Weekly HOMILY for April 20, 2008: Our Catholic Church As Living Stones

5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
April 20, 2008

Focus: Gathering: The Gatherer and the Gathered
Function: To show how the Church is more than a building and as “Living Stones” is to be found in service to those in any need
Form: Now / Then


Our Catholic Church As Living Stones


Pope in America

Beginning this past Tuesday, Pope Benedict has been visiting our Country.

We have seen the pageantry in Washington, especially the official welcome at the White House. We have seen the poignant speech at the United Nations.

Pope Benedict called all nations to follow the ways of peace and of respect for the dignity of all humanity, which is the real basis of peace.

However, what caught my attention more than anything else was the Mass at Nationals Park in D.C.

Forty-six thousand Catholics gathered around the Holy Father to celebrate the Eucharist. And there is a similar Mass today at Yankee Stadium.

While no church building could accommodate such crowds, no church building was needed for us to be “The Church.”

What I see in both of these Masses is that we, as a Church, are first and foremost a people and not a building.

This is the very point being made in today’s Scripture passages.


Church as Living Stones

In the second reading, St. Peter beautifully expresses who we are as a Church.

He says: “Come to him [Jesus], a living stone, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” What a wonderful image!

The Church is not just a building of granite or limestone or brick. We are persons, a people, or in St. Peter’s word, “living stones…a spiritual house.”

We are a people who have been given God’s very life through Baptism.

We are a people bonded by our faith in Jesus Christ.

We are a people nourished each week by the Eucharist and thus we are “living stones being built into a spiritual house” with Jesus as our “cornerstone.”

The celebration of the Eucharist on the grass fields at Nationals Park and at Yankee Stadium makes this reality very clear.

It lifts up our core identity as Church, as community, for the world to see.


The Church in Service

And yet, we must go one step further in our reflection and today’s first reading does this. In this passage from Acts, we see the early Church responding very creatively to a need by caring for others.

The Church was growing and with the cultural diversity and the addition of thousands of believers every week, some people – especially widows – are being neglected.

What happens? The Church calls forth deacons to make sure that these women are cared for properly.

The important lesson here is that we need to be “Living Stones” who are precisely that, “living” and attentive, “living” and responding to the needs of others. When we see a need, we have to do what we can to assist.

So, for example, here at Our Lady of Grace we try to attend carefully to those who are grieving, those in physical need, those who are hungry for food or spiritual nourishment. We support pregnant mothers, homeless families, and the needy in Baltimore City.

There are needs we are not fulfilling and there will be more needs arising. However, the point is that we are “living” stones and through our caring for other we are “being built into a spiritual house.”


Conclusion

In today’s gospel, Philip asks Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father.”

And Jesus says: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. It is the Father who lives in me doing his works.” So, the works of Jesus are the works of the Father and show us the Father.

And then Jesus says: “Whoever believes in me will do the works I do and greater ones than these.”

So, our works, our attention and caring and serving one another, these works express who we are as “living stones,” bonded together by Jesus as our “cornerstone.”

And these works, like Jesus’ works, reveal the Father and draw others to the Father.

How appropriate that this profound reality of who we are as a parish and as the Universal Church can be seen from the visit of Pope Benedict to our country.