A man approached his parish priest and volunteered to join the parish team. He said he is a doctor of Philosophy and one of the best professors in one of the best universities in the country. The priest smiled and warmly welcomed him. The man asked what would be his position in the team. He said he could be the president of the team as he is highly qualified for any higher position. The priest smiled and gave him a broom instead. He asked the man to clean the church. The man became mad because of this. “I am a distinguished professor in a well known university and you want me to clean the church”, he said. “No way. I will serve the church no more”, he added. When the man left the church, the priest said to himself, “Oh Jesus, we do not need unchristian workers in the church.
My dear friends, we are all Catholics here. But sometimes we do not know the essence of our being catholic. Some of us think that being a Catholic is being a member of one of the many religions. What we somehow overlook is that we are all followers of Christ. This is the truth why we are called Christians –we are nothing but only followers of Christ. And being a Christian, we have nothing to boast against the others. What capacity do we have to build a Christian community? The fact is we are in the church not because we can offer our superior intelligence or mega achievements. Our church is not founded on merely human strength or power. Rather, we are in the church to listen to God.
In our first reading, Acts 9:26-31 our church is organized not by the power of men. It is said, “It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.” Our church does not depend on the greatness of man but on the guidance of God. If one is trying to build a community due to his own strength and power, then such community is not built by Christ. For the followers of Karl Marx, their community is known as the Marxist. For the followers of Mao Zedong, they are called the Communist Party of China. Vladimir Lenin called his followers the Bolsheviks while Julius Martov formed the Mensheviks. These are all man-made communities and if communities are founded on human strength, time will come that the human weakness will try to corrupt the said strength.
Now, what kind of a community do we suppose to have if we are guided by God? What is the identity of our community when it is founded by Christ? Our second reading says, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18-24). It means that are community is incorruptible or invincible because our strength is neither our intelligence nor social skills but love. Love and no other is what our community is made up of. Our church is known not because we have great men or intelligent priests but because we can show our love to one another in word and in deed. It is by the power of love that we can do great things. Without love, the community will not last. Our power, our strength is love and this kind of love comes from our faith in Christ. Jesus said, “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-8) This means that we do not need great men in the church but only those who can be humble before God and allow God’s love to be their strength and power in serving the church. If there is one requirement for being a priest, a catholic, a lector, commentator, catechist, etc. it must be love. If one does not know how to love in word and in deed, then he/she is deemed disqualified. Love makes a difference in serving and building the church. The absence or presence of love makes a difference in the community.
In a little church in a small village in Yugoslavia, an altar boy serving the priest at Sunday Mass accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. The village priest struck the altar boy sharply on the cheek and in a gruff voice shouted, "Leave the sanctuary and don't come back!" That boy became Marshall Tito, the antichristian communist president of Yugoslavia in 1953 till his death in 1980. In the cathedral of Peoria, Illinois another altar boy serving the bishop at Sunday Mass also accidentally dropped the cruet of wine. With a warm twinkle in his eyes, the bishop gently whispered, "Someday you will be a priest." Do you know who that boy was? Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
So how do we serve our church? Jesus has the answer in today’s gospel: With humility, abiding in him but most of all, with love. Let us serve the church with love and be great because we excel in the art of loving.
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