Peacemaking is a requirement of our faith.

 Sixth Sunday of Easter C  2019

The final words of a loved one near death have a way of remaining with us.   Powerful words between the dying and the living is a sacred moment.   I can think of a parishioner whose last words to his wife were: “I love you.”  His last words to me were: “I am ready to go home to God.”  These beautiful last words of this parishioner are seared in my memory.

The Gospel today are the last words of Jesus as he spoke to his disciples at the Last Supper on the night before he died.  This is Jesus’ going away conversation with his disciples.  Listen again to the last words of Jesus to His disciples: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.  Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

Have you ever thought about the gift you would pass to your loved ones?  Many of us have a will in which we carefully think what to do with your assets after your death.  It goes without saying that it is a good idea to have a will.  But when we think about a will, we usually think about our material assets and who gets what.  Today’s Gospel is taken from the last will and testament of Jesus in His conversation with his apostles.

The farewell gift of Jesus was a not a bequest of his earthly goods.  It was a gift far more important.

But even so, Jesus is departing from this earth and, as every dying person, wishes to reveal a gift.    Jesus names peace as what he wants to leave.  He immediately specifies it as my peace.  It is not like the peace of this world.   Whenever everything is going well, we can manage a certain amount of inner calm.  However, when bad times come, calm is replaced by anxiety and fear.  We shake with the wind, vacillate with the circumstances.

Peace is a complicated word with many interpretations.  We deploy our well-equipped military around the world as peacekeepers.  Some people passionately fight for uncontrolled gun ownership which they believe will ensure peace.  Yet despite all of our energy and resources we put into protecting ourselves, we still are not at peace.

 Perhaps we are looking for peace in the wrong places.  Jesus urges, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  His words refocus us to the question.  “What needs to happen in our hearts so that we can find peace?”  The peace that Jesus brings begins and ends with love. 

Tensions in families are often unavoidable.  However, which is more likely to bring reassuring healing to this friction – anger and revenge, or compassion and forgiveness?   Turbulence in the stock markets can leave us greedily scrambling for an economic advantage, or we can humbly trust God to provide for our needs.

Stress can keep us up at night, damage our health and suck the joy out of life.  But what if we enjoyed the peace that only God can give and it is a peace that is rooted in the conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  This non-abandoning presence of God is revealed in the cross of Christ and is the source of our inner peace.

What is the peace that Jesus brings?  With hectic schedules, where time for family, friends, work, study, errands – and relaxation – must be planned for each day, we look for ways to simplify our lifestyles to find some peace.  Banks and investment services offer any number of services to manage our money so that we can have “peace of mind.”

The peace Jesus gives is not imposed but given as a gift, not just a brief vacation but a centering peace in which Jesus says to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

We today live in the same space that Jesus was speaking with his disciples.  The Lord does not leave us orphans.  Rather he sends the Holy Spirit to be with us all our days.  The inner gift of peace is the Lord’s lasting legacy to us.

But the peace that is Jesus’s gift for us can only be given birth by living the Gospel.  A beautiful example of the Christian dream of peace can be seen in the first Scripture reading taken from the Acts of the Apostle about life in the early Christian community.  The Church worked out a new peace through disagreement.  Each side was given a chance to represent its position and each side was listened to.  In the end, each side also gave up some of its demands, so that a new consensus emerged.  Christians, it was decided, need not follow all Jewish customs (like circumcision) but they need to follow some which were considered essential.  Disagreement was not crushed or avoided but acknowledged, and people of good will were led to a compromise.

Let us pray for a deep trust in God’s promise of peace and strive in our way to see it a reality.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a pastoral letter sometime ago entitled:  The Challenge of Peace:  God’s Promise and our Response.  The Bishops state: “Peacemaking is not an optional commitment.  It is a requirement of our faith.  We are called to be peacemakers, not by some movement of the moment, but by our Lord Jesus. 

There is both blessing and responsibility in Christ’s love.  Jesus unconditionally gives us His love so we can know and grow in love.  The gift we have been given is meant to be shared so that others can know and grow in peace.  Where and how are you as a Christian being called to share your love and promote the peace of Christ in our world today?

For us at the parish community of the Holy Spirit, we seek at all times to be guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.  Like the first Christian communities from the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles, all need to be able to express their convictions; we need to listen to one another;  decisions need to be made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and, most of all, we need to embrace the peace that only God can give and share our love with one another.

Have a Blessed Day.

Jesus is very clear on how we are to recognize his followers: "By this all shall recognize that you are my disciples, by your love for one another."

Growing up Catholic, in our family home, in my bedroom, around my neck, on the rosary in my pocket, in the classroom of the school, Our Lady of Good Counsel School, then in the minor seminary which I entered at age 14, and in our parish Church, the crucifix is part of the DNA of my Catholic upbringing.  The crucifix was a constant fixture in almost every prayer I said.  The crucifix symbolized the giving love of Jesus for me and the whole world. 

The message of the crucifix in the sanctuary of our Church is that for Jesus his dying is his greatest act of giving.

In today’s Gospel taken from Jesus’ farewell discourse at the Last Supper, Jesus is speaking to his disciples about his own death.  “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him…My children I will be with you only a little while longer.  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another…By this all shall know that you are my disciples, by the love you have for one another.”

Jesus understands his dying as central to the eternal purpose of God.   Death is not a defeat.  Jesus’ death is a process of glory, a revelation of divine love saving human life.  Jesus’ death is the supreme expression of love for his disciples.  “I lay down my life for the sheep.  This laying down of life out of love creates a new commandment.   “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, your love for one another.”

We deeply believe God has first loved us.  The love of Jesus for us joins us in our deepest fears and sustains us through our greatest loss.  I presided at a funeral Mass on Friday at St Louis Church of Joe Nunn.  I have known Joe and his wife Lucy for many, many years.  Lucy is a person of considerable faith as she grieves the death of her husband.  The love of Jesus sustains Lucy in the grieving that she now experiences, and she now knows a peace that only God can give.

To walk with people of faith in the dark valleys of life is a humbling experience and to witness the trust that people place in Jesus as their Lord and their Savior is a beautiful God moment for me.

As seen in the Gospel Last Supper discourse of Jesus with His disciples, Jesus is very clear on how His disciples are to be known.  Jesus parting words to his disciples are:  “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, the love you have for one another.”  Love is the first priority of our lives as the disciples of Jesus.  In loving, we are to give of ourselves in the service of one another.

In love, we are to forgive as our loving God forgives us.

So, whenever you think of how hard it is to forgive, don’t think yes how hard it is for me to forgive, because for all of us, it’s a great weakness, the hardest thing in life is to forgive somebody.

But look again at that person you cannot forgive. Because you have not seen that he or she, too, is God’s glory. For God does not make garbage. He doesn’t fool around with life. Each one of us has an eternal destiny and an eternal goodness.

We need to ask ourselves: “Can I not forgive this person the way God forgives me, with a generosity of forgiveness, or must I insist, me refusing to give this person my little forgiveness, when God himself has died for this person and has died for me and forgives us all?”

May we always remember the words of Jesus on the cross saying, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

We have a Gospel imperative to give and to forgive.  As to the Gospel imperative to give, even more important than the marketing strategy of giving to a specific need, we have a need to give, to give generously, yes, to give of our time, talent, and treasure, even our very lives as an expression of our love.

There is no way we can feel comfortable in our discipleship of Jesus if we are not generous givers.  When it is a sacrifice, when our giving does challenge us, when we are forced to make sacrifices, this is what Gospel giving is all about.

Now you know and I know the experience of being on overload.  Our plate is too full at times and we lose our center.  For myself, when I begin to feel on overload and too much is being asked of me, my prayer is quite simple:  “Behold the cross.”  I began the homily with saying that the crucifix is part of the DNA of my Catholic upbringing no matter where I turned.  My mom and dad must have had stock in the making of crucifixes.   “Behold the cross” is still very much a part of my faith DNA.  Know that the dying of Jesus is the greatest expression of giving.  If I have to simplify my lifestyle a bit because I’m being asked to give, know these little acts of dying prepare us for the ultimate act of giving which one day we will all be called to.

I call your attention to the second collection today:  Our Raising the Roof Campaign.   We are replacing the roof in our parish hall and replacing the flooring and the ceiling in the parish hall as well.  As we all well know, replacing a leaking roof is not optional or a luxury.  We commit ourselves to updating our facilities not only for ourselves but for future parishioners of the Church of the Holy Spirit for generations to come.  The parish hall is where our faith formation is done; it is where we have our parish meetings; our youth ministry; our parish social events; and where we enjoy our coffee and doughnuts after Sunday Mass.  The parish hall houses so many of our parish ministries.

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The second collection is for this raising the roof campaign.  You will notice pledge form in the pews.  If you are able to make a greater pledge over the course of two years than you could in a single collection gift, the pledge would be so much appreciated.  You will have a couple of moments following the homily to fill out a pledge form and you could simply place the pledge in the second collection today.

By God’s grace, may we always be generous givers.  Please take a moment to consider the pledge form in the pews.  Please place in the second collection today.

Have a Blessed Day.

At the end of the day, the question Jesus asks each of us is the threefold question asked of Peter: "Do you love me?"

The Gospels for the first half of the Easter Season of 50 days focus on the Resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples.  The apostles did not come to an immediate Easter faith in the Risen Lord; rather it was gradual.   In fact, they were ready to go back fishing -- get their old jobs back.  But once their hearts were touched as the disciples of Jesus, they were fearless proclaimers of the Word of God.  What about us?  How much of our lives are shaped and determined by our faith in the Risen Lord?

From today’s Gospel the apostles were on a failed fishing expedition.  That night they had caught nothing.  The fish just weren’t biting.  This was an exercise in patience and asking themselves what is going on.

I invite you to imagine yourself in this Gospel scene.  As I say, the apostles were fishing all night and caught nothing.  What issue in your life leaves you with the feeling of fishing all night and catching nothing?   Perhaps it is parenting, and it seems that your child or children aren’t getting it.  Perhaps it is concerns about your own health or the health of someone you love.  Perhaps it is dealing with an addiction in your life.  What fear or anxiety continually gets the best of you?  Perhaps it is your job situation.

What would it take for you to snap out of your funk and to see your future is full of hope?  For the apostles, Jesus said:  “Cast your net over to the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  When we can trust in God’s guidance for our lives, we will experience the abundance of God’s grace as the apostles did in the great catch of fish.  Rather than giving us on a relationship or a project, we ask for the grace of persistence and to trust that God goes with us.

Plain and simple, just as a bad night of fishing can lead to a great catch; so too for us, dealing with our struggles in life can lead to a deeper experience of God’s love in our life.   Like Peter we are called to profess our trust in Jesus.  When that happens, the abundance of God’s blessing will follow.

The risen Lord then invites the disciples to join him for breakfast.  Then after the breakfast, Jesus asks Peter three times:  “Do you love me?”  He whose only concern was to announce the unconditional love of God had one question for his followers.  “Do you love me?”  Jesus had but one question but it was so important that he asked it three times.

The background for this dialogue is the obvious:   Love is our greatest gift.

What is it children want from their parents more than anything else?   They want to be loved.

Considering the beauty of all of God’s creation, what is God’s greatest gift to us?  It is God’s love, made incarnate in Jesus.

Peter cannot truly be a pastor and shepherd like Jesus unless he loves like Jesus.  He must love Jesus, and therefore he must love the people whom he will serve.

  

Love is the foundation of good parenting.  Love is the foundation of a true shepherd.  Love is God’s greatest gift to us.  This great gift of God is to be shared.

Jesus helps us to know the heart of God.

In today’s Gospel, Peter is every person.  He who had vehemently denied his discipleship, as well as his association with Jesus, was now given his opportunity to renew his love for Jesus.  Message:  God never gave up on Peter.  The Lord never gives us on us.

Pope Francis again and again invites into the heart God -- a heart filled with mercy and love.  The Lord never gives us on us.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.  The Church is to do likewise.  The Church is reveal the merciful love of Jesus into the lives of people.

Going back to the Gospel when Peter responded in the affirmative in declaring his love for Jesus.  Jesus responded:  “Feed my sheep.”  Truly love is not just a feeling; it is not just experiencing a moment of ecstasy.  Love is shown in action.  We are to show our love for God by loving the people God loves.  This means everyone.  The heart of God reaches out to each and every person on planet earth.

We show our love for God by doing what Jesus did at the Last Supper -- by getting down on our knees and washing the feet of God’s poor.  As Jesus said on that blessed night of the Last Supper:  “By this all shall know that you are my disciples, by the love you have for one another.”

We who gather to celebrate the Eucharist Sunday after Sunday are to glorify God by the actions of our lives.  Our celebration of the Eucharist is radically incomplete if we do not share with others the merciful love of Jesus that has been given to us as we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus at Communion.

At the end of the day, the question Jesus asks of each of us is the threefold question asked of Peter:  “Do you love me.  Life gives us endless opportunities for that response.  In countless ways, we are called to feed, to serve one another in need.

When we come before the Lord, after we proudly list all of our achievements and accomplishments, the Lord is still going to ask us:  “Do you love me?”  What the Lord has in mind when he asks us this question is how have you shown your love to that person or to those people whom it is most difficult for you to love?

Have a Blessed Day.