L.A. preaching... [Father Kester's loosey-goosey Gospel]

http://onelacatholic.blogspot.com ^ | Wednesday, October 05, 2005 | Quintero

[Antioch]

From a "homily" given at St. Bede the Venerable Church in the affluent community of La Cañada.

I'm gonna give you a little bit of a trade secret here that we don't often mention from the pulpit. And that's something about Church law itself which says that Church law is to be applied more strictly the more generally it's applied and it's to be applied more loosely the more particularly, specifically, it's applied.

What that means is if I am standing up here and we have a discussion going, let's say, on birth control. As a Catholic priest I'm sort of obliged to uphold the teaching of the Church and say Humanae Vitae says you shouldn't practice birth control. I'm speaking very generally now to the whole congregation. If I get a couple in the office and they're explaining their medical problems, their financial problems, what's happening in their lives, specifically, then I should be very loose in how I interpret this rule and say, well, O.K. I understand your situation and your considerations and maybe we ought to set this rule aside in your instance.

If I am standing up here at the pulpit and we're talking about divorce and remarriage, I will say ... marriage is forever. You cannot get remarried unless you go through the annulment process. And then I have a couple come in and say, you know, Father, we have tried to get an annulment three or four times. We know that our first marriages were mistakes. We'd like to receive communion. Then I'd have to say O.K. I'm talking specifically. I'm not talking generally. Let's see does this rule really apply to you in your situation in life?

[Antioch]

A few more classic snippets from the mind of Fr. Kester as he expresses his divided conscience from the pulpit:

"...What do Jeffrey Dahmer, a garbage disposal and the Eucharist have in common?"

I have a condo out in Palm Springs that I own outright; the bank doesn't have any of it. And I've gotta a little nest egg put away and some days I think, you know, I'd just like to chuck it all, move out to Palm Springs permanently, tell off a few members of the hierarchy as I drive by ... um ... ah ... um ... and, you know, if I need to flip hamburgers for the rest of my life, so be it."

"[Those already baptized in another Christian faith] ... have to read this little thing that said 'I profess and believe all that the Catholic Church teaches and holds to be revealed by God.' I sat back there and I thought ... mmm ... [I'm] glad they didn't ask me to read that. I'd have to say ... I believe ... really ... a good part of it ... most of it [laughter]. I'm not sure I wanna stand up there and say I believe all [of it], everything."

"This last week we got a new pope ... The College of Cardinals gets together and they vote and we sort of saw a sneak peak of that during this past week of how it works. I am not going to lie to you and say that Ratzinger would have been my first choice among the 115 Cardinals gathered. He would not. He would not have been my 114th choice ... um."

The surest sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit among us is that we learn to love our enemies, that we reach out and invite everybody to be a part of our religion no matter what. Can you think of anybody that you do not want to be part of our faith? Is there anybody you want to exclude because of race or education or financial abilities or gender or Sexual orientation or whatever?

[OpusatFR]

"From a "homily" given at St. Bede the Venerable Church in the affluent community of La Cañada.."

Affluent. The World has him.

It's so easy when you have so much to believe in all the comfort and wealth and not in the fact that in this cosmos, there is a tiny earth set in a gigantic universe and one is not here for pleasure but to fight.

[marshmallow]

OK, put us out of our misery.

What's the profound answer to the Dahmer/garbage disposal/Eucharist question?

For those of us who have a morbid fascination with deranged clerics.

[marshmallow]

By the way, is that a blond rinse which the good pastor is sporting? Very tasteful.

Bruce must be pleased.

[Antioch]

From what I could sift through his babbling...

Father Kester began with an appalling anecdote about a young priest who is throwing consecrated hosts down the garbage disposal. Upon witnessing this sacrilege, the "old and crotchety" (i.e. faithful to the Magesterium) pastor, with a reputation for being mean (i.e. clear in Church teaching) to his people, screams at the young curate: "Stop that! What do you think you're doing? You can't grind up the Body of Christ!" The assistant brazenly retorts, "I will stop grinding up the Sacramental Body of Christ when you stop grinding up the Mystical Body of Christ."

Then Father Kester segues to the inevitable... "How do we treat one another? Do we treat each and every person we meet with the same respect we give to Jesus present in the Eucharist?" thus creating an entirely new idea that the Solemnity of the Eucharist is not about affirming the Church's faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it's about treating others with respect.

Fr. Kester then opined that our icky feelings when reading lurid news accounts of Jeffrey Dahmer's corpse-filled apartment is similar to the apostles feelings when they heard Christ at the last supper, proclaiming "this is my body, this is my blood."

[TotusTuus]

Another Priest who considers Faith and Morals as merely rules. Considering the time frame of his ordination as well as place, this is unsurprising.

I went to the blog and some of them were beginning to have some fun with his logic. It started with someone called 'Venerable Aussie' posting the following:

Imagine the uproar if he said this:

"If I am standing up here at the pulpit and we're talking about social justice, I will say that we must help the poor. The Church documents are very clear about this. And then I get a couple of rich folks in the office and I say to them, don't worry, I was only talking in a general sense, and I know you've worked hard for it, you deserve to do what you like, stuff the poor, and I tell them I understand your situation and views, and maybe we ought to set this rule aside in your instance."

As following posts at that blog stated, you could have a lot of fun playing this game.

[jec1ny]

You really need to post warning when sending up these kinds of articles. I just ate before reading this. Very Very Very bad...

[lastchance]

I guess the good father is confident that Jesus will be as divided in His Judgement as the father is in his public and private teachings. Why does this parish even need a Church? If all the priest of this parish does is reassure them that any choices they make are valid and can be easily justified with appeals to " what is right for them". Wouldn't sitting home and watching Oprah or the View accomplish the same thing? At least the rich young man had the sense to walk away when he realized he could not give away all he had as Christ instructed him. This priest would tell them give everything to a friend for safe keeping and have deposit all your money in a Trust.

[magisterium]

And, somehow, it's Fr. Kester's ilk that routinely accuses traditionalist and conservative Catholics of "pharisaism"!!!

Libera nos, Domine!