Cardinal cites St. Paul, St. Thomas More as models of courage

This is the text of Cardinal O'Connor's homily at Sunday Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral Oct. 25.

Welcome to all of you from wherever you come on this Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Let us, before all else, determine to remember in this Mass and in our continuing prayers Dr. Barnett Slepian who was killed in Buffalo and Mr. Matthew Shepard who was killed in Wyoming. Dr. Slepian was reportedly killed for performing abortions and Mr. Shepherd for professing himself to be a homosexual. Any kind of reprisals against any such individuals is, of course, abhorrent and totally alien to Catholic teaching and must be condemned by peoples of all good will. Let us remember those who have been killed. Outrage is not enough. Prayers are imperative.

Since a number of you here are curious, I know, (and through no fault of its own there have been conflicting stories in the press), let me tell you my understanding of what has made it possible, in addition to the grace of God, for Orlando Hernandez' family to be here, his family who until a few days ago were in Cuba.

There is enough credit to go around, but the individuals who were indispensable in this were Mr. Hernandez himself, who wrote a letter asking that President Castro be contacted in behalf of his family. So the initial request came from him. The one to be credited secondly is President Castro, who responded very quickly to Mr. Hernandez' request. He not only authorized that the family come here to the United States, but stated explicitly through his Ambassador to the United Nations, who also deserves much credit, that the family is free to return to Cuba if it so desires. Thirdly, Mr. George Steinbrenner is to be credited. When asked to tell El Duque that his family would be free to come to the United States, he said first, that he would inform El Duque, and secondly, that he would make an airplane available in Miami to bring the family to the New York area. Fourthly, a telephone call was made to the director of the FBI, Mr. Louis Freeh, and contact was made with Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno, who, with equal graciousness, authorized the family to enter the United States. Finally, credit is due to Mr. Mario Paredes, who delivered El Duque's message to President Castro, notified the family and accompanied them to New York. So we are grateful to all involved.

Because the family does not speak English to my knowledge, I will speak to them in Spanish: "Todos ustedes: Señor Hernández y su familia, especialmente la madre, bienvenidos, bienvenidos a esta iglesia que es su catedral. Esta catedral es su catedral. Algunos dicen que esta Misa se celebra en honor de El Duque. No es verdad. Ustedes saben que no es verdad. Ustedes entienden. Esta Misa no se celebra en honor de El Duque. Se celebra en honor a Dios. Y estamos aqui para agradecer a Dios por hacer posible el que ustedes esten aqui en esta catedral y por ustedes estar en los Estados Unidos. Entonces, gracias, gracias Dios."

(Some may have read in the newspapers that this Mass is in honor of El Duque and his family. The Mass is in honor of Almighty God, of course. But we thank Almighty God for making it possible for the entire family to be here. They are well aware of that.)

Today's second reading is from the letter of St. Paul, imprisoned and very close to death, to Timothy. This letter is one of the most beautiful that St. Paul ever wrote. Let me go back to the introduction to the portion read today. St. Paul says to Timothy:

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as king, I solemnly urge you to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it, whether convenient or inconvenient, whether the time is right or not right, to convince, reproach and encourage as you teach with all patience.

"The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends. But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances, endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the good news and perform your whole duty as a servant of God." [2 Tim. 4:1-5]

St. Paul's reminder to Timothy is so very much like those words that I never forget, that I once heard uttered by the famous Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, "What the world needs is a voice that is right not when the world is right, but a voice that is right when the world is wrong." St. Paul says it is not a question of whether people like what you say or do not like what you say. You must preach the gospel. You must preach the truth. You must preach it when you feel like doing it, when you do not feel like doing it. You must preach it when people are applauding and when people are booing.

Then St. Paul goes on to say, making clear that he knows his death is near:

"I am already being poured out like a libation. [His head is going to be cut off and his blood is going to drench the ground.] The time of my dissolution is near. I have kept the faith. [Now what wonderful words.] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on a merited crown awaits me; on that day the Lord, just judge that he is, will award it to me--and not only to me but to all who have looked for his appearing with eager longing. [A reminder of the potential beauty of death, not to be afraid of it. If we have fought the good fight, if we have kept the faith then the beautiful life is waiting for us. All the tears will be wiped away.]

"At the first hearing of my case in court, no one took my part. In fact, everyone abandoned me. May it not be held against them! But the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength, so that through me the preaching task might be completed and all the nations might hear the gospel. That is how I was saved from the lion's jaws. The Lord will continue to rescue me from all attempts to do me harm and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen."

What a wonderful example of courage! St. Paul was lonely. He was imprisoned in Rome in a very cold, stone cell. He was well aware of being lonely. He felt abandoned. But he knew his task was to encourage Timothy, to encourage the infant Church. "Do not be afraid," words that are so often used by Pope John Paul II. Trust in the Lord. He says, "I have fought the good fight," that is, I have done what I was sent to do. I have done what I was created to do.

Again, I can never forget for a moment those words from the old Catechism repeated in more complex fashion in the new Catechism. "Why did God make me?" "God made me to know him, to love him and to serve him in this life and to be happy with him forever in the next." If we fail in that we fail in everything. St. Paul says, "I have fought the good fight." I did what I came to do.

There is a relatively new book with an interesting title, a strange title in a sense, "The Spirituality of Imperfection." The intention of the writer is very good, and I am sure that the book can be helpful to many people, reminding us that we all slip and fall, that we are not perfect in this world, that we are only human beings, surrounded by temptations. So the author says we have to develop a spirituality of imperfection, a spirituality that recognizes our weakness. Fine, as far as it goes.

But Christ said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." No one knows our weaknesses better than he does. No one is more compassionate to us than is he, more merciful, more gentle. But Christ does not encourage us to be imperfect, does not encourage us to sin. He does not encourage us to excuse ourselves constantly, but to lift ourselves up. We were born for perfection. We are not going to reach it here. That is possible only in eternity. But we always must be working toward it. We must always be trying to actualize our own potential. We all have to try to be better than we think we are or than we think we can be.

I do not want to idolize the Yankees or any individual like El Duque or any one else, but can you imagine a Joe Torre or George Steinbrenner getting a team together in the locker room and saying, "Now boys, go out and play real nice and have a lot of fun. Do not hurt yourselves. Do not tire yourselves out. It is only a game." Of course not! Why any team wins any ball game, when any team wins the World Series, naturally there is a lot of mystery attached, a lot of right decisions at a given time. But nothing would work if the players did not pour themselves out, if it were not ferociously meaningful to every one of them. Yet this is ultimately a game, a game in which there are high stakes, a game in which a lot of money is involved, a game in which the material rewards can be great for those who seek perfection, for those who achieve as close to perfection on the ball field as perhaps there is possible in this life, but still a game. The reward is monetary. How about us who are created to carry out the will of Almighty God, who are created to know and to serve God, to love God and to be happy with him forever in heaven? Don't we have to strive constantly for perfection? What happens if we don't?

Anyone who is an addict or an alcoholic, any one who is in a habitual state of sin, will tell you that we let ourselves become convinced that we are no good, that we are so bad that even God can not love us. So what is the use? If we have the name we may as well have the game. If we are not going to succeed in being sober we may as well get as drunk as can be. If we are not going to succeed in being chaste, pure, holy, then we may as well wallow in the mud. And so we drink or we sin or we do whatever it may be, instead of always trying to actualize this wonderful potential that God has given us, because we know that God loves us, that God has this magnificent reward waiting for us and because we know this is what God sent us to do--to fight the good fight, to complete the course, to run the race.

How many a poor, sad wife who loses her husband or a husband who loses his wife feels there is nothing left, parents lose their child, a child loses a father, a mother loses a loved one. "I have nothing now so I am nothing. I do not want to go on. I do not want to try any longer."

The word discouraged is very interesting, isn't it? The French word coeur means heart and dis means separated from. So when we are discouraged, we are separated from our hearts. We are the ones who let that happen. We do not have to live in discouragement. We do not have to live in despair. That is not the way you dare to get into a little boat and sail off to the land of your dreams, as Orlando Hernandez did.

There is a new book about Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd reviewed in the current New York Times Book Review, which I read during the night. The conclusion of the book, worth looking at, is so very much like the conclusion of the life of St. Paul.

"The steps of the scaffold were not firm and one of the officers present steadied [Thomas More] as he climbed to the block. 'When I come down again,' More is supposed to have said, 'let me shift for myself as well as I can.' [This was a man who was not afraid of death, a man who never lost his sense of humor because he knew what he had done, what he had to do. He had to face up to the king and had to tell the king, 'You are wrong. You can not do this. This is immoral.' So he did it knowing the consequences.] He asked the crowd 'to bear witness with him that he should now there suffer death in and for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church,'.... '[He] asked the bystanders to pray for him in this world, and he would pray for them elsewhere. He then begged them earnestly to pray for the King, that it might please God to give him good counsel, protesting that he died the King's good servant but God's first.' He knelt down before the block and recited the worlds of the psalm which begins 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness.'

"Then he rose and, according to custom, the executioner now knelt to beg his pardon and his blessing; characteristically the 'headsman' wore a close-fitting robe of scarlet wool with a mask and 'horn shaped hat' of the same vivid colour. More kissed him, and is reported to have said, 'Thou wilt give me this day a greater benefit than ever any mortal man can be able to give me. Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short: take heed, therefore, thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty.' ...Edward Hall was one of the under-sheriffs of the City in this year and, in his Chronicles, he adds the incident in which Thomas More asked the executioner not to sever his beard...

"More knelt down and the executioner offered to bind his eyes; but he refused and covered his face with a linen cloth he had carried with him. Then he lay down with his neck upon the block, his arms stretched out before him. He was killed with one stroke of the axe and, when the head had fallen into the straw, the executioner picked it up and displayed it to the crowds with the shout, 'Behold the head of a traitor!' The corpse was taken to the church of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower, where, in the presence of some of the family, it was interred. His head was boiled, impaled upon a pole and raised above London Bridge. So ended the life of Thomas More, one of the few Londoners upon whom sainthood has been conferred and the first English layman to be beatified as a martyr."

I think if St. Thomas More were here today he would say to the President of the United States, "I am highly pleased that you are outraged at the killing of the doctor for purportedly performing abortions. We are all outraged. The Church is outraged. The Church hopes and prays that such stupid, tragic killings will end. The Church denounces all such killings and condemns all such killings. No matter how many abortions are performed two wrongs do not make a right, 2,000 wrongs do not make a right." But while I believe Thomas More would commend the President of the United States for being outraged, I suspect he would also ask the President of the United States, "Please, Mr. President, be outraged at the killing of those babies almost out of their mothers' wombs who are put to death by what we politely call partial-birth abortion."