Trinity Sunday - Disciple of Jesus, Harrison Butker

 

This weekend is special for us, since it’s Holy Trinity Sunday, our parish feast day.

Before the fall, Adam and Eve had original justice. They had perfect control of their memory, will and intellect. They had perfect union with God. It was the possession of sanctifying grace with a right to enter heaven and they had preternatural gifts.

But due to original sin, by eating the forbidden fruit, they seriously broke their relationship with God.

Before Jesus came into the world, God had not yet revealed Himself as three persons. No one knew there is and has always been God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

    But, at the annunciation, when the angel appeared to the Virgin Mary, God revealed Himself as a Trinity of persons. The Virgin Mary was the first person to come to know God is three persons.

Revelation of the Trinity also happened at the Baptism of Jesus and at His Transfiguration. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He commanded His apostles, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism washes away original sin and all personal sin. Through baptism, we become a child of God, a member of God’s family, the divine life of God is restored and the Blessed Trinity comes to dwell within our heart.

All are baptized as a disciple of Jesus, but do we follow Him as well as we ought? Do we witness to others as one of His disciples?

Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, helped his team win two super bowls, wasn’t afraid to declare to others that he is a disciple of Jesus during his commencement speech at Benedictine College in Atchinson, a few weeks ago. The college, founded by Benedictine Sisters, was formerly, not so Catholic. The sisters who used to run the school over the years, like so many other religious orders, became very liberal and discontinued wearing their habit and consequently, no longer have any vocations. They are one of few Catholic groups who criticized Harrison Butker for his speech.

However, over the past 20 years, the college has grown immensely building dorms and halls for their classes due to many young traditional Catholics who attend it.

Harrison was baptized Catholic, but discontinued practicing his faith and later in his life, once he returned, he took to heart, his role, as a disciple of Christ.

I believe it’s important for you to hear much of his speech, so that you become aware of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Over 200,000 signed a petition wanting him to be fired. There is serious conflict between the Church and the world. But, what was so controversial about the speech?

In my opinion, his graduation speech was an exhortation to bishops, priests, and to the graduate women and men of the college to live out their vocations. He’s only 28 yrs. old, has no degree in Theology, but has a personal relationship with the Blessed Trinity through prayer and the sacraments. What I will do is quote much from his speech and then periodically give my commentary about each topic.

He began speaking about COVID, moral issues, and spoke about President of the US. He said, “While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique. Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder. Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice. He is not alone. From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common. They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone- doesn’t cut it.”

Now my commentary: Most people expect a priest to speak about moral issues in life, but they seldom do. So when a football player mentions these at a commencement speech, people pay attention.

He pointed out, how prominent Catholics failed to be a witness to their faith. But instead, scandalize others by their words and actions. How can a Catholic in good conscience, make the sign of the cross, when promoting abortion. By doing so, it makes the Catholic faith a mockery. It is a travesty Catholics, by name only, are scandalizing the world, rather then evangelizing, as a true disciple of Jesus ought. He makes very good points, that most bishops fail to do.

Harrison spoke of the failure of being a disciple of Christ, when he said, “But if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the 'church of nice' is a winning proposition. We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice.” “As members of the church founded by Jesus Christ, it is our duty and ultimately privilege to be authentically and unapologetically Catholic. Don’t be mistaken, even within the Church, people in polite Catholic circles will try to persuade you to remain silent.”

My commentary: “Church of nice” means to never say anything that would offend anyone. Never to make waves. Always to keep peace, at all cost, even if it means to fail to speak the truth or defend it. But is really false mercy because to be truly merciful is to tell the truth to help others obtain heaven, even, if at first, one may not want to hear what is said.

He said, “Our Catholic faith has always been counter-cultural. Our Lord, along with countless followers, were all put to death for their adherence to her teachings. The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We fear speaking truth, because now, unfortunately, truth is in the minority. Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.”

My Commentary: By these words he is describing what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus and to be persecuted and perhaps die for the Church’s teachings.

Harrison goes on to describe some problems with priests. He said, “The bishops and priests appointed by God as our spiritual fathers must be rightly ordered. There is not enough time today for me to list all the stories of priests and bishops misleading their flocks, but none of us can blame ignorance anymore and just blindly proclaim that, 'That’s what Father said.' Because sadly, many priests we are looking to-- for leadership are the same ones who prioritize their hobbies or even photos with their dogs and matching outfits for the parish directory. It’s easy for us laymen and women to think that in order for us to be holy, that we must be active in our parish and try to fix it. Yes, we absolutely should be involved in supporting our parishes, but we cannot be the source for our parish priests to lean on to help with their problems. Just as we look at the relationship between a father and his son, so too should we look at the relationship between a priest and his people. It would not be appropriate for me to always be looking to my son for help when it is my job as his father to lead him. St. Josemaría Escrivá states that priests are ordained to serve, and should not yield to temptation to imitate laypeople, but to be priests through and through. Tragically, so many priests revolve much of their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners, and in searching for this, they let their guard down and become overly familiar. This undue familiarity will prove to be problematic every time, because as my teammate’s girlfriend says, 'Familiarity breeds contempt.' Saint Josemaría continues that some want to see the priest as just another man. That is not so. They want to find in the priest those virtues proper to every Christian, and indeed every honorable man: understanding, justice, a life of work — priestly work, in this instance — and good manners.” “Plus, there are still many good and holy priests, and it’s up to us to seek them out.”

My commentary: Here Harrison highlights how some priests are not leading their flock. But rather, lay people are attempting to do it because the priests aren’t leading as they should, but this is problematic. Over the years, I have seen a trend of many priests acquiring pets, especially dogs. 20 years ago, when I was ordained, there was only 1 priest, who I knew had a dog, but now, many do. There is nothing objectively wrong with having a pet, but a priest shouldn’t turn to a pet to give him happiness and consolation and using an animal to satisfy a passing happiness, instead of turning to Jesus. There is a temptation for priests to avoid making waves, out of fear of not being liked and, therefore, refrains from speaking the fullness of truth.

Suppose a man has been a priest for 40 years and built a magnificent church. But, he admitted to never mentioning contraception or abortion in a homily in 40 yrs. He believed if he mentioned these topics people wouldn’t donate to the church. And so, the beautiful church, in the end, was built on souls who may never go to heaven and built on babies who died because the truth was never proclaimed. This is reality today.

The reason why priests don’t speak the fullness of truth is because if they do, those who disagree with the Catholic faith, will complain to their bishop, and, the bishop, rather than standing up for the teachings of the Church and defending the priest, will cower to complaining parishioners. Some bishops tell priests to stop preaching about topics that make waves. But, by doing so, they don’t seem to care for the salvation of parishioners and they desire a false peace.

I know a priest who preached on contraception and abortion only four out of 156 Sunday homilies. And the bishop told the priest to stop preaching on these subjects.

Some priests are canceled by their bishop, and not given an assignment, because the bishop doesn’t want priests to preach the fullness of truth, for fear of upsetting the pro-abortion, pro-contraceptors, who tithe. Priests are afraid to speak the truth, out of fear of getting canceled.

I watched a video with Fr. Don Calloway, a priest of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, on Eucharistic Revival. He admitted to being afraid to preach on the Eucharist for fear of being canceled. He said if he gets canceled, he will just go back to the beech.

Harrison Butker spoke about bishops. He said, “The chaos of the world is unfortunately reflected in the chaos in our parishes, and sadly, in our cathedrals too. As we saw during the pandemic, too many bishops were not leaders at all. They were motivated by fear, fear of being sued, fear of being removed, fear of being disliked. They showed by their actions, intentional or unintentional, that the sacraments don’t actually matter. Because of this, countless people died alone, without access to the sacraments, and it’s a tragedy we must never forget. As Catholics, we can look to so many examples of heroic shepherds who gave their lives for their people, and ultimately, the Church.” “But in each of those examples, Church leaders leaned into their vocations and ensured that their people received the sacraments. Great saints like St. Damien of Molokai, who knew the dangers of his ministry, stayed for 11 years as a spiritual leader to the leper colonies of Hawaii. His heroism is looked at today as something set apart and unique, when ideally it should not be unique at all. For as a father loves his child, so a shepherd should love his spiritual children, too. That goes even more so for our bishops, these men who are present-day apostles. Our bishops once had adoring crowds of people kissing their rings and taking in their every word, but now relegate themselves to a position of inconsequential existence. Now, when a bishop of a diocese or the bishop’s conference as a whole puts out an important document on this matter or that, nobody even takes a moment to read it, let alone follow it. No. Today, our shepherds are far more concerned with keeping the doors open to the chancery than they are with saying the difficult stuff out loud. It seems that the only time you hear from your bishops is when it’s time for the annual appeal, whereas we need our bishops to be vocal about the teachings of the Church, setting aside their own personal comfort and embracing their cross. Our bishops are not politicians but shepherds, so instead of fitting in the world by going along to get along, they too need to stay in their lane and lead.”

My commentary: I don’t believe Harrison was condemning all bishops, but was trying to give voice to the faithful, who were hurt by bishops failing to stand up for the truth and failing to be concerned about the salvation of souls, especially during COVID.

If we place our selves in the shoes of the bishops during COVID, they had no idea what it was about, and relied on “medical experts” to guide them in their decisions. Yet, they abandoned the faithful when they needed the sacraments and pastoral care the most.

Harrison’s bishop, Bishop James Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, defended him, saying, “Harrison Butker’s passion for his Catholic faith and his family are beautiful and well known. And like most people, he also has strong opinions on where we are as a Church and as a nation.” “The Catholic Church believes that God calls everyone to pursue holiness no matter what path they take. As St. Paul notes, that diversity of callings and vocations is essential to the life and mission of the Church. I support Mr. Butker’s right to share his faith and express his opinions — including those that are critical of bishops”.

The greatest outcry by those who disagreed with Butker occurred when he addressed women. He said, “For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I’m on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker. She's the primary educator to our children. She is the one who ensures I never let football or my business become a distraction from that of a husband and father. She is the person that knows me best at my core, and it is through our marriage that, Lord willing, we will both attain salvation. I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand how much happier someone can be when they disregard the outside noise and move closer and closer to God’s will in their life. Isabelle’s dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud, without hesitation, and say, 'Heck, no.'

My Commentary: He’s not a professional speaker and it seems to me, people attempted to read into something he didn’t say or mean. He never said women shouldn’t work. He merely praised stay at home mothers. One reporter accused him of putting down women, but the KC Chief’s coach replied, “No, he didn’t.”

Harrison spoke about fathers who should be leaders at home. But, I will talk more about in another homily.

My dear people of Holy Trinity, Harrison Butker’s speech is a reminder, that at the moment of our baptism, we became a disciple of Jesus and have an obligation to live out our discipleship, by our word and actions. Like Harrison, we should not cower to fear, or be bullied by the woke crowd, or spineless Catholics, but rather proclaim the truth.

As a priest, his speech gave me courage to proclaim the truth of our faith, without fear, and trusting, that no matter what happens, as a disciple of Jesus, we need to be willing do lay down their life for Our Lord, and His Church’s teachings, so we may have life with the Blessed Trinity in heaven. May, the Virgin Mary, the first and greatest disciple, help us to live out our vocation with the help and grace of the Most Holy Trinity.