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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

The Next Round Is About To Begin

Friday April 28, 2006

[This homily was delivered on April 29, 2006, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Sr. Germaine Fritz, OSB and Sr. Sharon Simpson, OSB, Benedictine Sisters of St Walburga Priory in Elizabeth. Sr. Germaine is the sister of Fr. Germain Fritz, OSB]

We are first and foremost, an ‘apostolic community.’ The Church is founded on the teaching of the Apostles. The Apostles were Disciples of Christ—they “knew the Lord” in the biblical sense as opposed to those who only knew ‘about’ him, and they followed him. They were sent by Jesus to bring the ‘Good News’ of salvation to the whole world—a world just a bit smaller than our world.

We were received into that ‘apostolic’ community at baptism. It was and remains a foundational sacrament. It is for us the primordial sacrament. It is the sacrament that joins us to Christians everywhere. It is the sacrament that makes us one in Christ and which continues to empower us whatever our state or status to bring his message to the world—through thick and thin. It is the sacrament that configures us to his priesthood and therefore it is also the foundation of our worship and sacrifice of praise in service. During the baptismal ritual, we were clothed in the “robe of salvation” and we put on the “mantle of justice.” It is impossible for the Christian to be ‘clothed’ in Christ and not to be a promoter of justice.

In Confirmation, we were called to a greater awareness of our Christian heritage and offered the opportunity to make it a conscious commitment to live the Gospel individually and collectively as witnesses of God’s love. Although most of us were far too young to understand much less to appreciate the gift of faith at Confirmation and the fruits of this sacrament, we believe nevertheless that the sacramental grace given to us in Baptism and strengthened at Confirmation took root within us only to flourish at a later time. God’s grace—freely given—is never given in vain. As the rain falls to the earth and renders it fertile, so does God’s grace render fertile our souls and our words and works fruitful.

It is at this table, however, in the ‘breaking of this bread’ that we recognize Christ not only in the fullness of who he was and who he is but also of who we are. At this table, there is neither slave nor freeman; neither Jew nor Greek; neither Arab nor African; neither Italian nor Irish. There are no insiders or outsiders here. All are one in the love that has come to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Eucharist then is the Sacrament of sacraments that makes us who we are as the Body of Christ in communion with God and with all the saints—that great crowd of witnesses who have gone before us, spoken and unspoken heroes in the faith, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, who in their own way continue to empower us to goodness—to Godness.

And how will they know that we are his disciples? By the love we have one for another but not only for one another at this table or in this house but by our love for all humanity. This is the core of justice, the essence of charity, and the foundation for the Rule.

It was for this purpose that Benedict formed a community—not to separate it from the world but to establish a way to be in the world—“Ora et labora” the outcome of which is Pax, the great peace that comes not from human endeavor but from human endeavor and God’s grace.

It is for this purpose that we gather today at this table in celebration of two women, Sharon and Germaine, who fifty years ago entrusted their lives to this community with the solemn promise to live their lives in simplicity and in service, confident that within this community under the guidance of Benedict, God would bring to fruition, the good that God as mother and nurturer had planted in them and in us in baptism—actually at the moment of original blessing, that moment when were loved in into life and called into a lifelong partnership with God. Remember, we are not servants of God in that we are subservient. We are partners with God in the ongoing work of creation.

Though the world of Benedict was very different from our world, he established in his time and place a way of life that engendered in others those charisms—human characteristics with divine qualities— that enabled him and for centuries, men and women of diverse background to embrace Christ in one another and through Christ to embrace the world with respect and love. Though he distanced himself from the world of his time with distain for evil, he never showed contempt for the sinner.

It was he who recognized his special call and who lived his ‘partnership’ with God day in and day out with complete trust and abandonment to God’s will for him.

He gave God his all and was dependent on God’s resources rather then on his own. This did not mean that he was not resourceful. On the contrary. it means rather that he trusted God to multiply his efforts as the loaves and fishes were multiplied through faith. Those who recognized his charisms gave freely of their own resources so that charity would reign over selfishness. This is true poverty of spirit.

He gave his soul to God not because he did not see or appreciate the beauty of human love. Though he freely chose celibate love, there is no evidence that he rejected the gift of marriage. In the face of free love and infidelity in the world around him, he believed that the complementarity of chastity in monastic life might enhance and enrich the faithfulness those espoused to God in marriage. Both ways of life give witness in their own unique way to the beauty of God’s incarnational intimacy with all of humanity in Christ.

He was obedient to God as he came to know God through the teachings in the sacred discipline of the lectio divina. Remember, obedience is not subservience. It comes from the Latin word, “audire” to listen. To obey is to be attentive to the voice of God, to listen to the heartbeat of God. Benedict’s life was a living Gospel for all to hear. He ‘knew’ God and therefore was drawn into the rhythm of God’s life as he swam in the sea of God’s grace.

In this celebration we honor our jubilarians who in their own unique way have striven to live the Gospel with integrity and who continue to honor their founder by their own testimony of prayer and service.

As you continue to adapt to changing times—which of course you must do in accordance with your constitution and in the light of Vatican II, simplicity, charity, harmony and the pursuit of peace must remain at the core of your life and your service to the Church and to the world.

The world that existed when you entered was very different from today’s world. In many ways it was a kind of Pax Romana that historians now recognize as a relative term at best. But it was a time when the world was at relative peace. American citizens were confident in their government and Catholics were secure even complacent in their certitude despite some latent reservations about one or another aspect of Catholic teaching and discipline. Religion and politics, though mutually respectful of their separate worlds and distinct rules were nevertheless companions in many common causes, good Catholics even making significant inroads into worldly politics

Not only has the world at large changed but the external and internal workings of our separate worlds of church and state have also changed dramatically. In the midst of global conflict and unrest within the Church, religious communities might too easily succumb on one hand to lethargy and indifference, building barricades to keep the enemy at distance or on the other hand, opt for preemptive strikes against those with whom they disagree or whom they don’t understand, demonizing them and reclassifying them as the enemy.

Now more than ever religious can not stand on the sidelines but must initiate a dialogue with these separate worlds and model for them the way it can be when people engage one another in genuine discourse beyond civility.

Now more than ever, women of faith are challenged to take their rightful place in the world and in the Church where so many leaders have succumbed to cowardice in the face of truth, trading transparency for secrecy, justice for human respect and worldly honors.

Christ emptied himself taking on the form of a slave. Only when we come to know our powerlessness, will we come to know our strength.

Germaine and Sharon, Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburga, the next round is just about to begin.

“We continue to give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of our faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the holy ones because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. Of this you have already heard through the word of truth, the gospel, that has come to you.”

“Therefore, from the day we heard this, we do not cease praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to live in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy.” [Colossians 1:9-11]

May the good work that God began in Benedict and which God has wrought in you bring it to fulfillment and through the breaking of the bread may you come to know the Lord in new and challenging ways and know that the story will not be over until the last chapter is written.