Sixth Sunday of Easter

         Happy Easter! I think it is important to acknowledge that it is still Easter, a season that lasts for fifty days from its first Sunday, which was April 21st, until Pentecost, which we will celebrate on June 8th. These seven (7) weeks are filled with the promise of new life, not just in the natural world around us ... but also in the spiritual world as people were baptized around the Diocese at the Easter Vigil and each of us has renewed our own baptism in Christ at least once since then.

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Entrance Antiphon: Is 28:20 – “Proclaim a joyful sound and let it be heard; proclaim to the ends of the earth: The Lord has freed His people, alleluia.”

First Reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 – “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 – “O God, let all the nations praise You!”

Second Reading: Rev 21:10-14, 22-23 – “The angel showed me the holy city coming down out of heaven.”

Alleluia: Jn 14:23 – Alleluia, alleluia. “Whoever loves Me will keep My word, says the Lord, and My Father will love him and We will come to him.” Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jn 14:23-29 – “The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

Communion Antiphon: Jn 14:15-16 – “If you love Me, keep my commandments, says the Lord, and I will ask the Father and He will send you another Paraclete, to abide with you forever, alleluia.”

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         Let me begin by saying that when we find ourselves in a discussion or debate, we often feel a deep sense of satisfaction if we have had the opportunity to find some authority to support our position and we’re on the victorious side. There is something really satisfying in knowing that we’re right and we can prove our opponent wrong, right? There is that wonderful sense of “Gotch ya.” And sometimes, if we happen to be on the losing side, there is that horrible feeling of “being had.” We might even try to finagle our way out so that it looks like we really won – or at least we didn’t lose so badly. The desire to win ... and to put down our opponent … is very human and very real. And often, the real casualty in such situations ... is the plain and simple truth.

         So, when Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to “teach you everything” and to “remind you of all that I have told you,” He was not promising us a hammer with which to beat our opponents into the ground. The Holy Spirit was not sent by Jesus to help us win by destroying our enemies ... but to have the wisdom to win them over to the real Way, the real Truth, and the real Life – in other words, Jesus Christ – in love.

         In today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke tells us of a serious controversy in the early Church. It’s the same controversy we’ve been hearing about all this past week in the daily readings. The first people to accept Jesus were Jews and they followed the Mosaic law even though they were now Christians. They carried over into their new faith the practice of circumcision and viewed it as necessary for salvation. So, if you were going to convert to this new faith ... guess what? ... they believed you had to be circumcised. And unfortunately … 2,000 years ago … we’re talking about a male-dominated society here ... sorry, ladies, my apologies. However, the non-Jewish converts to Christianity, the Gentiles, saw things differently. They were not accustomed to the tradition of circumcision and so they did not see it as essential to living the faith. And, in Saint Luke’s words, “there arose no little dissension and debate.” In other words, the Church was seriously split over this issue and each side was condemning the other as wrong.

         Today the Church repeats the same situation even though the issues may be different. Now, few of us get irate over whether or not new converts are circumcised. But we do condemn each other on other issues: Camp A condemns Camp B for being soft on abortion while Camp C condemns Camp D for not taking seriously the Church’s teachings on social justice, Camp E believes in the merits of heightened security in light of the world we now live in, while Camp F believes that we should totally keep things the way they are. The right condemns the left for being too liberal and the left condemns the right for being too conservative. Even in the process of merging a number of churches into a single parish, even years later, there are camps with opposing ideas and plans ... I’ll never go to that church ... Having said all that, just for a moment take a step back and think about it … Aren’t we supposed to be one ... holy ... catholic [small c … not capital C … with catholic meaning universal] ... and apostolic?

         Jesus said that He would send the Spirit to remind us of what He had taught us. All through the Gospels, Jesus taught forgiveness and reconciliation. When we look at the actions of Jesus, about the only thing that made Him angry was hypocrisy (or insincerity) and self-righteousness … Why?  Simply because those attitudes prevent forgiveness and reconciliation. Jesus came to forgive, not to condemn. He came to call sinners, not the self-righteous. Where and when did Christianity turn the Gospel message of peace into a sword of condemnation?

         The early Church turned to the Apostles for guidance. Firmly believing that the Holy Spirit dwells and works within the Christian community, the early Church turned to the leaders of the Church for help. And as a result, we have the First Reading ... a letter from the first council of the Church ... the Council of Jerusalem ... a council formed to address early problems within the infant Church. James, as the head of the Church in Jerusalem, spoke in the name of the Apostles and voiced the solution – the Gentiles are saved through faith in Jesus Christ but they did have to avoid any practice that is not compatible with their new faith. The solution was a compromise that helped the early Christians begin to purify their self-identity. The basic answer was that, while circumcision was not required of the Gentiles, there were moral behaviors that had to be avoided by all, namely, any behavior incompatible with being Christian. James listed a few in that letter – eating meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. Don’t you think it curious that the only one of those four that the Church still enforces today is the last one ... the one about unlawful marriage?

         Notice something else: Those who lost the argument did not leave … those who didn’t agree with the authorities didn’t go out and start their own church ... they didn’t go somewhere where the opinions and views were more in line with their own. We don’t know if they were eventually convinced that Paul was right, but we do know that the Church continued after this momentous disagreement. They swallowed their convictions and loved one another. The underlying premise of this decision came from the unifying power of God’s love reaching out and pulling the community together.

         Looking to the teachings of our faith and to the Gospel is our present-day way of allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us all that Jesus said and did. We, too, need to turn to the authorities in our Church ... not to find an answer so that we can beat down our enemies ... but to find the Holy Spirit’s answer that will bring about peace and reconciliation. Like the early Church we need to move beyond our view of what makes a good Catholic and allow the Holy Spirit to make us more loving of those who sometimes have a different opinion. At the same time we also need to realize that we can’t totally throw away or disregard the letter of the law if it means we lose the spirit of the law as well ... a proper balance needs to be met ... just look at the judgment of James and Council of Jerusalem and recall Jesus’ words, “I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”

         As we gather around the altar, we do so as one family of faith … different persons with unique personalities and views ... but hopefully united in faith and in the love of Jesus Christ. With that mindset we should eventually realize that the peace that Jesus offers … is a peace that the world cannot give.