Rev Michael Docherty's Sermon – Sunday 12th October 2003

Texts: Wisdom 7:7-11, Psalm 89:12-17 R v.14, Hebrews 4:12-13, Mark 10:17-30

The Catholic Church in this country, is on the eve of a new persecution. It will not be a persecution that will send us to the scaffold to be hanged, drawn and quartered; nor one where our property will be confiscated and handed over to others; priests will not be arrested as they travel to celebrate the Mass. There will be no need for us to gather in isolated fields to receive Holy Communion and we won't be fined for refusing to pray from the Book of Common Prayer. Yet the Church and its members will face an attack from many quarters because of what it is and what it stands for. In many ways this attack against the Church has begun already.

This new persecution is a consequence of the rise in our country of a false sense of tolerance which in reality is purely indifference: a tolerance which says 'I don't care about you - do what you want'. We are targets because we are perceived as being intolerant. We are intolerant when we speak out for the unborn child being killed throughout the towns and cities of this land, against a trend which sees permissiveness as the norm, where our children are robbed of their chance to be children and are corrupted by a media obsessed with sex and scandal, a land where same-sex unions are starting to be equated with the dignity of marriage. Because we refuse to accept a morality based on the axiom - do what you want, when you want, to whom you want, we are condemned: we're out of touch, old fashioned, irrelevant, above all intolerant. Yet for us to remain silent in the face of sin is not to show tolerance - it is to say 'I will stand by while you harm yourself', 'I'll just watch while you become trapped into a spiral which will lead you away from happiness instead of towards it'. For not remaining silent, our expression of the gospel is dismissed as indoctrination, oppression, the denial of the rights of the individual. Yet, in truth it is motivated by the commandment of love - it is an expression of Christ's love, a love which wants all people to be happy.

When they are not attacking us for our belief in the true value of the human person, that all people are called to live a life of happiness, they turn against our institutions. The recent attitude of the BBC demonstrates this. They have commissioned and will soon broadcast a cartoon which lampoons the successor of Peter. We see it in the bias Radio 4 has shown in its interviews with our Cardinal; in its view that all priests are 'bad' despite the faithful service given and holy lives lead by 99.9% of priests throughout this land. It is not limited to the BBC, even our own MP's and Euro-MP's deny the relevance of the gospel and the Church founded by Christ through their refusal to endorse an amendment to the European Constitution recognising God's plan for humanity, by denying the part the gospel and Christianity has played in shaping Europe.

What should we do? Should we show despair, should we give in, should we compromise the message of the gospel in order to avoid this persecution?

The community Mark is writing for faced similar questions: they were hated for their belief in Christ, for daring to proclaim his gospel of true freedom - they were dragged off and murdered in public spectacles in order to entertain the masses. Should they compromise their faith and choose the easy life, free themselves from the shadow of persecution by walking into the shadows of obscurity, denying or watering down the faith to enable them to live their lives in comfort ?

Mark reminds them of Christ's encounter with the rich young man to give them courage to live as His disciples in the face of persecution. He was a good man, respected by his peers. He lived out the commandments in obedience to the Law - but he was not satisfied that he lived a holy life, despite the blessing of wealth that God had given him. He comes to Christ to decide the direction his life should go. The encounter is one of the most intimate moments in the gospels. Jesus sees his goodness and loves him, he wants the best for him. He gives the man a choice. He is invited to commit himself totally to the difficult life of a disciple, to free himself of wealth in order to become a servant of the gospel, to live for others not just himself, and in turn receive a generous reward, the promise to be repaid a hundred times over for giving up his wealth, his house, brothers, sisters, fathers, children or land in order to be a servant of the kingdom. To live his life without comfort and security, filled with challenges, problems, even persecution: a life which could only be lived without the trappings of wealth, privilege and power. A life completely at the service of others. Despite his goodness, when faced with this choice his face changes - his joy at finding Christ is turned to sadness, the stark reality of the life he is being offered horrifies him, so he chooses another way - the way of compromise, the easy life, the good life.

In responding to the challenges we face at the start of this third millennium, the criticisms we face, the hostility that is shown towards us, we too stand before Christ. As that same Church Mark wrote for, we too ask the question 'Good master, what must we do?' The choice is before us - do we compromise and go with the flow, avoiding persecution? Or do we stick with the gospel and swim against a turbulent tide? In our daily encounters at home or at work, do we compromise or do we pass on the message in all its fullness?

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