Sts. Peter and Paul - "Super Apostles"

 

"Feed my Lambs - Tend my sheep"

Matthew 16: 13-19

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062925-Mass.cfm

O God, who on the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul

give us the noble and holy joy of this day,

grant that your Church may in all things follow the teaching

of those through whom she received the beginnings of right religion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

(Collect of Mass)

Seeking heroes and inspirational figures in our day and age is somewhat dauting. However, a look to our faith provides us thousands of examples from those who lived the faith in heroic Christian ways: our Saints.  Each year we call to mind this cast of thousands of Christians, of all walks of life, cultures, centuries, to be our heavenly cheerleaders. However, might there be some standouts among the holy ones? 

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.  June 29^th is normally the day of this memorial, and it just happens to fall on a Sunday this year, these two “super Apostles,” along with Jesus, were the founders of the Christian faith. Obviously Christianity is named after Jesus the Christ himself, and no one is equal to the Son of God, but Jesus chose two who would act in his name and carry the banner of the good news of salvation to Jews and Gentiles well beyond the limited confines of the land of Israel. 

However, the two could not be more unlike each other. Peter, the impulsive fisherman from Galilee, the “rock” which Jesus chose to lead his Church, only to see him deny that he even knew our Lord at the time of his arrest.

Paul, the learned Pharisee, immersed in all things Jewish, in the sacred Law, and a Roman citizen who was chosen and singularly focused on arresting and stamping out the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, considered to be a heretical sect and a danger to Judaism as a whole.  Once chosen by our Lord, however, their lives radically changed from whatever direction they imagined they would go.

In our readings we marvel at Peter’s angelic removal from prison. How both God and the community were directly instrumental in bringing that about. 

Also, the wonders of Peter’s preaching and faith in the first reading for the Vigil Mass where at the very command of Peter, in Jesus’ name, a man is healed.  God worked great wonders through this first leader of the Christian Church.

Paul is an entirely different story.  Off he goes to Damascus to round up Christians, throw them in jail, and beyond that who knows what.

Paul encounters the risen Christ along the way and spends the next few years in a new faith formation and personal conversion process. As much as he was against early Christians, he now becomes a leader of the early Church, founding Christian communities throughout the ancient Mediterranean populations.  Three missionary journeys and covering thousands of miles brings his ultimately to Rome, along with Peter, to make the ultimate sacrifice for the Lord.  They followed not their own desires but they sought out the will of God and so the Church was established forever on a firm foundation, on that of Christ himself.  They certainly earned the title “Super Apostles.”

Therefore, we find that a reaching out, the whole missionary spirit, is the personality, the character of the Christian faith.  As both Peter and Paul never remained fixed or even safe in their missionary activities, so too must we be willing to embrace some level of sacrifice, courage, boldness and conviction in the Christian life.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and grant us these important skills and virtues.  My both Peter and Paul be for us giants among those figures, those heroes, that we are graced to emulate.   

  

 

 

 

The Most Holy Trinity - God has revealed himself

 

"When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you . . . "

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061525.cfm

 John 16: 12-15

“In the name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”

How often have we proclaimed our faith in the Trinity by the sign of the cross we make to begin and close a prayer but given little thought to its’ significance? Familiar liturgical gestures of faith and prayer become routine at times: genuflecting, the sign of peace, the sign of the cross, blessing oneself with holy water, and sadly, even the reception of Holy Communion.

Yet, the sign of the cross has been a marker for Christians since the early centuries of Christian history. It is no passive or insignificant gesture. Rather, the sign of the cross is most regularly seen among Catholics to begin/close prayer, is rich in meaning. 

We aren’t swatting flies or cooling ourselves on a hot day.  We are proclaiming our faith in the unity of three divine persons of the One we call God. And, most importantly, how those persons were directly connected to Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection which brought salvation to humanity. That the work of our salvation, accomplished through Jesus’ death and resurrection, was not an act of one person, but the eternal plan of the Father, the Son, + and the Holy Spirit, the three in one persons of God.

In speaking about God, we cannot deny the element of mystery. This is God in himself so how does one come up with an adequate explanation – you can’t, it is a mystery beyond our limited human conception. God is not a puzzle like a crossword or Rubik’s cube to solve but a Mystery to stand before in awe as one might be moved by an ocean sunset, the northern lights or view of stars and planets “in a galaxy far, far away.” No words, just speechless as one is overwhelmed by beauty and wonder. I remember seeing a total eclipse of the sun here locally and words cannot describe it; you must experience its wonder.  That’s a sense of mystery a presence of God the creator.

Our first reading from Proverbs, opens us to a poetic reflection on the mystery of the Holy Spirit (Wisdom) and the pre-existence of that Spirit before time began: “When the Lord established the heavens I was there . . . then I was beside him as his craftsman playing before him all the while . . .” (Prov 8: 30-31).

Despite his wonder and mystery, our God wants to communicate with us; he desires a relationship with us, for us to come to know and love him in return.

This weekend on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, always falling on the Sunday after Pentecost, we mark that great uncovering on the nature of the divine.  Like dense fog that suddenly lifts we have a way of seeing that would not have lifted by any other way other than for this truth to be revealed through the Scriptures and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Yet it is that person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has lifted the veil off the face of God and uncovered for the world the very nature of his Father and the Holy Spirit.

As Jesus spoke, worked miracles, taught in parables and gathered people around him, we hear the very voice of the Father opening a dark door so that we may see, at least as much as we may comprehend, that God is love, as we hear in the Gospel.

God desires a relationship with us for we are his beloved sons and daughters created in his image. And our Gospel reading so beautifully summarizes: “Jesus said to his disciples: I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now . . .”

A God who reaches out, who extends himself not out of vengeance or punishment but out of love and mercy towards those he reaches to. He communicates with us as a living being. His Son is his Word.

Belief in the Holy Trinity is uniquely Christian for no other world religion defines God in this way as a singular community of persons yet remains one.

The image of a human family might be a helpful analogy to explain the Trinity: father, mother and children.  Individual persons yet all members of one family. They share the same human nature as individuals, but all are in harmony with the one set of parents as they are related to the one set of parents. They are one family consisting of a variety of individual persons who share the same nature: human.

Well, it limps, as does any human explanation of the unexplainable God, but we grapple with the unknowable character of God.

We have a helpful image not of just one part but of the whole of God. We believe God is three yet one; three divine persons yet one in their unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - One eternal God. They do not act apart from one another.  As God took on human nature in Jesus so too is the Trinity present.

This is heady stuff to be sure and rather than waste time trying to get your round brain into a square theological hole to solve it, simply stand before God in wonder and humility.  

The Council of Nicea in the year 325 A.D. the Church, in direct defense against false understanding about the nature of the Son, Jesus, formally defined the Trinity in what we proclaim as the Nicene Creed we recite each Sunday at Mass.  It should be very familiar to us: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty . . .I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God . . . I believe in the Holy Spirit . . . who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” It is the core truth of a Christian and what we profess to believe as Catholic Christians. Believe, yes, but importantly also by what we live.

All the prayers of the Mass, the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine, our personal prayer, our sacraments such as when we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the prayer of absolution as our sin is forgiven in penance. Wherever Christ is present as in the sacraments, so too is the work of the One God as they operate in relationship with one another.

Like a hand stretched out to rescue a drowning man God has extended himself to us in love to rescue us from our own sin the result of which is death. As he reveals himself through his own Son in Jesus Christ: merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving and filled with eternal love. In that action, ultimately in the cross and resurrection, he has forever recaptured his creation and destroyed the power of death.  God has the last word. The potential for human society is unlimited if we were to follow the way Christ has shown us.

How blessed are we in our Catholic life which promotes community of persons united by one faith around a common word and his altar.  May that unity in community reflect the true nature of this God who loves and reaches out to us continually.   In the Holy Eucharist we see God reveals himself to us in the person of his Son so as to gather us as one around his altar to feed and unite us in his mercy, kindness, graciousness and forgiveness.

“In the name of the Father, the Son + and the Holy Spirit.” AMEN!

 

 

6/8: Pentecost Sunday - Our new beginning

 

For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060825-Day.cfm

John 14: 15-16, 23b- 26

I readily confess that one of my favorite American history stories is that of the Oregon Trail and specifically of the intrepid explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark: "Lewis and Clark"  

President Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, two well prepared and eager explorers and their companions named the courageous journey to explore the wilds and wonders of the now American west all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back again (1804 -1806) was dubbed the “Corps of Discovery.” For two incredible years they journeyed north from St. Louis, spent a cold and harsh winter welcomed by the hospitable Mandan Native American tribes in now North Dakota, then headed out west over mountains they never imagined would be so numerous and difficult, along with the guidance of a young native American woman named Sacagawea.

It all makes for adventure with little parallel up to that time. Our Feast of Pentecost this weekend and the birth of the Church with fire, wind, Spirit and diverse languages is likewise the beginning of an adventure filled with drama and danger but with the assurance of Divine direction after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus with the Apostles who became the first “explorers” sent out on a mission. Like Lewis and Clark, that mission was completely unknown to the Apostles as to where it would lead ultimately but they went filled with hope and courage.  

Jesus words to his disciples were clear about sending someone, not a memory or a philosophy, or even a set of doctrines so much as sending his Spirit, his continued presence among us in the third person of the Blessed Trinity.  “I will be with you always,” we hear Jesus assure his Apostles and that means that HE is present in our midst through word and sacrament.  The Holy Spirit, the common bond of love between Father and Son, abides in the Church of Christ shows his presence in the revelation of the sacraments, especially in baptism and confirmation, and the concrete ministries of the Church.

The story of the Spirit’s presence through wind, fire, and diverse languages that we hear of in the first reading from Acts, is one that caught the Apostles, gathered with Mary, unaware yet hopeful as they prayed.  It reminds us that the Christian message of salvation in Jesus Christ, the Kerygma as it is called, is meant for a much wider community than the small one gathered in Jerusalem that day.  The diverse languages of ancient people spoken by the Apostles unifies the varied crowd gathered outside the room as they all heard of “the mighty acts of God” in one common, united message of hope and salvation in Christ. And so, the mission of the Church and the Church itself is born.

In the beautiful second reading from Corinthians this Pentecost Sunday, among other varied choices, we hear: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone . . .”

These words of Paul reflect the earliest of Christian communities that Paul had established.  It gives us a window into what Christian communities may have been like, yet certainly not without tension.

Yet aren’t we very much the same. In the experience of their diverse forms of spiritual gifts, varied forms of service, and different works Paul and these enriched communities saw for themselves how and where the Holy Spirit had become concretely obvious to their communities and beyond.

Some gifts may be obvious like music, liturgical ministries, teaching, and charitable works, administrative abilities, a kind of charismatic personality that easily convinces people of a particular position and others more behind the scenes like washing dishes, cleaning altar linens, arranging flowers in typical parish life but all are part of a whole and all are needed to build up the Body of Christ, the Church, and to carry that mission beyond our own individual worlds. These gifts are not for parish use only of course. Such talents are for home, school, work places, daily living, etc. To know this and to see that as our common point of focus and source of life is to live in the Spirit. We all share one baptism, one faith, and drink from the same Spirit, where all come together around the altar of sacrifice each Sunday with Christ our Head and our food for this journey.

Yet, for Paul and for us still today what is the presence or power that prevents a recipe for chaos that might breed competition, jealously, greed, and arrogance, create factions and spawn selfishness. Yes, such realities exist both in the Church and in society. Yet, the way out is our life in the Spirit.

It is our common belief that what holds us together and is always a check on our tendency to think of “Me first,” is the power of the Holy Spirit, the breath or very life of God in Christ among us, that reminds us that we are sharers in the mission of Jesus, something far beyond our selves, yet a very active part of it.  Whether our varied works may be quiet or more noticed they all contribute to the common good of the community each in their own way.

We can see the connection with ourselves today.  All one need do is look around at the many gathered on any weekend for Mass. There may be nothing more expressive of our unity with diversity, the “catholic” nature of Christianity than to travel to other countries of the world, to see and hear there an unfamiliar language and culture but to see that common form of our Mass which brings us home to one another.  To live in the Spirit is to remain connected to the branches of the vine and to follow one Shepherd whose voice we hear.

And so, the Church and its varied members constituting hundreds of millions all across the globe. We all share in that common mission given to the Church thousands of years ago at Pentecost.  Let the Spirit blow strong in our lives to bring, as the Gospel from John reminds us, Jesus’ mission of forgiveness and healing to a world broken by sin.  We can stifle, block, or resist the work of God’s grace in our lives for sure but the Holy Spirit’s presence is a life force that will forever be present moving and forming us as the People of God. We are a continued part of the journey of discovery as the Spirit of the Lord continues to write the story until the Lord returns!

 

 O God, who by the mystery of today's great feast

sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation,

pour out the gifts of the Holy Spirit

across the face of the earth

and, with the divine grace that was at work

when the Gospel was first proclaimed,

fill now once more the hearts of believers.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit, 

God, for ever and ever 

(Collect of Mass-Roman Missal)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 3: St. Charles Lwanga & Companions, Martyrs