22 June 2021 - Tuesday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time - Homily for the Feast of St John Fisher and St Thomas More - Religious Freedom Week - Matthew 7:6, 12-14

      Today’s Gospel from Matthew contains four short verses from the Sermon on the Mount.  There is a contrast between the narrow gate and the wide road.  Perhaps the wide road means that there are no true laws and commandments, that we can follow our personal likes and dislikes, our whims and desires. The wide road could include our self-centeredness and deception, violence and revenge.  The wide road is not the way of life that Jesus himself followed.  It is not the way of life to which Jesus calls us.  The narrow gate can be seen as the set of values that Jesus teaches us. Justice and mercy are to be included in that narrow gate.  The narrow gate is not close-mindedness and narrow-mindedness.  As the psalmist asserts today, those who do justice will live in the presence of the Lord. 

     Today starts religious freedom week in the Catholic Church in the United States as declared by our Catholic Bishops.  The reason for the choice of this starting date of religious freedom week is that 22 June marks the liturgical feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, who died defending the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in the dispute over Henry VIII's marriage.  

     John Fisher was the Bishop of Rochester, England and a very accomplished scholar, having become the chancellor of the University of Cambridge.  He was actually the private tutor of Henry VIII during Henry’s childhood.  In addition, he preached the funeral homily of Henry’s father, Henry VII.  He live a life a great personal austerity.  Thomas More was an esteemed lawyer, judge, social philosopher, and statesmen.  He served Henry VIII as chancellor of England.  He was also a devout Catholic.  Both More and Fisher opposed Henry in his dispute with the Catholic Church, being only a few men of power in England in opposing Henry in naming himself the head of the Church in England and in wanting the Church to approve his divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon.  Fisher was put to death on the scaffold on June 22, 1535.  More was put to death on July 5.  They held to the values of their faith, even when it led to public shame and martyrdom.  When hearing their stories and their witness of faith, hearing the Gospel of the narrow gate is a very appropriate Gospel reading for us today.