Peace and Integrity in Christ – 5th Sunday of Easter – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; April 28, 2024

The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. The Church was at peace. This is a remarkable statement. The normal condition of the Church in this world is persecution, whether open or hidden, and the distress that arises from persecution. Yet God also grants to his Church brief moments of peace, a little breathing space, if you will.

Reading the Acts of the Apostles we find that very quickly after Pentecost the first persecutions arose, reached a fever pitch with the martyrdom of St. Stephen and the destruction wrought by Saul, but after Saul the persecutor, converted on the way to Damascus and became Paul the Apostle, the Church was given a “breathing space”, a time of peace.

What characterized the peace of the Church besides the absence of persecution? She was built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.

This is very different from the apparent peace of the Church in Sardis, that merited the Lord’s rebuke in the book of Revelation: I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. (Rev 3:1)

In true peace the Church is built up. The building refers to the Church as the Lord’s temple, and the living stones of the temple are the faithful. The Church is built up when the words of St. Peter are fulfilled, Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious, and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pe 2:4-5)

This building into the spiritual house involves both the interior life of the faithful and the visible life of the Church, structured by the sacraments, above all the Holy Eucharist. The Church experiences peace in this world when she is able to worship in public and build churches of stone that are signs of the living stones of which she is built, that is the faithful; in the church building the holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered, to which the faithful must be interiorly conformed, offering themselves as living stones, through, with, and in Jesus Christ.

A dead Church, like in Sardis, can have buildings of stone, in which the holy sacrifice is offered, but the faithful have become dead stones, lacking in faith, living in sin rather than in grace; the sacrifice is offered on the altar of stone, but is not offered in their hearts. For the Church in peace, the outward reality of the visible sign truly expresses the inward reality of the hearts of the faithful; the sacrament does not meet with an obstacle but bears fruit in the lives of the faithful, who mindful of the great gift they have been given, not taking anything for granted, not giving way to complacency, walk in the fear of the Lord.

For that reason, they experience the consolation of the Holy Spirit and witness the growth in numbers.

The peace of the Church requires the integrity of the faithful. Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.

The problem is not the words, but their emptiness. A man makes a promise to a woman, and a woman to a man, entering marriage, “I promise to be faithful to you … to love and honor you all the days of my life.” These are good words, but they need to be spoken with sincerity and lived out in deed. So also, when a man or woman, kneeling in a church, in the presence of a religious community and its superior, vows poverty, chastity, and obedience to Almighty God. The words are good, but they need also to be sincere and lived out. So also with our baptismal vows, it is not enough just to say the words, renouncing Satan and sin and professing our faith in Jesus Christ, we must mean what we say, and live it out.

Jesus said, Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Mt 7:21) And, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15)

As it is not enough to love merely in words or in speech, neither is it enough to love just in deeds. We must love in deed and in truth. The deed by itself can have a wrong motive, which is why our Lord warns, beware of practicing your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 6:1) Or the deed can be no more than an expression of instinct or emotion. Or the deed can be well-meant but misguided. To love in deed and in truth means acting from a mind anchored in the truth, doing the truth in charity. (Eph 4:15)

Integrity means that our thoughts, desires, speech, and action, all fit together under Christ; this takes place when Christ rules the mind and the heart through his Holy Spirit. This is true holiness. Then we will believe in Jesus Christ, as we should, and love one another in the way he commanded us. Then our hearts will not condemn us and we will have confidence in the presence of God to ask things that are pleasing to him.

When we fall short God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. He knows our failures but also know our sincerity and effort. He is a good father, who wants us to learn and grow, and so is less concerned by our failures than he is pleased by our effort and perseverance.

Consider the vine and the branches; the vine and branches are Christ and the Church; integrity is not just an individual matter. Interior integrity must not only be conformed to Christ but integrated into the visible reality of his Church.  We are to remain in Christ, the true vine, by remaining in the Church, by devout participation in the holy sacrifice of the Mass and fervent reception of holy communion, by a heart and mind subject to him, and then our lives, our thoughts, words, and actions, will bear fruit to the glory of the Father. The focus is not on the fruit, but on remaining in Christ; if we are united to Christ in the vine, if the sap of the Holy Spirit is flowing into our lives, then we will necessarily bear fruit.

[The Father] takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. This helps us understand the alternation of peace and persecution in the life of the Church. Persecution, whether open or hidden, whether from outside the Church or from false brethren and false apostles, (cf. Gal 2:4, 2 Cor 11:13), is a tool in the hands of the Father by which he cuts off the fruitless branches – which is seen in those who fall away from the faith and leave the Church – and prunes the fruitful branches so that they may bear more fruit. When the work of pruning is complete, there comes a time of peace, in which the branches grow and bear fruit until “winter” arrives, a new persecution, and they need pruning again.

Yet, whatever the season, our focus should be on remaining in Christ, the true vine, which means seeking always to grow in the interior life, life in the Holy Spirit. Persecution, scandal, and distress, rather than causing us to lose faith, should push us into a deeper commitment to faith, a deeper interior connection with Christ.

Now, in my lifetime, I would say that the Church has not experienced a time of true peace, but for much of my lifetime is has undergone a subtle persecution from without, accompanied by betrayal within – just think Theodore McCarrick. In this country, for many years, the freedom the Church has experienced on account of religious liberty has given the illusion of peace, but rather than peace, the reality was often an easy accommodation to the secular culture.

Until the 2^nd World War, Catholics in the United States had to fight hard to carve out their space in the midst of a hostile culture, building their own schools, universities, and hospitals; though numerous, Catholics were typically poorer and marginalized. After the 2^nd World War, Catholics began to “arrive”; Catholics had proven their loyalty to the nation through their service in two world wars; there was the positive Hollywood portrayal of the priesthood in the Bing Crosby movies, “Going My Way” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s”; there was Fulton Sheen’s popular prime time TV program, “Life is Worth Living”; there was Fr. Patrick Peyton’s “Rosary Crusade”; doors of opportunity in education, professional life, and politics that had been previously closed, began to open. Yet, there was a price to be paid; often Catholics had to check their faith at the door. So John F. Kennedy, before he was elected President, had to reassure Protestant ministers that his faith would not influence his public policy.

In the past decade or more, the truth has become more manifest. Believing Catholics in whom “the dogma speaks loudly” are not welcome. We can no longer “go with the flow”, but as Catholics must be consciously and intentionally “counter-cultural”. We must be ready for the opposition that such a life will provoke. Nevertheless, it is not about “action”; rather everything we do must be rooted in a deep interior connection to Christ, must be an outward manifestation of the life of the true vine.

We do not live in a time of “peace” by any means, but it is good to look forward not just to the life of heaven, but a new time of peace for the Church.

At Fatima, Our Lady made a promise, “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph … and the world will enjoy a period of peace.”

The Immaculate Virgin Mary will help us, like no one else, to grow in the interior connection to Christ, to remain in him, connected to the vine.