Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
1 Sam 3:3-10, 19; 1 Cor 6:13-15, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
18 Jan 2009

The readings today offer an abundance of riches with the Old Testament and the Gospel talking about God's calling Samuel and then Jesus calling the brothers Andrew and Simon, whom Jesus renamed Cephas or Peter (which means rock).  In both cases they answered the call.

In between those readings we have an excerpt from Paul's first letter to the Christians of Corinth warning them against fornication and explaining the sacred nature of the human body.

Either of the two themes merits a full sermon, so I must try to tie the two themes together in some way, rather than doubling the length of my normal Sunday message!

Corinth could be described as a "modern" type of city, because it was a port and renowned for the laxity of its sexual morals.  However we should remember the other side of that coin, because Paul was unable to found a Christian Church in Athens.  We have no letter to the Athenians, but he was able to start a flourishing, if difficult and lively, worshipping community in the port.  Both sin and grace were to be found in Corinth.

We could also claim that the prophet Samuel, who anointed the first two kings of Israel Saul and then David (about 1000B.C.), was also in some sense a modern type of person, because when God called him he heard the call from the beginning, but never thought for a moment that it was from God.  He thought that it was Eli, his companion in the Sanctuary who was calling.  By way of explanation we are told in this passage that "Samuel had as yet no knowledge of the Lord as the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him".

Most people today would not dream that God has a plan for them as individuals.  Too many have little awareness that God is even interested in them.

Some religiously interested people do fear that God does have a plan for them and do not want to cooperate.  Sometimes men and women battle for years against a vocation to the priesthood, or religious life, or entering one of the new communities.  They are a minority.  Samuel was completely different from this, because he was totally willing to do as asked, but he did not recognize God's voice and Eli had to explain who was calling and how to reply.

We are all shaped by the ideas that surround us even when we know nothing about the origins of the notions we take for granted.  Let me give some examples.  Before September 11 many Australians claimed to believe one religion was as good as another.  The terrorists have caused a rewrite here!  Many Australians also feel they have a right to decide their own personal morality, especially in matters of sexuality.  Many are moral relativists even when they are not sure what relativism means.  In the nineteenth century the philosopher Nietzsche, whose ideas were taken up by the Nazis, wrote "there are no facts, only interpretations".  More recently another thinker Jacques Derrida wrote "there's nothing outside the text".

We seem to have strayed a long way from today's readings about Samuel, Paul, Andrew and Peter and it is time to return.

Through the Jews, and especially through Our Lord Jesus and the Church, God has given us a plan for living and this plan certainly includes marriage, family and the enrichment and regulation of sexuality.  Christians are not anti-sex, believing that the sexual dimension to life is precious and needs to be protected and directed.  Christian moral teaching is not just a list of prohibitions, but forms a coherent positive theory of life, which aids human flourishing and personal happiness.

God calls most people to married life and the package of Christian teaching is directed towards building life long marriages between a man and a woman.  Sexual activity should take place within marriage and for the marriage.

Christians are not free to make up their own rules about marriage and family.  When increasing numbers completely disregard these traditional Christian norms we have huge increases in misery and even degradation, especially when alcohol, drugs and pornography come into the scene.

Neither the Church nor the Lord wants to discourage people because they are weak and imperfect, but we must hang onto the notion that there is a correct way of living in matters sexual, centred on marriage and family and we must continue to strive to meet this ideal.

When a husband and wife make love they are reaffirming their marriage vows.  If the couple are not yet married, or both participants are unmarried or they are breaking their marriage vows through adultery (a worse sin), the spiritual significance of the act is missing, the Spirit is not with the agents.  In a certain sense they are violating their hearts and bodies.

Once again I repeat that the Church is not only for the perfect, who do not exist, but as Christians we should not think like many around us that anything goes, as some claim "everyone is doing it".

I was discussing what we might say about these readings with a couple of the young Cathedral priests and both recounted that when they have explained the Christian teaching on sexuality, especially on not living together before marriage, listeners have complained later that "they were out of touch".

It is always useful to remember that the Church does not exist to go along with the fashions of the day, especially when they are mistaken and damaging, but to teach what Christ taught.

For the moment these Christian teachings are (in part) quite unpopular although the overwhelming majority continues to believe in the institution of marriage.  Love is at the heart of Christian teaching on sex, as in every other area, and love implies forgiveness and perseverance, which enrich the lives of individuals, communities and generations.

We must strive to discover and follow the truths about human living and not deceive ourselves into thinking we can make up our own rules.  This is damaging.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen