Pentecost
Cycle B
Deacon Aniceto Armendariz was a devoted husband and father,
a strong leader in this community, and one of the holiest people I have ever known.
He died a martyr to his faith. Most important to me, Cheto was my friend. This
morning we celebrate Mass for his intention and will dedicate the fellowship
room at St. Lawrence in Heber to his memory. It is truly fitting that we do so.
Nancy and I had met Aniceto and Alma when they first
came to Park City, but we were not really friendly yet. We saw each other at
meetings and parish activities, but at that time they did not speak much English
and our Spanish was poor, so we rarely talked to each other. But even then we
knew Aniceto and Alma were special, because we saw how dedicated they were to their
people and to their church. There was a spark of fire in their eyes, the fire
of the Holy Spirit.
It wasn’t until Aniceto and I were accepted into the
diaconate formation program thirteen years ago that we really got to know each
other. We would drive down to Salt Lake City to the classes together every
week. At that time Aniceto could only speak a little English, and we would sit
next to each other in class so I could help him understand or translate
something that was said. We worked out a great language learning system. In the
car on the way down he would speak to me in English and I would speak to him in
Spanish and we would correct each other. By the end of the four years of
classes, he was fluent in English and I was, well, still poor at Spanish.
We would talk about our lives and our families. We
would discuss what we were learning in the classes. We would talk about what
the future would bring after we were ordained. Somehow we were able to
communicate with each other. The differences in our languages were not
important, however, because we both knew the message we were hearing. That
message was the word of God, the good news of Jesus, and even though we
couldn’t understand all the words, we understood the message. That message was
life changing for us. It transformed us from followers to true disciples. It
formed us into servants. It formed us into friends. It formed us into brothers.
We heard today the great story of the first
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came so strongly upon the apostles that they
were able to go out and preach the good news of Jesus Christ to people of all
nations, and those people were able to understand the message. St. Luke says
that the people in the crowd heard the apostles preach each in their own
language, even though they were from all over the world. The miracle of
Pentecost was not so much that the apostles spoke in foreign tongues, but that
the people understood the universal message they were speaking. The gospel of
Jesus was already within them. The apostles’ words just allowed them to
recognize it.
The message of Jesus is universal. It knows no language,
because it is the language of the heart. It does not need to be translated into
any language, because we all already know the words. Those words were placed in
us by God when we were formed in the womb and all it takes is the voice of God
to set them free in our hearts. The gospel knows no limits. It cannot be put in
a box or be the sole possession of this country or that. The gospel does not
belong to any political party or race. It is not male or female, rich or poor,
educated or ignorant.
The gospel of Jesus is universal. It is catholic.
The word catholic means universal. And just as the message of Jesus Christ is
catholic – universal - the church he left behind is also catholic - universal. The Catholic church is not contained in any single
nation or race or political party. We are all called to the same mission by the
same message. The message of Pentecost. The
mission of Pentecost.
In today’s gospel we heard again the story of the
first time Jesus appeared to his disciples in the upper room on Easter Sunday.
It is not by accident that his first words to them were “Peace be with you. As
the Father has sent me, so I send you.” They were not to remain in that upper room, in
safety, just praying and living together. Where would the Church be if they
hadn’t left that room? How would the gospel be released in the hearts of
millions and millions of people if the apostles had stayed in the comfort of
that room? Jesus commanded them to go out and preach the good news to all
people, to make disciples of all nations.
That has been the mission of the Church from the
very beginning. We take the good news to everyone, no matter their race, creed,
nationality or legal status. We feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty,
clothe the naked, heal the sick, bring comfort to prisoners. Jesus said that
that is how we will be judged, by how we treat the least of our brothers and
sisters.
You cannot take that mission away from the Church if
it is to remain the Church. We are not called to simply worship in our church
buildings and keep our faith amongst ourselves. We are called to carry that
faith into the world. We cannot separate our faith from our daily lives and
just be Sunday Catholics. Just as the apostles could not remain in the upper
room, we must carry the good news to the world.
That is why the attacks on religious freedom that
confront us today in this country are so important. We are all familiar with
the HHS mandate. The issue is not contraception, as the media has tried to
frame it. The Church is not asking that access to artificial contraception be
denied or limited. The issue is much more important than that. The core
question is who is going to determine what a church is and what they will be
allowed to do.
The core issue there is the narrowness of the
exemption provided. Only those churches that employ and provide services for
their own members are exempt from the mandate. Basically, it is saying that
there is freedom of worship, but not freedom of religion. We can do what we
like in the privacy of our own churches but if we do anything outside in the
greater community the government can force us to do things that violate our
mission and our consciences.
Another attack on that mission is the Alabama
immigration law, which is written so broadly that it can be interpreted to
prohibit the Church from administering the sacraments and social services to
anyone suspected of being in this country illegally. The Catholic Church does
not and cannot limit our mission to Catholics only. We do not ask you for your
Church ID when you check into a hospital or soup kitchen or food bank or
adoption agency. We do not and cannot ask for your passport when you come to us
to receive the sacraments. That’s not our job and it’s not our mission. This is
not about politics. And it’s not just a Catholic Church issue. Jesus said to
make disciples of all nations. He sent the apostles out of that upper room into
the entire world. What would the world be like if the Church was not allowed to
fulfill its mission?
There are many other attacks on the Church’s mission
today. I urge you to go to the website of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
to read the entire position of your church on this issue. If you rely only on
sensational headlines you are not living as a mature Christian. You must fully
inform your conscience in this matter if you are to live your discipleship.
Tomorrow we will celebrate Memorial Day, when we remember
and honor those men and women who have given the last full measure of devotion
for our country and its guaranteed freedoms. Those freedoms are not granted us
by government but by God. It says so in the Declaration of Independence. Those
freedoms are protected by the Constitution, and our military and political
leaders have taken an oath to defend that constitution. Religious freedom is in
the First Amendment for a reason, because it has always been considered the
most important freedom from which all other liberty derives.
But liberty is not just for Americans, just as the
good news is not just for Catholics. Because when you get down to it, it is the
same message. The good news of Jesus is all about freedom; freedom from sin,
freedom from oppression, freedom to be fully human. To be all we were meant to
be. On Easter Sunday Jesus gave the apostles his peace, told them to forgive
sins, and sent them out into the world to spread that peace and forgiveness. That
is the good news. That is our mission.
Many have died in defense of this country and the
liberty it provides. Deacon Aniceto died in the service of his people and his
church. It is truly fitting that we dedicate our fellowship room at St.
Lawrence to his memory today. In doing so we honor him and dedicate ourselves
to carry on his mission to the world. The entire world.
