“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So Jesus began his public ministry. That ministry would lead to his crucifixion, his resurrection and the institution of the Church. It grew from a few men he called to follow Him to over a billion people who have accepted his invitation around the world today. His message is as powerful and as needed today as it was over 2,000 years ago. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”.
Repent has a negative tint to it, own up, confess up, straighten up. But in fact repentance is a positive. When we own up, confess up or straighten up is it freeing and life giving; there no longer is a weight or burden but a release and relief. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and deepen our relationship with him, it brings greater joy in the midst of challenges, greater strength in the midst of evil, and greater hope in the midst of uncertainty.
The kingdom of Heaven which Jesus invites us to is one of love and holiness, there for our choosing. Yet the need for repentance remains because we so often get off course in sin and human weakness. His invitation to forgiveness remains as well.
St. Paul in the 2nd reading offers an example of how we can get off course: “I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree in what you say and that there be no divisions among you but that you be united in the same mind and same purpose.” In other words stop your divisive quarreling, St. Paul urges us
He was speaking to the church in Corinth. They had not been Christians for very many years and already were forming factions and quarreling. I follow Paul. I follow Peter. I follow Apollos. Paul wrote to them with sorrow and with intensity: stop your selfish in-fighting, return to the core of the faith, follow Christ. He was not preaching uniformity in all things; he himself fought to open the Church to Gentiles. But he knew the Church in her diversity must be united around Christ or the salvation of souls would be at risk. That sin of division is true as much in our day as it was in the early days of the church. We too divide ourselves in many ways based on surface issues such as age, language, gender, ethnic background. Yet when we focus on the essential, Christ as Lord and Savior, Christ present body, blood soul divinity such surface differences are without meaning, and we can live in the midst of the hard challenges with hope.
Catholic Digest had an interview some years ago with Alberta Lee, a black woman who became Catholic at the age of 88. She faced discrimination and rejection throughout her life and yet never gave up her dream to become Catholic. She could not attend a Catholic church most of her life because blacks in her area were not welcomed. She was asked: “didn’t it make you angry that a church would exclude you because of your skin color?” “No,” she replied, ”I didn’t get angry. You know they excluded Christ and rejected Him and He took all of that and was a better person than I am or you or anybody else.” How would we have reacted to being treated in that way?” How well do we welcome the Alberta Lees of our parishes and community, different in color, language or ethnicity?
The way to avoid factions and to allow the kingdom of love and holiness to live in our hearts is to keep focused on what is truly important, our relationship with Christ. Reflect on the Apostles and their diversity. Jesus called fishermen. Peter and Andrew, a tax collector, Matthew, a militant, Simon, a practical realist, Thomas, a mystic, John, among others. They all repented their old way of life to follow Him.
In the most familiar depiction of the Last Supper by artist Leonardo da Vinci the twelve Apostles are leaning this way and that. We have an artistic rendering of this with Jesus washing their feet right above where I am standing. The eyes of all of the Apostles are focused on Jesus as he offers to them the sign and source of unity, the Holy Eucharist, and the mission of servant. “As I have done so you must do.”
The first reading from Isaiah says the yoke that burdened them the Messiah would smash. Jesus will smash the yoke of intolerance, discrimination and judgmentalism that burdens us down if we abandon our old way of life, own up, confess up, straighten up. We are all different with unique gifts, personalities, and dreams. We thank God for that. But we also are called to be united one with another as adopted children of God. When we are one with Christ we can glory in our diversity but also glory in what is most important, the salvation of our souls.
The story is told of a wealthy father who had sons who were jealous of one another and quarreled constantly. On his death bed he called his sons in and presented them with a bundle of sticks tightly tied together. He asked them one by one to break the sticks into two. None could do so because they were so tightly bound. The he asked the eldest to untie the bundle and try to break the sticks one by one. That was easy to do and all the sticks were broken in two. The lesson he told his sons is that united they stood and divided they fall.
In the midst of the evil in the world reflected in the throw away culture and lack of respect for life, it is essential that we disciples of Christ, called as were the first apostles, stay united with Christ in his Church. St. Paul preached: “I urge you brothers and sisters in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ that there be no divisions among you.” He is preaching to us today. For united around Christ we can stand, divided among ourselves we will fall.