communion antidote to extremism

Communion – Antidote to extremism and division Day 3 - 119th Novena to Good Saint Anne Christ is the beginning of communion. His entire life was marked by this willingness to be a bridge: a bridge between humanity and the Father, a bridge between the people he encountered, a bridge between Him and the marginalized. The Church is this communion of Christ that continues throughout history, a community that lives diversity in unity. Matthew 12:38-42 Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.” Yesterday was the final of the World Cup. On Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands of New Jersey the ???? defeated ????? to win this year’s World Cup. Several of the matches were played right here in Levi Stadium in Santa Clara but many of you might not be aware of what the world cup is all about. Coming from Mexico and in fact most of the rest of the world everyone knows what the world cup is about. It is a soccer tournament. And just about all the national teams of the world compete to try to get into the world cup. In Mexico when the national team was playing everything stopped. There was no traffic on the streets most stores were closed. Everyone was fixed upon the match. When the team played their last game in Mexico it was on Sunday July 5th at 6 PM. Churches in Mexico were asked to close early and evening mass were cancelled. To be honest it wasn’t just so folks could watch the game but to avoid some of the violence that unfortunately is a part of of these sporting events. The world Cup is kind of the Olympics of Soccer. It is the most popular sport is almost the entire world. This year 48 teams qualified for the World Cup. 104 matches were played in stadiums across the US, Canada and Mexico and obviously 47 teams were eliminated. Some were eliminated quite quickly and when home quickly others like ????? were eliminated when they lost to the yesterday and ???? is the world champion for the next four years until the next world cup is played in Spain, Portugal and Morroco. The theme of our Novena this year is “the power of the Gospel.” It is based upon a book that is a collection of themes that are important to Pope Leo. Saturday Fr. Aaron spoke on “Christ: the Center of everything”; and yesterday Fr. Ted preached on “the Gospel: Good News.” Our theme today is, “Communion Antidote to extremism and division.” Our hope is that the novena this year will help you to understand the thinking and theology of our New Pope Leo XIV. As you know Pope Leo is an Augustinian so St. Augustine is key to understanding Pope Leo. Just as St. Alphonsus is key to us Redemptorists. Pope Leo’s motto is In Illo uno unum. For those of you not conversant in Latin, “In illo uno unum In the One Christ we are one!” Jesus Christ is our Savior and in him we are one, the family of God with a richness of languages, cultures and experiences. We are one in Christ, despite all of our differences Jesus forms us into one people. The motto of the Augustians is similar: “Anima una et cor unun in Deum.” One mind and one heart intent upon God. In the 14 months since Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV he has emphasized again and again that we are called to be one. It has been suggested that in fact he was elected because it was felt that he would be able to bring us together as one people. People have baited him with hot button topics hoping to cause division and he has always responded that that isn’t his priority. It is much like the scribes and pharisees in today’s reading. They didn’t want a miracle from Jesus, they were testing him, they wanted to trip him up. Pope Leo is obviously following Jesus’ example. “Don’t try to trip me up. Don’t try to distract me from my mission.” Jesus’ mission was to proclaim the kingdom, Pope Leo’s mission is the same. Pope Leo said that he sees his primary role is to bring people together by focusing on Jesus and his message. And for a church of 1.4 billion baptized members in 190 countries, 3,500 dioceses where the sacraments are celebrated in more than 300 languages this is a huge challenge. One might say it is impossible, but this isn’t the mission of just Pope Leo or even the Church. It is the mission of Christ. A few weeks ago Pope Leo excommunicated the Society of St. Pius X. Or to put it more correctly by their action their created an act of schism and excommunicated themselves? Why did the Pope take this drastic step? The reason goes to the heart of today’s talk. It wasn’t because they celebrate the mass in Latin according to the Extraordinary Form. That mass is celebrated in several places in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. There is another group called Fraternity of St. Peter that is priestly fraternity completely in union with Rome that also celebrates mass in the extraordinary form. They have a parish in Sacramento. It also wasn’t because they question some of the teachings of Vatican II, or that they don’t like the idea of collegiality in the Church. No they were excommunicated for one reason. Because they ordained 4 bishops without permission of the Holy See. For us Catholics the pope is a sign of unity and in order to ordain a bishop, any bishop you need a papal mandate, you need permission from Rome. There are many things that some priests do that they shouldn’t do, but they aren’t going to be excommunicated. They are things that some Catholics believe that isn’t Catholic teaching. They also are not going to be excommunicated. Why? Because whatever it is that they are doing doesn’t have a life. It will die out, when they die out. If you ordain a bishop… what you are doing is going to continue, so the very act of ordaining a bishop without permission is a schismatic act. That is why I say that they ex-communicated themselves. We are one, but we are not all the same. We are all Catholics here, but some of us are democrats and some are republicans and many who could care less. There are Giant’s fans and A’s fans here. There are people here with different views on homosexuality, artificial birth control, there are people who like the pope and there are some who wish he’d retire early like Pope Benedict did. And that is ok, because those things are not what makes us Catholic Christians. Jesus is what’s makes us Catholic Christians. We have many core beliefs but we are not a democracy, we are not a union of various independent entities. We are one in the Church and Pope Leo is the external sign of that unity. You don’t have to like the pope, but you have to accept his authority. Pope Leo, living so many years in Peru and now Italy is a soccer fan. But as the world also knows he is also a Chicago White Sox Fan. More important than his favorite scripture passage or his patron saint everyone seems to know that he is a Sox fan. I don’t know if he watched the final match of the world cup yesterday but I am quite sure that he knows who won the match and he could tell you something about the game. In his book The Power of the Gospel Pope Leo quotes St. Augustine a great deal, but he also uses sports analogies. He says that a match is one when “the team” comes together and by team he means not just the players on the field, but the coaches, the technical team even the fans and the whole sporting society. It is a joke, but there is no I in teamwork. It is the whole team that comes together to win a match. But Pope Leo takes this point even further when he says that a match is an encounter between two teams. Two opposite teams both on opposite sides, both wanting to win and the other to lose and in this context they meet. They meet on the soccer field, the baseball diamond, the tennis court or golf course and in their meeting they have an encounter. They come together for a common cause to play a game. The same is true in the Church. We come together with a common cause, to make Jesus known in the world today. We come together in our brokeness and sinfulness to recognize that in the heart of God we are one. The heart is the place of encounter with God and with one another. Sporting teams are brought together in a stadium with a common interest: to see who is the best and win the game. We, Catholic Christians are brought together not so much in the church but on this altar. Here we encounter God and one another and we become one in Jesus Christ.