-the homily from last weekend was not recorded. I am looking for a host site for my recorded homilies. In the meantime, the recordings can be heard (after a long download) by double clicking on the title of the talk (not the library as before).
-the scriptures for Trinity Sunday are at USCCB.org->
-I am presiding at the 11:00am Mass on Sunday
Template!
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians very clearly describes what the church relationships "ought" to be: "Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another,agree with one another, live in peace,". Tall order, yes?
However, St. Paul is not inventing this arrangement, imagining this set up, creating some new utopia out of nothing. No, he is encouraging the Church to be that which it was created to be: imago Dei (image of God)
On Trinity Sunday we usually talk about the inner life of God: a communion of life, love, and truth. But today maybe we should be seeing that inner life as a template for our inner life as the church. We were created in the image and likeness of God. We are to be as God is...we ought to see, in the patterns of our relating, the template of God's inner life (love, life, and truth).
Do you expect Christians to love one another, rejoice in each other, mending our ways, dwelling in peace because we are morally superior to others? I think we ought to witness such communion because it is who we are - Imago Dei
3 comments:
Oops - I posted this first under the wrong homily reflection - last week's. Here it is again:
I just finished reading an Apostolic Exhortation by Blessed John Paul II, Christifideles Laici. Like so many of our Church writings, it is as profound today as it was 23 years ago when it was written. It is a comprehensive document that offers rich insight, teaching, and guidance about living a holy, Christian life; but among other topics it has much to say about living in communion – with God and with each other. “The individual is lost and disoriented, but there always remains in the human heart the desire to experience and cultivate caring and personal relationships.” Indeed – ‘the individual’ is lost and disoriented. As the Matador said, the communion of the Trinity is the image of which we are made. We are lost and disoriented without communion – we are called to relive the very communion of God and cannot rest until we rest in that loving unity. The writing points to relationships such as “family” and “parish” as models of communion by which we thrive. These mutual bonds are not only comforting, but essential to who we are. Communion is part of our very being!
While this great Exhortation acknowledges the “unique and irrepeatable” nature of each and every child of God, it convincingly describes the complementarity of the individuals that forms the communion of the Church – of the Body of Christ. It goes on to explain how communion leads to mission – and mission is accomplished in communion – but I have no doubt that is a topic for another day!
Wow, great insights, great template to live by, thanks Father.
Question...is Paul's exhortation and your question only directed to Christians or to all the various people we encounter? Is it possible to "agree with one another" with those who don't believe in God, Jesus, religion, etc? Or do you look for ways to agree, look for what to encourage in hopes of God working through it all? Is that a real way of loving or contrived?
I like the idea of Paul's words providing a template for us to live by. I agree that since we are all unique, physically, it is in our inner life that we can live in the image of God. This is where we can be free from the judgements and temptation to feel superior.
All 3 readings show us that we need to feed our inner selves, or true selves, with food from God, the Eucharist. It is only by the communion of our inner lives that we can be one body in the image of God.
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