Father Donald Sawyer Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church

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June 5, 2005 Sermon

We’re in the season of Pentecost and the readings we’ll be hearing all the way to September 14^th, the Feast of the Holy Cross, are geared to a description of how – of how – to be a disciple of Christ. We’re not just called to be Christians, Catholic Christians, or Maronites. Jesus said it’s not those who say “Lord Lord” on the last day, but those “who keep My commandments.”

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and as It came down, they knew It was present because the whole foundations, built of stone, began to shake. They saw the tongues of fire on each person and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They no longer had fear, which is very important, but they stepped out and proclaimed, “Jesus is risen from the dead.” This is the same spirit you should have, and I want to stress two things. One, you have the same spirit of God, and there may not be shaking of the church, but you have received the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Church has always talked about the dignity of the human body and how to treat it. This is why we don’t go for body piercings and tattoos and such. We look at the body as a temple.

This same Holy Spirit came in the early Church, and the people went out. Who were the first missionaries? The apostles, but they weren’t alone. Jesus had how many disciples? One hundred and forty. It was like concentric rings. Think about these early years of the Church. There was a woman in Jerusalem. Her name was Nina. She herself single-handedly went back to her own country and started preaching. She baptized people and the King and Queen came and told her, “Nina, send to Jerusalem for clergy to serve our people.” And that was how the country of Georgia, not the state, became Christian, that early. But look at the first missionaries from Antioch. There’s a stone in China. It’s in Chinese and Aramaic saying that the Christian missionaries had arrived in China. They were converted, and there was community of Christians there. Thomas, as we know, went to India. When the Portuguese arrived, they were shocked, “There’re Christians over here!” These people took the Faith.

Not to be long, but I need to stress to you that you don’t need to be a priest to be a minister of God. You’re already ordained at your baptism to be ministers of the Lord. Have you ever thought about that? Probably because of the Protestant Reformation that made much of clericalism in Europe, there was less stress on the priesthood of the Catholic Church. But this is your Church. You are the Church. Take away every church in the world and what are you going to find? The Church still exists. It’s not stone, it’s marble, it’s you. You constantly hear me saying that you are the Church, you are ministers. The challenge is that you want to live your lives as disciples of Christ.

You may hear, “You have to go to Mass.” Well, you haven’t fulfilled your obligation. You may say the rosary every day, that’s fine; you keep Holy Days, that’s fine; you support the Church, that’s good, you’re supposed to do that too. But it’s not enough. As disciples, I want to stress to you, that you are probably already ministering and didn’t even realize it. You may not be comfortable saying to people, “Let me pray over you,” but pray over them, and I’m sure the Holy Spirit will inspire you. Pray more, and stress less. Tell them what the Lord is doing for you. Most people go to church not because of dogma, but to find community, and that’s so important. A friend of mine at another parish, he moved away back to where he’s from in Texas, his mother was sick and eventually she died. He said how hurtful it was for him because not only was it hard to get a priest to come visit him, but the people in her church never even thought about picking up the phone and asking, “Do you need something?” And the worry in Texas is that all of a sudden, the Mormons are growing, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are growing, because when someone is sick, they’re at their house, there for comfort, there for consolation. He says, “What do we as Catholics do?” If you want to get something organized, call a Catholic or a Methodist; if you want to get something built, call a Presbyterian; if you want to raise money in your collection, talk to the Baptists. This isn’t meant to be insulting, but we are not living our full Christian calling, my brothers and sisters.

A lot of you are not involved in the parish. You say, “Oh, let someone else do it.” And some of you, I see that you’re involved, and you say, “Oh, I’ll do it Father,” but you’ll turn and say, “Look, it’s always the same people doing things.” What joy is that? You’ve just robbed yourself of God’s grace. Those of you who think you’ve met your obligation and gone to church, that’s only scratching the surface. I was thinking about a woman in a town I was at years ago when I was first ordained. This woman was so faithful, a single mother, and she brought her children to Mass every Sunday. They were so well behaved and well dressed, everyone admired them. All the people were telling each other, “Isn’t that wonderful?” and, “Imagine, she’s doing it by herself.” They gave praise and praise to her – behind her back. Not once did someone say to her, “I really admire you, do you need some help?” And so it happened, she was working, she got frustrated, and she didn’t have support. So some guy came along and sweet-talked her. And the first thing that happened, she quit the church. He moved in with her. “It’s all OK, just shack up.” And what happened was that she started losing the kids. Then you started to hear the voices, “How could she? She’s no good”, all from good Christian people of course. Now, who has the sin here? Was it really her? It was the people who did not give her support. I’m sorry, this is the fact. Bishop Chedid said, “If we don’t pass our compliments to other people, we are acting as thieves because we are holding what is not ours.” We have the responsibility to each other to build one another up.

I hear praises from a lot people who come to visit the church. “You have a great parish, great people.” We are great, but that doesn’t mean we’re perfect, and we’re working to get better. Our concern should be as when God asked Cain “Where’s your brother?” What did he answer? “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer is: yes, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. I was so proud of this parish when one man got sick, and some of you went over to his house to do repairs. And some of you, as soon as he got to church, you’d tell his wife, “Go inside,” and you got him out of that van and walked him inside. I see this time and time again. When someone is sick, you bring food to the house. This is what you’re called to do. We do have an obligation to do unto others. Improvise. Minister to other people.

Sometimes we allow our religion to get in the way of our Faith. Listen to me – we allow our religion to get in the way of our Faith. Jesus didn’t give us a religion. He gave us way of life. We make that way of life into a religion. It’s like magic, hocus pocus. And not to take away from the sacramentals and the statues, but when we think that our religion is just going to church or saying the rosary and that’s it, we get blinded to the people around us. We don’t reach out to other people. Religion makes it into magic. “I light a candle because I really need this job.” Well, that’s fine, but have faith. It’s not the candle that’s bringing you the job or business. We use God as a big sugar-daddy in the sky. I want to stress this about our faith. It’s like God has a big puzzle for us and we put the little pieces together. We say to God “Thy will be done” and there’s a harmony that comes into our lives. People can be jealous. Whether it’s sex, or wanting this, or wanting that, but God has plans for you. I think about teenage pregnancy. I think about diseases. I think about bad relationships. It’s all because it’s been “my will” and not “Thy will.” Once we step into this way of life, and not just on Sundays, but by walking where we live, where we work, where we eat, submitting ourselves to God, then all sorts of blessings follow.

In the readings, St. Paul talks about it. He says “Brothers and Sisters, we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.” Who are the rulers of this age? Political powers, movie stars, all the rulers of this age that are contrary to God. Jesus said, “You cannot love Me and love the world at the same time.” Love one or the other. We are spiritual people, and this world is passing. It’s all imaginary, a mirage. You think it’s real, but it’s not, we’re passing through it. We are spiritual beings having human experiences, not human beings having a spiritual experience. When we see people healed with Holy Water, we say, “Do you think it was a miracle?” Well yeah, I think it was a miracle. Why do we find it so hard to believe? We believe all the nonsense we see on T.V. and movies, we soak up that stuff like sponges, but we can’t believe God is in our lives. God is with us.

In your lives, realize you are called to minister. You all use words like Abouna or Father when referring to me, but I like to think of myself as “Coach.” I’m working my salvation out, too. We’re all working together. I may be more advanced, a level or two higher than some of you, and some of you may be much more advanced than me, but responsibility is given to me to be your coach, to urge us on to the kingdom of God.

With the idea that we are all spiritual beings, you look at the world and the problems we have, and we don’t look at them as just existential problems. Start looking at them that they might be spiritual attacks from the Evil One. I remember working in the yard some time ago here on a Sunday evening, and I was using a shovel. I put the shovel aside for a minute and when I turned to get it, it was gone. I looked all over. I said “Nobody’s here, what happened to the shovel?” I knew then that I’d never see that shovel again. My point is that there are evil powers in this world. You’re saying, “Father is crazy!” You’re right, Father’s crazy! And I hope that you have this experience, too, so people will think you’re crazy! Years ago, one lady said she had poltergeists in her house. It would shake the bed up and down. She knew what it was, she wasn’t alarmed. So those things we set aside and lose, it’s not necessarily because we’re senior citizens, sometimes it’s because the devil wants to play with us all. Be aware. Look at the spiritual life in this physical world. Look at the real thing, the spirituality. Jesus said, “You did not pick Me, but I chose you.” And then he told us to “bear much fruit.” Let’s continue here. Love one another, help one another. I see that there’s probably a need in this parish to have a support group. If you’re interested, see me. Continue walking with God.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.