Devotion to God in Word, Eucharist, Prayer and Neighbour

Homily for 2^nd Sunday of Easter Year A 2014

Acts 2:42-47,Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

Introduction

One Sunday morning, a mother went to wake up her Son for Church, as some of you mothers here probably do for your kids.  But the son refused to get out of bed, grumbling: “I don’t want to go to Church.  Why should I go?

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“I will give you two reasons why you should go to Church,” the mother replied. “First, because it is Sunday and Catholics must go to Mass.”  “Second, because you are the priest – they are waiting for you to say Mass.”

Scripture and Theology

Today’s readings help us reflect on how Christians are expected devote themselves to God.  In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we heard that the first Christians devoted themselves to four important activities.

1.    to the teaching of the apostles,

2.    to the communal life,

3.    to the breaking of bread,

4.    to the prayers.

Did you notice that of these four activities, three of them deal mainly with man’s relationship with God and only one with man’s relationship with his neighbour?  These Christians praised God when they listened to his Word in the teaching of the apostles, when they celebrated the breaking of bread and when they participated in the prayers. And the communal life took care of their neighbour.

In listening to the teaching of the apostles the first Christians were listening to the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who revealed God’s love and mercy to the world.  After all, the apostles were eye-witnesses to the life and teaching of Jesus, and especially to the saving events of his life.  So they passed on this teaching, both to non-believers so as to evangelise or convert them, and to those already converted, so as to catechise or explain deeper the teachings of Jesus.  They must have repeated the sayings of Jesus and incidents of his life, just as we have them in the gospels today.  And as they reflected on that teaching, the apostles also wrote various letters, which we have in the New Testament.  This is the teaching to which the first Christians devoted much of their time.

But that is not all they did; we heard that they also were devoted to the breaking of bread, what we call today, the Eucharist or the Mass.  In celebrating the Eucharist, they were experiencing and making present the death and resurrection of Christ, which is really God’s love for us.  At Mass we recall this truth every time we say or sing the acclamation: “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death until you come again.”  And they broke bread gladly and generously, because for them the Eucharistic celebration was the closest experience of the heavenly banquet, on this side of heaven.

The third activity was their devotion to the prayers.  For some time the early Christians, who were Jews, continued to go to the Temple for daily prayers.  But they also prayed in private as any faithful Jewish person would.

But in devoting themselves to loving God in his Word, Eucharist and Prayer, the first Christians did not forget to love their neighbour.  And so the fourth activity was the communal life in which they lived together in harmony and mutual generosity, ensuring that no one was left in need.  And the inspiration for this communal life came from their devotion to God.

Christian Life

If the writer of the Acts of the Apostles or any writer for that matter, were to describe us the Christians of today, would he also say of us: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers?”

·        Of course we can point to our readings and homilies at Mass and our religious education classes as listening to the Teaching of the Apostles.

·        Of course we also break bread when we come to Mass every Sunday.

·        Of course we also pray, not only privately in our homes, but sometimes together in Church as when we do the Way of the Cross or the Rosary or the Adoration we heard this past week.

·        And of course what are our Friday fish fries, our donations to the poor, our other social activities, if not building community life?

But before we quickly pat ourselves on the back for all these things, we need to ask we are really as devoted as the first Christians.

How many Catholics just don’t come to Church on Sunday, clearly not you, because you are here?  In today’s gospel we heard Thomas the Apostle playing hooky on Sunday.  When the community gathered together on the “first day of the week,” he was absent.  Thankfully he cared enough to show up “a week later.”  On the Sunday that he was absent, he missed out on the opportunity to see the Lord.  Now he might have had legitimate reasons to be absent: perhaps his mother was sick or his only means of transport, his horse, was at the vet’s.  But Thomas could also have had our excuses: perhaps the Saints were playing at home that Sunday and he had front-seat tickets; or he was travelling and did not find out the Mass times at the local churches ahead of time; or like our priest-friend, he just did not feel like getting out of bed that day.

But even when we show up, sometimes our devotion to God leaves something to be desired, because we don’t give ourselves completely to the Mass.

·        Do we participate fully by reciting the responses and prayers, and singing the songs, not only with our mouths but also with our hearts?

·        Do we listen attentively to God speak to us in the readings, the homily and the prayers or do we read the bulletin, newsletter or smartphone?

·        Do we arrive early enough before Mass starts to compose and ready ourselves to meet the Lord?

·        Do we stay until the end of Mass, which less than an hour, about half the length of a movie and a third of the time it takes to watch a football game?

Of course we might have good reasons for leaving early, such as rushing back home to care for a patient or getting to work on time; but if our only reasons for leaving right after communion are to beat the parking lot traffic or to get the best table at our favourite restaurant, we would do well to remember that such was the behaviour of another apostle: it was after he had taken the morsel of bread from Jesus that Judas Iscariot left the meal early, to go and betray Jesus!

As descendants of the first Christians we heard about in the reading, should our devotion to God in his Word, in the Eucharist and prayer be just as exemplary?

Conclusion

In a few hours, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be canonized as saints; in other words they will be proposed to us Catholics as models of holiness.  Perhaps you and I will not be canonized as saints, but we certainly are also called to be saints, like John XIII and John Paul II.

The essential path of holiness is the same for all Catholics, those first Christians and those of us who live today; popes, bishops, priests, as well as lay men and women.  This same path is one of devoting ourselves: “to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.”