HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 02 02 – Year I
Resurrection, Pentecost and Community:
Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin
(Acts 4:32-27; Ps 93; Jn 3:7-15)
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When Richard Rohr became involved in the Charismatic Renewal in the early sixties he did so in a big way – founding the New Jerusalem Community. Looking back now, he admits there was some hubris in that venture – they would be a sign to the world of what Christianity should be!
Actually, they were right on – the reality of Resurrection and Pentecost should swoop all of us into living the newness of Easter through transformed and transformative community life.
What we see happening in the first reading is the impact of the whole passion, death and resurrection of Jesus that is completed only through the Pentecost event and the sending of the Spirit of the Risen Jesus on the small band of his followers. This is a post-resurrection and post-Pentecost description of their lives following those two key events.
The community was unified, of one heart and soul; everything was held in common and shared; they witnessed to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and there was no needy person among them. Something or someone had transformed that rag-tag, disparate band of poor men and women into a marvellous, cohesive living organism that pulsed with the energy of love, caring for each other and empowered to share with others the new life they were experiencing.
It is interesting how during Lent, all the readings are preparing us to celebrate Easter, but now, during the Easter season, all the readings are preparing us to celebrate Pentecost, which is the completion of the whole life, death, resurrection and appearances of Jesus. Those appearances that occurred throughout fifty days end abruptly, for they are no longer needed. Jesus is present to this community through the gift of the Holy Spirit, energizing, inspiring, guiding, encouraging, consoling and working through them.
In the gospel, the pre-resurrection visit of Nicodemus under cover of darkness continues as he tries to sort out who Jesus is and what he is all about. Jesus prophetically points him to the Holy Spirit and the need to be filled with that Spirit that would raise him from the dead and transform the lives of his followers. Faith in Jesus as crucified Messiah and Risen Lord, and being filled with the same Spirit that raised him from the dead, would be the constitutive elements of this new reality, the kingdom of God in us and among us, Jesus came to inaugurate.
It is this model that religious life seeks to emulate today, with our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Everything is held in common, there is shared community life, and the needs of each member should be met. No one should be in need.
It is this same reality that inspired my choice of Lk 17:21 as my motto – “Regnum Dei Intra Vos” – the Kingdom of God is among you. That is the saying that is on my ministry contact card under the title Metanoia Ministry, itself an allusion to change and transformation.
In my former Archdiocese of Keewatin-The Pas, we developed a four-year renewal Returning to our Roots program inviting each parish and every parishioner to reclaim that spirit of the early Christian community expressed in Acts 2:42 (they were committed to the prayers, the teachings of the apostles, fellowship and the breaking of the bread). Each year would focus on one of those key elements, with the help of a banner, special song composed by Deacon Bob Williston, prayer, and a manual of activities for families at home and the parish on Sundays. It is encouraging to see the banner still hanging in the churches, and some of the communities like Wollaston still singing the song years later.
Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin
Today we honour Blessed Marie-Anne Blondin. According to the Living With Christ, she was born in 1809 in what is now a suburb of Montreal as Esther Blondin. She learned to read and write at age 22 while working as a domestic for nuns. Two years later, she started teaching in Vaudreil. In 1850, with the permission of Bishop Bourget, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Anne for the education of poor boys and girls together – a radical idea at that time. While the congregation thrived, she endured opposition and obstruction from the local clergy (hopefully we can learn a lesson from this, not to resist the prophets in our midst). Forbidden to lead her sisters, she nevertheless remained the spiritual mother of her congregation. Sister Marie-Anne died in 1890, devoted to Christian education to the end. She was vindicated by her beatification in 2001.
The Eucharist is the same sacrament that nourished and sustained our ancestors in the faith, and Marie-Anne Blondin. May our celebration today empower us to re-capture that dynamic spirit of the early Church, inspire us to live it out more communally, and empower us to reach out to the world with this joyful message as they did then.
