Easter Homily - The City of God

EASTER HOMILY 2014

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

The first witnesses at the tomb of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem proclaimed, to their peril, that the same Jesus who had been brutally put to death and buried was, by the power of God, alive again in the very city in which he had been executed.

He was not vaguely “with God,” nor had his soul escaped from his body. He was not an angel as people sentimentally say at funerals these days. He had not risen in a purely symbolic sense. No, he, Jeshoua, a Jewish man from Galilee, the rabbi and friend whom they knew, was alive again in Jerusalem.

What they and all Jewish people expected for the righteous dead at the end of time had happened, in time, to this particular person, to Jesus whom they and we have come to recognize as Christ, the anointed one. This reality gave energy and power to the first Christian proclamation of the resurrection, which spread, rapidly through the world.

Jesus’ apostles and disciples began telling everyone in the city that something new and astounding had happened and that the city of Jerusalem and the world would never again be the same.

Author C.S. Lewis, in his role as an Oxbridge professor of medieval and renaissance literature, observed that those who think the resurrection story is a myth haven’t read many myths. Mythic literature deals in archetypes, which are outside of history and beyond time. Myths speak of  “once upon a time” or “in a galaxy far, far away.” The Gospels don’t use that sort of language describing the resurrection of Christ.

The Gospels speak of particular places like the City of Jerusalem, and the events, which took place when a specific officer, Pontius Pilate, was the Roman governor of the region.  The Gospels and the oral proclamation of Christian tradition refer to distinct individuals— Andrew, Peter, James and John.  These people encountered Jesus after he rose from the dead.  They did not refer to this experience in any way as a dream or an hallucination.

As difficult as some in the modern city find it to believe in the resurrection, even they know that no one will risk death defending a myth. The myths of Greece and Rome are powerful and illuminating but there are no martyrs to Zeus or Jupiter.  Many of the first witnesses of the resurrection who shared this Good News went to their deaths defending the truth of their message: Peter in Rome, the other apostles, all except St. John the Evangelist, did not die of old age, they died confessing the truth: Jesus Christ is risen!

They proclaimed, as we do, that because of Jesus’ victory over death, violence — from the Epic of Hercules to “Game of Thrones”— is exposed and its legitimacy is condemned in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In the view of many leaders past and present, order comes through warfare and invasion, through power and physical strength. The great Pax Romana of the Roman Empire maintained its hold through a massive army and the imposition of harsh punishment on those who opposed it.

Jesus’ way of establishing the Empire of Love, the City of God is not through violence or retribution. Instead, it has to do with a love, which swallows up hate, with confession of our own sins and the acceptance of God’s forgiveness, and then with the grace to forgive others rather than seek vengeance or a scapegoat.

The significance of Christ’s victory is emphasized by the fact that Jerusalem, where the events took place, is not a mythical city, nor is Jerusalem simply a synonym for heaven. Rather, Jerusalem and Temple of the Body of Christ form the new civilization founded in our midst, the civilization of the Lamb – of the innocent victim raised from the dead by the power of God in a new and transformed city, a new civilization – the City of God.

Jesus has revealed the truth of God’s love for us by undergoing the worst that humans can do to one another and through his complete self-sacrifice he has put to an end the repetition of human sacrifice by the forgiveness of sin. Today, tomorrow and forever those of us who affirm Jesus’ resurrection are citizens of this City of God, of the New Jerusalem which will come to its fullness at the end time.

Walker Percy, the southern American Catholic novelist in his novel, “The Moviegoer” describes the city of New Orleans in which his main character Bolling is increasingly uuneasy with the comfortable life he has. He observes the sights and sounds of the human city and floats through relationships. Finally Bolling comes to understand himself as a “seeker” rather than a resident – he longs inchoately for meaning, for another city. Though he does not say it explicitly, he longs for the heavenly city, the place of meaning and love – Jerusalem, the City of God.

The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France in New Orleans overlooks
Jackson Square. It is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States

This city, this civilization exists alongside the city of Man, the city of violence and greed. The City of God is the place in which the Holy Spirit continues to bring about saving acts through this new civilization, the sacramental life of the Church.  While still in the human city we participate in the real city, the eternal city. We are baptized into Jesus real death, we are personally forgiven by him in persona Christi as the priest pronounces his words of absolution in real time, we share communion in the real presence of Christ’s body at the altar. 

On Good Friday in the liturgy we venerated the cross of Christ expressing that we are incorporated members in the mystical body of Christ, the suffering body of Christ in this city, in this world. Now we return on Easter Day to the banquet of Jesus’ love in the light of his resurrection as we participate mystically in the City of God through the Eucharist.

In today’s ceremonies we see in sign and gesture the essence of the life of the Church and the life of every Christian soul. We will renew our baptismal promises and pray that we may be drawn more deeply into the civilization of the City of God, the fullness of the Church’s life. We pray that we may come one day to that awesome place – the New Jerusalem – where sorrow and sighing will flee away and we shall, as Isaiah says:  “be filled with joy and gladness” (cf. Is. 35: 10) because we know the truth of the resurrection and we belong to the risen Lord, the One who is the Temple in the heart of Jerusalem, the eternal City of God.

GOOD FRIDAY HOMILY AT STM, TORONTO

Being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient – even to the point of death – death on a cross.  (Phil 2: 6 – 11) 

The days of the sacred Triduum present us anew with the self-sacrifice of Jesus.  Through Jesus’ self-giving love we are given the fullness of life in Christ.  We find life in our communion with him through his death and resurrection for us, a life conveyed through the sacraments of his Church which bring us in contact with the events of Christ's passion.

Jerusalem is the location for the profound events of Jesus' passion. It is here that the first temple stood as a sign of the covenant between God and the people of Israel – a temple destroyed but rebuilt in the temple of Christ, who has become the priest, the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice.

Yes, Jesus is the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, the sacrifice which has brought to consciousness and so brought to an end the justification for ritualizing human death. Christ has exposed and so disempowered the deep human desire to project on a scapegoat our own sins, our fear and our anger.

The temple is re-built in the sense that Jesus as the priest, the altar and the victim allows us to share in that one perfect offering, which the sinless Son of God has made by himself and in so doing has undertaken all the anguish and horror of humanity’s inhumanity to all the victims of all time.

Rene Girard, the great French thinker, believes, as I mentioned on Palm Sunday, that early in human development, we learned to control internal conflict by projecting our jealousy and violence outside ourselves and outside our community by placing all the guilt on a scapegoat which is sent into the wilderness or killed.  This formulaic action was so effective that societies have in one way or another continued to use scapegoating to control violence ever since.

IMAGE:  The of the scapegoat by the Pre-Raphaelite painter, Wm Holman Hunt,  (displayed at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) several years ago).  Painted in the landscape of the Dead Sea.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 52)

Girard has shown evidence that this formulaic action of ostracism and human sacrifice was so universal that societies have, in one way or another, continued to use scapegoating to control violence.

Today, Vladimir Putin places the blame for economic failure in Ukraine on the West and their use of power. Within Ukraine, groups blame other groups. Russians in Eastern Ukraine ally themselves with outside forces against those they consider the usurpers in Kiev and so they justify violence against the government. 

Some report that one of the reasons for the present conflict is that the Russian leadership is using the Western-backed government in Kiev as a scapegoat and as a diversion of the Russian peoples’ attention from the profound social and economic problems in Russia.

Without entering into a political argument we can see that the successful use of a scapegoat depends upon an individual’s or community’s belief that they have found the cause of their troubles in an outside “enemy”.  The cure is to isolate or dispose of the enemy. Once the enemy is destroyed or expelled, says Girard, a community does experience a temporary sense of relief and calm is restored for a time.

Such was the case immediately after the death of Jesus. Jerusalem and its Temple continued to function until about  40 years later; in AD 70 the temple was destroyed by the Romans.

A lesson for us about the costly sacrifice of Jesus is that he brings the futility of our refusal to accept our own sin to consciousness. In light of Jesus and his self-giving love we cannot individually or collectively appease our failure or sin by blaming another. We must confess our own sin and come to love our neighbor.

Girard shows us that the calm following an act of scapegoating is only temporary since the scapegoat is not really the cause nor is violence the cure of the conflict i.e. the sins of our humanity, that led to the expulsion and in many cases violence and death for the scapegoat.

When imitation and jealousy lead once again to internal conflict, which escalates into violence, humans will find another scapegoat and repeat the process all over again. Jesus has exposed and denied the power of this cycle. The Suffering Servant has paid the wages of sin and set us free.

In the light of this understanding it may be seen that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, was offering the people a scapegoat both for himself and for the Jewish people in the choice of one their own. Either Jesus or Barabbas would be the victim of human sacrifice in the form of crucifixion.

In his reading of the Bible, Girard realized that the Judeo-Christian tradition reveals the innocence of the scapegoat, “the Suffering Servant”, and so renders the justification for ancient sacrificial religion ineffective.

Jesus is the innocent victim of humanity – the one perfect complete and final sacrificial victim who has revealed the truth: the truth, which will set us free – the truth that God will forgive us when we accept our own sinfulness and renounce the scapegoating of others.

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and obtain grace. (Hebrews 4)

History is witness to humanity’s, often unsuccessful, attempts to find sacrificial ways, apart from the one complete self-sacrifice of Jesus, to control our sin, rivalry and conflict. Christian apocalyptic literature predicts the failure of any sacrificial appeasement beyond the Cross and its power conveyed in the Mass which is a participation and re-presentation of the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

The psalmist and prophets tell us that the Messiah will come to Jerusalem to begin his work of restoring God’s people. Jesus did so by putting an end to the sacrificial system, completing it with his own final and complete self-offering for the sins of world.

Being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient – even to the point of death – death on a cross.  (Phil 2: 6 – 11) 

Easter Mass and Blessing of Foods

Blessing of Easter Foods and Distribution of Antidoron

When Europeans came to this country, many brought with them the custom of preparing a family basket filled with Easter foods and covered with a crocheted cloth.  Often the cloth has an Easter emblem or the words 'Christ is Risen' crocheted on it. The basket is brought to Mass for blessing.

Each of the foods has a special significance.  It sounds much like the special foods which our Jewish brothers and sisters use in the celebration of their Seder Meal.

Remember, the basket does not contain all the food you will eat on Easter Sunday, just a symbolic portion. Each national tradition may add something unique to its own liking. For instance the Slovaks add Horseradish mixed with ground beets called 'chren'.

Below is a list of the traditional foods:

EASTER EGGS!  Of course!  Brightly colored, seasonal representations of the New Life that Jesus gave us in His Resurrection.

PASCHA: a sweet, rich, yeast bread. It is usually round and has a golden crust. Often it has a cross of dough on the top surrounded by braids which can represent the crown of thorns.  

OTHER BREADS: nut roll. 'kolac', poppyseed roll,

whatever Easter baked delights are of your own tradition.

KOLBASA and HAM or LAM a sign of abundance and that the 'Long Fast' is truly over.

CHEESE: "Syrek"    Especially a small round cheese. Italian sometimes put in some Romano.

HORSERADISH: Nothing is better with ham than beet horseradish. Some add to their baskets a bit of vinegar or sour cream which is all meant to represent the bitter drink given to the Lord when He called out from the cross, "I thirst"!

BUTTER: especially the butter formed in the design of a lamb.  You can actually find these at Eastern delis.    Christ is the Lamb of God!

SALT:  It gives zest to our foods and reminds us that Christ preserves us to life eternal.

And don't forget the chocolate eggs, the chocolate bunnies, and chicks, and a few jelly beans as well if you like.

Add your Easter dinner wine and decorate your basket with family heirloom napkins or linen.

Divine Mercy Sunday (Octave of Easter) April 27 – Pot Luck Easter Supper after Mass at STM

This will be our parish supper for Easter Season (50 days). 

ANTIDORON

When people do not commune at the Liturgy (baptized people not yet in full communion), they may receive antidoron (an-dee-tho-ron) at the end of Liturgy (that is, blessed bread which is not the Blessed Sacrament. Since it is blessed, the antidoron should be carefully handled. It may be received from the Priest at the end of Liturgy.

Antidoron may also be taken home for use during the week. It is a pious custom for Eastern Christians to begin the day, after their morning prayers and before eating, by consuming a particle of antidoron.

Easter Triduum Ordinariate Liturgies at St. Thomas More Church, POCSP, Toronto

Music Director on Good Friday and Easter Sunday:  

Mr. Peter Mahon

PARKING: Entrance to the parking lot is just off Sherbourne north of Carlton between the Rectory and the Apartment Building to the North.

 

Catholic Education in Canada at a Crossroads

The so-called "separation of Church and state" is really an idea from the Constitution of the USA (and one initially designed to protect the Church from state interference - contrary to current secular propaganda).  Separation of Church and state is not, however,  explicitly part of the Canadian constitution. 

Over time, Canadian federal and provincial structures have developed in a relationship with the Church including, in Ontario and other provinces, co-operation in the field of education to the extent that there is provincial government funding for Catholic schools and an entirely separate Catholic system of education in Ontario.

With an Ontario court judgement this month, however,  students are suddenly not required to attend Mass or religious instruction with their classmates in Catholic schools, the issue is coming to a head. This is a turning point in Catholic education and a further point of tension with the secular authorities and secularist pressure groups. 

Now that the court has ruled that children attending Catholic schools need not participate in the spirituality and practice that sets them apart and which forms the culture and atmosphere that is the reason why many parents choose Catholic schools -- better discipline, ethics and morality, etc. -- what is the point of funding a school system that is separate from the public system? 

Catholic education in Ontario and other provinces has been under massive secularizing pressure for decades. Many teachers are really only nominally Catholic and relatively few are comfortable teaching the Faith. The agendas of secular activists plays against the clear instruction of children in the Catholic faith despite the provision for this in Canadian constitutional documents.  

In recent decades both Newfoundland and Quebec governments have jettisoned public funding for faith-based schools. Some argue that this liberates the remaining independent schools to be free of governmental control, though all schools are still subject to governmental curriculum  and other guidelines and restrictions.

It may that we are moving to a time when Catholic schools will have to walk away from public funding, become smaller, freer and more focussed. If the example of the USA serves, many parents will still choose Catholic schools even if they have to pay a premium for tuition.  

Refusing funding would allow Catholic schools to insist that teachers and students subscribe to Catholic faith and practice. The alternative seems to be continuing the secularizing of all aspects of school life and the abdication of all but a nominal "Catholic culture".

PALM SUNDAY HOMILY -------------- St. Thomas More Catholic Church, POCSP, Toronto – April 13, 2014

“I gave my back to the smitters . . . I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”  From Isaiah 50

With Palm Sunday and the story of the Passion of Jesus we reach the peak of the history of our salvation accomplished by the power of God.  From the triumphal arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem we immediately turn to the depth of human suffering and human savagery in the passion and crucifixion of Jesus.

What has been anticipated in the Old Testament and promised by God is our salvation from sin and death.  This is fulfilled in mystery of Holy Week and Easter, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah.

The Passion of our Lord is the story of Jesus' work of  redemption accomplished for us in the New Covenant which is written in his blood and his broken body on the cross at Golgotha, the place of the Skull.

“All this has come to pass that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel (Matt. 26:56).





Jesus is “counted among the wicked,” as Isaiah had foretold (Isaiah 53:12). He is revealed as the Suffering Servant, whom the prophet announced. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah whose words of obedience and faith ring out in today’s reading from Isaiah.


Counted among the wicked, Jesus becomes the scapegoat for human sinfulness as have so many before him and so many since been used as a focus for collective sin. In fact, in every civilization at its very cultural root is this tragedy of fallen human nature and the collective desire to find a scapegoat, as Rene Girard has pointed out so powerfully. 

More of this on Good Friday as we think about the Passion of Jesus and the distinctive nature of his suffering, death and resurrection which exposes and puts to an end the legitimizing of guilt through human scapegoating and human sacrifice.

The taunts and torments we hear in these readings today punctuate the Gospel as Jesus is beaten and mocked (Matt 27:31). His hands and feet are pierced, as enemies gamble for his clothes (Matt. 27:35). His enemies dare him to prove his divinity by saving himself from suffering (Matt. 27:39-44). 



However, Jesus remains faithful to God’s will to the end and does not turn back. He gives himself freely to his torturers, confident that, as we hear today from the Prophet Isaiah: “The Lord God is My help . . . I shall not be put to shame.”



Destined to sin and death as children of Adam’s disobedience, we have been set free for holiness and life by Christ’s perfect obedience even to innocently bearing the suffering of a scapegoat for the sins of humanity  (Romans 5:12-14,17-19; Eph. 2:1-2; 5:6).



This is why God greatly exalted Jesus. This is why we have salvation in the Name of Christ. Following the example of his humble obedience in the trials and crosses of our own lives, we can trust that we will never be forsaken. 

With the Suffering Servant we must at times say: “I gave my back to the smitters . . . I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”  (Isaiah 50)

We can do so only because, as the centurion said,: “truly this is the Son of God” ( Matt. 27:54).


Isaiah 50:4-7; 

Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; 

Phil. 2:6-11;  

Matt. 26:14-27:66