FR. OLMAN’S HOMILY

The Holy Spirit is very much in evidence in the readings at this Mass.  As we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we acknowledge that he has drawn us together to offer ourselves with Christ to the Father.  Going out refreshed by Eucharist communion, we give witness that we are Christ’s disciples.

The first reading tells us that the early Church faced a problem.  The preaching of the Gospel to the pagans was by no means easily accepted by many early converts from Judaism, even twenty years after the resurrection.  Paul and Barnabas were in the middle of the controversy of whether or not it could be done. 

The final solution arrived at by the apostles and the elders were that all should “abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication”.  The apostles found the solution moved by the Holy Spirit.  “At work since creation, having previously spoken through the prophets the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them.  The Holy Spirit is this revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, is the invisible source of that “memory” of the Church which is manifested in Tradition.  He will “bring to your remembrance” Jesus says.  Tradition is the remembrance or memory of all that the Church has been told by Christ, the entire inheritance of Revelation and faith.

“Hence there exist a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and sacred scripture.  For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end.  For sacred scripture is the word of God in as much as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit.  To the successors of the apostles, sacred tradition hands on in its full purity God’s word, which was entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.  Thus, led by the light of the Spirit of truth, these successors can in their preaching preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known.  Consequently, it is not from sacred scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed.  Therefore both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of devotion and reverence.

The Lord told the apostles: “those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me”.  There is an inseparable connection between loving Jesus and keeping his word, between love and obedience.  Love is the root.  Obedience is the fruit.  When there is sincere love of a person, there is fulfillment of his wishes.  When there is sincere love of Jesus Christ, there is keeping his word.  When there is no keeping of God’s word, there is no love of God.  When there is no observance of the laws of the Church, there is no love of the Church. 

Again, the Lord told his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give to you as the world gives”.  Peace is a gift of the Lord.   Since peace is a gift from God, we must pray for it.  They Church in her liturgical prayer never ceases to pray for peace.  “The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you” is one of the greetings at the beginning of Mass.

Peace is a gift of God entrusted to us.  While peace is a gift, man is never dispensed from the responsibility of seeking it and endeavoring to establish it by individual and community effort.

The mission of the Church is to promote peace.  “All men are called to be part of this Catholic unity of the People f God, a unity which is harbinger of the universal peace it promotes”.  In pursuit if her divine mission, the church preaches the gospel to all men and dispenses the treasures of grace; Thus, by imparting knowledge of the divine and natural law, she everywhere contributes to strengthening peace and to placing brotherly relations between individuals and peoples in solid ground.