what madness have i not preached in sermons

It's always humbling for those of us who wish to be Christians to realise that we have mistaken our personal prejudices, preferences or predilections for the teaching of the Lord.
The American monk Thomas Merton had a moment of clarity in this regard many years ago when he exclaimed: "What madness have I not preached in sermons!"
I've come across a few recent examples of people I hold in generally high regard proclaiming with profound conviction what seemed to me utter nonsense while remaining absolutely convinced they were doing so to serve God.
Father Rutler, an honorable and decent New York priest, was giving a talk on a satelite television channel last month in which he warned against the expression of joy or levity at funerals.
He was particularly agitated by the desire among some mourners to afix balloons to the coffins of their loved ones.
Father Rutler is a good guy and inspired by the highest of motives.
But in this instance he has wandered into Self Indulgence-ville Illinois.
Here's another example.
Some Christians are currently circulating a statement they claim was made by Mother Teresa of Calcutta in which she apparently criticises the practice by many Catholics of receiving communion bread in the hand rather than on the tongue.
(The eating of communion bread is central to Catholic ritual. Catholics assert that the bread is really Jesus.)
According to the statement being disseminated, Mother Teresa believed that receiving communion into your hand was a grave insult to God and a threat to the church.
I have my doubts that this great saint ever talked such tosh.
But she might have.
All of us talk rubbish at some stage.
And how about this.
Peter Verechio, writing in The Catholic Voice newspaper this week, asserts that when the priest says "Peace be with you," at the beginning of mass, the congregation should not treat this as a greeting.
Exsqueeze me?
What is it then?
Mr Verechio is writing in anticipation of new language forms which are due to be introduced for Catholic mass in the coming months.
In trying to convince us that the changes are for the best, he attempts to construct purely notional distinctions between a greeting and a blessing.
He warns against those members of the congregation (this would include me) who cheerfully respond to the priestly blessing/greeting with "And also with you," as though we are saying "Hey, howya doin' Father!"
Mr Verechio, again essentially a good guy, is mistaking his own obsessive scrupulosity for an insight into the faith.
By the way the standard sometimes cheery response "And also with you" to the priestly greeting "Peace be with you," is about to be replaced by "And with your spirit."
I ask you.
How has this church survived two thousand years with such linguistic baboons continually tinkering with the ritual?
It has to be a supernatuiral sign of God's favour.
That's all I'm saying.
I suppose the one among us who is without sin might be entitled to give Peter Verechio a kick in the bawls.
Certainly I'm not.
Anyway my basic (humble-ish) point is that we've all talked nonsense and wrongly attributed it to the faith at some stage.
Even the preeminent American psychologist Father Benedict Groeschel occasionally comes out with some spurious scrupulosities masquerading as genuine witness.
Father Gro is in my view an American phenomenon.
A giant of our times.
And maybe more.
Maybe just maybe, like Mother Teresa , he's a genuine humble servant of the Lord, sent among us to give us hope.
A saint of God.
But I heard him on EWTN the Catholic station, lecturing his audience the other evening.
He was posing questions about the faith.
And the audience were answering almost in unison.
Then Father Gro said: "Was Jesus a human person?"
And the crowd said: "Yes."
And Father Gro positively snapped: "No! He was a divine person."
He sounded irritable and angry.
And you know what.
He was quite quite wrong.
Jesus is divine.
But Jesus is also absolutely and completely human.
He understands everything we've been through because he's experiencd it all himself.
Because he's been there.
And he's there now.
I'm not being hard on Father Groeschel.
Sometimes even great Homer nods.
As for me.
I've done a lot of shouting over the years gentle travellers of the internet..
I've shouted about this, that and the other.
But the only thing I've said to you that is really important, is that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Universe, that he commissioned the Catholic Church to serve himself in human history, and that he holds all human lives sacred particularly yours..
Everything else I've said... is conversation.