When I was a kid, one of the
most popular TV game shows was called Truth
or Consequences. It was so popular that a small town in the States,
previously called “Hot Springs,” changed its name. And so to this day, you can
visit Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
And if that isn’t the weirdest
fact you’ve ever heard in a homily, I’d like to know what was.
The reason I had the show on my mind wasn’t weird, though. It was just that today’s
Scripture readings got me thinking about truth and consequences.
Truth always has consequences.
The greater the truth, the greater the consequences. And surely, there can be
no greater truth than the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
St. John tells us in our
second reading that truth leads to action: belief leads to obedience and
discipleship. And obedience and discipleship lead to life in the Spirit.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us
that his disciples will bear fruit, for the glory of God the Father.
Every ounce of that is
distilled from the truth of the Resurrection.
Few people in church this
morning don’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead. But this belief can be
inherited and taken for granted. Or it can be strong and life-changing.
So where are we in our
discipleship journey? Are we likely to bear the fruit that will give glory to
God?
Let’s try a reality check
this morning. I have a three-word, twelve letter test we can take together. The
three words represent three stages of Christian discipleship. We are meant to
move from the first to the third, but we need to know where we are now.
The first word is MUST. For
many Christians, and especially Catholics, the demands of faith are external
obligations. The classic, of course, is that we must go to Mass. We hear it
from parents, teachers, and priests. There are other ‘musts’, often in the form
of ‘must nots’. Sometimes, the ‘musts’ and ‘must nots’ are reinforced with
sanctions ranging from the fear of parents, to the fear of Hell. The parents
can be even scarier!
The second word is NEED. As
we get older, or wiser, or more worried, we begin to internalize the call to
faithfulness. At first I didn’t my doctor take very seriously when he said ‘you
must exercise’. But as I got tired and stressed, I began to see that I needed exercise. More and more Christians
are recognizing that a society without morality has dire consequences both for individuals
and the common good.
There’s nothing wrong with
doing the right thing because you must, or because you feel the need. But Jesus
calls us to more. He invites us to discipleship that’s rooted in love for him.
He calls us to WANT to be his disciples, because we want to be his friends.
It’s really only this third
word that can attract others. Within the family and within the Church, we can
talk about what Catholics must do,
and what Catholics need to do. But it
doesn’t sound very appealing.
On the other hand, what our
hearts desire can be shared. Someone who is a branch of the vine who is Jesus
Christ has the appeal and magnetism of Christ himself. Those who live their
faith as branches of the vine – pruned and cleansed by obedience –are Christians
who will truly glorify God by bearing fruit.
I don’t want to startle you
by shifting gears, but I have found these three words perfectly fit three
categories of donors to Project Advance, our annual Archdiocesan campaign.
We have the reluctant
contributors. They feel they MUST give something or the pavement in front of
the church will continue to buckle and someone will trip. They know that our
regular Sunday revenue is not enough to keep up with roofs and pipes that are almost
devilishly prone to leak. Or maybe they must give something so that the
hardworking volunteers in the foyer don’t give them a funny look as they walk
by the table for the next five Sundays.
There are also those who NEED
to give. They have a sense of ownership in the parish, and they’ve experienced
the fruits of our successful campaigns. Perhaps they have children or
grandchildren at St. Thomas Aquinas and they feel it’s important to support the
exciting building project now underway. Maybe they are music lovers who think we
need to make sure our aging sound system is kept up to date, as we are planning
this year.
But, there’s a third group –
not just a group in theory, but individuals I’ve talked with many times. They are those who WANT to give. People in
the first two categories might think I am making this up, because it’s natural
to think giving money away is painful. And so it is, except for those who
understand Christian stewardship. For them, sacrificial giving is not based on
what they ought to do, or even what the parish needs. It is directly connected
to their understanding of discipleship.
The members of this group believe
that Project Advance helps them bear the fruit God wants. They connect their
giving to their call to be disciples. It’s a fact of life that most of us just
do not have the confidence and zeal of Ed Zadeiks, who will lean over to someone
at the next table at Tim Horton’s and invite them to ALPHA.
So when Project Advance funds
the parish’s evangelization efforts, including ALPHA, our donors are responding
to their call to fruitfulness. There are those who WANT to be a part of the
campaign because they know they can’t evangelize alone.
The theme of our 2018
campaign is “Making Sundays Matter”. We chose it in part because it’s one of
Archbishop Miller’s four key priorities for the archdiocese. But we also chose “Making
Sundays Matter” because our Sunday Mass is “Easter returning week by week”, as St.
John Paul wrote.
Among the many activities of
a parish, nothing is as vital or as community-forming as the Sunday celebration
of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist.[1] So it wasn’t hard to decide
to focus our campaign on aspects of Sunday Mass.
The largest parish project
this year may not seem terribly spiritual – replacing the stairs and pavement
outside the front doors of the church. But we felt that making sure no one
trips on their way to Mass was a very good place to start. We want every
worshipper to arrive and leave safely.
Last year’s Project Advance
raised funds for a video system. It will be up and running in just a few weeks.
Doing it right proved more expensive than we planned, so we’ve earmarked
additional money from this year’s campaign. The first thing you’ll see on the
screen will be the Project Advance video, which will describe the great things we
support with the share of the campaign that goes to the Archdiocese, $69,000
this year. But the projection system exists first and foremost to enhance our
prayer on Sunday. We will occasionally use film clips in preaching, but we hope
regularly to project the words of some prayers and hymns.
We recognize that Mass has
limited value in evangelizing visitors, because they feel lost as the liturgy
unfolds. This is true especially at Christmas and Easter. We’re going to use
Project Advance contributions to purchase or produce guides to the liturgy for
our visitors.
Improvements to the sound
system in the choir loft will also enhance Sunday Mass.
But Sunday Mass does not
exist in isolation. The Gospel calls us not only to worship, but to work. The
tremendously successful parish ministries to prisoners and the poor will also be
helped by this year’s campaign.
I hope you will support
generously this year’s Project Advance. For our Archdiocese and for our parish
in particular, it’s what pays for progress.
But giving sacrificially also
helps us meet the deep desire for fruitfulness that is in the heart of each
disciple. So I hope and pray that you WANT to be part of the campaign this
year.
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