Build My Church June 29

Piety

Take from me Father, all the obstacles in the way of your love. Give to me Jesus, the simple yet profound faith to move mountains out of the way of your narrow path. Set me free Holy Spirit, that I can live my life for you. Amen.

Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/062906.shtml

"Build my Church." Matthew 16:18

Society puts us in chains, maybe not always physical chains like St. Peter felt around his wrists but social chains. We are expected to do certain things, act certain ways, and achieve certain successes if we are to “get ahead.”

Jesus only asks for our faith, our listening, and our love. That’s all. He doesn’t judge us by what we drive, or what job we have or where our house is located. He rescues us from the need to do what the world asks. By rescuing us, Jesus asks us to love him and to love our neighbors. From what has the Lord rescued you?

Jesus is the cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected. Peter is the rock and foundation of the church. Jesus' church means the community that he will gather that, like a building, will have the faith and action of Peter as its solid foundation. Peter shows us how to be Church – by his faith and witness to Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

You and I may be a brick, a doorknob, a roof timber, a floor tile, or a window pane in that church. Each of us is asked like Peter, to have faith in the Lord and witness that faith through our actions in the world.

Peter was given the keys to the entire kingdom. What keys has the Lord entrusted to your hands? For what room in His father’s mansion are you caring? What tasks has the Lord asked you to complete for the Kingdom?

Not sure? Listen closely and carefully. The Lord speaking to you. Speaking through the sound of that bird outside your window. Speaking through the light coming up over the horizon. Speaking through the words of scripture today and yesterday and tomorrow.

Listen and love as Peter and Paul did no matter what the price. We are Jesus hands now. It is up to us to continue to build His church through our piety, study and action.

Action

How can you build church today? Is there someone in your neighborhood you need to reach out to? Is there someone in your family? In your workplace? On the streets of the city? In hospitals and nursing homes? In the prisons of the world?

This week, Jesus asked some of His followers to follow in the footsteps of St. Peter, footsteps that led to jail. Art Laffin wrote to let me know that earlier this week, on June 26, the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims and Survivors, in Washington, seven supporters of TASSC International (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition) were arrested on the restricted portion of the White House sidewalk as they called for an end to torture. In New York City 25 friends from Witness Against Torture--A Campaign to Close Guantanamo, were arrested at the US Mission to the UN.

The Bishops of the United States have spoken out unequivocally against torture. Everyone may not experience a call to witness the gospel of love through willing imprisonment from a resistance action as these sisters and brothers did. However, as Christians, our bishops have laid out a strong message for us and they have taken that message to members of Congress. “In a time of terrorism and great fear, our individual and collective obligations to respect basic human dignity and human rights, even of our worst enemies, gains added importance.”

If we are to take up the task of building the Church, let us learn from the imprisonment of St. Peter, the statement of the Bishops and in the actions of the faithful who gave up their freedom to create a community of love and end the horrors of torture, war and poverty in our world.