6th Sunday of Easter

The readings today spoke of the true essential way to follow Christ. So often in our desire to give proper respect to God, we turn worship into ritual. We ritualize giving money, require women to cover their heads in church, fast on these days, come to Mass on those day. In the first reading we see this, with some teachers converted from the old covenant requiring circumcision to be saved, confusing ritual with salvation. The elders of the church saw this, and reconfirmed that it is devotion, and not sacrifice that God requires: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage.”

It is not ritual which brings you into communion with God, but true service. Ritual is like training wheels, it is there to train us in the proper way of doing things, but it is not the final step, or all there is. We should not put the trappings of our faith before the faith itself. The second reading brings this to light, because it describes the Church, the Body of Christ. The Church is the holy city of Jerusalem, with the apostles as its’ foundation. One the gates are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolizing the whole Church. And the key is that there is no temple in the city, no place of worship where it is required to pray and offer sacrifice. Because the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. We carry our place of worship with us because “when two or more are gathered He is present.” The glory of God shines in us because Christ shines in us, and wherever we are there we worship God.

So if it is not ritual which saves us, nor our place of worship which makes us followers of Christ, then what is? In the Gospel Jesus tells us “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” We are Christ’s because we do the things he tells us, to feed the hungry and heal the sick, visit those in prison and clothe the naked. Our churches and altars and stained glass and beautiful choirs are good, and help us to pray better and feel closer as a Church, but it is not what makes us a Church, nor just the Creed we pronounce each week. What makes us the Church of Christ is to follow Him. And we are united in the Body of Christ if we do so.

Note: this is not to undermine the Sacraments, but to clarify that the Sacraments are not sufficient. They are outward signs of God’s grace, and one can partake of them without being assured of salvation. To be Catholic, to follow Christ, is to choose the narrow way as he did.