Fr. Chris - Divine Mercy Sunday - Homily

“Community, Duty, Service”
​“The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” … held in communion, and held together in community.
 
It was ‘faith’ which was the foundation of their community. It was faith in a loving Saviour who not only promised them, but demonstrated for them that a resurrection into a glorious new life was what awaited those who loved God and supported each other according to the ways of his good news.  
 
Before Christ’s Resurrection, people expected to either come to nothing after death, or to enter a grim existence of continuous wandering forever within the shadows of ‘Sheol’. The Hebrew Bible tells us ‘Sheol’ is a place of darkness where the dead go. Later, in their translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Greeks would call this same place ‘Hades’ or the underworld. So, if we can put ourselves in their culture, time and place, then we can certainly understand their awe and amazement, their utter joy in knowing death was not the end, but a magnificient beginning.
 
They expressed this joy by abandoning their fears for safety and security, replacing it with a readiness to share their material advantages with each other, to unite each other in this new bond of loving, mutual support built on a faith, so strong, that they could endure anything. This is how the martyrs were born. Suffering, pain or victimization was displaced by a deep belief in Christ and his promise of salvation.
 
It was this ‘faith’ in Christ which brought people together in a shared joy which we call ‘community’. And because Christ commissioned them to share this good news with the world, they assumed this new missionary role as their ‘duty’. From now on, they would no longer live as completely independent individuals, isolated and living their separate lives. From now on they would live in ‘service’ to one another, supporting each other in the challenges and labours of life, loving and honouring God every day of their new existence as Children of God, built on hope and faith.     
 
We, too, are called to a community of faith, to duty to share the good news, and to be of service to all humanity. These tough times mean nothing in the face of faith.
 
There is someone whose life we are celebrating this weekend, someone who lived his life according to these virtues. The Honourable Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip once said, ‘community, duty and service’ were the pillars of his life. And Philip was truly a dutiful, committed man of service, much loved, respected as a caring, generous, very religious man; yet also, sometimes controversial.
 
In many ways, Philip was a man of his time and his era, much like my own father who received not a few chastisements from his children for unsettling comments or behaviour. In fact, how many fathers were more like ‘Archie Bunker’ than not, the politically-flawed father in the 1970s comic drama All In The Family. Still, through Archie, many viewers were taught a great deal about tolerance, openness and love.  Values like being of service to society were weekly topics. His daughter, Gloria, was always involved in contributing to her local community’s call for justice, while mother, Edith, in her duty as a Christian mother was always poised to be of loving service to her family and neighbours. Certainly, rather than criticize, we must forgive, and then learn from the flaws of others, kindly correcting them as we interact with each other at home and in community, service and duty.
 
It is a well-known fact many today have either lost their faith in God or in anything, let alone an understanding of duty, service or community. In fact, for many, the words duty and service might mean negative things to them. So, many are ‘doubters’ of the highest order. Which means our work as Christians is not easy. But it was also not easy for the early followers of Christ, including the disciples,  who had many doubts themselves until the resurrection. After all, Christianity would not exist today if not for Christ’s resurrection.
 
But to doubt is a healthy thing. It is where faith begins. Thomas Merton once said, “The person of faith who has never experienced doubt is not a person of faith”. And where there is faith, there will be community, duty to evangelize, and service in the name of a loving God. We must touch Jesus, feel his resurrected body, and then help others touch Jesus as well. We might ask: How will we be remembered years from now: As people isolated and fearful in our own homes? Or fearless in the face of crisis, because worldly things mean nothing in the face of the faith of a strong, vibrant, dutiful, community of believers who serve God and one another.
  
– Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario