Actual Homily Material

Something for the “I am not making this up” file.

Actual material from the homily delivered last weekend at the 5:00 p.m. Saturday Mass at St. Cyril of Alexandria parish in Houston, Texas:

PRIEST: Now here is something for those of you who like Star Trek.

We Christians are like the Borg.

Our purpose is to assimilate everybody into a spiritual collective . . . in Christ.

Just thought you Trekkies might like that.

At which point I leaned over to my aunt and whispered “Or not . . . “

This brings up a good point that even some apologists need to remember: A single point of contact between two things does not mean that one is automatically a good metaphor or similie for the other. By that logic the priest might as well have said “Here’s something for those of you who like Germany. We Christians are like the Nazis. Our purpose is to impose a spiritual order on the world . . . in Christ.”

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

21 thoughts on “Actual Homily Material”

  2. I know the pastor of this parish, and though he is a good man with good intentions, I definitely take issue with a lot that goes on there. My take on it is at our new blog, Trinitas in Unitate.

  4. I heard that just a few years ago from an Evangelical “pastor of assimilation”
    It was -not- the appealing statement that he thought it was.

  5. Hah! When I lived in Houston, I lived right next door to St. Cyril’s. It didn’t take too many Sundays to discover that that particular parish was not my cup of tea. I never did find a great church in West Houston — I usually ended up driving 15 miles in to town to go to the Catholic Student Center at Rice, where I’d been baptized/confirmed a couple of years prior (which wasn’t much better, but at least I knew the folks there).
    I count myself blessed to have found an orthodox, conservative parish now that I’ve moved to Austin.

  6. I am a member of this parish. This priest is regularly a tremendous inspiration to me. Sometimes he floats a dud like this, but more often than not, my wife and I discuss his insights for days after. We often take action based on the challenges he presents. He does a lot more right than he does wrong.
    I’ve had a number of conversations with people who don’t like some of the screwy thing he sometimes does. Then I heard Fr. Corapi talk about how much we need to pray for our priests rather than tear them down. “Satan strikes the shepherd so the sheep will scatter.”
    I went to confession.
    And now I pray for him often. Please join me.

  7. At least the priest didn’t say that Christians should be like a (take your pick) political party convention, displaying a numbing sameness for the space of a week…

  8. Scott: As a mere visitor to the parish, I’m not sure that the priest is the same one you are thinking of (unless you were at the same Mass and heard the same thing).
    My point was not to comment on the priest but on the fact that this particular similie was ill-suited.
    To me, the priest seemed to be a good guy, it was just a random statement that wasn’t great.
    After all, nobody can be perfect all the time.

  9. I don’t know. I think that’s being a little harsh. It sounds to me like an ice-breaker introduction to get people’s attention. It’s certainly no worse in my mind than those trite little sayings from the 60s and 70s like “Love is contagious, we get it from one another”. If he’d said that, I don’t think you’d be here complaining about his metaphor of comparing love with a communicable disease. Trite? yes. Inane? yes. Inappropriate? maybe. Offensive? definitely not.

  10. Reminds me of Flannory O’Connor who said when people are nearly blind you must use very large letters. Remember her story of drowning as a metaphor for baptism?

  11. Microsoft beefs up push to small businesses

    Reuters – Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new rebate and free service offer for its small business accounting software on Monday, aimed at luring customers away from rival Intuit Inc…

  14. Search: Torino Olympic Games Blog – Covering the 2006 Winter

    Valuation Graph for Torino Olympic Games Blog – Covering the 2006 Winter Olympics · Links for Torino Olympic Games Blog – Covering the 2006 Winter Olympics

  15. Internet Directory Assistance; Yellow Pages, White Pages …

    Phone numbers and addresses for persons and businesses in the United States. Includes links to directories for other countries.

  16. Planet Perfecto MP3 – Planet Perfecto songs – Planet Perfecto music

    Planet Perfecto From Russia With Love (Solar Stones Red City Remix) mp3. Planet Perfecto Silence (DJ Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise Remix) mp3 …

Comments are closed.