Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, bishop and Doctor of the Church

(I Timothy 1:15-17; Luke 6:43-49)

(This homilette is written for the sixtieth anniversary reunion of Fenwick High School, Oak Park, Illinois).

George Weigel is a American Catholic intellectual who has written a commentary on Church affairs for almost 50 years.  His most recent column resonated with some of my concerns about social issues.  He had just returned from a summer teaching in Europe and could not believe the amount of hot air created by the Cracker Barrell logo issue.  For any of us who may not be aware of it, Cracker Barrel briefly removed from its logo the image of a white man and was criticized for caving in to wokery.  Weigel called the issue “absurd” and listed multiple reasons.

Weigel wrote that the Ukraine is being brutalized by Russia and looks to the U.S. for support while the U.S. obsesses over the Cracker Barrel logo.  Additionally, the Scholastic Aptitude Test designers have decided that “It’s asking too much of a generation whose attention spans have been formed by, X, Facebook, and Instagram to comprehend a 750 word text … and now ask wannabe college students to demonstrate mastery of 25-150 texts.” Meanwhile Americans obsess over the Cracker Barrel logo.  The Centers for Disease Control reports that one in four American teenagers self-identify as “LGBTQ” while the American Pediatric Association protests over legal restraints on the mutilation of adolescent and Americans are up in arms over the Cracker Barrel logo.  Weigel lists a number of other follies prominent today, but one more will do for here. Texas and California are taking gerrymandering to a new extreme of injustice that only undermines confidence in democracy and people fixate on the Cracker Barrel logo.

In today’s gospel Jesus says that “a good tree does not bear rotten fruit.”  We 1965 graduates of Fenwick have been nurtured by our parents, our teachers, and many other influencers to be good trees.  We must continue to bear good fruit by passing on the wisdom we have gained to the present generation of young men and women.  To be sure, we at 78 years of age are not the primary shapers of their lives.  But we can and should model and support just ways of living in the world.  Every year it’s more obvious that our society has become more narcissistic, more intolerant, and more careless.  We should do what we can to return the world to its proper orbit of peace with justice.  We have much to be grateful for.  Let us express that gratitude to both God and neighbor by coaching young men and women to reconsider what Christ has taught in the gospel.  We might also mention what he said about his judgment for eternity.