Sixth Sunday of Easter 'B'

Saturday May 20, 2006

Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest of these is—flexibility.

It continues to astound me how the Scriptures come to life over and over again in different settings and circumstances. No matter how familiar I may be with a particular passage or combination of texts, life experiences continue to have an impact on the way I read or hear the text proclaimed at worship. This is particularly true on special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and especially funerals. This could be attributed to the fact that on these occasions, the congregation is present not so much to fulfill a religious obligation but freely as it were, in order to celebrate or find deeper meaning in life through the lens of special events.

Despite the counsel of our professor of homiletics to begin preparation on Monday, I usually begin the preparation of the Sunday homily on Wednesday or Thursday. If I start of Monday, by Wednesday or Thursday I will not remember what I read on Monday! This notwithstanding, it is often the case that despite and perhaps because of my familiarity with the texts, it is very difficult to find new applications to these ancient readings. Nevertheless, sooner or later with the help of the commentaries, homily helps and of course the Holy Spirit, particular themes and applications come to mind — sometimes at the eleventh hour!

Someone said that the preacher must prepare a sermon with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Whoever spoke these words was on to something for sure!

Since Easter, we have been reading or listening to on a daily basis, to Luke’s description of the early post-resurrection community in and around Jerusalem and as it expanded to Macedonia and eventually to Rome. Although he tells us that the early Church—more likely a movement within Judaism than a formal institution —was “at peace” it was far from peaceful. I suppose he meant that the believers were ‘convicted’, that is, they were ‘confident’ believers.

Nevertheless they experienced some ambiguity in the application of the Christian message to new believers of different cultures and customs. As I just noted, the first believers were Jews who for the most part, retained their Jewish culture with its rituals and customs. However, the Greek-speaking Jews heard the message a little differently and the Greeks at Antioch in Pisidia, who found the message attractive, still heard it very different than the Jews. For example, the apostles needed to decide whether or not circumcision should be required of those of gentile origin. This was a major issue for early believers. The Jews and some of the apostles with them said “yes” while others who were more sympathetic to the Greeks said, “no, it was not necessary for salvation.”

So naturally they formed a committee and eventually consulted with the authorities in Jerusalem, which in those days was the center of Christendom. The decision was against mandatory circumcision. Adherence to the Jewish dietary practices was sufficient. In the face of ambiguity, compromise set the pace and kept the peace. Not everyone was happy with the change but eventually all gave into the Holy Spirit.

This is just one example of flexibility in the early Church.

Living with ambiguity is a reality than never goes away. This was demonstrated to me as a few years ago prior to the liturgy celebrating the 50th anniversary of the class of ‘54 at Bayley Ellard. As one of five priests ordained from that class of 85 graduates, I was invited to preside at the liturgy. Years ago when I heard about 50th anniversary reunions, I asked “Are they still alive?” I’m looking forward to our 55th and eventually to our 60th.

As I scanned the “congregation” of the 50 ‘odd’ graduates some of whom I was able to recognize even without a nametag, I realized how many challenges we faced and how many changes had occurred in our lives. Nevertheless, their identities remained the same and most were still active Catholics. It was a very moving experience for me. They were there to express their appreciation for our time together at ‘ole’ Bayley and to a person, they knew that our time at Bayley had made a difference in their lives. It helped them to be faithful; their faith held them up good times and bad times, through thick and thin. Their non-verbal testimony was loud and clear.

We all mellow in life. We mellow or we are mellowed whether we like it or not. I think this is God’s design. We don’t always have to fight for what is important. We just need to do our best to do what is right and the rest will take care of itself and even when we make mistakes, God supplies for our deficiencies and makes up the difference as long as we stay connected to God and to one another.

In his gospel and in his first epistle, John stated that faithfulness is rooted in love—not the euphoria of puppy love but tried and true love that comes only when tried and tested by the hard knocks of life.

In the popular marriage inventory, Prepare-Enrich, engaged couples are quiried, “Will romance fade in your lives?” Most of them respond with enthusiasm, “Of course not!” Yeah, right! Perhaps the question should be phrased, “Will romance change as love deepens?” Indeed it will and indeed it does!

In his first letter to the Corinthians St Paul wrote, “When all is said and done, there remain these three: faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love,” and I would add, “flexibility!”

Many wars have been fought in the name of religion. However, true religion is not characterized by the willingness to go to war but the courage to stand for peace. In the end we will be judged not by our physical power or prowess but by our complicity with evil in the face of our capacity for love.

Mother Theresa remains a model of what unbiased love can achieve. She was not always successful, but ultimately the measure of success is not in the achievement but in the will to be faithful and in the recognition that when love prevails, everything is gift and all is grace.

It is for this reason that we need to keep our tables connected — this table and your table and the table of humanity too. We need to come here every week to break open the bread of God’s word listening to every word through the lens of our experience; to be astounded by the way the Bible continues to speak to us in season and out of season.

Life is full of ambiguity but we need not be ambivalent about ambiguity. God will continue to speak to us and answers will come and we will be empowered to faithfulness.

“Love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that God has loved us.” and God plays no favorites. God’s love is impartial.

But when all is said and done, in the end there are three things that matter, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is?

Yup! Flexibility!

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