5th Sunday of Easter, A May 7, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
One hundred fifteen years this brick Church has endured through fire and storm and decay – a sign to us of the whole Church that will never fall. Yet, this building didn’t build itself, repair itself, or fill itself with love. When I began as pastor, someone told me one of my favorite stories of all time, a story about how this church was built.
In 1907, the bricks for the new church were brought by train and dropped off right by the tracks. All that was left was to move several tons of bricks from there to the actual site of the Church. In those days, St. Joseph school was near those same tracks. So the sisters told each child to go over to the tracks every day after school, pick up a brick, and carry it to the site of the new Church. So they did just that.
I’m reminded of that story every time I read this passage from St. Peter in our 2nd reading: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” That’s what we’re doing when we baptize your children, when they receive their 1st Communion today, when they are Confirmed, and when they are married, ordained, or consecrated into whatever vocation they have received from God.
It is not the bricks the children carried that made this church… it is their hearts that built it. It is your hearts, your souls, your very selves that are building this Church now. Being human like we are, being constantly bombarded by desires, needs, and limitations, it is easy for us to become myopic… to narrow our gaze and miss what’s really there… like the apostles Thomas and Philip do at the last supper.
“Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?… Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Just as people limit the meaning of the word “church” to this building, so the apostles limited the meaning of the “way” to a physical road and the “Father” to something separate from Jesus. They aren’t really to blame, of course – the Trinity is a profound mystery and most of their experience of Jesus has been literally following him up and down the roads of Galilee – but Jesus calls them to a higher vision nonetheless.
“I am the way… do you not believe that… the Father is in me?” And these new concepts, this deeper spiritual theology isn’t coming out of nowhere. Jesus had already set the tone earlier: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I am going to prepare a place for you… I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” At the heart of all of this is a single profound concept. Follow the thread – dwelling places… where I am… the Father is in me – these are woven into the single tapestry of God’s presence.
It’s what we celebrate this today in three different ways. The crowning of Mary, honoring her who literally carried God in her womb. The Parish Picnic where our community is assembled simply for the sake of being together, rejoicing in one another’s presence. More than a collection of individuals, we are a Church. Our being together is truly the presence of God in this town. Above all else, we celebrate that presence… we make that presence through the Eucharist, given for the first time to the little ones receiving First Communion tomorrow/today.
Yes, God is present everywhere and Jesus is God. We can always reach him in faith and prayer when and wherever we are. But Jesus is also human. He, like us, has a body and a soul. Jesus’ divinity is everywhere, but His body, blood, and soul are not everywhere. When we celebrate Mass, he is not just present in a general way. He is made present body, blood, soul, and divinity. Remember children? Let’s say it now, repeat after me: Body… blood… soul… and divinity.
This presence is why so many people say a Catholic Church feels different inside. It is because of the Eucharist. Jesus not only comes to us body, blood, soul, and divinity at Mass… he stays here, he dwells with us as long as the Eucharist is present in the tabernacle or on the altar.
“Let yourself be built into a spiritual house,” St. Peter tells us. “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places,” Jesus tells us. Yes, this beautiful brick Church is God’s dwelling place. Yes, heaven is the ultimate dwelling place of God. Yet, the point of getting you into God’s presence is really to get God’s presence into you! When Jesus says he goes to prepare a dwelling place for us, he means that he goes in order to make us into God’s dwelling places!
Jesus tells us that he is way. What does that mean? That we walk on Jesus like a road? No, His presence is the way. The way to heaven is to be in his presence until his presence in you. Reading scripture is not enough. Praying is not enough. Watching Mass on TV or the internet is not enough. You need his presence.
That presence is active. Jesus is present in the Eucharist always, but it is only during Mass that we get the full effect. St. Peter says to “offer spiritual sacrifices” in the temple that we build with our own selves. During Mass, we not only make Jesus present body, blood, soul, and divinity… we also make his sacrifice present. We are connected to the crucifixion that sets us free from sin.
Jesus tells us that “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Literally nothing else you do in your entire life will matter at all, if it is not connected to the Cross of Jesus Christ. The opposite is also true. Everything in your life will matter if you connect it to the Cross of Christ… if you bring it to the Father through Jesus on the cross. How? Bring it to Mass. As the children of 115 years ago brought one brick at a time to this very spot, so you must bring your life one day, one week at a time to this very spot. When I place bread and wine upon the altar, when I say to you “pray that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable…” what is your sacrifice? I put bread and wine on the altar, what did you put there? I hope it is yourself. Your heart. Every moment of your life from that last time you were at Mass until now.
Place your money in the basket, yes, but don’t forget that it’s infinitely more important for you to put your heart upon the altar. You might have no money to offer… but you can always offer your heart. Your tithe might be an automatic draft, but your heart can’t be. Each time, place your brick, your living stone, your heart and life, your body and soul upon this altar. Make that offering more complete by confessing your sins first, purifying the heart you are placing here. Then, when the bread and wine are transformed, changed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, you will be changed too. One week at a time, one communion at a time, you will become more and more the dwelling place of God until that day when everything else falls away and all that is left is… life itself… heaven come to earth and earth overcome by heaven… until all that is left… is love.