Last week was the first part of a 2 part homily series- and if you weren’t here, a reminder that my homilies are on our website.  Last week I provided some alarming statistics from the book Forming Intentional Disciples regarding how many American adults who were raised Catholic but now are not practicing their faith.  Do you recall the percentages of adults who are practicing- 30%, and 70% are not!  And another statistic saying that over half of the Catholics who do attend Church believe that one cannot have a relationship with God.  I want to make it clear that the book proposes those statistics are directly related.  One of the reasons why so many people have stopped practicing their Catholic faith is because they did not develop a personal relationship with God.  This book asserts that individuals who not know deep down in their souls how much God loves them and desires a relationship with them will pull away and search for love and happiness in other places.

Last week, I brought to your attention that too many Catholics are Sacramentalized but are not Evangelized- that is they might have received the Sacraments but they have not developed a personal relationship with Christ.  Some people might infer that we as Catholics have to tone down our teachings and becoming more Protestant to develop a personal relationship.  That is furthest from the truth! We need to recall what being Catholic meant to the Early Church.  Being Catholic is all about knowing our Lord personally.   First we need to have a clear understanding of who the Church is and understand the necessity of the Church.  Then, guided by these readings, I want to present exactly what we are called to do. 

Our 2nd reading today talks about the Church being the Body of Christ, it says “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord”.  And “as a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, and were all given to drink of one Spirit”.  Unfortunately, many people, including some Catholics, believe that this Scripture is saying that all of the parts- whether Catholic or Protestant- are all part of the body of Christ- which is the Church.  And so they reason, well as long as their loved ones have found Christ somewhere that is good enough.  However, what this Scripture is actually referring to is that we are all different people and have different gifts.  And these different gifts are given by the one Spirit for the same united purpose- for the building of the one and only Church Christ instituted.  And if we are not doing our part, then an important piece of the Church is missing.

The last verse from our 2nd reading last week confirms this proper understanding of the Church consisting of many parts but still being the united Body of Christ.  St. Paul referring to Jesus, in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 23, says: “He (God the Father) put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way”.  What this is saying is that Christ is the head, and the Church is the body, and that Christ has given the fullness of himself to the Church.  Likewise, Jesus in our Gospel today, refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, and says that the “Spirit will guide you to all truth” and that “everything the Father has is mine” and the Holy Spirit will declare it to you”.  Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has left His Church the entire deposit of faith, which the fullness of truth and the fullness of means of salvation.  Our brethren in other Christian religions, who separated 1500 years after the beginning of the Church certainly have aspects of the truth but not the fullness, and Christ wants all people to know and have the fullness of truth.  And today, there are thousands of Protestant Ministers who have become or are becoming Catholic because they are searching for the truth.  I ask you, what are you doing to help your loved ones search for the truth?

Today we celebrate Pentecost- 50 days after the Resurrection, after Jesus ascended into Heaven; the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples.  The Holy Spirit convicted and encouraged the disciples in faith, and sent them on a mission to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples of every nation.  By doing so, the Church was started.  My brothers and sisters, we have a mission.  You and I have a mission.  The mission of the Church is the same mission of Christ- the salvation of souls.  Christ perfectly fulfilled his mission given to him by the Father, but the statistics show that we are not fulfilling ours as well as we need to.  Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, or better said, he is the savior of every human person.  If you do not know that personally yourself, it is critical that you come to know that. And we will give you opportunities to help you come to that realization.  If your loved ones do not know Jesus is the answer to their questions, the food they are hungry for, the fulfillment of their every longing, then you are called to reveal that yourself- in word and deed.  If we are convicted in our mission, sacrificing and working for their salvation, then our efforts will not be in vain.  If we are praying intently for them then the Holy Spirit will hear our prayers- because God wants their salvation more than we do.  If we are asking the Holy Spirit to use us and we are open to being worked through, then the Holy will indeed do so in some way.   In fact, our 1st reading today testifies to this fact.  The Holy Spirit was sent upon the disciples and enabled them to speak in different languages.  But I hope you noticed that the reason why they could suddenly speak different languages was so that they could share the good news and those from the different nations- the Parthians, Medes, the Judeans and all the Jews gathered in Rome- could hear and understand the good news of Jesus Christ being proclaimed to them.  This shows that the Holy Spirit is given so that we can preach the good news and so that people can understand for themselves and come to conversion. 

The book I am inviting our parishioners to read, Forming Intentional Disciples, presents 5 thresholds which many people go through in their conversion of faith.  One of the important aspects of this book for me is the thresholds. They are: trust, curiosity, openness, seeking, and discipleship.  They are a great tool to help others into conversion.  In simple terms, the threshold of trust is the first stage of a relationship with Christ.  It describes the recognition that there is something about a believer that another is drawn to.  Curiosity is the threshold in which the unbeliever will be curious to know what that thing is that they don’t have but the believer does.  Openness is the threshold in which they become open to wanting Jesus for themselves and are thinking about changing their lives for him.  Seeking is the threshold in which they are actively seeking Jesus and is willing to change their life for Him.  And finally, discipleship is when the believer has given everything to follow Jesus Christ unreservedly.  These are very simple and watered down explanations, and so I encourage you to read the full explanation of the thresholds for yourselves.  And as you do, I encourage you to pray and discern which threshold you are at- are you really a true disciple?  How does God want you to grow so that you may draw closer to Him,  But also, for us to best reach out to our loved ones it is helpful that we know which threshold they are in so that we can meet our loved ones where they are at.  You can imagine that the various thresholds call for different responses from us. For example, if someone is not even at the threshold of trust then being a good witness would be essential. If someone is at trusting, then maybe just inviting or probing their level of happiness is what they’ll need to become curious. If they are not yet open to change, sharing how Jesus is so worth any sacrifice they would make might be enough.  If they are seeking, then maybe encouraging and providing opportunities will help them cross the threshold and become a true disciple.  Once we know the thresholds of our loved ones or friends are in, then it becomes a matter of being willing to invite, encourage, and journey with them through the thresholds.  I hope you are intrigued enough to purchase a book for yourself, they are being sold today after Mass for only $5.  And we will have discussion sessions in the future.  But more importantly, I hope you are inspired to become an intentional disciple yourself and then lead others to become a disciple too.