ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

14 JUNE 2015

            Saint Paul says that we need to be courageous and walk by faith, not by sight.  In saying that, he is really telling us to walk through life with the conviction that God is in charge.  That is what the prophet Ezekiel had told his people some six hundred years earlier.  He was among the 3,000 movers and shakers who had been taken into exile in Babylon.  While in Babylon, he and his fellow exiles heard that the Babylonians had completely destroyed Jerusalem, torn down their temple, and murdered their king.  That royal tree of David which had grown strong from the root of Jesse had been cut down.  In the midst of their grief and despair, Ezekiel assures his people that God is in charge.  He tells them that God will take the top part of what is left of that majestic tree and transplant it back on Mount Zion.  Because God is in charge, people from every nation will be drawn to the reconstructed Jerusalem and dwell in God’s shadow.

            We see Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God:  that God is in charge.  In sending out his disciples to proclaim that Kingdom, he instructs them to spread the Word as well as they can, like a farmer sows seed in a field.  Once that work is done, disciples need to trust that the Kingdom will grow, because God is in charge.

            For those who first heard the Gospel of Saint Mark, the parable of the mustard seed spoke strongly to them.  They had chosen to follow a peasant from Galilee who had been murdered like a common criminal outside the walls of Jerusalem.  They came to believe that God was in charge, because the Father had raised Jesus from the dead.  The initial growth of the Church was as small and insignificant as a tiny mustard seed.  But because they believed that God was in charge, they gradually watched as those humble beginnings begin to grow and attract new members, even in the face of persecution by a state that saw this movement as dangerous to the culture.  This new Church spread throughout the Mediterranean Sea and took root in Rome.

            This has been the way the Church has grown throughout history.  This pattern has repeated itself over and over again.  In the late 19^th century, a group of young men were invited to become pages of a powerful king at a place called Namugongo in Uganda.  These young men had recently become Christian.  Some were still Catechumens.  When they discovered that the king wanted sexual favors from them, they resisted him, under the leadership of Charles Lwanga.  In the face of his threats, they trusted that God was in charge.  He ruthlessly murdered all of them, and the situation was desperate.  It seemed like a mustard seed.  But the word of their courage began to spread and brought other people to believe in the Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.  We celebrated their Feast Day on June 3.  My friend, Father Larry Kanyike, e-mailed me to say that a million people gathered at the Shrine of the Martyrs in Namugongo on that day to celebrate Mass.  Christianity has become the fastest growing religion in sub-Saharan Africa and has grown into a very large shrub, attracting many people to dwell in it.

            Saint Paul wants us to walk by faith, not by sight, trusting that God is in charge.  We must do whatever we can to further the Kingdom of God.  We need to practice our faith and teach our children.  We need to work for a more just world.  We need to share our resources with those in need.  We need to pray for those things which we think we desperately need.  But, then we need to trust that God is in charge, even when we watch our world descend into violence, and even when it seems like our prayers are not being answered.

            It takes courage to walk by faith, not by sight, because our sight alone cannot see the ways that God is in charge.  What seems like a mustard seed grows eventually into a very large bush.  We may not see that bush now.  But it exists.  We trust that through faith.

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

7 JUNE 2015

            On the Sundays during the Easter Season, our liturgy expressed the truth that we are members of the New Covenant through our Baptisms.  We began every Mass by sprinkling the congregation with Holy Water.  It is my favorite time of the year, watching people remove their glasses and shielding their heads from the dousing of the water which they know is coming.

            If you are glad to see the Easter Season gone because you are tired of being doused with water, you can be glad that you were not part of the congregation when Moses sealed the First Covenant at Mount Sinai.  During that liturgy, Moses took the blood of two young bulls and sprinkled part of the blood on the Altar, and the other part on the congregation.  That is much worse than being doused with water at Saint Pius!  Blood signified life.  The blood of sacrificed animals symbolized the life which God has now shared with his people through the Covenant.

            The Letter to the Hebrews uses the image of this First Covenant Liturgy to help us understand what Jesus Christ has done.  By shedding his blood on the cross, Jesus gave his entire life for us.  He established a New Covenant, sealed in his blood, which promises eternal life for those who participate.  That perfect Sacrifice is made present every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist.  On this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we rejoice that we have been formed into the Body of Christ and nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass.

            This is also a perfect day for a new priest to celebrate his First Mass. Father Bill, as a priest configured in a unique way to the person of Jesus Christ, you now have the task of pouring out your very life in the service of the people to whom you are assigned.  As you pour out your life, the celebration of the Eucharist will be central to everything you do.  It will be your greatest joy.  It will be your greatest comfort.  It will be your greatest strength as you learn to live the implications of pouring out your life in humble service.

            We, the people of Saint Pius X, cannot tell you how happy we are that you have been assigned to us.  You are no stranger to us.  We know your wonderful strengths and talents, and we love to make fun of those character quirks which you so prominently display.  We will have to figure out how to distinguish two Father Bills.  “Father Bill the Greater, and Father Bill the Lesser!”  “Father Bill the senile and Father Bill the young one!”  We’ll see!

            But that great joy of ours is balanced by the real sadness of losing Father Terry.  He has been a much beloved priest here for four years, and we will miss him.  This mixture of joy and sadness will be an integral part of your priestly ministry.  You will help a family mourn the tragic and unexpected loss of a young person at a Funeral Mass on one day.  On the next, you will share the joy of two families coming together to celebrate the wedding of their children.  A couple will come to you for help, because their marriage is falling apart.  Within an hour, another couple will approach you with the good news that they are expecting a child.  Fourteen people will come to you after Mass to congratulate you on the great homily you just gave.  One person will criticize you, and you will freak out for weeks!

            In your priestly ministry, trust the power of this Eucharistic Sacrifice.  As you pour out your very lifeblood for your people, the death and resurrection of the Lord will be made present to you in the Eucharist.  You will identify with the dying of the Lord in the tough situations.  You will rejoice with the rising of the Lord in the joyous times.  It is that Mystery which defines the New Covenant sealed by the Blood of Jesus Christ.  It is that Mystery which you will proclaim in so many ways.  May God bless you and keep you as you begin this great ministry.  May God bring to completion the good work in you which he is beginning today!