Homily

After the Easter Vigil baptism of his little brother, Johnny sobbed in the back seat of the car all the way home. His father and mother asked him what was wrong. He answered: “The priest said he wanted us boys to be brought up in a good Christian home, and I want to stay with you guys.” Interesting, no? Somehow the boy saw the contradiction of Christian living that was being modeled at home.

Who of us here could say that they live and model a perfect Christian home? None of us. We are all sinners. We all struggle to meet the ideal. We’ve been given an ideal in the Scriptures today. Let’s listen to it again: We hear that they were “one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” That goes against our sense of culture today. We have lost the sense of common good and have focused on our rights as individuals, too often at the detriment of the community or those who are poor. We struggle to be community, to be church. The word church in Greek is ecclesia or the gathering.

During Archbishop Vlazny’s homily at the Chrism Mass just over a week ago, he spoke a challenge that we all need to hear. His challenge was basically that many of us have not fallen in love with Jesus or his Church. that’s a pretty harsh thing to say. Are we not all Christians here? I’d say that this is true for all of us to different degrees and at different times. As Christians, we should be able to quickly proclaim these two loves rather spontaneously. But, again, it can be difficult for many reasons. Sometimes we might be okay with Jesus, but not the Church. Or maybe we are okay with the Church, but only the Church made and organized in our own image and styled to our own comfort, and have lost track of the Church that Christ himself set up through his Apostles. As Christians, we are called to be obedient to his commands. And what are God’s commands? Have we not been challenged to love God and our neighbor? That means that to be Christian is essentially to be in community. That in itself may be why we, here in the Northwest, have struggled so hard to bring people to connect with any Church.

Think about it. How did we get here? Our ancestors traveled here from Europe or Mexico or Canada. They traveled, not via our national highway system, but on foot or wagon train. It was a very difficult road. They had to have a pioneering spirit about them in order to just survive. But I think we have now tamed the West and we need to turn that pioneering spirit towards something different than survival in a wilderness, but survival as a Christian community. Did you know that while 80% of Oregonians say they believe in God, only 20% actually attend a Church? We need to direct our pioneering spirit into evangelizing the West. Archbishop Vlazny was more directly speaking about evangelizing ourselves. I think that makes sense. Practicing Catholics make up the largest of all the Christian denominations in the U.S. followed by non-practicing Catholics. We as a Christian Church probably deserve a “C-” in the way of spreading the Gospel of Christ. this may seem rally critical. Yet, think about it. When was the last time we last spoken to others about Jesus and the Good News for those who believe? I’m not saying that we need to go door-to-door, but I am saying that we need to preach this good news in a compelling way. So what was the way that the original Christians did it?

In the Acts of the Apostles, they loved each other and shared everything in common. They had the care of, not themselves, but others first. They weren’t focused on their own rights, but were concerned with the human rights of others, particularly the poor. They were of “one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” Now of course they didn’t just sit around and talk about Jesus all day long. But, their testimony of faith, the change in their way of life, the way they treated each other spoke louder than anything they said. In fact, it was likely the most potent evidence that what they believed was true. Now, think about how we behave with each other at Mass? Is it an hour of a private devotion when we simply come and don’t connect with the other people who come to Mass? This is anti-communal. This is not what we are called to be. We are to be in dialogue and relationship with others as well as Jesus. In fact, while it is through the Eucharist that we encounter Jesus, it is also through each other in community that we encounter Jesus. Vatican II challenged us to make this ancient reality present in our lives.

Why should we do this? It is the most potent way to spread the faith and share the Good News. The living tradition was the most potent evangelization. The empty tomb could have been explained away. But, nobody could contradict the living testimony of the believers whose lives were transformed and even died for the faith.

We are people of the Risen Lord. But could anyone tell this reality in you? In me? We should. Let us strive to be a more loving community. Let us love those around us. Let us love those who have hurt us or who are angry with us. Let us love those with whom we are angry or hurt. Let us love when we are not loved back. Let us love anyway. Let us put on love, the love that comes from the begotten Son of God. That is a love that sounds very much like mercy, huh? Hey, it’s Mercy Sunday today. How about that?