TWO HERESIES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE HOMILY

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Two heresies for the price of one homily: that was the deal, I heard, at a Sunday Mass this morning in a church of the Palmerston North Diocese. I won't waste time mentioning it to Bishop Charles Drennan, but other people might be interested, so here goes: 

The Gospel of course was the narrative of the Marriage Feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-11). Apparently, the congregation was told, the water with which those six water-pots were filled by the waiters did not change into wine until it was "poured out". The priest's thesis - as far as it could be made out - was that what we children of God are filled with is not the wine of grace but the water of human nature, and the latter doesn't become the wine of grace until it is "poured out to others".  

There are two difficulties in that beguiling notion. Father had already told the congregation that they were filled with the Holy Spirit at baptism. So what happens to the Holy Spirit after that and before He gets "poured out to others"? Where does He go? 

And the metaphor of the Holy Spirit being "poured out" when we do good works (presumably, although that wasn't clarified) is kind of spoiled by the actual words of Jesus, who doesn't speak of 'pouring out'. What Jesus told the waiters was, "draw (water) out". Are our good works drawn out of us? I don't think so. They are given freely, or they're not good works.

The second difficulty (or third?) in the Holy Spirit being changed from the water of human nature into the wine of grace only if and when we "pour It out to others" is that we must pour ourselves out firstly to God. That's the First Commandment, and the Second, "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is the Second for very good reason - that if we put neighbor first we make him a god.

Oh but, you say, we're supposed to "love one another as I have loved you". Exactly. Jesus loves his Father first, and loves us because of the Father. Remember, He said: "I have come to do Your will" and the Father's will is that He love us. Of course, because Jesus is God and God is Love, He can't help loving us. But we're not like that. We're not Love. We can love one another as He has loved us only by loving the Father as He loves the Father.

How uppity I am, you might well say. And picky. But I call Pope Leo XIII  to my defence.

Pope Leo stated that "All faithful Christians … we entreat, by the compassion of Jesus Christ, and enjoin by the authority of the same God and Saviour, that they bring aid to ward off and eliminate … errors fron Holy Mother Church, and contribute their zealous help in spreading abroad the light of undefiled faith.

…"In propagating Christian truth and warding off errors, the zeal of the laity should, as far as possible, be brought actively into play".