TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

25 JUNE 2017

After completing the Easter Season and reflecting on the Mystery of the Trinity and the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, our readings this Sunday slam us back into Ordinary Time with a thud!  The Prophet Jeremiah finds himself persecuted by the authorities for speaking the truth to his own people.  Jesus speaks to his disciples about the dangers of proclaiming his name and his message.  By the time Saint Matthew has written this Gospel, his disciples had been thrown out of the Synagogues by their neighbors for their faith in Jesus Christ.  Considered no longer authentic Jews by the Romans, some of them had been hauled into court and executed.  In response, they express their fear and ask the same question which Jeremiah had asked centuries before:  Why is God allowing all these things to happen, especially to believers?

Jesus answers this valid question by telling them not to be afraid.  They need not fear, because they no longer live in darkness.  They now live in the bright light of a Messiah whose suffering and death will be transformed by the light of the resurrection.  They no longer have to keep the message secret!  They can tell everyone.  In telling everyone, they have already experienced rejection and a share in the passion of Christ.

So, he tells them to stop being afraid.  He reminds them of the fate of Jeremiah.  His enemies may have killed his body and sowed it in the earth.  But, they could not kill his soul and separate him from God.  They could not stop the truth of his message, which lives on to encourage those who continue to speak the truth to leaders who live in darkness. They can stop being afraid, because the Father cares for them even more than he cares for the sparrows of his creation.  He promises that the Father puts so much value on them and their witness to the truth that they will see the light of his presence face to face in all eternity.

Jesus speaks this same message to his disciples in every age.  When Karol Wojtyla was elected as Pope John Paul II in 1978, his first words were:  do not be afraid, open wide the doors to Christ!  John Paul II had seen many things that caused fear.  He saw the Nazis invade Poland and kill priests who resisted them.  He watched in horror as his Jewish neighbors were sent to prison camps to be murdered.  After the war, he lived under Communist control of his country and defended the Church against state control.  As Pope, he would return to Poland and see the collapse of Communism.  As Pope, he would be shot in Saint Peter’s Square and eventually sit down to forgive his murderer.  As Pope, he set aside all fear to travel the world to proclaim the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He is one of the saints pictured on the triumphal arch, and he is interceding for us as we face our own fears.  If anything keeps us from living the light of faith, it is fear.  Those of you who are very young might hesitate to speak openly of your faith, because you fear that you will be rejected by your friends.  Those of us who have been blessed with material wealth may be afraid to share our treasure out of fear that if we are too generous, there will not be enough for us to live comfortably.  Those of you who face life threatening diseases might be afraid of what the future holds once your health is gone.  In each of these situations, Jesus says the same thing.  Do not allow fear to keep you from living the Gospel!  God knows everything about us, even how many hairs are on our heads.  (For some of us, that is easier to count these days!)  God also knows the dangers we face.  God will not protect us from those dangers.  But, echoing Jeremiah, God will be our mighty champion.  God will be with us.  Precisely because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can squarely face our fears and live the Gospel!      

PENTECOST SUNDAY

4 JUNE 2017

            Saint Paul knew that the Church in Corinth was a community torn apart by conflict.  One of the many issues separating them involved the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Some members of the community bragged that their gift of speaking in tongues was superior to any of the other gifts given to anyone else.  In writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul argues that this is not true.  He points out that there is only one Lord, the source of unity.  If the members of the community embrace the centrality of that one Lord, then they will understand that there are different gifts given to many different people to be given in the service of the Church.  Most importantly, the only way to recognize the one Lord is through the working of the Holy Spirit.

            Today, we recall the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church.  We hear two very different accounts of how the Holy Spirit was given.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke describes the Day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover.  Just as the original Covenant was given at Mount Sinai in the midst of fire and strong winds, so the Holy Spirit is given to the Apostles, who are the new twelve tribes of Israel.  This gift of the Holy Spirit transforms the polarization at the Tower of Babel, when the languages of peoples were confused.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, the twelve proclaim that the mighty acts of God, raising Jesus from the dead and as Lord.

            Saint John tells a different story in the Gospel, which we heard on Easter Sunday.  According to John, the risen Christ breaks through the locked doors of their fear and gives them three gifts.  He gives them the gift of peace, that abiding presence of God which the world cannot give.  He breathes on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Instead of lecturing them about their cowardice in running away in his darkest hour, he gives them the gift of forgiveness.

            As different as these accounts may be, they convey the same message.  The Holy Spirit is not given to an isolated individual, but to a community of believers.  Within each community, there are many different believers with many different gifts to share.  The Holy Spirit drives the recipients out of their comfort zones to proclaim the message that the risen Christ is Lord, and that embracing his Lordship will bring a profound unity.

            That same Holy Spirit is given to us today.  Like the Apostles, we have encountered the risen Lord during this Easter Season.  For fifty days, we have reflected on the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We have experienced his real presence in the Sacramental life of the Church. Through the Sacraments of Initiation, we have introduced believers into a more intimate relationship with Christ.  Now the Holy Spirit drives us out of the Easter Season to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.

The Holy Spirit gives us much hope in our fractured and polarized world.  The Holy Spirit opens our hearts to a peace that comes from knowing that Jesus is Lord.  The Holy Spirit blows through those barriers which we use to isolate ourselves from those with whom we might disagree.  The Holy Spirit melts away the icy distances we make from those who are different from us.  The Holy Spirit empowers us to discern our individual gifts and gives us the courage to place those gifts at the service of this parish.  The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of forgiveness, not to pretend that our sins and bad choices were acceptable, but to turn our gaze to the future, enabling us to be healed of the wounds caused by our sins.  The Holy Spirit blows us out of this church to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ and share those gifts with others.