“TO WHOM SHALL WE GO”

Homilist:  Fr. Declan Deane – August 23, 2009 

         To Whom Shall We Go, you have the words of everlasting life.  A few years ago I was invited by some friends to go with them to a play in the City.  It was called “Tony and Tina’s Wedding”.  Any of you ever go to that?  Some yes right here in front.  And this is interactive – in other words, they try and bring the audience into it a little bit.  So it begins in the theatre and the preparations are made for the wedding, then we all filed out and went in next door to the church, which was actually a disused church and the priest went up and down the center aisle giving his sermon trying to exchange the vows of the couple.  And he’s walking up and down the aisle giving his talk and suddenly he wheels around, points directly at me and says, “You look like the kind of guy who only goes to church once or twice a year.”  (Loud, prolonged laughter.)  Well, my friends were very much amused by this, but later on I was thinking to myself why did he pick on me?  (Laughter)  And then I thought; could I be that kind of a guy who just goes to church once or twice a year.  Well, then you say to me, “Well, you’re a priest you have to come every Sunday.”  True.  I don’t think Brian Joyce would be too happy if I were to say to him, “You know, Brian, I don’t think I can show up absolutely every Sunday.”  (Laughter)  “How does Christmas and Easter sound?”  (More laughter)

         Well, I set myself to thinking, you know, what is it that gives me life in this Eucharist that we come together and that you come to.  If I were to give all the reasons, by the way, I would have to borrow Fr. Dibble’s clock because I would be going on so long.  So in the Gospel, we have been listening to for five weeks to what’s called the Eucharistic Discourse.  Six chapters of John’s Gospel, I am the bread of life whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever.  And a lot of the people said this is nonsense.  This is too far fetched we can’t accept this.  It says the Disciples began to file away.  And rather pathetically Jesus turns to the Twelve and he says “Will you too go away?”  And Peter takes his position of leadership maybe like never before and says, “Master, to whom will we go, you have the words of everlasting life.” 

The words of life.  You know, people use to think nothing of going up to the top of a mountain and spending the whole day listening to Jesus, even forgetting to bring food.  So compelling were his words, so life changing were his words and so beautiful were his words and we get to hear them whenever we come here.  The music – does it ever happen to you that you go away from here and there is the music haunting your heart and continuing to haunt your heart for a week?  Did you ever have music that haunted your heart for your whole life?  I did. 

I went to a boarding school in my teenage years for five years.  Any of you ever go to boarding school?  Some of you did.  Oh, we have quite a few at this Mass.  Now those of you who didn’t, by the way, you weren’t missing a treat let me tell you that right away.  I hated every minute of it.  I use to count the days, count the hours to the three vacations at Christmas, Easter and summer because there were no schools on the island I grew up in so I went to a boarding school near Limerick.  And on the last day before the vacation the taxis and buses would be at the door and we would have a half day of class but first we would file into the church, the organ would be put up to maximum volume and 200 boys would sing at the tops of their voices Te Deum Laudamus Te Dominum Confitemur.  The great anthem of thanksgiving of the Catholic Church.  You know, I don’t think there are any atheists in our group, none that I have ever met, because they associate God and Church and music with the most anticipated moment of our lives when we were to escape the clutches of the Jesuits and go home to our families.  (Laughter)

         The presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity, so much meaning on so many levels just to refer to one.  Whenever we sit down at the table of the Lord we are invited and we are challenged to remember those who are hungry in our world.  Wonderful symbol in this parish the food that you bring outside the doors of the church.  Some times it goes to the St. Vincent DePaul Society who does incredible work.  Some times it goes to the Monument Crisis Center where I went and I helped out one morning.  Sandra, the director, told me we would be nowhere without the Christ the King Parishioners.  The Senior Center.  Only the tip of the iceberg of all you do.  And then there is our Youth Group who was up in Tacoma, Washington and David, of the Youth Group, is going to have a two-minute input at the end of the Mass telling you about some of their great work  motivated again by the hospitality of Jesus here in the Eucharist.

         And final points that I will select is that when we come to Eucharist we are not all like-minded people.  We’re not all of similar backgrounds.  We are very diverse, but what binds us together into one?  If you are to read only one spiritual book this year I would recommend The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser.  And he has this to say about coming to church, especially to our Catholic Church.

“To be in Church is not necessary to be with others with whom we agree, with whom we are emotionally, ideologically or otherwise compatible.  Rather it is to stand shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand (which is why we have the sign of peace) precisely with people who are very different from ourselves and with them to hear common words, say a common creed, share a common bread, and offer a mutual forgiveness so as in that way to breach our differences and become a common heart.”

Beautiful passage.

         I’ll finish with a story.  I was leaving a Parish and before I left two men in the Parish invited me to come to coffee.  I would say they were perhaps the two most politically conservative men in the Parish.  And they said to me we have two things to say to you.  First, whenever you touch on anything to do with politics such as the war, or capital punishment, or nuclear weapons, or the economy, or anything like that we disagree with you completely, totally and absolutely.  (Laughter)  And I said, “Well, thank you for sharing.”  (Laughter)  And then I said, “What’s the second point” and I braced myself.  And they said the second point is we love you and we hate to see you go.  And I realized then, of course, which I had realized before what Church means.  We don’t all think alike.  We’re not all alike.  We’re not all like-minded people.  We come from many different places and we are of many different places, but there is something more profound than all our differences be they trivial or profound, there is something deeper than any of those differences or rather there is a person, there is one who binds us together who makes us one in heart and one in spirit.  It is the one who asks the question perhaps of you and me that he asked of the Twelve – Will you too go away.  And I know that the answer you give, the answer please God I will always give is, “Master, to whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life.”

 

rjs