I am soooo confused

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My parish priest said in his homily that he thinks that is crazy to believe in the stuff that Christians believe in but it’s something we have to do in order to be Christian. What are your thoughts on this people?

Here is some of what I heard:
How do we beare good fruit? In the Gospels Jesus gives us the image of what it means to be in the kingdom of God and to beare good fruit looks like. “The lion shall lay down with the lamb, the cow and the bear and their young shall live together, the baby will put its hand on a snake and not be harmed” that’s what the kingdom of God looks like! and I know just like you I think that’s crazy! I think it’s crazy to even believe that somehow someway all of us are going to be one. There’s so much division so much hatred so much distrust, even in our Catholic Church. You almost have to be crazy to believe in the kingdom of God. But He tells us what it is, and it’s not going to be some magic where somebody else comes in and does all the work. No! he asks us to do that. He wants us to build a world in which the lion lays down with the lamb.

So how does it work? It has to start with us looking into those places in our lives where it doesn’t look like that. With those whom we vehemently disagree with. We need to change our minds and hearts by asking oursevles: what does it look like for the lion to lay down with the lamb in my life. What does it look like to love those I don’t get along with?
 
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Well…it’d be even crazier to b e a parish priest in that case. But, yes, we’d need to hear what he actually said.
 
If he means “crazy” as in impossible, miraculous, logic-defying, then yes, we believe in crazy things. But as others have said, it depends on context and the precise words.
 
Jesus fed the 5000 with a few loaves and fish. Healed the sick, the lame walked, the blind got their vision back. He walked on water. He calmed the sea with his command. He died and came back to life.

That could be interpreted as craziness from an outsider looking in.
 
Well what is the context? ie what came before and after.
For instance… St Paul says in 1 Cor 1:23 that the cross is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Jews …… which it is. But to those whom God called… ie Christians (so all the above and others) it is wisdom. So if your parish priest is going soemthing along these lines, then it’s quite normal what he’s saying. Try talking to him, only he can really clear it up for you, cos we weren’t there. It’s always a good idea to go to your priest if something he says confuses you before you get upset. Try read the readings again at home and then go see him. God bless.
 
One way I interpret the words in this homily is simply to say, faith is inherently irrational. It’s “crazy” in the way that we do not love God perfectly, but imperfectly through faith. I mean “irrational” in this strict sense – that belief in the mysteries and truths God has revealed to us is not a matter of believing “2 + 2 = 4,” but instead that it equals 5. A leap of faith requires we recognize the limits of reason in discerning supernatural truths.

I imagine his homily was meant to inspire people who may be trying to apply rational analysis to matters of religion and coming up short. He may have been simply telling those doing something like that that they are using the wrong tools for the job.

He chose his words poorly, though. “Crazy” is just not a prudent choice of words in a world where people need guidance and help in their faith, not more confusion.
 
How do we beare good fruit? In the Gospels Jesus gives us the image of what it means to be in the kingdom of God and to beare good fruit looks like. “The lion shall lay down with the lamb, the cow and the bear and their young shall live together, the baby will put its hand on a snake and not be harmed” that’s what the kingdom of God looks like! and I know just like you I think that’s crazy! I think it’s crazy to even believe that somehow someway all of us are going to be one. There’s so much division so much hatred so much distrust, even in our Catholic Church. You almost have to be crazy to believe in the kingdom of God. But He tells us what it is, and it’s not going to be some magic where somebody else comes in and does all the work. No! he asks us to do that. He wants us to build a world in which the lion lays down with the lamb.

So how does it work? It has to start with us looking into those places in our lives where it doesn’t look like that. With those whom we vehemently disagree with. We need to change our minds and hearts by asking oursevles: what does it look like for the lion to lay down with the lamb in my life. What does it look like to love those I don’t get along with?
 
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“The Jews say all these things are to happen literally in the times of the antichrist.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Isaiah. C. 11, L. 2, 371)

The prophet is speaking from the standpoint of Noah’s ark concerning the supernatural society, the Catholic Church. “where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all and in all (Col 3:11). This is signified in Noah’s ark, where there were all animals of each kind (Gen 7:1–3).” (St. Thomas Aquinas, C. 11, L. 2, 369)

The prophet is indicating that in the supernatural society, the Catholic Church, those of which will obtain greatness in the mode of meekness.
 
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Buddy1 said:
How do we beare good fruit? In the Gospels Jesus gives us the image of what it means to be in the kingdom of God and to beare good fruit looks like. “The lion shall lay down with the lamb, the cow and the bear and their young shall live together, the baby will put its hand on a snake and not be harmed” that’s what the kingdom of God looks like! and I know just like you I think that’s crazy! I think it’s crazy to even believe that somehow someway all of us are going to be one. There’s so much division so much hatred so much distrust, even in our Catholic Church. You almost have to be crazy to believe in the kingdom of God. But He tells us what it is, and it’s not going to be some magic where somebody else comes in and does all the work. No! he asks us to do that. He wants us to build a world in which the lion lays down with the lamb.

So how does it work? It has to start with us looking into those places in our lives where it doesn’t look like that. With those whom we vehemently disagree with. We need to change our minds and hearts by asking oursevles: what does it look like for the lion to lay down with the lamb in my life. What does it look like to love those I don’t get along with?
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You have basically just repeated your opening post which doesn’t help us. What others in this thread, and I add myself now, want to know is the exact words of the priest.
 
It sounds to me like the priest is simply saying that from our fallible human perspective, what Christ is saying and what Christ is asking us to do sounds like a crazy thing to do, but we have to open our minds to Christ’s words and then do our part to change our thinking to bring about unity and heal division.

It sounds like a perfectly good homily to me. Have you tried to apply the priest’s words in your real life? Or did you just get hung up on his use of one word, “crazy”?

This is basically the same message as “love your enemies”. When Jesus preached that originally, his audience thought it was crazy. Jewish people didn’t go around “loving” Romans or Gentiles in general, and the idea of “loving” them or accepting them into a faith community was crazy to them. Yet that’s what Jesus wanted them to do. And enough people did it that we ended up with diverse Christian communities.
 
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Buddy1 said:
“The lion shall lay down with the lamb, the cow and the bear and their young shall live together, the baby will put its hand on a snake and not be harmed” that’s what the kingdom of God looks like! and I know just like you I think that’s crazy! I think it’s crazy to even believe that somehow someway all of us are going to be one. There’s so much division so much hatred so much distrust, even in our Catholic Church. You almost have to be crazy to believe in the kingdom of God. But He tells us what it is, and it’s not going to be some magic where somebody else comes in and does all the work. No! he asks us to do that. He wants us to build a world in which the lion lays down with the lamb.
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First of all “crazy” does not have the same connotation for all people. Some take it very seriously and defensively, others find it funny and inspiring that someone called them crazy. In some contexts “crazy” equals “cool”.
Of course the priest does not believe that he himself is crazy, he was just trying to say that you have to continue to believe in God and the Church even when you don’t see the obvious signs as to why to believe in them (e.g. He ignores your prayers and the Church in her part lets you down through the behavior of some of its members).
He said to stay in with God and continue to do what is right even when everyone else is telling you otherwise. And many atheists do believe we are crazy. What will happen if, God forbid, we will once again be called crazy like when the Communists were giving anti-psychotic drugs in their prisons to people considered “too religious”? What we have to do is simple in theory - even then we have to believe in God and love our neighbor and also our enemy as we love ourselves.
 
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