Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
It is difficult to emphasize too much how important unity is for Christian life. For Catholics, the Eucharistic celebration is important in part because it physically demonstrates our unity. I know I am amazed when I look out at our congregation during Sunday mass and see all the different people - from different nations and economic backgrounds, with different abilities, and different ideas about what it means to live life well - and we all gather togetheron Sunday and proclaim that Jesus is Lord! It is a miracle, in my estimation - for how often in the rest of our lives does such intermingling happen? Indeed, recent studies have suggested that Americans are getting more and more insular, and less unified with each other, politically, racially, and economically. How important it is, then, that the Mass proclaims otherwise for we who seek our unity and love in God.
Today's scriptures emphasize unity in several ways. Today's first reading (Tobias 11:5-17) narrates the homecoming of Tobias' son. If you read previous passages, you see that Tobias has been fraught with worry about his son and believes him to be dead. Today's passage shows the utter joy and love abounding when parents and child are reunited - unified - in God's love, despite the geography and time that have separated them.
Today's gospel emphasizes unity in a different way. I often hear people proclaiming that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are drastically different. One is a God of wrath, a God who slays people on behalf of the people of Israel, a God who is violent and vengeful. The other is a God of mercy, so bursting full of love that he sends his only Son to die for us on a cross. This dichotomy has been popular at various points in Christian history, as far back as the second century (in a heresy known as Marcionism). This kind of dichotomy is attractive because it means you can throw out all the "bad" parts of scripture in favor of the part that looks the best and most makes us happy. The thing is, you can't get too far in this kind of over-generalization of scripture without bumping headlong into evidence that this just isn't true. Today's scriptures provide a case in point.
Jesus himself, in today's gospel (Mark 12:35-37) confirms that Old and New must be read together, for here, he reveals what it means to be the Christ, based on Psalm 110:1. We already know about Jesus in the Old Testament, even though he had not yet been born. The Old Testament reveals Jesus Christ to us, in full - and this is so well enshrined in Handel's Messiah, which tells Jesus story using only Old Testament writing.
Today's memorial is for Saint Boniface, also known for unity because he unified many disparate parts, and peoples of Europe in the name of Jesus.
Today, let us seek to be unifiers ourselves, and let us see our unity as one of those ways we "encounter Christ" everyday.
- Jana M. Bennett