MAY 26, 2019
10:30 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
The United States Bill of Rights is made up of the first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution, which add to the Constitution certain guarantees of personal rights and freedoms. They are based on previous, similar documents – among them the Virginia Declaration of Rights from 1776, The English Bill of Rights from 1689, and the Magna Carta from 1215.
The First Amendment was approved on December 15, 1791 and states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.The first part of this amendment – covering Freedom of Religion – remains hotly debated to this day. Does this mean a wall or hedge of “separation of church and state?” as Thomas Jefferson proposed 10 years later? Or can it be reduced to “freedom of worship” as envisioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941?
Presently, there are 27 ratified amendments to the US Constitution, and six unratified proposed amendments still outstanding.
Today is the 6th Sunday of Easter.
We continue to move through the Acts of the Apostles, the Book of Revelation, and the Last Supper discourses of Jesus in John’s Gospel.
In the Book of Revelation Chapter 21, we hear of John’s vision of the “holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.” John notes further along that he “saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.”
Our reading today is missing seven verses in the middle which describe this city as a fascinating construction of jewels and gems. But perhaps most fascinating is its size, which would be 1,500 miles square. This is roughly the distance from San Francisco to Nebraska, or from North Dakota to Texas.
In other words, this isn’t a city – this is a country!
The other feature is that the holy city is not merely the home of the Bride of Christ. Rather, this city itself is the Bride of Christ. So it isn’t made up of buildings – the holy city is made up of people.
And while John “saw no temple in the city” this was because the “temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.”
Instead of a separation of Church and State, what John sees is a city – which is big enough to be a country – coming down from God, and God Himself is the temple, from whom and out of whom the city itself has descended.
In a sense, what John is seeing is an unimaginable unity between God and man, and between Christ and His Bride, the Church.
In the first reading from Acts, we hear of the First Council (ever) of the Church. Yet St. Peter doesn’t indicate that things went to a vote, or that the Apostles lobbied or politicked for various positions. Rather, Peter says:
It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us …implying that this unity seen by John in Revelation is already in place.
For ourselves, we tend to impose human and worldly models on the Church, which can cause separation from God and division among the people of God.
In the Gospel, Jesus bestows “peace” on the Apostles, that is – upon the Church. And this is not a worldly peace but a heavenly peace.
Perhaps a good rule of thumb in distinguishing the two is that the world’s peace (or the lack of peace) is more often than not based on resources or the lack of resources … while Christ’s peace – the peace that comes from God – is based upon relationships.
In all of this, we can be assured that through Holy Baptism we share in the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity … through Confirmation we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit … and through the Eucharist we receive Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.
May the Eucharist we receive today incorporate us more and more into Christ and His Church. And may God’s saving grace draw us deeper into our relationship with Him – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – every day … and every moment of our lives.
