Peace be with you!

I’m happy to say the latest set of sessions has caught up with me at last. Here, Fr. Freeh joins with parishioners Pat Henry and Vicki Phillips to discuss the role of the Holy Spirit in our spirituality.

The bumpersticker says, “If you want peace, work for justice.”

Today’s Gospel reading says, “If you want justice, begin with holiness.”

Jesus takes the arrival of a couple of Greeks looking to meet him as the sign of His Father’s will to redeem the whole world, not just the lost children of Israel. And while He is troubled over what is to come, He surrenders to the call of the Holy Spirit to take up His mission to draw everyone to Himself for the glory of the Father’s name.

In taking on the mission to draw all to Himself, Jesus teaches us that the mission of the Church doesn’t end with the baptized. The Holy Spirit also calls us to draw everyone to the Father.

By putting His redemptive act in subordination to the Father’s glory, he teaches us that holiness comes first, action second…even for Him.

Too often, we get caught up in “social justice,” without taking a look at the state of our own souls. And while the Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic…there is no denying that her day-to-day holiness is affected by that of her members. As Fr. Freeh said, “You don’t belong to the Church, you are the Church.”

The Mystical Body of Christ is one of those concepts that we tend to gloss over. I’ve never heard anybody really argue it, but neither do we give it a lot of headspace. Maybe because it scares us a little. The spirit of “individualism” makes it hard for us to think about, much less accept, that there is an intimate connection between us and all those who share a common baptism in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This isn’t some remote, aloof  and generalized association like we were all members of the same club, but a personal bond of deep and intimate love with more than a billion people on the planet. Who wouldn’t be a little gob-smacked by the idea? But how could it be otherwise? Love Himself is the source of the relationship.

I think the key is not to think about those billions of baptized people, but to contemplate Jesus. As the Holy Spirit draws us closer to Him, and to the Father, he draws us closer to each other in faith and holiness…and this is what gives us the power to act, to build the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in Heaven. If we want peace, if we want justice…we must first begin as Jesus did: with holiness. Only when we are transformed according to the Father’s will, are we able to transform the world we live in.

If all the Catholics–if all the baptized–on the planet took this seriously, we probably wouldn’t need the bumpersticker.

I hope your Lenten journey is a fruitful one.

+ Ann

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.