St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

May 6, 2018 - Sixth Sunday of Easter - B

Today I am beginning a three week preaching cycle to focus our attention on the fundamental aspects of the Christian life.

This is the most important preaching I’ve done in my life, and I have asked the Holy Spirit to use me on your behalf.

Today I am preaching on Christianfaith, and what it means in our life.

Next week I will preach on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

On Pentecost I will turn to the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian.

 

I’ll start by saying what faith is not!

Faith is notsimply believing that God wants you to be a good person instead of a jerk.

Faith is notthinking that God or religion should make you feel good.

Faith is notbelief in a God who is far-off and uninterested in interacting with us.

 

Christian faith, rather, is belief in a God who enters human life.

It is belief in a God who acts in our life in concrete, discernible ways.

For example, in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see God the Holy Spirit descending upon the pagan, Cornelius, and the members of his household, changing their lives, enabling them to glorify God and speak in tongues.

“The things” that St. Peter spoke to them about that enabled their faith were the mighty works Jesus did in his ministry, his death, his resurrection.

Peter tells Cornelius, who knew something of the Jewish faith, that God’s plan for humanity through Israel culminated in His Son, Jesus. 

The ministry of Jesus was a continuation and a fulfillment of the ministry of God the Father, who desired and continues to desireto share His life with us, and to participate in our life.

If we do not believe that God acts in the world todayas He did in the past, we do not have faith.

Let me say that again: If we do not believe that God acts in the world todayas He did in the past, we do not have faith.

 

God makes faith possible by acting in us– but we have to cooperate with that activity.

Faith is a personal clinging to God – with our heart, mind, strength and soul. 

At the same time, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.

Some people think faith is constraining – that I no longer can do anything I want.

But no one who is in a relationship with another does just “anything they want” in that relationship.

A marriage won’t last if a husband doesn’t consider the desires and good of his wife.

A good mother gets up in the middle of the night to feed her crying infant.

A good dad will jump out of bed to comfort his child who’s just had a nightmare.

When someone I love tells me about themselves and their intentions, believing them doesn’t demean my dignity.

Trusting the promises of a dear friend doesn’t make me their slave.

Nor does a relationship with God – which is what faith is - demean or enslave me.

 

St. Paul sees faith as an encounterwith Jesus that happens when we acknowledge our brokenness.

That brokenness is manifested in two major ways; 1) our infinite longing for good that is often hijacked by addiction to transient goods and the pleasure they give us – like the momentary pleasure we get from shopping, a delicious meal, or the Dodgers winning the world series.

2) Secondly, our brokenness shows up in sin: in relationships spoiled by lies, pride, and our fear of abandonment. 

Christian faith begins with an admission of our sin, without excuses, without blaming others for our actions.

Faith takes us to an encounter with Christ united to us in oursuffering through hissuffering on the cross and hearing Him say, “Father, forgive him, forgive her.” 

 

For St. Paul, faith is not justan act of trust, but an entering intoJesus. 

This sounds strange, I know.

St. Paul put it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ;yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:19b-20)

Faith is to find ourselves bound to the faithfulness of Jesus, who goes to the cross out of obedience to the Father.

By obedience, I don’t mean the Father told Jesus, “prove you’re a good boy by being crucified.”

The deepest meaning of obedience is to “listen to.”

Jesus is obedient as He listensto the Hebrew scriptures, and hears His Father revealed as one who reaches out to embrace and be withhumanity.

So on the cross, Jesus joins himself to the suffering that sin causes us, especially the suffering that is separation from the Father.

We hear the depth of this suffering in his cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It is the cry of the sinner who has mistaken his abandonment of God as God’s abandonment of him.

This is where Jesus most unites himself to our human experience.

And so faith begins in realizing sin separates us from God, and trusting Jesus’ obedience as God’s answer to our sin.

Thus St. John writes, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to make amends for our sins.” 

 

The love of God for us is most powerfully displayed in His death on the cross for us.

This is the culmination of his ministry, the greatest proof of his love.

Ministry is not just church work – it is love of others; it is the command of Jesus.

Ministry is laying down our life for another.

It is laying aside our needs and desires for the good of another, especially when we don’t feel like doing it.

This love, and the ministry flowing from it, is the unfailing sign that we have faith, and that we have been begotten by God and know God.

There are only two ordained priests to serve this community.

There are thousandsin our parish who are baptized into the priesthood of Jesus, whom he has appointed to bear the fruit of faith in acts of service, in acts of ministry, in acts of love for each other.

All Christians should be ministers to one another, and to the world.

A living faith makes us more and more like Jesus.

 

So, let’s summarize what I’ve said:

Christian faith begins when I recognize my sinfulness and my inability to change.

Christian faith focuses on Jesus, who though completely obedient to His Father, endured the effects of our sin, and offered that as a sacrifice for our redemption.

No one loves you more than Jesus, who laid down his life for you, and who has chosen you to bear the fruit of faith - works of love, works of ministry that he himself makes possible through his union with you in the Holy Spirit and in the communion we will share in a few moments.

 

I know there are many things that we worry about and many demands upon our time. 

But in this next week, let’s ponder the question that should concern us most:

“Do I have faith?”