Sunday, May 5, 2013

It all starts with communion...

I had a very joyful experience yesterday as I celebrated the Mass of First Communion for about 30 kids.  It was so beautiful to see them come forward and receive Jesus for the first time in the Blessed Sacrament.

Today I was (finally) able to complete the degree exemplifications in the Knights of Columbus.  I had been stuck at First Degree for years, but am very happy and proud that I am now a full-fledged Knight.  If you or someone you know is looking for a way to connect in a deeper way with his parish and with other men striving to live out their baptismal call as men in the Church, then the Knights of Columbus is where they need to be.  Here's the link to the Supreme Council's website: http://www.kofc.org/en/

All of this had me thinking a lot about communion as I prepared my homily for today.  May God bless your week!

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Homily: 6th Sunday of Easter – Cycle C

You know, I find it kind of interesting how we came to be as a nation.  If you look at it (from a very high vantage point, of course) you can see that, at least on the surface, no one living in the original thirteen colonies in the middle 1700’s wanted to break away from British rule.  Nevertheless, as the British government continued to enact laws and ordinances that many of the colonists considered to be unjust, there arose a movement among them towards declaring independence from Great Britain.  Had they remained a loosely banded group of individuals, however, the movement would have never gotten anywhere.  Instead, they formed a congress that could speak with one voice to the King of England and, when their demands for just treatment under British law were ignored or flatly denied, could declare their independence from England and form a new nation.  In a sense, it was as if they had realized that the only way that they could maintain individual freedoms, was to bind themselves to each other so as to speak and act as one body.

In many ways, this was not unlike the movement of the Early Church towards independence from the Jewish religious laws and customs from which it emerged.  The first Jewish Christians saw this “Jesus movement” as an extension/renewal of Judaism and, thus, they continued to follow the Law of Moses as they embraced the Risen Jesus as Messiah and King.  Some maintained this so closely that they believed that all non-Jewish believers would have to submit themselves to following the precepts of the Law: especially the Law of circumcision.  Given the incredible success that Paul and Barnabas (along with others) were experiencing in converting non-Jews, however, this proposed obligation seemed to be an excessive burden that wasn’t consistent with what Jesus had taught.  Besides, it would also be rather constrictive: only men can be circumcised, right?  And so where would that leave the women who came to believe in Jesus’ power to save them?  Thus, as the Scriptures tell us, “a great dissension arose among them,” and, as a loosely banded group of believers, they realized that they needed to form a “congress” (if you will) in order to address and solve this problem.

Certainly, this is not something that is foreign among believers even today.  There is no shortage of issues that Christians face in this day and age that haven’t already created a considerable dissension among us.  And while the Church has already issued definitive statements about many of these, there are other issues that the Church hasn’t made any over-arching, definitive statements on that still create division among us.  For example, let’s say that a Catholic came down from Lafayette and walked into the church and said that all politicians who support abortion should be denied communion.  I suspect that there might arise some dissension among us as to whether or not this would be an appropriate move to make, and if the Catholic Church was just a loosely banded grouping of parishes formed on the individual preferences of each of the parish’s members, then it doesn’t seem like we would have much recourse to resolve the problem, does it?  And I suspect that one of the first things we might do is call up some of the other parishes to see what they were doing, perhaps even getting a group of representatives from each of the parishes—particularly the elder members of the parishes—together to discuss and pray about how we could resolve this problem.  In other words, we’d probably form a “congress” of some sort; almost as if it was a natural thing to do.

Going back to the Early Church, we notice just how confidently Paul and Barnabas went off to Jerusalem to try and resolve this problem.  It seems that they didn’t allow this dissension among them to cause them to despair or any desire to break away from the Jewish-Christian community.  Rather they engaged it, traveling to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles and elders of the Church there.  Why could they do this?  Well, I believe that it’s because of the peace that they received from Jesus.  In the Gospel Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.”  This was no ordinary peace.  The peace that Jesus was talking about was not just the absence of conflict—thus distinguishing it from the pax romanum, which was only a “peace” from war, because Rome had conquered all of the world’s powers—rather, the peace that Jesus gave was a confident hope that allowed them to see beyond the difficulties and conflict to the peace of the resurrection: the peace of eternal rest.  And so, with this confident hope Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem to meet with the other Apostles trusting one other thing: that Jesus’ other promise would also ring true that the Holy Spirit would teach them everything and remind them of all that Jesus had told them.  In other words, although there was dissension among them, they had peace because they knew that Jesus had promised them the help of the Holy Spirit and that he could be relied on—that is, when the Apostles “congressed” together—to help them resolve this crucial question.

My brothers and sisters, with charity and trust that this same peace and this same grace of the Holy Spirit have been given to us, we, too, can resolve all of the conflicts that arise among us.  You know, the Apostles made rational decisions about these conflicts; decisions that were informed by their faith.  Certainly, we can do the same, but only if we allow Jesus’ peace to fill our lives and, thus, bring us a sense of calm in the midst of turmoil.  So that, when dissensions arise among us, we’ll have confidence to submit ourselves to the faith of the Church, which has been handed down to us from the Apostles through their successors, the bishops.  This peace is a peace that withstands dissensions, because it is the peace of knowing that all will be definitively resolved when Christ returns.  And this trust in the faith of the Church is a trust that comes from the guarantee that it will remain true in every age by the grace and help of the Holy Spirit.

You know, I was blessed to be able to participate in the National Day of Prayer service that was held at the county government building last Thursday.  In it, the new pastor of River of Life community, Keith Kincaid, noted in his message that our Founding Fathers did not begin writing our nation’s constitution with the words “I, the person…” but rather that they had used the words “We, the people…”, indicating that this was not a declaration of loosely banded individuals, but rather that it was a declaration of a people united in thought and spirit.

My brothers and sisters, as individuals there will always be dissension among us.  As Church, however, (that is, as we become “we”, instead of a grouping of “me’s”) we are able to transcend our differences and discern the movement of the Holy Spirit who reminds us of what Jesus taught us and teaches us how to interpret it for our lives today.  So how do we begin?  Well, it all starts with communion.  As we approach this altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we demonstrate our willingness to become more “we” than “me”, and we effect that communion when receive its transforming grace, the grace that actually makes us the “we” we desire to be.  Trusting, therefore, in the peace given to us by Christ let us confidently come forward, giving thanks for the grace of the Holy Spirit that has led us here today and with hearts ready to be sent forth as instruments of this communion in our world today.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – May 5th, 2013

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