| Sharing Bread and Wine with Illegal Aliens? Dangerous! |
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| escrito por Fr. Juan Quevedo-Bosch | |||||||
| Thursday, 09 de April de 2009 | |||||||
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NO_TRANSLATION_AVAILABLE The Lessons Appointed for Use on Maundy Thursday All Years RCL Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-17, 31b-35 Psalm 116:1, 10-17 click here for the texts  (This are primarily notes for my sermon) Luch at Mt Sinai Hospital cafeteria is great, cheap, food very good, noisy, you could not pick you were going to have lunch with, although cheap and good, the company was somewhat forced, leaves you with a bitter taste, try to ignore the people next you, when they are eating is bit difficult, make noise, I had a co-worker who chew with his mouth open Eating is an intimate act, you are intimate with people who you have something in common. Eating and dining are not the same thing. Tonight is an special night, because we are dining with people we know and people we may not know but we are bound by bonds of affection and by relationships that were born in the waters of baptism. We are Christians. That is; we are of Christ, we were signed with a cross on our foreheads markings us as property of Christ for ever. -Anthony story- No in spite of our diversity, but because God rejoices in our differences we come together as one and sit down and have dinner and laugh, eat and drink. It is the wide arms of the cross that reach out across and brings us closer in God’s loving arms, close to his Divine heart, to rejoice in what in our own scale do it at the church of the Redeemer. When we came at this church nine years ago we did not have a sit down dinner on Maundy Thursday and I said: in church as diverse as ours, with people from twenty three countries and several first languages we have to be able at least once a year to sit down and eat together. The disciples were very different too, all from the same country and same language group, but very different in temperament, often we read in the gospel the clash of personalities, the negative side of the disciples, sometimes they scheme, plot against each other, sometimes they appear brave but in fact turn into cowards, they are sometime ignorant or shallow or ambitious, but over and over again Jesus calls them to the common table, to eat, drink and laugh. Jesus hoping against hope, that this band of disciples will do the job he has entrusted them to do. But today we are no here to talk about hope. I t is because in order to be a disciples what we need to do is just want faith. Not even having it, but just to want faith and faith will go into your heart as it went into mine, at 11 years of age in an atheistic family, in atheistic country. Faith is a gift from God, not a possession. But today here we are not talk about faith. Tonight is the night of new commandment, “love one another, as I have loved you”. Not just we have to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength, but we have to love one another. Tonight is a feast of love, an agape, as the early Christians will call their get-togethers, an in memory of that last supper that the Lord shared with his disciples, they will share specially the bread and the wine, as the body and blood of the Lord himself. Tonight we let our barriers down, tonight we forgive offenses, tonight we forgive and forget, tonight we work for Him, and only for Him. People has worked for three days, unpaid volunteers to make this possible and they did it for love fro God and for you. Many cooked meals at home to be brought tonight as an offering to be shared with the many here present, and they did for love of God and of you. The very bread we shared as communion of the body of Christ was made home by Francisca and offered to God for our benefit and she did this for love of God and of you. Tonight is the night that you came late you eat, and if the food is finished I will look for something for you to eat, and if you do not have a place, I will give you mine. Tonight is a night of laughter, of eating and drinking together. Tonight, we celebrate the relationship born in the baptismal waters, tonight we are not primarily Mexican, or Colombian, or Romanian, or Turkish, or Pakistani, or Americans, or with green cards, or with out them, poor, middle class, professionals, illiterate, men or women, gay or straight, tonight we are primarily Christians, of Christ. Marked as Christ property for ever and because of that kinship, brothers and sisters. Eating of the body of the Lord and drinking of his blood together has consequences that are far reaching. If you are American and you eat and drink with illegal aliens, you are saying that the boundaries that separate you are just a skill invention of the greedy and the malevolent, that indeed, those who cross the border illegally do so because they are hurting and because they want a better life, like your life. If you are serious about love your neighbor as yourself, if you are honest about the fulfilling the second commandment, from where all of the Law and the Prophets, all of Scripture, all the Word of God hangs from, you will do something political, something tangible, to help them reach their dream, you will write to your congressman, to your senator and let them know that these people are people like all of the first immigrants who come to this country seeking a better life, those first immigrants that are your won ancestors. So love is not just a rosy, sweet, emotional warmth of the heart, love has serious implications. I was talking to couple last night that reflecting on Rick Warren Book a “A Purpose Driven Life” that the whole purpose of human existence is double: to worship God and to love and be loved. I told them that it is time the best measuring rod of love, and that the time to love is right now. With such imperatives, make God makes this night a most special night were love is born anew where is has dried up, when foes reconcile, when the ones that lead serve the ones who follow, when there is no small task to fulfill if the Lord requires it. When you get up to share peace with one another, mean it.
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