A Light to the Nations (Sunday homily)

In the first reading, the Father said to the Son,
“I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus Christ is doing that through his Church.
That makes each of us bearers of his light.

As I prepared this homily
I thought of how Father Rick used to use props, like this (pulling out a candle).

And I thought, “maybe the ushers could pass out candles?”
Then I thought, “oh, the Ladies of St. Clara won’t like paying for that!”

Then I thought of the Vigil of Easter.
At the beginning of Mass, the church is pitch-black,
and the deacon or priest crosses the threshold
with the towering Easter Candle, singing, “Christ, our Light.”
And as he comes forward, the church becomes brilliant
as each receives the light of Christ.

That’s our role in the world.
There’s a lot of pessimism,
and you and pierce that gloom with Christian hope.

Consider the current interest in the environment, which is a good thing.
But there are different messages, based on different mindsets.
Some efforts include God, others leave him out.

A more secular approach sees nothing special about humanity,
even going so far as to see people as the problem—their solution is fewer…of us!

This idea has been around for a long time.
With our tax dollars, Planned Parenthood goes all over the world,
passing out contraception and opening up abortion chambers.
To them, people are the problem.

Aside from the not-very-subtle racism
of wealthy white countries telling poor nations
with darker skins, “there are too many of you”…
is the simple fact that this is not true!

Our world has abundant resources.
But, too often, governments, ideology,
and special interests, get in the way.
A quick example: many poor nations aim to become less-poor by selling us their goods.
But special interests block that through trade barriers.
So, those people stay poor; and we send billions in food aid,
and we tell them, “there are too many of you,”
and in case trouble breaks out, we sell them weapons.

Our Christian response is a message of hope.
People are not the problem;
people are why God created this world.
We affirm life!

This week we keep a sad vigil.
Tuesday is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Here’s another false choice.
The Court took the view that the dignity of women
depends on denying the dignity of unborn children.
That not only pitted mothers against their own hearts,
but it pitted men against women.
It is men who often pressure the woman saying,
“take care of that, or I’ll leave.”

That decision injected poison
into the relations of men, women and children,
at the very core of our society.

That’s why we Catholics
cannot and will not ever make peace
with Roe v. Wade or abortion on demand.

Our bishops declared Tuesday a day of mourning, of fasting, prayer, and action.
Our response is a message of healing and hope.
We refuse to choose between women and children:
we choose both!
We reject the idea that you lift people up
by pushing others down.

Our courage to do what we need to do
comes from the Holy Spirit,
who remained in the world through Jesus,
And he remains, still, through his Body, the Church.

If each of us is a light,
then the flame of that light is the Holy Spirit.
How brightly do we want to shine?
How much warmth do we want to offer?

That depends on how well we respond—with our lives—to Christ.
How much do we want Him to change us?

Here we are at Mass:
as far as God’s grace for the world,
this is Grand Central Station.
Here Christ offers himself, as Servant, to the Father.
He says, “Here am I Lord, I come to do your will.”
His whole life—the Cross—the Mass: that’s what it is.

How do we respond?

This is what it means to share the Eucharist.
We come to communion,
if we belong to him, in baptism and in his Church,
and, if we are ready to say,
not just with a word, but with our lives:
“Here am I Lord, I come to do your will.”