Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23
John 14:23-29
In our Gospel reading for this the sixth Sunday of Easter, proclaimed as well on this great occasion of the first Mass of Father Jon Miskin, we hear Jesus speak the following words: “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 of all that I told you.” Jesus uses this term “Advocate” to refer to the Holy Spirit. The Greek term used in Holy Scripture is parakletos that literally is translated as “mouth” or “mouthpiece”. It is not simply coincidental that even in the Greek this term carries with it a legal significance because it is the same term that is used for “lawyer”. The weight of its significance is that it is directed to divine justice and not simply to the employment of procedural or rhetorical techniques.
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, teaches and He also reminds us what Jesus has told us and has done for us. So much of the sacramental priesthood, into which Father Miskin, our friend and relative, was ordained yesterday, has this character of advocacy; to heal, to teach, and to remind. This character was beautifully conveyed by the Dominican preacher of the 19th century, Henri LaCordaire when he poetically describes the priest’s life and ministry, “To heal all wounds, to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope.” So much of the character of the priesthood runs the risk of losing this essential focus when these qualities of advocacy are removed from the primary direction of the salvation of souls, the reason for which Christ established His Church and instituted the priesthood. Pope Francis reminded us of this when he said, “When the Church does not come out of itself to evangelize, it becomes self-referential and then gets sick.”
In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see an example of this malady and the application of the Divine medicine of gratia sanans or “healing grace.” Some of those who had gone down from Judea were teaching their own opinions without a mandate from the Apostles entrusted by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit in the Apostolic ministries of teaching authority and of administrative oversight for the Church. hese well-intentioned but mistaken missionaries were binding believers to rigorous and burdensome obligations that were causing much rancor and dissension among the members of the Church.
So, the Apostles, after discernment, send representatives with a decision that reminds those in leadership not to place any burdens upon believers beyond necessary obligations in accord with the mission of Christ ¬— namely the necessary obligations that, if removed, would cause scandal and discouragement among the faithful believers.
The decision of the Apostles made in communion with the Holy Spirit and the entire Church brings peace — it’s neither a political appeasement of dissenters nor a heavy-handed repudiation of those who have previously held dear to the responsibilities of the Old Covenant that has been fulfilled by Christ. The reminder is most clear: the preaching of the Gospel is not about one’s own preferences or opinions but about Christ and the salvation that He has won for us. This reminder is an example of advocacy.
The central position of Christ is maintained and continually offered through the celebration of the Eucharist. Saint Augustine reminds us that it is the Eucharist that makes the Church. Without the Eucharist there is no Communion — not simply blessed or consecrated bread — but the intimate unity between God and among human beings that is offered by Christ and is more than shared purposes among people with like-minded opinions. Without the ministerial priesthood there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist the ministerial priesthood is pointless. If a priest or bishop loses his focus from the Eucharist and its correlative ministry to the People of God, he ceases to be an advocate and his life becomes mortally pointless. The Advocate never points to Himself; rather, He always points to the Son and to the Father Who has sent Him.
Our second reading from the Book of Revelation reveals this to us in its proclamation. The heavenly Jerusalem is the Church triumphant, not the Church triumphalistic. It is the Church of confidence and not a church of arrogance because the Church has Jesus Christ true God and true man, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived, at its center. The absence of any Temple besides the Lamb — who is Christ — is not only something that will occur one day in the future after our deaths.
The new Jerusalem begins here and now by how we love each other in Communion as the People of God, how we keep Christ central in our order of worship and in our lives as one body, the Church. It begins here and now by how we, as baptized persons each charged with our own particular responsibilities, love God and our neighbor in service to Christ. It is the worship of God in the Temple — Christ Himself — that gives the identity and mission of the new Jerusalem in the here and now. It is a priest’s responsibility to offer that worship, the only effective way to worship — the Sacrifice of the Mass — that nourishes and develops the city as beautiful and strong, fortified against assault by the enemies of the City of God, both foreign and domestic.
With fitting worship comes pastoral care, the conversion of sinners and the protection of the weak. It is a ministry that cannot be carried out by a man who works for pay as a hireling. When a priest or bishop begins to work as a hireling, he soon becomes engaged in the construction of a replacement temple in the New Jerusalem, an edifice that assaults the beauty of the New Jerusalem in a way more disfiguring than simply that of an architectural eyesore and more corrosive of the community of the People of God than any tower thrown together in Babel. As Pope Francis again reminds us, “Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.” The Advocate never points to Himself; rather, He always points to the Son and to the Father Who has sent Him.
Likewise, the priest or bishop must not build a replacement temple for the Lamb in the New Jerusalem in his own life. The incompleteness of this space in the city of our priestly lives is the incompleteness of chaste celibacy that makes present the love of the chaste and celibate Jesus by attuning our sensibilities to the needs of those who do not belong and experience that peculiar and most isolating form of poverty. It is a space that can only be filled by the Lamb — the Temple in our own lives. We do this by daily prayer and frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance. All other replacements become idolatrous.
The Holy Spirit is the Advocate. He is the “mouthpiece” who presents the case of the People of God. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate. He is the “mouthpiece” who presents the case of Jesus Christ and His mission of the salvation of souls. The Holy Spirit reminds us what Christ has done and continues to do for us and through us. As members of the People of God, we need to be reminded much more than we need to be informed. The priest’s advocacy very much involves reminding people what God has done and continues to do for us as the members of His Church.
The ministry of reminding provided by a priest or bishop extends from the celebration of the Eucharist throughout his preaching, sacramental ministry, and pastoral oversight of Christ’s flock. A priest reminds the People of God when he anoints the sick and offers solace to the grieving. A priest reminds the People of God when he absolves the penitent in the confessional and lavishes mercy upon the sinner. A priest reminds the People of God when he receives the vows of marriage freely exchanged in loving consent by a man and woman. A priest reminds the People of God when he baptizes and receives into the Church both infants and adults. A priest reminds the People of God whenever he teaches a faith formation class or visits a parish school. A priest reminds the People of God whenever he is attentive and present to them throughout the rhythm of daily life in all circumstances speaking on their behalf in his ministry as an advocate of the Advocate, as a mouthpiece of the Mouthpiece. This can only be done if a priest or bishop loves his people to the point of laying down his life for them as Christ has done and continues to do in the Church’s life and ministry for the salvation of souls.
Father Miskin, this is your life and ministry, by which Christ will judge you when He calls you home as He will come for each of us one day and judge us on whether we have loved sacrificially as He has loved. As your former rector, it is only with the gift of supernatural faith that I say the following to you — “run your mouth” because you are now a mouthpiece of the Mouthpiece and God has given your mouth to you for the purpose of your vocation, the salvation of souls. Run your mouth frequently in the ministry of advocacy that is essential to the priesthood that Christ intended. Talk frequently (and loudly, if necessary) of what God has done for each of us — including you — in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ — by whose blood we are ransomed from slavery to selfishness and the morbid introspection of sin. In so doing, love the People of God as Christ loves them, with the Shepherd’s care.