To read the texts click on the texts: Acts15:1-2, 22-29; Rev 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn 14:23-29
A
priest was invited to a meal by one of his parishioners during the season of
Lent and on a Friday. He sat down at table and was surprised when most of the
dishes placed in front of him contained meat. He remarked to the parishioner
that they were in the Lenten season and, even more significant, that the day
was Friday and meat could not be eaten. The parishioner replied, “Do not worry,
father. I sprinkled some holy water on all the meat, baptized it, and called it
fish.” Did the meat become fish? Did the priest eat the “meat”? Was he guilty
of sin if he did eat? Was the parishioner making a joke of the whole Lenten
season? These are questions for which we find responses in the readings of
today.
Christianity
was never meant to be a religion of rules and regulations. More than once,
Jesus encountered people who had made rules and regulations ends in themselves.
And, more than once, indeed often, in his responses to such people, he would
ask that the focus be on love rather than on law, that it be on the person
rather than on the rule, and that it be on the heart rather than on the body.
Yet, it seems that, more and more, we continue to focus on the external rather
than on the internal.
This
is evident in the first reading of today when, a few years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus, the first Christian community is debating about what
makes a Christian and a disciple of Jesus. However, even as they debated, they
realized that this is not what Jesus had intended at all. The Spirit inspired
them to change their focus to the internal, to the heart. This is the same
spirit that Jesus promised the disciples in the Gospel text of today. This
Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and so, will not teach something different from
what Jesus taught. Rather, the Spirit that Jesus sent, and continues to send,
will reinforce and confirm all that they have been taught by Jesus. By
listening to this Spirit of freedom, they will be empowered to keep the word
spoken to them and enable Jesus and the Father to make a home with them. The
word spoken to them by Jesus was not a set of rules and regulations. The word
spoken to them was not a list of commandments. The word spoken to them was not,
primarily, a word about the law. It was always, with Jesus, a word of love.
This is why the gift that Jesus leaves with the disciples is the gift of peace,
which means wholeness and well being. The focus of the gift is the heart.
Since
this is so, the Book of Revelation, in the second reading of today, can speak
of the apostles as being the foundations of the new Temp0le and of God and
Jesus being the Temple. There are no bricks and no walls that make up the new
Temple. It is a Temple which has as its cornerstone, Jesus himself. This new
Temple will not need external light. It will not even need the sun and the
moon. Jesus will be all the light that the Temple needs.
Why
is it that, almost from the “foundation” of Christianity, and continuing even
today, the Church has focused on externals and on what constitutes and does not
constitute sin? There could be a variety of reasons for this. The core reason,
however, seems to be that, like Jesus was misunderstood so often in his
lifetime, he was misunderstood also after his death and resurrection Instead of
being content with living out the message of love, the Church became more
interested in converting others to Jesus. Instead of showing, in and through
the reality of love, what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus, the Church
focused, on merely proclaiming the word. Instead of concentrating on Jesus and
his Spirit, the Church shifted the focus to everything else. We moved our gaze
away from the crucified Jesus and risen Christ.
What
must we do to bring back this focus? What must we do? Only one response is
required: the response of love. As Jesus lived out throughout his life, and in
the face of all opposition, the reality of unconditional and absolute love, so
we, as Church, are called to do so today. We need not concern ourselves so much
with numbers and statistics, but with living out the message that Jesus
brought. We need not concern ourselves with external conversions, but must
focus more on the conversion of the heart. We need not worry so much about
eating or not eating meat and fish and thus, what goes in, but must concentrate
instead on what comes out from within. Then, that Temple, which John speaks
about in the second reading of today, will become a reality. Then, its light
will be the glory of God and the Lamb. Then, the Spirit that Jesus sent, and
continues to send even today, will not be stifled and will be free to transform
our lives and the lives of those we encounter and so, win them over to
love.
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