Homily for Sunday, 3 May 2015– Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

What does it mean to be connected to something or to somebody? Back in 2001, I went to study in France for the first time. Fourteen years ago, the flip phone was the latest in cellular technology, an increasingly portable way to remain connected. The communications company Nokia ran an English ad in France for its flip phones. At the end of the commercial, a child announced the Nokia slogan proudly in a French accent: “Connecting people”!

Nowadays, what are our ways of “connecting people”? Flip phones have led to smart phones. E-mail has led to Messenger. We have Facebook; Twitter; Linked-In for the more professionally-inclined… Technology has afforded us more ways than ever to be connected to one another. I communicate regularly with my family in Edmonton over Skype, and I am able to “Skype into” faith and Scripture sharing meetings with my brother Basilian priests from as far away as France and Colombia! Social media have become an indispensible tool for ministry, as long as they do not replace physically meeting people we serve.

But with all this electronic technology, is something not still lacking insofar as being connected? Some of us may ask, “What is lacking”? In John’s Gospel today we hear Jesus encourage us to rise to a new standard of being connected. All this technology is good. Actually to meet and speak with other people is better than technology. But Jesus speaks to us about the best way to be connected. What is the best way to be connected both to one another and to God; to Christ?

Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” What does Jesus mean by all this: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower”? What does it mean to “remain in” Christ and for Christ to “remain in” us? How is Jesus asking us to “bear much fruit”?

We do not need to live on a vineyard to understand well enough what Jesus is saying here. We do not need to leave behind all of our electronic technology that helps us to stay connected to one another in order to gain a better sense of Jesus’ words, although “remain in me and I in” you may sound strange to our ears. No, Jesus speaks to us of how best to live in relationship with one another and with God.

And do we not all understand at least something about relationships? How many of us have a best friend, or a few very good friends? How many of us are married; belong to a religious community; have ever been in love? How many of us have brothers; sisters; parents; extended family whom we love dearly? This past week, speaking of relationships, my parents celebrated their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary. Their relationship of love is a model for me; for my priesthood; for my relationship of love with all of us, the Church, which I try to live out daily.

We understand a lot about relationships already. We are here to celebrate this Eucharist, Jesus Christ really present among and in us. And so we already understand something sacramentally about the greatest of all relationships: Our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our God has given himself to us as a human being, Jesus Christ, one like us in all but sin. Jesus lived among us, died for us, is risen for us, ascended to heaven for us, and now gives himself to us under the form of bread and wine: “This is my body… This is my blood…”

Many of our children here at St. Kateri Parish will receive their first communion; this sacrament of Eucharist for the first time today and over the next few weeks. Children of St. Kateri: Who are you receiving when you receive communion? You receive Jesus Christ. And so you already understand something about relationship with Jesus; with God.

Relationship is like being connected to somebody, but even better. Technology and information help us to stay connected, but being in relationship means something more. Relationship means to love one another. It means to want the best for one another, in the way that God wants the best for us. God wants us to be with him forever. This is why God gave us God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, now still with us in the Eucharist. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

But this “remaining in” relationship with God; Jesus Christ and with one another is hard work. All the technology we have only goes so far. It keeps us connected without necessarily keeping us in relationship. Imagine this: “You have reached Big White Phone Communications Customer Service. For service in English, please press one. For service in Aramaic, please hold the line…”

Relationship, what Jesus asks of us in our Gospel reading today, is more than simply “connecting people”; more than being connected with God. To be in relationship means to keep a delicate balance between forgiveness and accountability. This, I think, is behind Jesus’ talk of pruning his disciples as a vine is pruned; trimmed of its branches that are unhealthy and no longer open to nourishment from the vine. Might pruning away the unhealthy branches seem harsh to us when we compare it to remaining in relationship with God as disciples of Christ? Jesus gives us a harsh saying here. And yet Jesus invites us to be mindful that both forgiveness and accountability; both the health of the branches nourished by the vine and the pruning of the vine require strong relationships; a strong and united community of Christian faith.

Unity; our comm-unity as Christians; as a parish; as a Church leaves no room for a silo mentality in which we become closed off in our own ministries. Christian community leaves no room for gossip. Christian community is not “I-God”; “I-Jesus” but all of us, together, in a relationship of love with one another and with our Lord that bears fruit in a great range of good works. The sacraments all depend on Christian community. They are sacraments of the Church; of community. We are brought into a community of faith by baptism and confirmation. We receive the Lord and become Christ to our world in community through our Eucharist. We are instruments of healing, and forgiveness in community through reconciliation and the anointing of the sick. In community we love and serve through the vocations of marriage and holy orders.

Community is not uniformity; all having the same ideas and never disagreeing with one another. Like the branches that “remain in” Jesus the vine, we might imagine ourselves as grafted onto the vine. Each branch joined or grafted onto the vine and receiving its nourishment contributes different useful characteristics to the plant: Better fruit; resistance to disease… So it is true with our community of faith. Is it not remarkable in our first reading from Acts that, as “the brothers” began to accept Paul after his conversion; as they had already accepted Barnabas (a very different personality with different gifts than Paul), the Church “was being built up and walked in [awe] of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers”?

Christian community, we hear from the First Letter of John, depends on our keeping God’s commandments together. Who enjoys being commanded to do something? Not many of us like to be commanded to do something. But God gives us only two commandments in 1 John: “Believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ” and show the world (together) that we believe by how we act in Jesus’ name: “Love one another just as [Jesus] commanded us.”

“Believe” and “love.” These are whole community actions. “Believe” and “love,” and “remain”: Take in Jesus in the Eucharist and in our other sacraments of the Church; act for one another’s good in the world as Jesus has for us. This is community. This is relationship, not only “connecting people” but being at the heart of the Christian discipleship that Jesus asks of us: “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

Homily for Saturday, 7 March 2015– Commemoration of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua

Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent

Readings of the day: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Has anybody here ever experienced making a bad choice, possibly even sinning, when somebody else, especially somebody in authority (a parent or grandparent; a teacher; your employer perhaps) knew you were about to make a bad choice but did not warn you not to make this choice?

What about the “Prodigal” Son and his father in today’s Gospel reading? What was the father’s first reaction to his younger son’s demand for his share of his estate? If I were the father in our Gospel reading, I may have thought: “This will not end well. My son will spend his share of my inheritance unwisely, will find himself in need, and then come home asking for a handout.”

As the eldest child of my family, I may have thought: “The eldest is usually the obedient, responsible type. The youngest is stereotypically playful and causes all the trouble. To give the youngest son a large share of the estate is probably not a good idea. I should warn him not to spend all his money irresponsibly.” In reality, I have made (and grown from) my share of irresponsible choices. My brother Eric, meanwhile, gives me many reasons to rejoice in him. He is, like the stereotypical youngest sibling, easygoing, funny, and even playful. But he is also very responsible and hard-working.

In our Gospel reading today, the father does not warn his younger son away from his irresponsible actions, as I probably would have were I in the father’s place. This father gives his younger son his share of the inheritance and watches him “set off to a distant country.” The father respects his son’s free will.

What sadness the father must have felt for his younger son! The years pass. The father worries about his son’s well-being: “It is not like my son to give no sign of life: No letters home; not even for birthdays and important holidays. Telephones, text messaging, and Facebook have not been invented yet for faster communication. Should I file a missing person report? I suppose I will need to wait… And wait…”

One day, the father sees a small shadow on the horizon. It gets bigger; closer. “It is my son! I thought he was dead; he was gone so long! Throw a party for him!”

“Wait a minute,” the responsible eldest son says to his father, “‘All these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders,’ and you want to put on this great feast for that wild little brother of mine”?

“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’” This is our God to us. God does not warn us when we are about to behave irresponsibly. No, God respects our free will, which is itself God’s gift to us; our share of God’s own free will.

And when we become lost by our irresponsible actions; distant from God because of sin, our Prodigal Father waits for us, ready to put on a great feast when we return home.