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Did you watch the Illinois/Michigan game yesterday? We watched it on television. It was an exciting game, but not nearly as exciting as last week’s game.
Last week Linda and I actually went to the Illini/Purdue football game. Roger and Sarah Burrus invited us. The game started at 2:30. We parked at the church and walked a couple of blocks where we got on an express bus. Like most all of the fans, we were wearing our orange Illini T-shirts. The express let us off just a block from the stadium. We got off the bus and within sight was a parade. It was the Illini Marching Band! How lucky could we get? So before walking to the stadium, we stood and waited for the band. We were probably within 5 feet of the closest band members as they walked by. The drum majors with their batons led the way, then came cheerleaders and other acrobats, and then came the band. It’s a huge band! And they made a huge sound! The flutes marched by, and then the clarinets and saxophones, lots and lots of trumpets, and then finally the tubas. I counted 25 tubas! I have to say, it was thrilling to watch that band march by as they made their grand entrance into the arena. If you didn’t know anything about football and what to expect in the stadium, just watching that band march on their way to the stadium would put your expectations into the stratosphere. This was going to be quite a show! The visiting Purdue team entered the stadium to the booing of the crowd. Then the Illini came in, and the crowd roared its appreciation. They clearly were the favorites! It was a great game! By the end of the first half, it was pretty clear that the Illini would win the game. During halftime, the marching band gave a stunning performance, after which the two teams entered again, ready for combat, but this time, things were different. Purdue quickly made up for a weak beginning and by the end of the second half the score was tied, 43 to 43. They went into overtime, the Illini scoring the first touchdown, followed by completing a field goal, making the score 50 to 43. Then Purdue got a touchdown and were poised to tie it up once again, but instead of kicking, they decided to run the field goal which would have won the game for them. But they didn’t make it and so Illinois won the game 50 to 49 and the crowd went wild. From start to finish, the game was like a huge drama of which even we in the stands were a part. The stars were the players, of course. Everyone was wearing clothes that fit their part. It had a plot. But the exciting part of the plot was that no one knew exactly how it would turn out. Have you ever thought about our corporate worship of Almighty God as a kind of drama? It really is, you know. Just like the football game, we are participants in the drama. In this drama of worship, we hear of how God has acted with his people in ages past as members of the Body of Christ read portions of scripture. We hear a rousing sermon from a priest who has been ordained by God to proclaim his Word. Sometimes we may even be moved by the scripture readings and sermon. We remember all those in need in prayer and we recall how we have failed in being faithful in the past, after which we are given absolution. Finally, we present bread and wine to be offered on the altar, and then we reenact Jesus’ sacrifice, as if we are actually at the cross as well as at the empty tomb. The climax of the drama is when we go forward to the altar ourselves and receive God into our lives anew through the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s a drama unlike any other. Everyone present is an actor—an actor, not as one playing a role but as one who acts. There is passion, humor, human failing, and human victory. I don’t know about you, but I am often moved by what happens in our worship. Just as I was really excited about the thought of going to the game a week ago, as Sunday draws near, I get excited about our getting together. Through it all, God is active, and his redemptive power is at work. From that great drama we go out and do the work of the Church—educate our children and youth in the faith, proclaim the Gospel to those who haven’t heard it, and serve those who are in need. It is the divine drama of which we are a part. It has tremendous consequences, eternal consequences, not only for us, but also for all of humanity. I give thanks for this community of faith, for what it has meant for past generations for over a hundred years, and for what it will mean for generations to come. But most of all, I give thanks for each one of you, for your faithfulness, your generosity, your passion for the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in this place and at this time. Today we’re starting the stewardship season that will end with the Ingathering of pledges on 17 November. As you think and pray about your gift to Emmanuel in 2025, think about what a great blessing we all have to be able to be here Sunday after Sunday, holy day after holy day, and whatever you decide to give, I hope it is in a spirit of thanksgiving for all of us being able to be part of this great drama of redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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After mass one Sunday, years ago, someone said to me, “Fr. Robinson, you spoke of Satan today as if he really exists. Do you really believe there is such a thing as the devil? I’ve always assumed that the devil is more of a metaphor than a reality; you know, kind of like angels.”
It’s not uncommon for someone to say something like this to me: “I don’t go to Church because I’m too much of a person of science to believe the major doctrines of the Church.” Many of you have probably heard the same thing from friends and relatives. Such things have been said about the supposed conflict between science and religion for at least a couple of hundred years, and before that it was between the supposed conflict between reason and faith. The major doctrines of the Christian faith have been basically the same since its beginning, but as we know, science changes and what was considered to be scientific truth a century ago, or even a year ago, can be overturned and completely the opposite of what science considers to be the truth today. For instance, in July 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot twice, in the arm and in the back, but neither wound was fatal. His doctors, acting on the medical science of the time, didn’t believe in the germ theory. His primary doctor, without washing his hands and certainly without having on any plastic gloves, simply reached into Garfield’s backwound and fished around until he found the bullet. Of course, the president eventually died from infection, eleven weeks later. It wasn’t long after that that medical science came to believe in the truth of the germ theory. The science changed, and medical science took a great leap forward. Furthermore, while science seeks to answer the questions what and how, it cannot answer why. That’s the realm of religion. Why is this world here? Why do I seek for ultimate meaning in my life? There have been scientists who have claimed that God doesn’t exist. They had no more proof for God’s nonexistence than we have proof for God’s existence, but that didn’t stop them from proclaiming their belief from the house tops, or better put, from the university lecture halls. One such atheist was Britain’s Antony Flew. Known by some as the world’s most renowned atheist, his writings in the latter half of the 20th century were used widely to support a scientific and philosophic view of a godless universe, supposedly based on the science of the time. Flew was a philosopher, not a scientist, but he based his atheism on the science of that time. Toward the beginning of this century, Flew reversed himself. He said that he looked back on that atheistic argument as a “historical relic” due to scientific research since 1966. Philosophers, he said, must contemplate the “argument from the order of nature to God as its Intelligent Orderer. He said this approach “becomes progressively more powerful with every advance in humankind’s knowledge of the integrated complexity” of nature. Furthermore, science has undergirded “the fine-tuning argument” for such an omnipotent intelligence: If the constants of physics were “to the very slightest degree different, then no planet capable of permitting the evolution of human life could have evolved.” Remember, this is Antony Flew, once known as the world’s most renowned atheist, who said this. Flew therefore considered it “reasonable” for followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam “to see the fine-tuning argument as providing substantial confirmation of” their belief in God – though he didn’t embrace those religions himself. Because of his change of mind, he became a strong, vocal advocate of public schools teaching the Intelligent Design theory of creation! So, persons who say they can’t believe in the teachings of Christianity because of science had better look at the science, because the science has changed, as science is wont to do! But throughout all of the changes of science, throughout all of the various periods of history, in good times and bad, in times of persecution of the faith and in times of wide acceptance, the truths of the Christian faith have remained constant, not the product of human reason or of science, but the product of that divine, omnipotent intelligence revealing himself to his people, and most fully in and through the person of Jesus Christ. Reason and science need not be in conflict with that revelation, yet that revelation transcends reason and science. Today we are celebrating the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. Angels have a prominent place in scripture and appear throughout Scripture in very important moments. An angel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would conceive and bear the Son of God. Angels announced his birth in Bethlehem to the shepherds. Angels ministered to our Lord after his temptation in the wilderness and during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were present at his resurrection, and in today’s Gospel Jesus foretells them ascending and descending on the Son of Man. While angels are not mentioned in the creeds, every time we celebrate the mass the Celebrant mentions that we are joining with angels and archangels in singing, "Holy, holy, holy," recalling that angels surround the throne of God in heaven and chant his praises continually. Angels are not people who have died, gone to heaven, and "gotten their wings." When we die, we remain people; we don't become angels. Angels were created by God just as people were created by God, although angels are pure spirit. Angels are probably one of those difficult things for some folks who feel that science contradicts religion, but once again, they may not be provable except through the eyes of faith, but they certainly are not disprovable either. The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels calls attention to the wonderful spiritual reality of angels in helping us and defending us on earth. This feast gives us a chance to give thanks for their ministry. Blessed Michael and All Angels watch over us this day and all of the days to come. |
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