That They May Be One

That They May Be One – 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

At first glance we might be tempted to yawn at our Gospel reading for today.  After all, the story is merely about Jesus calling his first four disciples to his ministry.  On top of all that, Matthew makes the story even more bizarre by quoting this obscure text from our first reading regarding Zebulon and Naphtali.  What could all of this possibly mean?  And what does it have to do with my life here and now?

The reading from Isaiah and the reference to Zebulon and Naphtali is about the civil war that took place between Israel and Judah, a civil war among the brothers of the nation God called together to be His people of the covenant.  As a result of this civil war – this family feud among brothers – they all became weakened, making it possible for Babylon to invade and conquer the region more easily.  When brothers fail to live in harmony and unity, eventually the entire house falls to the forces of darkness.  And yet Isaiah looks forward to a time when a future leader would once again call together God’s people to a life of unity and service to God. 

That promise comes to reality in the person of Jesus the Lord, and the Gospel text provides us with concrete, poignant examples of this call to unity.  First, Jesus calls two brothers, Peter and Andrew, to join with him in ministry.  Then, Jesus calls a second set of brothers, James and John, to accompany him in ministry.  Now, in calling together brothers Jesus reverses the dynamic of division among brothers that we saw in the first reading, and that we find in many stories of the Old Testament.  The feuds of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and the tribes of Israel in civil war are all swept away when two sets of brothers are called together and accept this call to live in harmony.  Familial relationships are thus called to be harmonious ministries of service to one another united in the love of Jesus the Lord.

What is more, both sets of brothers were fishermen, meaning that in all likelihood they were economic rivals with one another:  Peter and Andrew would have been in economic competition with James and John.  The fact that Jesus calls together economic rivals into one brotherhood of ministry provides yet another example of overcoming division and calling to unity that which naturally and historically have been competitive and hostile.  Economic divisions cease when we enter into cooperation with one another and use economic tools to serve others rather than seek our own advantage in a ruthless pursuit of profit.  When we come together to serve one another in the spirit of Jesus we put an end to class warfare and economic strife that leads to poverty and injustice.

This call to unity also has an ecclesiological dimension that Paul highlights in his first letter to the Corinthians.  Even in the early church people were setting up rival camps that competed with one another, and people rallied around banners highlighting their allegiances.  All of this ecclesial competition clearly is not part of the fundamental call of Jesus that we saw in the Gospel text.  And yet throughout the Church’s history we have seen these rivalries and camps.  In our own day the banners of “traditional Catholic” and “progressive Catholic” find equal play with “John Paul II priest” and “Vatican II priest” in declaring allegiances that echo the text of the second reading.  Jesus, however, calls us all to serve one another.  Paul reminds us to put aside these rivalries and strive for unity.

Pope Francis has made this call to unity and the putting aside of status and allegiances a fundamental piece of his mission of unity that is at the heart of the Papal ministry.  Still, we continue to cling to our rivalries and divisions, for a great many have used the person of Francis as yet another flashpoint in the ecclesial wars that serve only to propagate cottage industries of partisan negativity as pawns of larger forces in political and culture wars.

In the depths of our hearts we hear the call of Jesus, just as Peter, Andrew, James, and John heard it.  In the depths of our hearts we long for an end to these divisions and we desire the unity and harmony to which the Lord Jesus calls us.  And so we gather together in order to find the grace and strength to overcome our weakness and to respond ever more faithfully to the call of the Lord Jesus.  And so we pray:  “Let us pray, pleading that our vision may overcome our weakness.  Almighty Father, the love you offer always exceeds the furthest expression of our human longing, for you are greater than the human heart.  Direct each thought, each effort of our life, so that the limits of our faults and weaknesses may not obscure the vision of your glory or keep us from the peace you have promised.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

The Primacy of Baptism

The Primacy of Baptism

Most of us do not remember the day of our baptism, for if we were born into a Catholic family our baptism took place when we were infants.  And yet, the Church continually has us renew our baptismal vows in the liturgy for the Sacrament of Confirmation, during the season of Easter, and anytime baptism is celebrated with the whole congregation present.  Baptism is the foundational sacrament upon which the other two sacraments of initiation – Confirmation and Eucharist – are built.  A person cannot receive any other sacrament of the Church without first receiving the sacrament of baptism. 

Baptism also provides for us the fundamental vocation for every Christian person.  Each baptized person is called to live as a disciple of the Lord Jesus.  As the rite of baptism states when the baptized is anointed with chrism:  “God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.”  Every other vocation within the Church is a different way of living out our fundamental baptismal vocation.

The first reading of today’s liturgy stresses the vocation of the anointed person in this way:  “I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”

Another aspect of the foundational character of baptism is found in our understanding of the Church.  From the very earliest times the Church has never re-baptized anyone who had received valid baptism from another Christian community – valid here meaning baptism with water and in the Trinitarian formula.  In fact, there was a heresy of the early Church known as Donatism that insisted on re-baptizing Christians who had wavered in their faith or who had received baptism from someone other than their company.  The tradition of the Church has consistently rejected the idea of re-baptism.

This practice, however, has profound implications for our understanding of the Church, one that the Second Vatican Council developed fully in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium).  Every baptized person is a member of the one Church of Jesus Christ.  So, when a person from another Christian community approaches the Catholic Church for reception, we properly speak of them as being received into full communion with the Church, for they have had some communion with the Church from their previous tradition.  Full communion means full initiation, and since baptism is the first sacrament of initiation, their membership is made perfect by receiving the other two sacraments of initiation.  Even a baptized Catholic who has not received Confirmation and Eucharist cannot be considered a full member of the Church of Christ until full initiation has been received. 

In this respect we can see an echo of what Peter preaches to the household of Cornelius in the second reading:  “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.”  And so instead of having an elitist attitude toward other Christians we instead must have an invitational attitude, one where we work and pray together for the common good, encouraging all to seek full initiation as followers of Christ.

At each of our baptisms we heard the same words spoken to Jesus from heaven, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”  And as it was for Jesus, so it is for us that those words serve as an invitation to the beginning of a life in service to God and others.  They are words that lead us forward into mission, words that will help us remember the love of our God when the road is hard and the trials difficult to endure. 

 

As we celebrate this feast and reflect on our own baptismal vocation, we come together to pray for the grace we need to grow more deeply in this calling.  “Father in heaven, you revealed Christ as your Son by the voice that spoke over the waters of the Jordan.  May all who share in the sonship of Christ follow in his path of service to man, and reflect the glory of his kingdom even to the ends of the earth, for he is Lord forever and ever.  Amen.”