The On-going Search For Christian Unity

Jesus prayed that "we all may be one."

In Sunday’s readings, we hear various titles ascribed to Jesus.

He is the “lamb” who saves us through his death and resurrection. He is the “son” who is one with the God of Israel.  He is the “Christ,” the long-expected messiah who inaugurates God’s kingdom of justice and freedom and truth and peace and love. He is the sovereign “Lord” to whom we pledge our ultimate allegiance.  He is the “servant,” the “light” who illumines answers to questions about life, e. g., what on earth am I here for..

John’s description stands out for me: “Behold, the lamb of God.” John pointed out that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb who would re-establish a right relationship for us with God and one another. In death, there will be eternal life.

The author of Isaiah takes us back to the sixth century before Jesus, to the Jews exiled in Babylonia. This passage is a poem, a song, about a “servant of God” who will bring hope to those who have lost hope in the future. This “servant” will save all peoples, be a “light” to all. The Christian community saw in this “servant” Jesus, whose vocation or calling was to be our way to eternal life, our truth who sets us free from false isms, our light who guides us in our earthly journey toward our heavenly dwelling place.

Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth, a seaport city in Greece, speaks about his own vocation as an apostle.  God through Jesus by the power of the Spirit has bestowed his grace and peace upon us. Paul challenges us to live a life of virtue that’s worthy of our calling, to become a holy people.

In the Gospel, John points out Jesus as the Lamb of God, an allusion to the  Hebrew Passover meal and the sacrificial lamb in Jewish temple worship.  John then saw Jesus arise from the Jordan waters and the Spirit confirming Jesus as “Son of God.” This Jesus, truly human and truly divine, who through his death/resurrection by the power of the Spirit re-established our friendship with God again, is gloriously alive in his community of disciples, the one Church he founded, to continue his saving ministry until he comes again in power and glory to create a “new heaven and a new earth.”

Jesus prayed that this community would always be one.  Yet over the centuries it has divided into many communities: Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants: Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians etc.

And that is why we have a week of prayer for Christian Unity January 19-25. All Christians profess one Lord, one faith and one baptism. But they have split into different and sometimes opposing traditions.

As we pray with Jesus that “we all may be one,” we recognize that Jesus in today’s Gospel is the foundation of our world-wide faith community. And we ought to give thanks to God for this: a community that calls us to a life with God here and now, and to eternal life where we shall be like God and see God as God is.

Jesus Christ Lives and We Live

Rubens' Resurrection of Jesus

Happy Easter! Felices Pascuas! Joyeuses Paques! Buona Pasqua! Frohe Ostern!

We call Easter the Paschal mystery: paschal relates to the “paschal lamb” of Passover, which Jewish communities celebrate during our Easter celebration this year.

Easter is about the daybreak, starting over. Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. This is a time to be joyful, happy, enthusiastic about life. We have so much to be grateful for, especially the gift of faith in Jesus Christ who is our way, our truth and our life.

Every morning, we awaken to begin again. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens: things undone, bad things said, good things unsaid. In the morning all is possibility, opportunity. Who among us is content with things as they are? Who does not want to be more loving, more generous, more tenderhearted, more thoughtful, more helpful? This Easter, God wakes us up again, to rediscover the extraordinary graces transforming our lives TODAY.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty. Shortly thereafter, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room, and on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not among the dead. Jesus is risen. He is alive. He has passed through this earthly life – as we do --- and then through the mystery of death into a new, transfigured reality. This heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!

Jesus said, I live, and because I live, we also live.

How? We are born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit. Water is poured upon us in the rite of baptism, and in these waters the Spirit of God is poured upon us, and the triune God lives within us, and we live within the triune God.

As we grow into adolescence, the bishop anoints our forehead with oil in the sign of the cross—and God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully all of the fruits of the Spirit: patience, generosity, faithfulness and love.

And at the Eucharist, where the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us in the signs of bread and wine, and becomes one with us in Communion,; the living Christ feeds us with his life so we can continue our journey. If we should stumble on our journey, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.

Yes, through the sacraments, we experience the living Christ and we go forth to love and serve one another. The exchange of wedding promises, the anointing of the sick, all the sacraments are indeed signs of God’s care.

Eternal life in relationship with God and one another—that is our ultimate purpose. Easter is about getting our priorities straight, about asking, “How can we become more godlike, more loving, more generous, more thoughtful, more helpful?”

Easter is indeed about a new day, a fresh start.  Why. Because Jesus Christ lives. And because He lives, we live.

Holy Week Begins

Dali's Sacrament of the Last Supper

On Palm Sunday, some two billion Christians worldwide begin Holy Week, the chief week of the Liturgical Year.

We focus in particular upon the Paschal mystery: the journey of Jesus from this earthly life through the mystery of death into heavenly life. “Paschal” refers to the Passover: the passing of the angel of death over the homes of the Hebrews in ancient Egypt. In a larger sense, Passover refers to the exodus or liberation of the Hebrews; every year the Jewish community re-experiences this in the Seder – a word meaning order -- which they will celebrate April 20.

Today on Palm Sunday, we reflect upon a paradox of triumph and tragedy: the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and on the other hand the Gospel proclamation of the passion and death of Jesus. And even in the tragedy of Good Friday there will be the triumph of Easter: Jesus, crucified, risen and in our midst.

The Word of God from Isaiah is a poem about a “servant” who suffers for us (the early Christian community saw Jesus in this servant).

Paul’s letter to the Christian community at Philippi quotes an early Christian hymn about God who became one of us.

And the Gospel according to Luke proclaims the passion and death of Jesus.

This coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday are known as the triduum (from a Latin word which means a period of three days).

On Thursday Christians will commemorate the Lord’s Supper: there is the washing of feet (a symbol of service); and then a sacrificial meal in which Jesus gives himself to us in the signs of bread and wine (a symbol of our oneness with God and with our fellow human beings).

On Good Friday we meditate upon the passion and death of Jesus, and have a simple communion service.

And at the Easter vigil we reflect upon the passage of Jesus from this earthly life through death into a transformative heavenly life; the resurrection of Jesus is a pledge of our own liberation from death or nothingness into eternal life. The Vigil includes fire (a symbol of Jesus as the light who illuminates the darkness around us), the proclamation of the story of our salvation in the Scriptures, the renewal of our baptismal promises, and the Eucharist.

Easter proclaims that Jesus is risen; alive among us. I urge all of you to participate in these services as much as you can.

Throughout the 40 days of Lent we have been trying to steer our lives toward the light of Jesus Christ, trying to shake off darkness around us, and the burdens of our daily lives.

I pray that this Holy Week will inspire us to seek ever more enthusiastically the God who became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, and who by his death and resurrection opened up to all humankind a transformative eternal life beyond this earthly life.