Homily

Recently, Archbishop Vlazny was approached by a reporter at the end of the consistory where our former archbishop William Levada was made a cardinal. Vlazny was asked, “What is the number one challenge facing the Catholic Church today?” He responded that the evangelization or re-evangelization of our own people was most challenging. For many reasons some people have either chosen to leave or have never gotten beyond what they were taught as children. Some have come from the “pray, pay, and obey” generation where things were all done by the priests and the nuns.

That got me thinking. What does it mean to evangelize, and what are we supposed to be evangelizing about? What is the core of the message that we are supposed to be telling others about? Is it trying to get people to come to Mass? Is it orthodox teaching? Is it the recognition of our own personal sins and need for repentance? Is it so we can go to heaven? Is it the mission of peace and social justice? Is it participation in the Sacraments? Is it to pray the rosary or express charismatic gifts? It is tithing? Is it coming to Mass on time and not leaving early? Is it to find more volunteers? Is it vibrant youth and adult ministry? Is it becoming a spiritual person? Then I thought some more and reflected on the reason for today’s solemnity, Easter. Why did Jesus do all these things? Why did he die and rise again? Why was he born into humanity and suffer? Why did leave again and go to heaven? Why?

The answer? Love. Love is the reason for it all. Love is the core of our faith. Love is the reason Christ came as a human, suffered, died, and rose again. Love is the beginning and the end of all things. All the other things I mentioned earlier are good, but are not the origin nor the end of why we are Christians or need to evangelize. The love I speak of is at the core of being Christian. Pope Benedict in his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est wrote, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” That, my friends, is the goal of evangelization. We are to tell others about love in the person of Jesus. The problem as Archbishop Vlazny saw it was that many simply have not fallen in love with Jesus or his Church.

Maybe someone who called themselves Christian did not show love. Maybe someone in the Church sinned or hurt another or caused a scandal. If that is us, and the victim is you, then please accept our apology. Please forgive us for love’s sake. Please give us another chance, and let down your walls of defensiveness. Let’s start again. For the sake of love, we must do this. We are a community that has charity at our heart, and charity is another word for love. We may not get it right all the time. We may even get it horribly wrong a lot of the time. But, that is the “mystery of the Church.” We are more a hospital of sinners than a museum of saints.

Through Grace, let us then rise together once again as a people who have suffered much. Let us live out the Good News of Christ’s resurrection in our lives and tell others about it. Let us fall in love with our Savior who first loved us. This is the greatest challenge that faces us as a Church. Let us rise to the challenge. Let us put on love and be people of new beginnings. Let us not seek out vengeance or succumb to selfishness and greed. Let us be people of Easter, hoping and praying for the sake of love. Let us rise from our own brokenness and fall in love for the first time or tenth time with Jesus who is risen and broken the bonds of death for the sake of love. Amen.