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Readings: |
Romans 6:3-11 |
1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 |
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Date: |
March 26-27, 2005, Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday Cycle A |
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Who can tell me what it is that we celebrate today?
Today we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, the Christ. We Catholics
celebrate the resurrection with a very particular liturgical action, a very
solemn, and serious, and sacred action. Who can tell me what that is? It is Baptism.
For the last 6 weeks, or 40 days, the whole church has been preparing for baptism.
Some us were preparing to be baptized, including several hundred in this
archdiocese alone. But for most of us we have been preparing to renew our
baptismal promises. Back in the beginning of Lent I heard one of my favorite
homilists, Rev. Michael Himes, professor at BC, talk about the importance of
Lent in preparing for this solemn, and serious, and sacred action.
You see, when we renew our baptismal vows we are
going to be asked if we believe in 3 main truths or realities. This act of believing
is a very specific kind of believing. It is not giving our intellectual assent
to some philosophical idea. It is not even the act of weighing in on the truth
or falsity of these realities. This kind of believing is entering into these
realities, with our whole being, in a way that we are shaped by them. We are
asked to acknowledge that because of these realities we will live our lives in
a certain way.
Last weekend I was talking to one of my young
friends and he said that he really couldn’t believe in God because he couldn’t
see God. We talked a little about how it is possible to believe in someone that
you have never seen but I realized after that he was really talking about
giving his intellectual approval to the idea that God existed. That is not what
we are about to do. Here is a closer example to the kind of belief I am talking
about.
How many people here believe in the United States
of America? Has anyone here ever seen the United States of America? Of course
not.
We may have seen parts of it or citizens of it, or some of its seats of
government but no one can see the United States of America. But I am willing
to bet that everyone here lives his or her life in a way that expresses that
belief
in the USA.
As Fr. Himes pointed out in his Ash Wednesday
homily, most of us were not ready at the beginning of Lent to solemnly renew
our baptismal vows. Well as good as my intentions were, I stand here minutes
away from being called to renew them and I can’t say that I am that much more
ready.
The first reality that we will be asked to pronounce
our belief in is: Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven
and earth? Am I prepared to say I believe that? In order to say yes, I have to
be prepared to say that I believe that creation has meaning, life has meaning,
my life and your life have meaning. And (here is the hard part) that meaning is
NOT one that I assign to it. The origin of my life, the purpose of my life, and
the destiny of my life are assigned to me; I don’t determine it. I am not in
control. I am creature, not creator. That is counter to everything our culture
tells me: you have to get control of your life; you have to take charge; you
have to pursue your agenda. Am I prepared to say that I will live as if I am creature and not in control?
The second reality we will be asked to pronounce our
belief in is: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, Our Lord, who was
born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead
and is now seated at the right hand of the Father? In order to say yes to that,
I have to be prepared to say that, even though humans are not creator but
creature, even though human beings are not in control and their value is
determined for them, the value of each human being is so great, so precious, so
incredibly awesome that God became one of us! Some one once said that if we
imagine Jesus put on humanity as if God were putting on a suit of clothing, the
amazing thing is: that suit of clothing did not need any alteration; it fit God
just right, off the rack. And not only did God become human but he suffered and
died and rose from the dead so that our humanity might share in God’s divinity!
If human life is that precious, and that incredibly awesome, how must I treat each
human being that I come in contact with, starting with myself? How must I treat
my family and friends and neighbors and strangers? How must I treat those I
like and those I don’t like? Am I prepared to say that I will live as if human
life is that incredibly awesome?
And lastly, we will be asked to pronounce our belief
in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. You
know I used to think that the Spirit got the short end of the stick in our
creed. The father and son each have their own section which calls out different
aspects of them, but the Spirit, I used to think, gets lumped in with the
church, and the communion of saints, and all. Only lately have I begun to
understand that all of those are aspects of the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit
who draws us out of our selves into relationship with God and with others. In
order to say I believe in the Spirit, I have to be prepared to say I believe
that the primary way that God relates to us is God and US, not God and ME. Am I
prepared to say that faith and religion are not private relationships with God
but have their primary meaning in God’s relationship with a community? Am I
prepared to say that all the different communities I am part of are exactly how
I think they should be? Am I prepared to say that the Roman Catholic Church is
absolutely as perfect as I can imagine? Can you? If not, am I prepared to let
the Spirit lead me in a direction that makes that Church a better community? Am
I prepared to let the Spirit open me to be changed for the better by the church?
What about my family? My business community? My neighborhood? My country? Is
the United States exactly what I would hope a country would be? Am I prepared
to let the Spirit move me to make those communities better and to let the
communities shape me for the better?
As Fr. Himes warned me back in February, the last
thing I want to do is to celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord by perjuring
myself in church. I stand here minutes away from renewing those promises
without a lot of confidence that I can say yes I believe in those realities. I
am going to call on my keen sense of the obvious and guess that most of you are
in that same position. You didn’t take real advantage of those 6 weeks of Lent
either.
In fact
there are only two things that make me foolish enough to plunge ahead. The
first is that I put my trust in the power of Jesus’ saving act. It is not my
worth or value but the value that is assigned to me, and to you, by the second
person of the Trinity becoming human, suffering and dying for us that lets us
say we believe. The second is that I am not going to say I believe (at least I
hope not). I am going to stand here with you and WE are going to say WE
believe. I don’t know that I would have the courage to say that alone. But with
you, I do have that courage. My fervent prayer is that we all take that leap of
faith, and together profess: We believe.