Today Jesus looks at his closest disciples – after being together a couple of years – and says, “Who do people say I am?” – and then – “Who do you say I am?” 

This question is of course intended for us too. He looks at all of us who call ourselves His followers – Christians – and repeats the same question ... 

Do you know me?

What makes this gospel so important for us is that it points out what our faith is really all about.  It’s about a relationship.  It’s about knowing Jesus.  Christianity is not an institution; it’s a relationship with a person. To be a Christian is to stand before Jesus and answer his question – Do you know me?  Who do you say I am?

Do you know him?                  

When Jesus asked Peter and the other apostles those questions, they had been traveling from town to town, for many months. Peter and the others had left behind their regular lives. They made a huge commitment and effort to get to know Jesus because they recognized something remarkable in Him.

Think for a minute about the things they saw – over those months.

• They saw him heal people of leprosy, blindness and being paralyzed.
• They saw him raise a widow’s son from the dead and bring Jairus' daughter back to life.
• They saw him calmed a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee with a command
• They helped as he fed thousands of people in the middle of nowhere from a couple of loaves of bread.

They witnessed so many amazing moments.                                                              

My guess is they had more than a few late night discussions around the camp fire talking about this question of who Jesus was. But Jesus didn’t want to know what they thought about his miracles. He wanted to know if they knew Him.

When Peter answered him and said, "You the Son of the living God;" Jesus said something we all need to think about. 

What He didn’t say was: “Good for you Peter, you figured this out on you own.  No, he said, "Blessed are you, Simon. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” It wasn’t Simon Peter’s powers of observation or Simon Peter’s brilliant mind that allowed him to know who Jesus was; it was a gift from God the Father.

Faith is a gift. 

The spiritual insight God gave Simon Peter was a gift. St. Paul once said, "no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit."  We must have the help of the Holy Spirit, who opens the eyes of the mind and heart, who makes it possible for us to accept and believe the truth. That doesn’t mean Peter’s faith that Jesus was the Son of God was a blind faith.  It was grounded in reason, rooted in his experiences of that year. God put an understanding of who Jesus was on Peter's heart through what he witnessed.

We don’t have the advantage the apostles had of being first-hand witnesses of Jesus’ life.  But we do have their witness – the story of salvation history – the Bible.  Do we make an effort to get to know him in the Bible? Do we travel with him in the Bible?             

We also have the benefit of seeing living witnesses, other followers of Jesus; those canonized by the Church, and those quietly leading lives of faith, like many of our mothers and fathers. These are our witnesses, who so often lead us to faith in Jesus. Lead us to recognize who Jesus is. Ultimately each of us has the experience of Peter.  If we seek to know him, our heavenly Father reveals to our hearts the truth about Jesus.  Some Christian’s call that moment of recognition a “born again” experience; that moment of insight – that Ah Ha moment – when faith begins. That moment when we come to a place where reason can take us no further and God puts the truth on our hearts.

Jesus tells us today; faith is something we receive.  It’s a gift from our heavenly Father, through the workings of the Holy Spirit.  And like any gift, the gift of faith needs to be accepted to receive it. This faith – this gift – is often passed on to us from our parents like a family heirloom that we treasure, protect, and hopefully pass on ourselves. This gift of faith is a gift we are called to give away.

Our Catholic faith isn’t meant to be a private thing – me and God.  Being a Christian – being “Church” – is supposed to be a relationship. One of the great insights of our Church is that all of us who believe are members of the Body of Christ.  We are the physical representation of Christ in this world.  The Church is the body through which Christ manifests His life to the world today. When Jesus asks us – “Do you know me? He is asking us, do you know each other? Are you one body? Do you live in love, and help each other as I modeled in my life? 

While our relationship with Christ is personal, God never intends it to be private.

This parish – St. Brigid – is trying to become a parish of friends rather than a parish of strangers; to become the Body of Christ.  If Jesus himself disguised as a layperson visited St. Brigid if he sat somewhere in the middle, would he feel welcomed, loved, and necessary?

Jesus in the Gospel asks each of us today, “Do you know me?” And so does Jesus who sits next to you in the Body of Christ ask, “Do you know me?” Let’s become a parish that says – YES Lord.

We begin to know each other when we share our stories. 

In that spirit, I want to start by telling you a bit about me.  

I am a husband to Linda for 42 years this weekend. I am a father to four wonderful children, who have given me six beautiful grandchildren. I spent 25 years of my life building a retail business – until I got cancer – 20 years ago I almost died. Those events changed my life and led to me becoming a deacon.

My passion in life is helping children born into poverty, helping them break the cycle of poverty through education. I have been blessed to be part of helping found two fantastic schools – The Monarch School for homeless kids; and Nativity Prep Academy a free Catholic college access program in the inner-city.  Recently I’ve been asked to help to found a new Catholic high school - Cristo Rey high school. Cristo Rey Schools are Catholic schools that offer a college prep education to impoverish kids.  The unique feature of this school is that the students all work in corporate American one day a week to earn money to pay their tuition. 

I’d love to share more of my story with anyone who cares to know. I’d love to know your story.  We need to know each other’s story so that we can answer the question Jesus asks today ... Do you know me? 

Help us become the kind of parish where we know Jesus because we know his body. Let’s share our lives so that we can say ... YES, Lord ... we know you.

No human being can tame the tongue. We bless the LORD and Father, 

and then we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God.

From James 3:8-9

We need to ask (pray that) the Holy Spirit guide our speech so the words we speak are of mercy and compassion. Our speech can build others up or tear them down. We serve the Kingdom of God when we speak the truth in love; when we speak with mercy and compassion. 

I pray ... 

              Father God ... forgive me for all the times I've damaged others with my speech.

              Jesus ... open my eyes to see the likeness of You in each person I meet.

              Holy Spirit ... guide my words and make them instruments of your mercy and compassion.

Amen

John Calvin once said, "You may not think you owe your neighbor anything, but because of the image of God in your neighbor, you do. Because you see God in your neighbor, because your neighbor's made in the image of God."

"Don't look at your neighbor and say, ‘What does my neighbor deserve from me?' Say, ‘What does God deserve from me?' and then when you see the image of God in him there he is."

Discipleship

A disciple:

• Loves Jesus, regardless of the cost.
• Is a lifelong student of Jesus.
• Imitates Jesus – is his eyes, ears, voice, hands, feet.
• Allows the Lord to lead them.
• Welcomes the Holy Spirit in his/her life.
• Knows their charisms or gifts and uses them in service of others.
• Is conscious of being sent on mission by the Lord.
• Knows themselves as a beloved child of God and sees others as beloved by God.
• Is open to continuous transformation – ever growing in their faith.
• Reflects regularly on the Word of God.
• Participates regularly in a faith community – especially Eucharist.
• Wants others to share in the joy of a love relationship with Jesus - makes disciples.

Essential for being a disciple:

• Personal prayer and personal morality
• Social justice – concern for the poor, weak, vulnerable, marginalized
• Mellowness of heart and spirit – grateful, joyful, compassionate
• Being active in a community of faith

Many Christians believe that good works are a consequence or 'fruit' of faith.  Saint James saw the relationship between belief and works of mercy linked, he said: "Faith without works is dead."

Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest teaches that the separation of spirituality from action is a false one.

Fr. Rohr says we are not called to do spiritual practices—prayer, Bible study, meditation, retreat, ritual—and then make our way, now inspired, to the work of mercy and justice.

He says that in fact, it might be argued that, if anything, it’s just the reverse: Love those who struggle with poverty and suffer abandonment and the effect is that we will find ourselves on a path that leads to maturity, prayer, wisdom, and Christ-likeness. On the other hand, if we choose to avoid engagement and community with those who suffer, we will certainly live an incomplete life, including an incomplete spiritual life.

The call of the Christian is to live with compassion and faith

utterly linked, each enriching the other.

“I have lived, sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men!”  

81 year-old - Benjamin Franklin - at Constitutional Convention 1787

Pentecost Sunday Homily - Gospel of John 20:19-23

During the Cold War at the end of the last century, Berlin was divided in two; a wall separated East and West. East Berlin was part of East German which was controlled by the Soviet Union. In East Berlin, they erected a 1200-foot-tall broadcast tower which was intended to celebrate the superiority of the Communist system.  But the plan backfired, and this tower did just the opposite. It constantly reminded East Berliners of what they were missing. The tower was designed a few years after the Soviet Union had beaten the United States into space with a spherically-shaped satellite named “Sputnik.”

Communist officials intended this tower to be a showpiece to the West. But instead, a fluke in design turned it into a giant embarrassment. Whenever the sun hits the tower a certain way, the tower turns into an enormous shimmering cross.  West Berliners quickly dubbed this Christian symbol in a Communist country the “Pope’s Revenge,” divine retaliation for the government’s removal of all crosses from East Berlin’s churches. An embarrassed government reportedly tried painting the tiles to eliminate the cross without success.

Something similar happened in Jerusalem after the crucifixion of Jesus. Those who put Jesus to death hoped that the cross would be a symbol of how they blotted out the Christian movement.  But instead, it did just the opposite. The Christian movement began to spread like a raging forest fire. With the cross, it’s most potent image. It spread so spectacularly that by the year A.D. 64 it had become a powerful force in faraway Rome. It became so powerful that the Roman emperor Nero made it the target of an all-out persecution.

How did Christianity in 30 short years grow from a tiny spark into a raging infernal? 
That amazing story is told in the Acts of the Apostles.   And the starting point for that extraordinary story is what we heard about in today’s readings. The Holy Spirit whom Jesus had promised to send his disciples descended upon them on Pentecost and transformed them. Like the sunlight turning that tower into a Christian symbol. The Holy Spirit - lit up - the apostles - and made them into the body of Christ, alive and on fire, spreading the message of Jesus to people of all nations and languages.

The apostles that day went from being a confused body of human beings, and in a moment, they were transformed into a courageous body of Christian believers. They went from a cowardly band of disoriented people and in an instant were transformed into a single body of witnesses which became one of the most powerful organizations on earth ... the Church.

It’s easy to read these stories and to marvel at what happened that day some 2000 years ago and think – wow – that was incredible and unique. But the truth is what the Holy Spirit began on that first Pentecost was just the beginning - a start - that is traced down to us today, here in this church. What started that day is left to us to complete. Like the disciples in today’s Gospel, each one of us received the Holy Spirit in a personal way, through our baptism and our confirmation. And like the disciples of Jesus, we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit for a purpose.

You might be saying in your head right now ... Who Me?  ... No way!

But listen to how St. Paul said it to the early Christians:

           There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;                                              
            there are different forms of service but the same Lord;                                                      
            there are different workings but the same God                                                                      
            who produces all of them ... in everyone.

To each one of us, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

Today is a day to ask ourselves: What gift of the Spirit have I been given?  What service am I called to do? Today our readings call each one of us to take an active role in the Church’s work of bringing the Gospel to all peoples.

This might mean being the very best Christian mother or father we can be, making sure our children hear the Gospel.  Living our faith so openly, other parents are inspired to bring the faith to their children. Perhaps we are given the gift to live our faith so attractively that those we work with wish to know the Gospel, and what it is that makes us a joy to be around. Maybe we are called to support the missionary work of the Church – with both monetary and prayer support.  We can help mission work being done by our parishioners Katie and Betty who go to Ecuador to help spread the faith or Cece and Jim who bring the faith to the high mountain regions of Peru. They bring the gift of light through solar power while also bringing the light of Gospel to people's souls. Maybe the Holy Spirit is giving you the gift to bring the light of Christ to those living in prison. The Holy Spirit might be calling you to join with our Kairos prison team – that brings the light of the Gospel into the darkness of Donavan prison.

The Holy Spirit has anointed us so that we can put into practice and live out what we profess on Sunday.  Let’s ask ourselves with deep conviction:

What gift of the Spirit have I been given?  

What service am I called to do?