Again, I wish you a grace-filled 2024 and a happy holiday weekend as we honor the memory of Martin L. King Jr.
This is the second Sunday in “ordinary time” which refers to the liturgical weeks after the Christmas and Lenten/Easter seasons.
Over the holidays I leafed through “Disorder in the American Courts," a book of things people have said in court. For example, an attorney asked a witness: “How was your first marriage terminated?” The witness replied, “By death.” The attorney continued, “Whose death?” The widower said, “Take a guess.” Who says you can’t have humor in court?
The Word of God today first takes us back to the 11th century before Jesus. Samuel is asleep close to the Ark of the Covenant. He hears a voice, which he eventually recognizes as God’s. And Samuel responds: Speak, my God, for I am listening. And because he listened to God, Samuel went on to become one of the great prophets: a "mouthpiece" for God and anointer of kings.
God speaks to us in many different ways. But are we listening?
Since we awoke today, God has been speaking to us: through nature's beauty, through the love of family, friends and colleagues, through hymns we sing and scripture we hear, in many different ways. God’s voice is loud and clear.
But we don’t always hear if we’re not on the right wavelength. Prayer -- tuning into the presence of God -- puts us on the right frequency, so we can listen in the right place at the right time in our everyday lives.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth speaks about our ultimate purpose: eternal life with God.
Yes, we are living temples of God; God dwells within us, initially by virtue of baptism. We possess the “spark of the divine.” So, how do we reflect the presence of God in what we say and do?
The Gospel speaks about the beginnings of a community of disciples, the Church, the world-wide Catholic faith community.
Jesus, truly human and truly divine, who through his death/resurrection by the power of the Spirit re-established our friendship with God, is gloriously alive in all his fullness in the one Church He founded. We are called to continue his ministry by doing all the good we can until he comes again 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. I explore this, and efforts to bridge the gaps, in my brief book on Christian unity, available through amazon.
All Christians profess one Lord, one faith and one baptism. But they have split into three major traditions: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. And that’s why we have a week of prayer for Christian Unity, beginning next Thursday, January 18.
As we pray with Jesus that “we all may be one,” we might ask "why should I belong to this Catholic community of disciples of Jesus?” Here are some good reasons:
First, we are a worldwide community of believers (1.3 billion plus people, rich and poor, American, European, Asian and African, encountering the presence of the living Christ, sacramentally and mystically, especially in the liturgy.
Second, we are a community with splendid heroes and heroines praying for us: "Benedict, Francis and Clare of Assisi, Dominic, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Vincent de Paul, Therese of Lisieux and Mother Teresa”—the litany goes on and on. As you walk in this courtyard, you see the archangel Raphael with his broad winged shoulders, watching over us. These are good role models in our quest for a meaningful life.
Third, we take a stand on peace and justice. The Catholic community sponsors and staffs shelters, schools and hospitals and hospice services, soup kitchens, literacy programs, day-care and treatment centers throughout the world. Catholic Relief and Refugee agencies attempt to meet the basic needs of the poor.
But alas we are also a community of believers with tensions. Why is that so? Because we are human, saints as well as sinners. Some people are “messy” and make a “mess” out of things and so, like many other things in life, we have to live with some messiness and muddle through as best we can.
The point is: Jesus is the foundation of this community. We give thanks to God for this calling to a fulfilling life with God here and now, and to eternal life where we shall be like God and see God face-to-face.
Let us pray January 18-25, especially for the unity Jesus sought, that we may all be one: each and every person bringing our creative gifts from God for the good of humankind.
Amen.
