Homily Thoughts E6-C

  On Easter and in the weeks immediately after, the focus is on the event of the Resurrection… the St. Peter and women going to the tomb, the encounter with doubting Thomas, the walk on the road to Emmaus.  But in the last two weeks, the Church has taken us back in the Gospel of John—a Gospel that reflects deeply on who Jesus is and what his mission is all about.  This week's reading of John 14 takes place after Jesus washed the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper, after Judas left to betray him, and before the mob showed up to carry him away to trial and execution.  It is this desolate moment of Jesus' first leave-taking that John reminds us that we will never be alone after we have encountered the love of God.  This was an important message for the disciples on that night of the Last Supper—but the importance of that message is even greater now as the Lord takes his leave of us to go back to heaven.

   As the Church continues to celebrate the 50 days of Easter, the readings presented on Sunday start to change as we reach the fifth, sixth, and seventh weeks.  Having encountered the love of God, now recognizing that love between Father and Son, who does Jesus promise?  Jesus says, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit... will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you”  (John 14:26).  The Advocate, who proceeds as the unbegotten love the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, enlightens us to keep that love present with us--as present as the Lord walking with is disciples in Gallilee--even to this day.

   The Solemnity of Pentecost will give us the opportunity to reflect even more on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church.  What I would like to do today, however, is turn our attention to the key revelation which is given to us today in these readings.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are One.  This is not a new revelation to this community— we pray this each time we make the sign of the cross ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’  Our prayers at Mass often end with the formula, “we ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you (the Father) and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever.”  We experience the Trinitarian reality through the ministry of the priest when he prays, “Therefore, O Lord [Father], we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.”  To call upon one person of the Trinity is to invoke the presence all three.  To pray to the Father takes place through the ministry of the Son by the power of the Spirit.

   It is the Trinitarian reality which saturates all around us which reminds us that we, like our God, are designed to be radically relational.  Jesus is not strictly my God or your God; Jesus is our God.  Let’s bring this down to earth.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, each person who comes forward receives Jesus—in body, blood, soul, and divinity.  In receiving Jesus, each one of us here, and in every Catholic Church throughout the world, proclaim and live a profound unity which is made real here today.  Indeed, each person who receives the Eucharist across space and time are drawn together in our Lord Jesus Christ.  I take great solace when I consider that my participation in the Holy Sacrifice this day, takes place in union with the eternal, heavenly sacrifice which so many of my loved ones have left this life to enjoy.  I take great solace in the knowledge that my participation unites me even with all those people whom I have yet to meet who will form me as a priest and hopefully prepare me to participate well in the heavenly liturgy.  My communion with Jesus joins me with the little ones who gather for First Communion this weekend in so many places through the entire world.  It is our encounter with Jesus in this sacrifice which presents us as a human family to Our Father.  It is our encounter with Jesus which binds us to his promise of the Holy Spirit who goes before us, and in doing so, makes real the promise that he would be with us until the end of time.
   [An interesting observation: John 14 and the promise therein is offered only after the one who could not see the Love of God incarnate in the Son, Judas the Iscariot, broke ranks with the community and with the Lord (leaving Mass early?) to pursue the thirty pieces of silver by which he valued our Lord.  It would seem that Jesus promises his presence and his love, but only to those who remain in Communion not only with him but with his Church.]

   It is this radical rationality implicit in us which also reminds us that sin is never strictly personal, never strictly private.  Therefore, the remedy to sin through the sacraments of baptism and reconciliation (in particular) are never, strictly, personal events.  The worship of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, whether at Mass or through any of the countless devotional practices is never, strictly speaking, a private affair.  Our worship, whether in a quiet chapel or in a hospital bed or anywhere else, unites a person with God and God with his people.  The ministry of deacons, priests, and bishops never finds its end in the person of the cleric himself, rather it is ordered to the good of the entire Church.  The sacrament of marriage is not something to be shared and lived privately, but it has an external, public dimension which builds us all up as a community witnessing the love of God.

   Father, Son, and Spirit are a community of divine persons in relationship.  If this were not so, if the Father and Son and Spirit were not joined in mutual love, we would not have One God, but rather three separate gods.  We know this cannot be so.  The love of God is not self-love, love turned in on itself—God’s love reaches out to embrace the other.  The love of the Son is such that it reaches out and receives the love of the Father.  The love of Father and Son embraces and shares the Love of the Spirit.  As the Church on earth, we get a glimpse of God’s love in the person of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.  This mystery is the backdrop for understanding our Lord’s return to the Father and the sending of the Spirit which will complete our Easter celebration in the next few weeks:  We are never alone when we are loved by God.