-Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm on Saturday, 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Mission Impossible vs. Commissioned in persona Christi
This is the last homily in this Easter series on believing/unbelieving. I have identified the lingering symptoms of unbelieving that remain part of our lives as those claiming to believe: fear of death/clinging to material life, isolated individualism, autonomous control freaks, judging competitive monkey mind, clinging to the past and the unreal, and today, secret agents of a distant God. Each of these symptoms of unbelieving or slavery to sin and death has a complementary or opposite symptom of believing in communion with God and others: in the world not of it, member and child, mutual submisission in love, friends in the Lord, making room for the true, the new, the real and today, called together as God by God!
You remember the Sunday night program in the sixties: Mission Impossible. A central character begins the show each week receiving a tape recorded proposal from someone in charge. The voice on the tape is anonymous, the listener is challenged to accept this top secret mission and the tape self-destructs after it concludes so that there is no way to connect the agent to the one who has engaged him.
That is an image for me of the way most "believers" approach life in the world. We show up to church on Sunday, we hear a challenging call from a rather "distant" God, yo go out into our daily life to succeed by our own resources, representing no one, not indicating that anyone has called us, sent us, or is behind the craziness of life.
Pentecost proclaims a radically different notion of believers engaged by God, on a mission of truth and love, under the banner of Jesus Christ and formed as a member of a team formed by the Spirit. COMMISSIONED - ambassadors of the COMMUNION which is the Love who is God.
Does this resonate with your believing?
1 comment:
Bike riding season has begun, and each year my husband and I join a group from the Metroparks that rides together. The activity is designed as a strictly "social" one - no competition. We meet at a specific location, receive instructions for the ride, and then head out to our goal end-point. As we ride, we are mindful of being part of a group. We call out to each other - things like, "car back" or "passing on your left" or "all clear". If someone has a mishap and falls or gets a flat tire, several members of the group stay with him/her and help remedy the situation. The intention of riding this way is to be part of something bigger than yourself - to be together. As a group we are more clearly seen by drivers, we are safer, and we generate more enjoyment amongst ourselves simply by being a group. Then, when we arrive at our destination, we typically have a light meal together, sit around picnic tables, and chat. The talk tends to revolve around what we saw on the ride, things that occurred while we were together, and perhaps some suggestions of how we might go about the next ride.
It is a wonderful communal experience and has parallel for how I understand our lives to be lived together as a community of disciples. It gives an image of how a body of people find better purpose in being united as one instead of pursuing the same goal as isolated individuals.
But in the Matador's reflection, what is striking and stands out from any other example I can muster, is the reference to being "ambassadors of the communion which is the Love who is God." That is the telling difference of the Church – and for me, it is the difference that makes the Church able to point to our Eucharistic Liturgy as the source and summit of our lives. No other activity can claim that authority. What an amazing Mission: to be ambassadors of that which is the most vital aspect of life – the foundation of life itself – the Love that without which we would cease to exist. Every soul in the world needs this Love – and many do not know how to see it, how to believe in it, nor how to share it. As a body of ambassadors we can more effectively help them find that Love. They, who don’t know of it, can more readily see it as we act together as one. They will see us depend on one another, look out for one another, and care for one another. And we can invite them in – each and every one.
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