TEXT: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 7, 2025
September 7, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
23rd Sunday Ordinary Time
September 7, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
Thus begins today’s first reading from the Book of Wisdom.
Intriguing words: Who can know what God is thinking, or what He intends?
Nowadays we hear something like this almost every day.
We especially hear it from people who reject moral teachings
that Christianity or Judaism has traditionally taught for 3,000 years.
“How do you know what’s right or wrong—are you God?”
That seems to be what the Book of Wisdom is saying:
‘Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
But is it really?
Because the reading goes on to say,
“Who ever knew your counsel,
except you had given wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?”
Think of this: This reading is from the “Book of Wisdom.”
And it is only a short example of how God did in fact
reveal His counsel and tell us what He intends
in the Old Testament, the Word of God Himself.
Then there are the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament
which reveal how Jesus is the Word of God made flesh,
the Wisdom of God made flesh,
and Who is completely one with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus reveals perfectly the counsel of God and intention.
And after sharing all that with His Church,
He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
Who filled the disciples with the gift of God’s wisdom.
Jesus also promised that wisdom and the Holy Spirit
in a special way to His twelve apostles, promising them:
“The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you…”
So, He could promise St. Peter, and his successors, the popes:
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,
…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
So, we have the Scriptures and the Sacred Tradition
—the doctrines of Christ handed down to us
by His apostles and their successors, the popes and bishops.
And through the Holy Spirit He has guided His Church
to deepen its understanding of those doctrines
and apply them to the developments of history.
So, now we have a vast wealth, a treasury of Catholic doctrine
that tells us today, the counsel of God and His intentions.
And as the first reading today concludes:
“And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”
“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
The Catholic Church can–and does.
But not totally.
And by that I mean, while the doctrine of the Church teaches
all the fundamental truths that we need to live as God calls us to,
knowing how to apply that doctrine to everyday life,
in large issues and small,
is not so easy.
From the small choices, like “What clothes should I wear today?”
to the large life-changing, or even world-changing, choices.
In those times, we probably all ask ourselves,
“Who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
But then we remember that we do know what he fundamentally intends.
Or do we?
To know, we usually have to learn.
And to learn so that we can apply that knowledge
to the practical problems and choices of everyday life,
we have to learn in a sort of intense and systematic way.
We have to learn by immersing ourselves in knowledge and practice,
applying what we learn in a discipled and consistent manner.
This is what we call “formation,” and specifically “formation of conscience.”
This formation must begin in the family.
Parents must teach their children what is good and evil in the sight of God
and form their minds and hearts through instruction, discipline and example.
Not just once a week on Sunday, but as I said,
in a discipled and consistent manner:
through the way they live and the values they encourage.
Formation is about creating an environment
of learning and practicing Christ’s teaching about how to live and love.
I remember my parents used to talk about Jesus and His teaching all the time;
we used to discuss moral decisions at the dinner table.
Not in a pedantic way, but in a conversational practical way
that helped us to see Catholic teaching as a helpful and necessary guide
about how to live and choose.
And they talked about prayer, and they showed us how to pray
by leading us in the family rosary
and reminding us to pray for others
—and showing us that they prayed as well.
And formation, for children, continues in school.
This is why Catholic schools, or Catholic Homeschooling, are so important,
especially in grade school and high school.
They provide a total environment of Catholic formation
where children can learn the actual teaching of Christ,
but then also practice it throughout the day–
to sort of breathe the air of Catholicism.
Think of the environment of public schools nowadays:
It is positively poisonous in some schools, especially in Fairfax County.
Is that the air you want your children to breathe?
And if you have no choice, and many of you have concluded you don’t,
what are you doing to compensate for that,
to protect them in public school from the poisonous formation
and to reinforce their Christian formation at home and through CCD
—including high school CCD?
Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Angelus Academy,
one of the best schools in our diocese,
especially when it comes to the Catholic formation of our children.
You won’t find a better school that offers a total environment of forming the child
in the love of Christ and in the teaching of His Catholic Church.
From the founders in WAY,
to the teachers who make so many sacrifices to teach there, like money,
to the parents who also make so many sacrifices.
All are focused on forming the hearts and minds and consciences of the children.
I remember a few years back, Angelus was struggling to reopen in September.
They’ve always been run on a shoestring,
surviving from hand to mouth, so to speak.
But that year, with low enrollment, was a low point,
and they just didn’t have the money to reopen.
They’d always run on faith that God would provide,
but that summer they had to “sit down and count the cost,”
as Jesus says in today’s Gospel,
and figure out how they could afford to go forward.
The response was truly a Catholic response:
All of the board members, mostly middle-class folks,
each personal donated thousands of dollars,
and all of the teachers voluntarily took a pay cut
from subpar pay to impoverishing pay.
All because they loved God, His Church and the kids.
This is the kind of people that create the truly Catholic environment of Angelus.
I’ve been truly honored to serve as their chaplain for 13 years,
and to claim a large majority of the students, and many of the teachers,
as my parishioners.
___
But formation doesn’t end with 8th grade or 12th grade
or even a bachelor’s degree.
It continues all through life, by reading about the faith,
using all the many resources available
in good books, online and in the parish
—like Adult Bible Study, RCIA, prayer groups, or lectures we have.
___
“Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
By actively and continually forming our Catholic consciences this way,
we do know what Jesus fundamentally intends,
and we can apply that knowledge to every decision we make in life.
And there’s more.
That same Holy Spirit that has guided the Church for 2000 years
is active in guiding the life of every Christian.
On top of that, every human being, being created in the image of God,
has the gift of reason, the ability to think rationally, to figure things out.
So, when we face the choices of life—big and small—
as Catholics we take all that treasury of doctrine,
compare those to the facts at hand,
and then “sit down and calculate.”
We use reason and the grace of the Holy Spirit
to make the very best judgment we can and follow that.
This process of obediently applying the doctrine of the Church
through the use of grace and reason to the particular facts at hand
is called “following our consciences.”
And this choice we make is called a “prudential judgment.”
Even so, there are a lot of variables here.
First, do we know and understand
what the Church doctrine is that apples to a particular issue?
Have we adequately formed our conscience?
Then, do we know all the facts, and do we see them clearly?
Sometimes facts can be seen from different angles.
Sometimes our reason fails us;
some of us are more logical, or wise or emotional than others
—all this can affect our reason.
And then there’s the Holy Spirit—sometimes we listen, and sometimes we don’t.
“Who can conceive what the LORD intends?”
We know a lot, but sometimes it’s confusing.
Because of that, in many cases, human reason can lead different people
—even truly good Catholics—
to reach different conclusions and choices in particular situations.
All of us, including the pope, bring different factors to this choice,
and our minds process it differently.
We approach it from different perspectives and biases,
and we have different information,
or interpret facts differently than each other.
So, even when we do our best, we can be right or wrong
when we make our prudential judgment—even the Pope can be wrong.
So, for example, Pope Leo is a big proponent of the idea of man-made climate change.
But many people disagree with him.
And that’s okay, because he’s not a scientist,
and it’s not like there is a teaching from the apostles or the councils
that definitely teaches “man causes climate change.”
This is the Pope’s prudential judgment, not doctrine.
And so, when it comes to matters of prudential judgment,
as Pope Benedict XVI once wrote:
“…There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion
[even if it means] a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father.”
____
Now, let me make sure we’re clear.
Some people try to argue that all choices and decisions
are a matter of prudential justice.
They are terribly wrong.
Catholic doctrine unambiguously holds that some things
are always wrong in themselves, “intrinsically evil,”
including things like murder, abortion, contraception and homosexual acts.
So, for example, just like it is always evil to kill someone
simply because they are in the U.S. illegally,
it is also always evil to kill someone
simply because they are in their mommy’s womb and unwanted.
No arguments to make, no prudential judgment involved,
just well settled doctrine.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept this–
that doctrine is not up to our particular judgment.
But if you want to cling to your own opinions
as if they are your most valuable possessions
rather than embrace the treasury of clear doctrine of Christ and His Church,
you are not following the teaching of Christ.
As Jesus says in today’s Gospel,
“Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
___
Even so, sometimes a priest—whether he’s a pope, bishop or pastor—
finds it necessary to share his judgment with his flock,
just as Pope Leo has done with climate change.
The problem is, sometimes people mistake
sharing prudential judgment with teaching doctrine.
And that’s a very dangerous mistake.
Because if Catholics don’t see the difference between doctrines and judgments, some Catholics might hear some really stupid judgment of a foolish priest
and rightly reject it as foolish,
but then think they can reject everything the foolish priest says,
even if it’s divinely inspired Church doctrine.
It happens all the time.
____
As we move more deeply into the mystery of this Holy Mass,
let us pray that,
following the truth revealed by Christ in the doctrines of His Holy Church,
and forming our consciences thoroughly by those teachings,
and then using right reason
and the grace of the Holy Spirit,
each of us, and our nation as a whole,
may be a true instrument of His will that God intends us to be.