Bellarmine University
"Do You Want to Leave
Too"
Rev. Ronald Knott
August 23, 2015
Many of his disciples no longer
accompanied him, so Jesus
asked, "Do you want to leave
too?" Simon Peter answered
him, saying, "Master, to whom would
we go?"
John 6:60-69
Many people tell me that I'm nuts for
being a Catholic priest. I hadn't been ordained but a day when the first person
came out of nowhere to challenge me on this. I have told this story many times
before, but it immediately comes to mind when I read this gospel. It happened
at one of the receptions, following my first Mass.
I was standing there in my new black suit
and Roman collar - a little proud of myself - when all of a sudden a stranger
approached me and stuck a pin in my balloon. "I can't imagine anyone as
intelligent as you seem to be would still be a Catholic, must less become a
priest! I got out of all that craziness a long time ago!"
I stood there, shocked, like I had been
shot at close range as she went down her well-rehearsed list of things wrong
with the Church. When she finished, she disappeared into the crowd, never to be
heard from again - at least that is what I thought.
Like me, St. Peter must have been
challenged many times about his decision to stay that day, when so many others
walked away because of Jesus teaching on the "bread of life" because
he writes many years later, in the first of his two letters, "Always be
ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence." (I Peter 3:15,16) When I am
challenged, I try to follow his advice.
That first happened when I was 26. I am
now 71. At 71, I agree wholeheartedly with Peter. "To whom would I
go?" I have been offered a lot of so-called alternatives, I recognize more
problems in our Church than most of you, but I can say this much in all
honesty. I haven't seen anything yet that I would trade all this for! In the
language of gospel music, I wouldn't take nothin' for my Jesus, his Church, and
the work he has called me to do!
Students! One of the most important
questions facing you in your young adulthood is, "Why do you stay in the
Church?" Why do you choose to remain Catholic, when so many others your
age are walking away? I am sure many of you have been challenged seriously, maybe
even in an angry way. Maybe you have considered it. Maybe you have even tried
it for a while. Maybe you remain because you are scared not to. Maybe you hang
in there just to please your parents.
Well, let me tell you something. I was not
"assigned" here by the bishop. I don't have to do this. I have plenty
of other jobs - too many jobs, in fact. But I want to be here and I choose to
do this because I want to help you be able to give yourselves, and those who
question you, reasons to stay in the Church so that you do not "walk
away," or worse, just "drift away."
Yes, you heard me - "help give you
reasons to stay in the Church." There are many people today who claim they
want to be "spiritual, but not religious." Archbishop Dolan of New
York described them this way, "They want to believe without belonging.
They want to be sheep without a shepherd. They want to be part of a family, but
they want to be an only child." The fact of the matter is, Jesus founded a
church on Peter, one of those who did not walk away, and Jesus promised that
"the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" and that he would
"be with it always, until the end of time." The truth of the matter
is, we are not individually children of God, we are each part of God's family
with many children and, as a family, we are called to be our brothers and
sisters keepers - to be responsible to, and for, each other. We are in this
together!
Melanie, Karen and I want to help you move
from an inherited faith, to a personal faith. We find many of you you deeply
spiritual, sometimes ravenously so, and we want to help you in your process of
knowing God, loving God and serving God. We also want you to feel valued and
appreciated by the Church - so hang in there with the rest of us who are on a
serious spiritual journey. Each week, as I preach, I will try to help you find
answers when "someone asks you for a reason for your hope," and, yes,
I will try to do it "with gentleness and reverence."
By the way, the woman who challenged me
forty-five years ago contacted me a couple of years back to apologize and to
tell me that she had returned to the Church and was absolutely loving it for
the first time in her life. As that great "theologian," Yogi Berra
put it, "It ain't over till it's over."
If you do go away, for whatever reason, we
want you to know that we will always leave a light on for you so you can find
your way back. Like the father of the prodigal son, we will be waiting on the
porch.
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