So, you'll see that this one is a sermon and a half...but that's because it includes the introduction to a five-part homily series that it's been on my heart to do for quite awhile. The happy coincidence of Fr. Scott's upcoming trip and five Sunday's of gospel readings taken from chapter 6 of the Gospel of John told me now was the time to do it.
You can find all six of the Precepts of the Church listed in our parish's Sunday bulletin.
You can find all six of the Precepts of the Church listed in our parish's Sunday bulletin.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time B
The Precepts
of the Church
Part I
When
Fr. Justin arrived a little over a year ago,
Every
time we were in the car,
he
asked all kinds of questions—
about
the lines on the road, the signs, the traffic lights.
What
amazed him most
was
the way drivers actually obeyed them.
It
sounded to me like they have many of the same things in India,
it’s
just that nobody pays much attention to them.
It
sounds—frankly—like total chaos!
Now,
most of us have imagined
being
able to drive as fast as we want
without
any fear of getting a ticket,
but
deep down we know that we need traffic laws
to
make driving safe.
In
fact, the laws are even more essential:
I
dare say that they make driving possible.
The
same is true in sports.
We
might chafe against the rules when things don’t go our way,
but
without those rules,
you
wouldn’t even have a game to play.
The
Ten Commandments also work much like that.
Given
by God to the Jewish people,
and
later taken up by Christians,
we
recognize them as basic rules for living
that
are shared by most people of good will—
with a few variations—
whatever
their religion.
What
does it take to make the Church’s life possible?
What
do I need to do to be a good Catholic?
The
Catholic Church
has an entire, lengthy code of law—Canon Law—
that
governs its operations.
(It’d
be hard to manage a worldwide organization
with
1.2 billion members without one.)
But
over the centuries,
the
Church has prioritized her rules,
developing
a list of six that represent the bare minimum
of
what’s expected to stay in “good standing” with the Church.
They’re
called the “Precepts” or “Commandments of the Church.”
There
are no real surprises on that list.
Nothing
all that exotic is required to be Catholic.
But
the Precepts of the Church are little discussed these days—
making
them increasingly less known,
less
understood, and less observed.
But
living by these Precepts—
like
the rules of the road or the rules of the game—
are
absolutely essential for keeping the Church together.
The
precepts of the Church remind us
that
being Catholic isn’t an inherited status
you
can take for granted;
no—it’s
a profound commitment to an entire way of life.
Fr.
Scott is soon going to be away traveling for a few weeks,
so
I’ve decided to seize the opportunity
and
take five Sundays in a row to teach and preach
on
the six Precepts of the Church.
This
Sunday, I want to address two of these Precepts:
1.
To attend Mass and rest from servile work
on
Sundays and holy days of obligation
4.
To receive Holy Communion at least once a
year,
during
the Easter season
Those
precepts can sound a bit old fashioned
when
we consider the way many Catholics today
actually
practice their faith.
Once
upon a time—and not all that long ago—
most
Catholics went weekly to Sunday Mass,
but
not all of them received Holy Communion.
Nowadays,
fewer and fewer Catholics
regularly
get to Mass every Sunday
(and
even fewer still on holydays),
but
when they do, nearly all of them receive—
whether
they’re prepared to do so worthily or not.
It’s
a sad thing to say, but when parishioners come asking
for
a baptism or first Holy Communion,
a
wedding or funeral these days,
I
can safely assume more often than not
that
they don’t usually go to Mass.
“But
we’re Catholic!” they always assure me.
But
what does that name “Catholic” even mean
if
you don’t do the most basic things that Catholics do?
The
Catholic Church is not a club
with
lifetime membership status;
the
Church is a family.
Which
means that you are not so much invited
as
you’re simply expected to take your
place at the supper table.
All
of you parents know how hard it is to keep a family together
if you
don’t ever sit down to eat together.
Our
obligation to attend Mass is a serious one.
Now,
the Church’s laws are eminently reasonable,
and
never require the impossible.
There
of course is no obligation for those
who
must care for the sick, or are sick themselves,
who
live an unreasonable distance from a Catholic church,
or
who must give immediate attention
to
some urgent and unavoidable task—
the
same sort of things that would honestly keep you home
from
your job or a social obligation.
But
to miss Mass through one’s own fault
on a
Sunday or holy day is a mortal sin—
a
sin with the power to cause death to the soul.
Yet
notice that our obligation as Catholics
is
to attend Mass every Sunday (and more),
but
to receive Holy Communion only once a
year.
That
makes a certain priority clear—
one
that’s lost on many of us.
Allow
me to explain…
The
most common reason Catholics give
for
not going to church is,
“I
don’t get anything out of it.”
And
if you ask many Catholics what makes for a “good” Mass,
they’ll
talk about the quality of the preaching,
the
music, and the coffee and donuts served afterwards.
There
are two problems with this list.
For
one thing, there’s no mention of the main attraction:
the
real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist—
God
come again from heaven to earth
in
the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
How
can we overlook that?
It’s
at the very heart of our Catholic faith!
Is
something else besides needed to hold our attention?
Everything
else is just window dressing, really.
The
second problem with this list flows from the first:
it’s
all rather self-centered;
it’s
focused completely on what’s in it for us.
Why
do we come to church?
Am
I here more to get…or to give?
To
feel welcome…or to worship?
True—there
should be both.
But
one is God’s intention in coming to us;
the
other must be our intention in coming before God.
Our
priority—as these two Precepts point out—
must
not be what we come to get out of
Mass,
but
what we come to put in.
In
this Sunday’s gospel,
Jesus
shows his clear desire to feed mankind.
But
he doesn’t do so out of nothing
(although
he certainly could—
that’s
how God created the world, after all).
Rather,
Jesus makes use of the humble offering of a little boy.
His
five loaves and two fish seem insignificant to the Apostles,
but
the Lord welcomes them all the same.
Jesus
knows how to put to good use
whatever
we offer him.
Yes,
we come to Mass to receive.
And,
yes, the Lord wants to give.
But
the Lord first needs to receive from us;
we
need to give him something to work with.
And
that something is worship:
our
sacrifice—our offering—of thanks and praise.
What
God wants you to give him Sunday after Sunday
isn’t
so much something as somebody—it’s you!
It’s
about putting God and his ways first in our lives—
ahead
of all else, even ourselves.
One
bad winter in the Arctic,
an
Algonquin woman and her baby were left alone
after
everyone else in their camp starved to death.
The
woman walked away from that camp,
and,
near a lake, found a single fishhook.
She
could easily rig a line, but she had no bait.
Her
baby cried and cried from hunger.
So
she took a knife,
and
cut a strip of flesh from her thigh.
She
used her own flesh as bait, and caught a fish—
feeding
her child and herself.
Of
course, she saved the fish guts for bait
and
was able to live at the lake, on fish, till spring,
when
she walked out with her baby to find others.
That’s
a true story;
those
who tell it have seen her scar. (cf. A. Dillard)
Her
story of self-giving is really Jesus’ story…
…and
it needs to be our story, too.
Jesus
performed a miracle on the mountain
in
line with those of Elisha and the prophets of old.
But
at Passover another year,
he
will do something even more wondrous:
God
who became man, the Word that became flesh,
will
give his flesh to be our bread—
to
feed our souls unto eternal life.
That
most blessed of miracles is renewed at every Mass.
And
what we witness Jesus doing in every Mass—
making
an offering of himself to the Father and to us—
we
are likewise called to do ourselves.
If
we are truly one body and one spirit,
if
we are united by one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
then
we need to come together regularly
to
worship and adore the one God and Father of all.
We
may not need our food to be multiplied.
But
most of us could stand a multiplication
of
our time and energy, our strength and our faith.
Make
of them an offering to God.
Put
yourself completely into the Lord’s hands.
Dedicate
your whole being to his service.
And
what once seemed rather poor and inadequate
will
prove to be more than enough—
as
much as you wanted, with some even left over.
Before
Jesus feeds the crowd,
he
stops to give thanks.
Before
we’re fed by Jesus,
it's our sacred duty to give thanks, too.
4 comments:
The first homily was certainly a wonderful explanation of the reason for Church rules and how and why they are necessary! Enjoyed it very much! Uncle Al
Thanks, "Uncle" Al! Glad you found it helpful, and so nice to meet you. --Fr. Joe
Fr. Joe, I've read this out loud to both Bill and Beth now. It's led to some great conversations! Thank you for doing this - it's so needed by our generation right now. We're looking forward to the rest of the series. God Bless! ~Margie Todd
You're very welcome. God bless you, too! --Fr. Joe
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