Presider: Fr. Patrick Heppe
Parish: Catholic Community of Waukesha
Choir: Heart of the Nation
TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.
Our gospel reading today is taken from the good news recorded for us by John. Glory to you, o Lord.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The advocate, the holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you all that I told you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the father; for the father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens so that when it happens you may believe.”
The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.
I would imagine that most of us at some time, we have disagreements or arguments or dissensions among one another, whether we're siblings, or whether we're married with our spouses or whether we have coworkers, whether we're volunteers together, whatever it is, we usually sometimes have disagreements and even church people have disagreements sometimes. Yes, even church people! I'd like to, if I could, misquote scripture for a moment where 2 or 3 are gathered there are 4 or 6 opinions! And I think that happens a lot in the context of churches. We kind of say well, I know what's right. I know what's right. Sometimes we speak out of both sides of our mouth. In today's first reading we have a controversy. The early church had numerous controversies but they were thinking about how do we admit new people into the community who are not Jewish Christians? What do we have them go through? There are fasting laws, regulation laws, there are circumcision laws, all those other things. So they had to deal with that. They had to grapple with those issues. One of the things that's missing in today's first reading is a little section how they got back to Jerusalem and had a little counsel. How they collaborated and how they discussed it. That's exactly what Christians are called to do. Collaborate and discuss and as we hear in the gospel reading today, Jesus talked about love, what is the overarching aspect we need to talk about when we have a disagreement? It's the whole aspect of love. What is going to be an instrument or an avenue that allows God's graces and God's wishes to come through? It's the whole aspect of love. And what are some of the qualities when you have a good decision? The qualities have to do with love, it has to do with peace and it has to do with justice. One of the instances, if you listen carefully to the first reading, the controversy about circumcision, the word came back to the people that said, and we quote it exactly, it is the decision of the holy spirit and ours. Whose decision is it first? The holy spirit. It's the presence of the holy spirit that Jesus sent to his church that allows us to make some good intelligent God centered decisions. The presence of the holy spirit, and when we make good decisions, what happens? You will see love and you will see peace and you will see joy. And if you made the right decision, you will experience the love, and the peace and the joy that goes with a good decision. Controversial decisions, all part of what we're all about. Making the right decision is really unique to being a good Christian.
Entrance: Come to the Lord
Text: Based on John 14. Text and music © 1999, Steve Angrisano and Thomas N. Tomaszek. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved.
Psalm 67: May God Bless Us In His Mercy
Response text © 1969, 1981, 1997, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Verses text © 1970, 1997, 1998, CCD. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Music © 2017, Jaime Cortez. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Preparation: Hold On To Love
© 2016, Jesse Manibusan. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved.
Communion: The Eyes and Hands of Christ
© 2001, Tom Kendzia. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Sending Forth: Glory and Praise to Our God
Text: Psalm 65, 66; Dan Schutte, b. 1947, © 1976, Daniel L. Schutte and OCP.
Mass Setting: Mass of Renewal
Music: Mass of Renewal; Curtis Stephan, b. 1973; keyboard acc. by Curtis Stephan and Rick Modlin, b. 1966, © 2009, Curtis Stephan. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
www.HeartoftheNation.org
