Holy Land Homily Day 6 - Primacy of St Peter

Deacon Patrick van der Vorst delivered this homily to our pilgrim group on Sunday, 16th April. in an open-air chapel next to the church of the Primacy of St Peter by the Sea of Galilee, (pictured) before we went on to visit the Mount of the Beatitudes.

Acts 2:42-47
Psalm: As a deer…
Peter 1:3-9
John 20: 19-31

As this is my last homily this pilgrimage, I was thinking last night, what can I say? The whole week has been so life-giving.

Yesterday was definitely a highlight when we were at the River Jordan and renewed our baptismal promises. It was a special moment. Some of us even had a gentle dip on the water. And that is exactly what the Greek word 'BAPTO' means: I dip.

The word came from the ancient Greek dye trade. They dyed textiles by dipping them repeatedly in dyes until the garment had taken on fully the desired colour. That is exactly what happens each time we dip into church and into prayer: the more we do it, the stronger the dye sticks, the more we take on the colour of Christ.

The Church's calendar facilitates this gradual dipping into the way of Jesus. We are now in Eastertide which covers the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, where Scripture (Acts 2:1-31) tells us that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles.

In Lent we have Old Testament readings every day that show how the coming of the Messiah would happen and that he would be sacrificed...

During Eastertide we don't have Old Testament readings. The first and second readings are all from the New Testament… Like today our first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles and from the first letter of Peter…

Why? Well because as a Church we want to stress that Christ truly brought a new covenant, a change, a new way of thinking… And every Sunday in Eastertide stresses a different aspect of this new way of thinking and the sacramental life of the Church:

Today the second Sunday of Easter, we hear in the Gospel how the apostles are sent out to forgive sins: the Sacrament of Reconciliation is being accentuated here.

Next Sunday the readings will be about the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.

The fourth Sunday of Easter talks about the Jesus as the Good Shepherd, Vocation Sunday, accentuating the Sacrament of Priesthood...

But THE place where Jesus invited us into a new way of thinking was at a place which we will visit after this Mass: the Mount of Beatitudes. On that mountain we don't just 'dip' into the way of Jesus, we get fully 'submerged' in Him.

Before Jesus, the ten commandments given to Moses, instructed people how to live and how to behave towards God. They were primarily a set of rules. The ten commandments tell us what to do and what not to do.

But on the Mount, Jesus asked us to go much deeper than that: he tells us that our relationship with God is not just about obeying rules, NO, it is all about friendship and love. A friendship with Him and love for Him.

The eight Beatitudes tell us how we should BE inside… and from that the outside will flow the doing. The 'being' will guide the 'doing'. If we truly love him and ARE in him, then we will feed the poor, be pure of heart, try to be peacemakers etc…

But all that is easier said than done. To follow Christ is not easy. We stumble, and we fall and we pick ourselves up again.

A preacher speaking about this used a length of string. He held it up in the air. it was about two feet long. God is here he said, at the top. We are here at the bottom. The string is the bond between us. When we sin seriously we break that bond (and he cut the string with a scissors). But when we say sorry and start again… he knotted the string together again… we are re-established in that bond. But then it happens again! and he cut the string again. But we can still repent… and he knotted it. But then it happens again… and he cut it … but we even still come back… and he knotted it.

The preacher then said: Look what has happened?

Because we did not let pride or despair get in the way and we came back each time. We are now closer to God. Because of all the knots the string is now shorter!

And these dynamics of falling, repenting, mending, trying again, are exactly what makes us the living stones of the Church and of our parish community. Tomorrow we will leave the physical stones of all the sacred sites of the Holy Land behind us. But we will go back, as the true living stones.

We will be strengthened in resolve and love for that man who we followed throughout this week: the man who healed the sick, called disciples here at Lake Galilee, fed the poor, carried a cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and was nailed on the cross, for us…

What magnificent memories we will go home with. But it is not just what we saw which we will carry with us, but to me also the sounds of the Holy land were beautiful: the sounds of the prayers at the Wailing Wall, the sound of the flowing waters of the River Jordan, the sounds coming from the minarets in Bethlehem, the beautiful hymns we sang together during morning & evening prayer and Mass … all these will echo in my heart for years to come.. as a symphony of memories in praise of our Lord Jesus Christ!