"Fools for Christ"

March 31, 2009 Year of St. Paul

Dear Friends united in love and service of Jesus Christ and His Church:

Tomorrow is usually celebrated as “April Fools Day.”

I’ve read where the observance originated because Good Friday is usually around this time of year.  The Son of God, during His passion and cross, was mocked, taunted, and harassed as a fool that first Good Friday.

Whether the origin of the observance is accurate or not, the fact that Jesus was ridiculed and dismissed as a failure, a flop, a disappointment, a nerd, a sham, a nut -- a fool -- is certainly tragically true.

He, His heavenly father, His teachings; His followers, His Church are still often considered fools by today’s elites.  Movies, plays, books, comedians, art, editorials, cartoons, snide remarks, all still target Him as an idiot, dismissed as a clown by the enlightened, liberated class.

He and His Church are still taunted to “come down off the cross and then we’ll believe in you.”

It might be our welcome to immigrants, our outreach to prisoners, our defense of the baby in the womb, or our worry about war, that earns us ridicule;

Maybe it’s the Pope’s suggestion that condoms alone, without a change of behavior, will not curb HIV-AIDS -- as the experience of Africa shows -- that causes smirks;

Could be our defense of marriage, our preference for the poor, our belief that parents are the primary educators of their kids, or that capital punishment is not right, that provokes attack;

Our trust in the power of prayer, our conviction that science and technology detached from ethics and morality is perilous, our belief that sexual love is so sacred that God intends it only for a woman and man united in life-long, faithful, life-giving marriage -- this all brings howls of laughter from the realms of the prestigious.

But Jesus warned us, “Do not be surprised when the world hates you.  It hated me before you.”

St. Paul exhorted us to be “fools for Christ.”

So, we do not get bitter, or feel sorry for ourselves, or go into an uncharitable attack mode.  We know that “the truth will set us free,” and that the “April fool” now happens to be Lord of the Universe.

A blessed Holy Week!

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

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