A junior high music teacher had just organized a band in her school. The principal was so proud of her efforts that he decided the band should give a concert for the entire school. The music teacher wasn’t so sure her young musicians were ready, so she tried dissuading the principal to no avail. Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward and whispered to her nervous musicians, “If you’re not sure of your part, just pretend to play.” And with that, she stepped back, lifted her baton and with a great flourish brought it down. Lo and behold, nothing happened! The band brought forth a resounding silence.
Sometimes we in the church are like that junior high band, unsure of our parts, tentative in our roles, reluctant to trumpet forth the music of faith that God desires of us. And that’s because we have trouble deciding what’s most important to us.
Most of the choices we make in life are not between what is trivial and what is important. Rather, most of the choices we make are usually between what is important and what is more important. This morning’s Gospel is so timely because it shows us what is most important.
Today’s Gospel takes us back to the Last Supper. We heard the opening lines of the Teacher’s last talk with his closest followers, “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Every time we gather for Mass, we visit with someone who loves us so much that he literally gave his life for us. That friend does not write letters or pay visits like our other friends and relatives can do, but he certainly tries to keep in touch with us through scripture, the teachings of our faith, and the Mass.
He told his disciples to remember him with bread and wine and we Catholics have done that ever since the first Easter. Holy Thursday is what transformed Good Friday from an execution into a sacrifice and Easter Sunday is what transformed this sacrifice into a sacrament that has nourished our Catholic faith for 2000 years. The Mass has been our unique way of keeping in touch with Jesus and with others who share the belief that he is truly present to us as we are to him.
Any friendship has the potential to grow deeper with the passing of time, but that doesn’t always happen. The French novelist, Albert Camus once observed that what passes for friendship is often no more than “an effusion of feeling among people who get along together.” Many relationships in our lives are neither true friendships nor real love. They are defined as acquaintances.
When you really care about someone, that person becomes important in your life. Keeping in touch is important if we want to keep those friendships alive. That is what love is about. Abbot Jerome Kodell noted, “Love is a decision, not a feeling, though feelings from the heart may accompany decisions of love. But if there is no decision about what is best for the other, it is not love, no matter how good it feels or what it is called.”
How many times have you shared a meal with a friend, promised to get together again, and then never do? Was there love in that friendship to start with or just good feelings? Could the same be said about our relationship with Jesus when we decide to skip Mass; the one way that Jesus asked to be remembered?
People give any number of reasons for staying away from Mass. Some say the Mass is boring with the same old music, same old songs, same old sermons, and/or the same old plea for money. They need to ask themselves how important is their relationship with Jesus and the faith community that they claim to belong to. Actually, that is one question of many we all need to ponder at times. Do we really care about Jesus and our faith community? If so, what do we do when we leave the walls of this building? Are we announcing the gospel of the Lord by what we say and do? Especially to those who once shared our faith? Are we like the junior high students in my opening story, hesitant to share the good news with others that God is love? Do they know we are Jesus’ disciples by our love for one another?
Our lives must reflect God’s love in action. All the books written on the subject of love can be summarized by one line in this gospel; “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” We love because Jesus first loved us. Love is the natural response of our hearts to the love we have received from God through Jesus. We enjoy the company of this congregation because they also experienced his love and made sacrifices to make God’s love real for others. In a world too often filled with an attitude of “what’s in it for me,” we are called to witness to something more important than our self interests, making God’s love apparent to others, which we can do, provided we allow ourselves to be nourished by Jesus.
Years ago, Cardinal Avery Dulles lamented, “The church has become too introverted. If Catholics today are sometimes weak in their faith, this is partly because of their reluctance to share it.”
So, take up your “instruments” and play! Strike up a tune, for the musical score is laid before you. Let the world hear the good news that the old order will pass away when love becomes the norm, not the exception.