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.

The Celestial Banquet

Jesus Christ Invites Us to the Banquet of Eternal life

Labor Day invites us to appreciate our work, and to recommit ourselves to doing our life’s work as best we can. That’s what holiness is about. God has committed some work to each one of us that He hasn’t committed to another. Yes, each one of us has a purpose. Aim to please God.

We’re also praying that God will keep safe those in the pathway of Hurricane Dorian.

The book of Sirach alerts us to be humble, dependent upon an all-good Creator. We are what we are by the grace of God. The good we do in life is the only thing that we will take with us to God in death.

The letter to the Hebrews contrasts two assemblies, one at Mount Sinai where God made a covenant with the Hebrews; and the other in the heavenly Jerusalem where countless creatures celebrate the new covenant or relationship God made with us through the bloody death and glorious resurrection of His son Jesus. Yes, God transformed us into his sons and daughters, coheirs to the kingdom of God. We are challenged to live a life worthy of that status.

In the Gospel, after watching how the so-called rich and famous proudly took places of honor at the table, Jesus told a parable, comparing the kingdom of God to a celestial banquet. All are welcome. But who will be seated at the table ? The humble, the people we may least expect to see.  The 20th century Catholic novelist Flannery O'Connor captures this parable powerfully in her short story "Revelation."

Jesus teaches us, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be…For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

The word “humility” derives from the Latin word humus, ground or soil, understood simply as down-to-earth, knowing who we are. Mary, Mother of God, showed humility in her song titled the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord … because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Yes, Mary rejoiced in the gifts God bestowed upon her, and so too should we.

Pride is the opposite. Pride thinks “self”-sufficient. The book of Genesis gives us insight. God made us in His image and likeness. But we wanted to be number one. We overstepped our limits. The legendary Adam and Eve broke all their relationships, hid from Gdiscipleship, beatitudesod, blamed each other, and the land barely produced sustenance.

Hence, we are born into a broken world. That is the Catholic understanding of original sin, a phrase St. Augustine coined. The biblical characters mirror us trying to play God. Humility recognizes that we are absolutely dependent upon an all-good God. Luckily, God had the final word, and became one of us in Jesus of Nazareth.

There is no human solution to the brokenness in our world. There is a power beyond us – God -- that can heal this brokenness, and we can participate in that healing by doing good for others. This awesome, all-good, and transcendent power became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and is alive in our midst by the power of the Spirit. This same God invites us to live a life of discipleship with Jesus,  to reflect the beatitudes in our daily lives and to be generous with what we have so that one day we, gloriously alive with Jesus Christ can sit at the banquet of eternal life.
Amen.

Seize Every Opportunity to Do Good

Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac

It’s “back-to-school time.” I’m going to give you a brief two-part quiz.
Part one: Name the last two movies to win the Oscar for best picture.
Part two: Think of a teacher who made a positive difference in your life, and a friend or mentor who helped you learn something worthwhile.

The point is simple: we often forget “headlines.” However, “heroes and heroines” like teachers and mentors, family and friends, can truly make a difference for the better.

The word of God heard today recalls the first Passover meal, when the ancient Hebrews celebrated liberation from their oppressors, and notes: That same provident God, always faithful to his promises, eventually will send the Messiah who will usher in God’s kingdom of peace and justice and truth and freedom.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus says that we are to be like servants who await their master’s return, ready to welcome him. Be alert; be prepared; focus on what truly matters—eternal life with God. We will be accountable for the person we become with the time and talent God gives us.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be fundamentally a man or woman of faith, someone who trusts completely in God throughout all the opportunities and threats and disappointments of life, someone who desires to do what God wants even though we can’t always precisely figure out what that is.

The letter to the Hebrews tells of two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah: trusting completely in God, in a foreign land, among strangers, in shelters, believing that Sarah would at last have a child. They are models of faith.

The story invites us to reflect upon the dimensions of our own faith: a gift from God whereby we begin a right relationship with the triune God, nurtured through prayer and especially through the Eucharist, the source and summit of Catholic life. It is the acceptance of God’s promises as true and a commitment to live accordingly. Faith includes the essential truths we profess every Sunday in our Nicene Creed, from the fourth century.

Faith is living in a right relationship with God. And there can be various stages in our faith development. We either grow into a relationship with God, or we fall out of it.

This faith compels us to be missionary disciples. Many of us share our faith even though we may not realize it, teaching the virtues of prayer, generosity, fairness, honesty, and service. Teachers develop virtues or habits of heart and skills of mind that will enable students to become good citizens. So do medical professionals. And, so do citizens when they urge their elected officials to set legislation that promotes human dignity.

We especially share our faith when we do our best to stand up for what is right and true and good. Never forget that the only “Gospel” some people may ever see is ourselves. Every day, we have so many little opportunities to be fully awake, to do good for others.