Hey, Church fans! I’m back from the wilds of Alaska and in the pulpit once again. Here’s this week’s offering. Catch the video of the homily on our YouTube channel by clicking here. The whole Mass is on our parish Facebook page. Click here for that.
Every one of us has a pet peeve or two. I like to think my pet peeves are simple. I get irritated with mechanical things that are cheaply made and break down easily. I have little patience for laziness (which must be distinguished from legitimate leisure). And I don’t like the word ‘Catholicism.”
Call me persnickety, but it’s just not a good description of who we are. We are not an ‘ism.’ We are no some disembodied set of principles or a philosophical or anthropological method of self-actualization. We are very corporeal. The fact that we call ourselves, “The Body of Christ” and “The People of God.” is no accident.
Prevailing secular culture would like to reduce us to an ‘ism.’ This is because ‘isms’—disembodied principles—are easily dismissed in a world where truth is relative and ‘my truth’ is as credible as ‘your truth.’ The idea that there might actually be something as objective as “The Truth” is very irksome to some people.
We should not let ourselves be reduced to an ‘ism’. Anyone can dismiss an ‘ism’. It is much more difficult to dismiss a person, and impossible to ignore an assembly of persons.
The Catholic Church is exceedingly incarnational. The thing that distinguishes us, and all Christians, is how we answer the question: ‘Who is Jesus of Nazareth?”
In fact, that is the very point of this week’s readings. It helps to remember that while gospels are quite historical, they were not written as histories. Rather, they are theological statements that answer the question: “Who is Jesus of Nazareth?”
The reading from the prophet Isaiah states what the Messiah would do, making the blind see, the deaf hear, and the mute speak. In relating the healing of the deaf man with the speech impediment, the Gospel of Mark shows Jesus doing just that. The message is clear: “This is the guy! This is the Messiah!”
In the Church, we state unequivocally that he is the Incarnate Word of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and rose on the third day. He is not just a sensitive, new-age guy who taught us all how to get along by loving our neighbor. Christ is not an ‘ism’ and neither are we.
The Church has a face. Surprisingly, this face looks a lot like yours and mine. As the Body of Christ, we are in a true sense, the sacrament of Christ, the true presence of Christ in the world. We should never let ourselves be reduced to any thing else.
Teresa of Avila said it well: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.”