TEXT: Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026
August 30, 2026 Father De Celles Homily
22nd Sunday Ordinary Time
August 30, 2026
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
Last week in an interview, the indefatigable Cardinal Robert Sarah,
the former head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, stated:
“If the hierarchy proves capable of truly
reading the signs of the present age
— rather than those of ’[19]68, arriving late once again —
then room can open for a fraternal and peaceful dialogue.
He couldn’t have spoken more clearly and truthfully
if he were Jesus Himself.
But What was he talking about?
Well, the context was about the disagreements in the Church
about using the Ancient Latin Mass.
But his point applies well past that
to many of the other problems in the Church today.
When he uses the phrase “reading the signs of the present age”
he was referring to the admonition of the Second Vatican Council,
or “Vatican II” as we usually say,
when it wrote in the 1965 document entitled Gaudium et Spes:
“The Church has always had the duty
of scrutinizing the signs of the times
and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel.
Thus, in language intelligible to each generation,
she can respond to the perennial questions
which men ask about this present life and the life to come…”
“Reading the signs of the times” became a mantra in the Church
for the next few years, years that brought lots of
tumultuous changes in the Church.
But there was a problem.
It’s one thing to see the signs of the times,
the things going on around us in the world,
and it’s another to read them,
and even another to understand them.
If you hand a 3-year-old the Bible,
he may be fascinated by it, but if he doesn’t know how to read,
he certainly won’t be able to read it.
And if you hand it to a 9-year-old who can read,
he still won’t be able to understand everything it says.
In the early 60’s, the time of the Council,
there were a lot of changes happening in the world.
In fact, change was probably happening more rapidly then
than ever before in the history of mankind.
This was largely brought about by the amazing developments
in technology, science and communication.
If you weren’t alive then, you may have a hard time relating.
But think about it: The first airplane took off in 1903,
but by1969 man flew to and walked on the moon!
In the 60’s computers became widespread in business and government;
every household in the US had a television,
and almost every American home watched the lunar landing
on it LIVE.
There was also the terrifying proliferation of nuclear weapons.
And, of course, there was change in the culture.
With new affluence in the West came temptations.
We saw movements promoting the sexual revolution,
radical feminism, pacificism and Marxism.
All of this on the one hand caused great optimism.
Change could bring wonderful things, and many came to think
that these changes could fix all the problems of the world.
Reading all these signs of the times then
was also a great challenge to the Church.
Sadly, many in the Church read the signs of the times
and adopted the secular notion
that man and his inventiveness could fix everything.
Human innovation could save the world.
More than that, some fell into the error that
the innovations and new things in the secular world
could save the Church.
They argued for changes
based on the need to be relevant to that secular world.
And so many wanted to basically change everything in the Church.
So instead of “scrutinizing the signs of the times,”
many in the Church instead embraced them.
Instead of interpreting the changes in the world in light of the Gospel,
they began to interpret the Gospel in light of the secular world.
And instead of using a clear critical understanding
of the challenges of the secular changes
in order to respond to the questions they represented,
they considered the changes in the secular world
as the answers to what they saw as problems in the Church.
___
In today’s gospel we read how when Jesus told His apostles
about His coming suffering and crucifixion,
“Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
‘God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.’”
And it tells us that Jesus “turned and said to Peter,
‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.’”
This is a stunning exchange.
Think of it: Just last Sunday, we read the verses just before this,
when Peter had said to Jesus,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And now, it tells us, “Peter began to rebuke [Jesus]”!
Peter is rebuking the man he thinks is Son of the living God?
What is going on? How does this happen?
Jesus tells us how it happens today, as He says to Peter,
“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
Even more stunning, in that reading last week
Jesus responded to Peter saying,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
by changing his name from Simon to Peter, which means “Rock”,
saying:
“You are Peter [Rock], and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and…I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
But now Jesus calls Peter not “Rock,” but “Satan.”
Now, Satan means “Enemy” in Hebrew, but still,
imagine Jesus calling the Pope “Satan.”
He’s not building His Church on him now, but calling him an obstacle.
And it all comes down to this:
“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
When the men of the Church, including popes, the successors to Peter,
think as God does, they are the rock on which the Church is built.
But when they think like men,
getting caught up in the values and priorities of the world,
they begin to be an obstacle, and even an enemy to Jesus.
____
This is what often happened to many priests and bishops
after the Second Vatican Council.
Many who were seduced by the values of the 60’s secular culture
began to think “not as God does, but as human beings do.”
And when they attained positions of power or influence in the Church,
they tried to change the Church to be more acceptable to the world.
There are tons of examples of this,
but the one that stands out most clearly
is the reaction of so many priests and bishops
to Paul VI’s declaration in 1968, Humanae Vitae,
upholding the infallible teaching of the Church against contraception.
Thousands of priests and bishops rose up in dissent against Pope Paul,
publicly teaching Catholics to ignore the truth he taught.
In sum, thinking not like God, but like men
“This is not compatible with our modern understanding of sexuality,”
they said.
Who’s understanding?
The world’s, not God’s.
That was 1968.
This is, I think, the source of Cardinal Sarah’s reference,
“Reading the signs of the present age — rather than those of ’68…”
In other words, it seems, thinking like the churchmen
who opposed Paul VI in 1968
because they thought the modern secular society
had better answers than the actual teaching of Christ and His Church.
And it continues today.
For example,
as the world accepts a perverted notion of sex,
these same men and their disciples are calling for
a new Church teaching on sexuality,
to accommodate homosexuality and remarriage without annulment.
As the world tries to codify the lies of radical feminism,
these churchmen demand the ordination of women.
As secular society promotes selfishness and seeking immediate pleasure
through constant access to entertainment, even the most base kinds,
churchmen seek to make the Church more entertaining,
beginning with the most central public action of the Church, the Mass.
And so the music, the gestures and homilies must be fun and uplifting–
entertaining, to make you happy by human effort,
without attention to pleasing God or His grace.
But the changes and movements of the secular world
that began in the 1960’s did not create a better world.
Oh, in some ways, some things are better.
But even so, look at the world today.
It’s a mess.
Look at the chaos and confusion in our society,
all the fruit of the upheaval of the 1960’s:
sexual confusion, confusion in the family, religious confusion,
political confusion, confusion over reality itself.
And confusion in the Church.
Look at the Church today, compared to the Church of 1960.
Are there positive signs? Yes.
But to me, most of those come from those churchmen
who rejected the influence of popular culture,
like Cardinal Sarah and his mentors,
Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI,
who were actually there at Vatican II
and actively helped write Gaudium et Spes in 1965.
But the negative signs are many.
We can look at statistics in the United States alone:
In 1965 there were 60,000 priests in the United States;
today there are 37,000, down almost 40%.
There were 180,000 nuns in 1965;
today there are 33,000, down almost 80%.
In 1965 there were about 5.5 million kids in Catholic schools;
today there are only 1.8 million children enrolled.
In 1965 over 70% of U.S. Catholics went to Mass every Sunday;
now it’s 29%.
That doesn’t even touch on the faith itself:
Today, roughly 60% of U.S. Catholics want women priests,
and 56% believe abortion should be legal in most cases.
Yet, both of these are absolutely contrary to what the Church
has always infallibly taught.
We could go on and on…
Even in the things you hear presented as Catholic priorities by bishops
are rooted in more secular values and confusion:
pacifism, global warming extremism, socialism,
lenience on criminals, illegal immigration, sustainability.
Things are not better.
Friends, confusion never comes from God.
God, Jesus, is the Truth.
He reveals, He explains, He brings order and peace.
It is the devil who brings lies and confusion.
It is the devil who is the prince of the world.
So what do we do?
Of course, we pray for those churchmen who are lost in the 60’s.
But we don’t fixate on them
because there’s not much we can do to change them.
Rather, we change ourselves.
We do what St. Paul sets out for us today, in the second reading:
“Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.”
We renew our hearts and minds in the actual will of God, of Jesus,
which He explained to us when He walked the earth 2000 years ago,
and which He has protected and clarified, through the Holy Spirit,
in His living Church.
Yes, His Church is led by flawed men and always has been.
Some are more flawed than others,
some ages of the Church worse than others.
Even so, the gates of hell have not prevailed against it,
as the teaching is there for anyone who has eyes to see,
intellect to read,
and openness to understand.
So, do not be conformed to this age,
but be transformed by grace and the true doctrine
to discern what is pleasing and perfect to God,
not to man, or to our modern, woke, Marxist chaotic societal trends.
And then, don’t just read the signs of the times,
but as the Second Vatican Council so wisely instructed us:
“Scrutiniz[e] the signs of the times
and…interpre[t] them in the light of the Gospel.”
I don’t know about you, but when I try to do that,
I see the signs of the times saying things like:
“Help!”
“We’re lost without Christ!”
“Jesus save me!”
I see a society that does not merit imitation but needs redemption.
A society lost in the lies of the devil, of selfish and evil ideologies.
People longing for real love, and certain truth.
A world created to be loved and to love Jesus Christ,
if only they could know Him.
And I see churchmen offering them the secular answers of 1968.
____
As we think about the problems in the world today
and the problems in the Church,
let’s remember the words of Gaudium et Spes,
St. Paul, and Jesus Himself.
Let our minds and hearts not be conformed to this present age,
but be transformed by the will of God.
Let us strive to think not like men, but like God,
to be disciples of Jesus, not His enemy.
And then let us scrutinize the signs of our times,
see them for what they are,
and respond to them as God wills in light of the Gospel proclaimed by Christ’s Church for 2000 years.