23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Church of the Immaculate Conception
September 4th 2011
Deacon Kevin F. Reid.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name,there I AM IN THE MIDST OF THEM. What do these words mean to us here today, as we gather together as a faith Community?
Do we acknowledge that Christ will soon be physically present here in the Eucharistic Celebration?
And that when we lift up our prayers that he will be present listening and guiding us as he once guided his early followers.
Christ spoke these words to us in today's Gospel but he also just said previously "If two of you AGREE on Earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my Heavenly Father.
After we stand together and profess our faith in the Creed, we will also stand and profess the concerns of this Community, and make our communal response "Lord HEAR our Prayer".
In the prayer of the faithful we are asking the Lord to LISTEN to what we have to say about what we want, to listen for what we as a Community are concerned about, what we as a Community hope and pray for.
Basically we are saying that as a Community we AGREE on these needs and concerns and that we are lifting our hearts up to the Lord, our petition is for the Lord to listen to what we as Community all believe that we need this from him and that is why we petition him with our prayer.
To take this a step further, what it means is that we can't be praying for pro- life PRO LIFE issues and also at the same time be for the Death Penalty, we can't be PRO LIFE and decide who should die whether its a baby or a convicted killer, only God can give or take away life.
We can't pray for vocations if our prayer is that those vocations to the Priesthood or the Consecrated Life are only for other people's children, but not our family.
My friends we can't pray for an end to violence if we think that perhaps "THOSE PEOPLE over there DESERVE WHAT THEY ARE GETTING", violence has no place in any our lives.
Next weekend on Saturday we will have the Annual Jessica Meredith Jacobson Memorial 5K race, a race that says that we as a Community Abhor domestic Violence,of any kind.
We do this when we come together and run or walk, we continue her legacy and we support her family each year as we celebrate her life by remembering her and honoring her memory.
We can't pray for peace if there is nothing that we are doing to promote true justice in our world, in our country or in our communities.
There will only be lasting peace when there is lasting justice in the world. We can use the teachings of the Prince of Peace to work for equitable working conditions for all Laborers around the world. For safety in the home from domestic abuse for all women.
It was Pope Paul the VI who once said "if you want Peace you must work for Justice"
Christ is saying to his disciples and to us that we have to HEAR the evidence and that we must then come together and ACT upon it. We gather together as a faith Community as a Church, and we condemn all those behaviors that take away another human beings dignity or life.
He is asking us not to be JUDGES BUT TO BE WITNESSES, what a powerful message there is to each of us in that suggestion, he is saying as is Saint Paul and Ezekiel that we OWE this to each other, that this Sacred responsibility comes with the territory for the chosen people, those Christians who have been baptized to be Priest, Prophet and King.
My sisters and brothers we do all of this through the guidance of our Good Shepherd our Bishops and by our Church's Teachings, which are based on the teachings of Christ, and also all that what was revealed to us through him and by the Apostles.
We have taken those teachings from Christ and the Apostles and have used them as foundation for the rules and guidelines of living a Holy Life within our present day world , “The Catechism of the Catholic Church”.
If you think back for any of us people here in the Congregation who are older then forty, that “BACK IN THE DAY” it used to be called the old "Baltimore Catechism" for the Catholic Church started here in America in Baltimore.
If you were fortunate enough you went to a Catholic School you were quite used to the term, because SISTER made sure of that each and everyone of us knew it understood and breathed it, that old Baltimore Catechism, that I can assure you .
Well how then can we teach this new generation how to follow the Catechism, all though some of us remember the days when the Sisters ruled by ruler, actually they were the living witnesses to us of the teachings of Jesus, they in their vocations gave it all back to those in whose care was placed upon them.
I’m sure they through their vocations and the grace of God helped lead many of those school children to the path of Salvation, for me they were the ones who helped plant the seed for me follow my Vocation to be me a Deacon.
It's amazing to me that we all go through such extraordinary steps these days to insure that our children will MAKE IT to a good University, a secure job we do whatever we have to, achieve that GOAL.
But how about the goal of teaching them how to find Salvation in our Church, by loving their neighbors as themselves.
Just how often do we take the time to teach them how to LOVE, others as Christ loves us, to see the good in each other rather then the faults.
To teach our children to learn what the Sisters taught us, to be living Witnesses to the TRUTH. We often in life have to make difficult choices, when we HAVE to tell someone that what ever it is that they are doing goes against what we believe to be sacred or hold true.
Perhaps it could be a coworker that tells jokes that offend your morality, it could be with a friend who brags about cheating on his wife and getting away with it. A boss who purposely overstates Business expenses and wants you to sign off on them.
For our younger children it can be watching some of their friends cheating in school or perhaps Bullying another child.
For our teenagers it can be letting a friend get drunk at a party and watching them try to drive, or perhaps being promiscuous and lying to their parents about where they are spending the night.
Our children need us to be the witnesses of the behavior that will teach them how to confront wrongs in a way like Jesus suggests in Matthews Gospel this morning, to take them aside and to speak privately to them without fear of embarrassment .
And if that does not work to get a small group together to confront the behavior and not condemn the individual.
The old saying that a lot of 12 step groups is for us to hate the SIN and to love the sinner.
Let us pray that as we approach the Altar to receive the real physical presence of Christ that we will have the Grace and Courage to confront the Evil in our Broken World.
