{"id":1084,"date":"2013-05-06T15:04:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T19:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2013-05-06T15:04:43","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T19:04:43","slug":"6th-sunday-of-easter-what-does-it-mean-to-be-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/6th-sunday-of-easter-what-does-it-mean-to-be-church\/","title":{"rendered":"6th Sunday of Easter – What Does It Mean to Be Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

6th<\/sup> Sunday in Easter, Year C<\/a>
\nActs 15:1-2, 22-39
\nRevelation 21:10-14, 22-23
\nJohn 14:23-29
\nMay 5, 2013<\/p>\n

First Communion<\/p>\n

What does it mean to be a church<\/i>?<\/p>\n

When you hear the word \u201cchurch,\u201d what do you think of?\u00a0 Do you think of our building?\u00a0 Do you think of the people you see here?\u00a0 Do you think about what we do, such as Mass or service to the poor?<\/p>\n

Note I said \u201cwhat does it mean<\/i> <\/b>to be a church,\u201d not what do we have to do as a church.<\/p>\n

Being a church isn\u2019t just about doing things or following the church rules.\u00a0 Being a church is about being in Communion with God.<\/p>\n

Jesus tells us that everyone who loves him, keeps his word.\u00a0 Do we keep His Word?\u00a0 Jesus speaks of how he and the Father are one and that the Holy Spirit will be sent together \u201cproceeding from the Father and the Son.\u201d\u00a0 It is that same unity found in the Trinity that we see to have with God.<\/p>\n

When we achieve this unity, we (as written in Revelation) \u2018gleam with the splendor of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unity is key.<\/p>\n

We are not meant to be just a bunch of individuals, each doing our own thing.\u00a0 God created us to be in Communion with him and one another.\u00a0 We are to work together to be church, to be what God calls us to be.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to be in unity.\u00a0 It never has been but the church has always made the efforts.\u00a0 In the Acts of the Apostles<\/i>, we hear today how they came together to discuss what was necessary to be part of the \u201cnew Christian Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did everyone need to be circumcised?\u00a0 What about the food laws?\u00a0 What foods could they eat?\u00a0 Different groups were saying different things but they realized to be one church they needed to be of one accord.<\/p>\n

They knew they were speaking about important issues, what it means to be church!<\/p>\n

What does it mean for us to be a Catholic Church?<\/p>\n

When we say \u201cCatholic Church\u201d, we can think of our buildings.\u00a0 We can think of our hierarchy with deacons, priests, bishops, and a single pope.\u00a0 This is part of who we are.<\/p>\n

What I would like to speak about today is something I believe is absolutely central to understanding who we are as a Catholic Church.\u00a0 The Eucharist.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t just have the Eucharist to remember something from two thousand years ago.\u00a0 We believe that Jesus\u2019 sacrifice on the Cross is made present through our celebration of the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

We believe it is not just ordinary bread and wine that we receive.\u00a0 It is the body and blood of Jesus.\u00a0 It defines who we are.\u00a0 You are what you eat.<\/p>\n

So we can\u2019t take reception of Communion lightly.\u00a0 To come forth to receive Communion means we want to be in unity with God.\u00a0 We want to become like Jesus..<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say we are perfect.\u00a0 When we sin we hurt (venial) or break (mortal) our relationship with God but God can fix that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we confess our sins, asking for His forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Our reception of Communion says we want to be in unity with God; that we want to hear His Word to know how he calls us to live; that we want to follow him.<\/p>\n

So as we come forth for Communion, we need to be serious.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a time to be chewing gum.\u00a0 We fast for an hour before receiving Communion to say we realize we are receiving something incredible in the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t come forward for Communion in a free for all.\u00a0 We come in graceful order.\u00a0 We don\u2019t pass the plate around in order to be reverent.<\/p>\n

The very way we take Communion in our hand is to show reverence.\u00a0 The minister holds up the host to show it to us and says \u201cThe Body of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 What is our reply?\u00a0 \u201cAmen.\u201d\u00a0 Amen means yes I believe.<\/p>\n

What do we do with our hands?\u00a0 We hold them out, one over the other, cupping them to receive the Eucharist, making a \u2018little throne\u2019 for Jesus.<\/p>\n

Receiving Communion is a gift.\u00a0 It is part of who we are as Catholics.\u00a0 Thank God for this gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6th Sunday in Easter, Year C Acts 15:1-2, 22-39 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29 May 5, 2013 First Communion What does it mean to be a church? When you hear the word \u201cchurch,\u201d what do you think of?\u00a0 Do you think of our building?\u00a0 Do you think of the people you see here?\u00a0 Do you …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘6th Sunday of Easter – What Does It Mean to Be Church?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-hu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1086,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/1086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}