-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday and 9:30am on Sunday
You Wouldn't recognize it if it Bit you on the Nose!
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and he is alive for us. Jesus Christ is not only risen and alive, he is present and active in our midst. This is the fundamental truth of the Christian religion. No one is arguing about the truth of it.
What we are admitting all the time is that we do not recognize him AS HE IS. Jesus breathed upon the apostles and pledged to be with them always. And yet we do not recognize him AS HE IS - in the Body of Christ the Church.
Many of us who claim to be "in the church" manifest our blindness to him because we are lacking in the unity he created and we are afraid of others, afraid of vulnerability, afraid of death, afraid of life.
Many who are "outside the church" secular-shaped hearts and empiricist minds observing the church from outside fail to recognize Jesus AS HE IS in the imperfect communion that he has chosen to establish(the Church).
Within the church we reveal our blindness to Jesus in our midst by our individualistic drive for control of church tradition, clinging to private devotion, and judgment and distrust of others. We're like the disciples in the storm-tossed boat. Petrified and every man for himself.
Within the society we look a lot like Peter, demanding that if Jesus (faith and religion) is really calling them to life he better prove it beyond the feeble proof that is the Church ( the only proof. Jesus prefers to give).
So, we have a church community blinded to the presence of Jesus dwelling powerfully within their mutual communal love - where and how he said HE WOULD BE. And we have a suspicious world not at all impressed by Jesus' feeble display of presence in his chosen vessel, the broken Church.
Save us, Lord!
But look who DID recognize him - the sick, the lame, the rejected, the dying. How can you tell? They came to him and allowed him to be strong in their midst. No fear - all acceptance AS HE IS! Maybe the recognition of Jesus has to do with the condition of the beholder rather than the manner of Jesus' appearance AS HE IS.
5 comments:
I like the comparison of the challenge to see Christ as he is inside the Church and outside the Church. I certainly agree.
A great new movie - "The Hundred Foot Journey" - serves as a wonderful example of people being so close together in one way - and so at odds with each other in every other way. The characters on the two sides of the street (literally) display the disciples' behavior of 'every man for himself'. Through the movie though, the fears that diversity and self-consumption bring are overcome by a growing awareness of the gifts that "the other" has to offer; gifts that can only be fully appreciated through communion with one another.
While I don't mean for this blog to serve as a movie review - I was struck by the great example it gave to the Matador's reflection on the possibility of recognizing Jesus when barriers are allowed to drop.
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