Homily for Sunday, April 11, 2010

Have you ever tried to recite the Nicene Creed on your own?  Try it sometime.  I’ll bet you can’t recite it by yourself without looking at the text.  But did you ever notice that when we recite the creed at Mass we don’t miss a step.  It’s as if the community has the words even though my mind may have wandered, or the words just aren’t there for me at some random moment in praying the creed. As soon as the pause in my own recitation happens, I am immediately brought back by the communal memory.

    This is one small example of how the strength of the community strengthens me when I am forgetful or distracted or weak in faith.  A Scriptural example of this is today’s Gospel.  When Thomas was absent from the community, his faith was weak:  “I’ll never believe it!”  But when he was inside the community his faith was not only strong, but he came forth with the most clear expression of faith in Jesus that anyone has ever uttered: “my Lord and my God!”

    The times in which we live are a grave test of our faith; but this is not the first time the communion of the Body of Christ has been severely tested.

    Oh, for the halcyon days of the early church in today’s selection from the Acts of the Apostles, when esteem and huge increases in numbers were the order of the day.  However, we will hear in the weeks ahead further stories from the Acts of the Apostles and we will begin to hear about the many trials the early church experienced even in those early days.  

It got so difficult even in the first century of the church’s existence that there had to be written one more book in the New Testament: the Book of Revelation.  It was written to strengthen and encourage the early church as they faced unbelievable distress.  Our second reading from the Book of Revelation says, “I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus.”  

What was the distress the early church faced?  Part of the distress came from the very fact that being a believer in Jesus was a capital offense in the Roman Empire.  That was the external cause of distress: profession of faith could land a person in court, and then be tossed to the lions or crucified or beheaded like Peter, Paul and Andrew were, or made to live in exile, as the Apostle John was.  But there was an inner cause of distress within the community of that early church.  It came from the betrayal by frightened members of the church who reported the names of their leaders to the authorities.  That betrayal produced a frenzy of wiping out the leadership and anyone else who dared to persist in this faith that we share to this day.

This particular crisis in the still young church was seen by many as the death knell for belief in Jesus Christ. 

So what enabled the early church to survive those terrible days?  Obviously it was the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to be with us until the end of time; but there another observable reason: the strength of the community.  Ever since those early days the Holy Spirit’s reinforcement comes to the members of the church from each other.  If someone distanced himself from the community of the church, his faith diminished to the point of disappearing.  If on the other hand, someone remained within the community she would not only be strengthened by the example of the other believers, but would also be a source of reinforcement to others when their faith would go through a weak spell.

We live in another time of “the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus.”  Yes, our faith may indeed be under attack, both from inside as well as from outside.  But we also know, and have indeed tasted of, the Kingdom of God.  We already know ahead of time that "the day" will come when every tear will be wiped away, and there will be no more suffering, no more crying out in pain.  We already know the Lord Jesus and how our strength comes from Him.  We know that we cannot live without the Eucharist or else we would cave in to the pressures of our time.

It is from our union with Jesus and with each other that we experience “the endurance we have in Jesus.”