if we all tried to live God's plan.
What a world it would be.
God bless,
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