TEXT: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 19, 2025
October 19, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
29th Sunday Ordinary Time
October 19, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus said these words 2000 years ago,
but they have been reverberating in each age from then till now.
Every generation of the Church has caused us to repeat this question,
as we’ve seen the Church suffer through
persecutions, schisms, heresies, laxity and immorality.
This is the history of Christianity and Christians.
Today it continues. And in fact, it seems to many, to be worse than ever.
We see Christian societies racing to abandon Christ at every turn.
We’re all sinners, but more and more Christians
are embracing sins and infidelity to Christ as normal, even as “Christ-like.”
And we allow others to degrade our religion and faith, to call us bigots,
and to take away our rights and liberty.
We allow government officials to tell us we can’t even teach
our values to our children in our schools.
We allow them to threaten churches and Christians with reprisals
for following their faith in Christ:
And we allow ourselves and our children
to be immersed in this and even accept this
without recognizing and opposing the injustice and lies of it all.
____
A while back a reputable study said that 9 out of 10 cradle Catholics in America
leave the Church when they become adults.
We see this playing out in our own parish:
Two weeks ago our parish attendance count showed that
Sunday Mass attendance has dropped by almost 1/3 since Covid.
And in my first year here we had 26 weddings in the parish;
last year we had 6.
The same thing is happening all over our diocese and our country.
So, are we surprised that Jesus asks,
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Friends, we have to do something about this decline in faith.
And the first thing we have to do is strengthen our own faith.
Faith itself is believing in something.
As St. Paul tells us today,
“Remain faithful to what you have learned…!”
So, we have to learn. Go to talks, listen to homilies, and read–
read the Catechism, good books by saints and great Catholic writers,
and even my column in the bulletin.
And while the internet is so often a source of great evil,
it can also be the source of great faith.
There are so many good Catholic websites with videos, podcasts and books.
Above all read the Bible. As St. Paul continues today:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation,
for correction, and for training in righteousness…”
And as you immerse yourself in learning your Catholic faith
in cooperation with God’s grace, your personal faith will grow.
But having faith is not enough.
You have to be faithful by being, as St. Paul says, “righteous.”
You internalize what you learn and then live your faith:
You learn your faith, in part, so you can be, as St. Paul says,
“Equipped for every good work.”
“Good works” means not just performing acts of charity,
but doing good by being moral and just and keeping the commandments.
To really make all this come together, though, we have to pray.
Even if you memorize every word of the Bible,
you can’t really know God if you refuse to listen to Him or talk to Him
—and that’s what prayer is.
This is why, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches His disciples about
“the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.”
So, we pray. We talk and listen to God all the time:
He’s here with us, He loves us, and He has not abandoned us.
Turn to Him and recognize that…always.
Tell Him your problems and ask for His help.
Think of the power of prayer.
Look at Moses in today’s first reading.
He lifted his hands in prayer all day long for victory in battle,
and God responded with power, as it says,
“And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people.”
And look at Jesus’ parable today.
If the unjust judge responds to the pleading of the widow just to shut her up,
won’t God, Who is the just judge and loves us, also respond to our prayers?
As Jesus says today,
“Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?”
Finally, we need to be faithful by proclaiming our faith openly,
first in our families, in our parishes and in our communities.
Even when it’s embarrassing or even painful to do,
“Proclaim the word.” St. Paul tells us today,
“Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.”
Even when, like the widow nagging the unjust judge,
our neighbors and friends keep nagging us,
trying to wear us down to be unfaithful.
Now, speaking of the unjust judge,
a lot of the unfaithfulness surrounding us today
comes through the work of similar unjust public officials today.
Think of all the corruption pushed forward by leaders today,
leading us to injustice and away from faith.
There’s that old saying: Societies get the leaders they deserve.
If you look around at our society,
is there any surprise we often have such poor leadership?
Are these the faithless leaders we deserve?
All this leads me to think about the state elections coming up in two weeks.
In all the state-wide elections the Democrat party candidates–
for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general–
all support the things that are direct attacks on our Christian faith,
especially our ability to pass that faith on to our families.
This October, Respect Life Month,
we remember we must always consider that the most important issue
is always the right to life,
because if you don’t have life, you automatically lose all your other rights.
As the Catholic Church has persistently taught,
whether it is convenient or inconvenient,
in the words of the Great St. John Paul II:
“The right to life [is] the most basic and fundamental right
and the condition for all other human rights…
[which must be] defended with maximum determination.”
But the Democrat party candidates for
governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are all pro-abortion
and are supporting an amendment to the Virginia Constitution
that will re-create an almost absolute right to abortion,
even allowing abortions at full-term, nine months.
And abortion is not the only anti-Christian issue in the election.
As Pope Francis once said, “Gender ideology is demonic.”
Think of how transgenderism ideology has exploded
in our schools run by government of Virginia.
Even though many good teachers and administrators resist this evil,
Fairfax Public Schools administrators
are defying Federal Justice Department orders,
and even the guidelines of our Current Republican Governor,
and continue to allow biological boys in the girls’ shower rooms,
to allow them to play on girls’ teams,
and to mainstream the whole LGBTQ agenda in general
in every aspect of school life.
And, I’m sorry to say, all the Democrat candidates
in the upcoming Virginia election
support these radical transgender polices that are an
attack on our daughters and sisters in public schools.
Of course, all this transgenderism evil in schools
highlights another assault on the values of our Christian faith.
That is, policies that ignore the fundamental rights of parents
to determine what and how their children learn and how they live.
So that, all those pro-transgender policies in Fairfax public schools
are defended by the Democrat candidates running in November,
in spite of the fact polling shows 84% of parents oppose them!
These Democrat candidates don’t care what parents think.
They only care about their precious ideology
and what parents and voters will let them get away with.
So, when parents say they want to be able to
choose which school their children go to,
the Democrat candidates oppose any form of school choice,
whether it’s a voucher, scholarship or tax credit.
And when parents defend their right to be informed
about what their kids are being exposed to or counselled about in school,
the Democrat candidates are on record
voting against any form of protection for those rights.
So when your sweet little 12-year-old Suzie tells a school counselor that
her teacher has confused her about her gender,
the counselor encourages her confusion
without having to tell Suzie’s mom and dad about the problem.
Or take the case of the 57-year-old registered sex offender
who is now on trial in Arlington for allegedly exposing himself to multiple
women and girls in Arlington Public Schools’ girls’ locker rooms
because those schools’ policies allow
men to use girls’ bathrooms and showers
based on their gender identity, not biological sex.
But democrat gubernatorial candidate Spanberger says
that’s not something she would interfere with:
“Decisions should be made between parents and educators, and teachers
in each community. It shouldn’t be dictated by politicians,”
In other words, that should not be illegal in Virginia.
How can anyone of good conscience and sound common sense, good Catholics,
vote for people who support killing babies in their mommies’ wombs?
Or vote for someone who doesn’t understand that a boy is a boy, a girl is a girl,
and girls have the right not to be forced to shower with biological boys
or 57-year-old men!
Or vote for someone who refuses to support parents’ rights to raise, educate and form
their own children the way they see fit,
not the way some unelected, leftist, “expert” ideologue dictates.
And yet, that describes each of the Democrat candidates
asking for your vote in two weeks.
Now some Catholics say,
“It’s important to look at the overall work that [a politician] has done,”
to make any kind of judgment about him.
But that’s not how it works. Not in civil society and not with Jesus.
Consider a man who has worked hard to build a business,
treated his employees justly and generously,
and been a good husband and father.
Then we discover he’s a serial rapist or murderer?
I mean, do we have to look at the “overall work” he’s done,
and not judge him by a few little rapes or murders?
And what does Jesus say about someone who corrupts His “little ones”?
“Better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck
and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Some of you may be thinking, “Hey, Father’s being partisan.”
No, I’m being Catholic.
And Catholics cannot vote for candidates who hold positions
that widely harm our children and are despicable in the eyes of God.
And some will say, “Father, the IRS says you can’t endorse candidates.”
Actually, the IRS has changed its position on that:
Now I can even endorse candidates in the pulpit if I do so
”viewed through the lens of religious faith.”
But I am not endorsing anyone.
Rather, I am, through the lens of my, and your, Catholic faith,
saying that I don’t see how any Catholic could vote for a candidate who is
pro-abortion,
pro-transgender in schools,
anti-parents’ rights,
and anti-school choice.
And I am saying that Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat candidate for governor,
is pro-abortion, pro-transgender in schools, anti-parents’ rights,
and anti-school choice.
And so are democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones
and democrat lt. governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi.
And the same can be said for all the Democrat candidates
for state delegate in our parish.
If these candidates are not disqualified from holding public office
for those positions, no one is.
On the other hand,
the Republican candidates for state office on the ballot in our parish,
Winsome Earle-Sears, John Reid, and Jason Miyares,
are all pro-life, pro-parental rights, pro-school choice,
and anti-transgender in schools
—or maybe we should call them “pro-girls-rights-in-showers.”
But I’m not saying you have to vote for them, and I’m not endorsing them.
Even so, I don’t see how you can vote for their opponents.
In short, I ask you to vote like Catholics:
Be faithful to Catholic teaching,
especially in defense of life, children and parents;
then prayerfully consider your choices;
and then proclaim your faith in the ballot box.
___
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
I pray that He does.
But in this depraved and faithless time in history,
what are we doing, with His grace, to make that happen?
Are we “remain[ing] faithful to what [we] have learned and believed”?
Are we praying “always without becoming weary”?
Are we “proclaim[ing] the word” persistently,
“whether it is convenient or inconvenient,”
whether in our homes, workplace, playgrounds—or in the voting booth?
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”