Crew on the Ship of Peter

Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

Given at St. Patrick's Church

By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

My friends in Christ. We are all in this together, in this Church, which has often been called the ship of Peter.

Jesus gave us the Church to help bring us through the waters of death—the waters of Baptism, and the storms of this life, to the shores of paradise. And He gave the Church Peter, the first pope, and the Apostles, and all the bishops, priests, and deacons, to keep us on course. Jesus gave us the Church to keep us working together. You see the ship of Peter, the Church, Isn’t a ferry or a powerboat, it’s an old fashioned sail ship powered by the Spirit of God, the wind that fills our sails, but also by the efforts of the members of the Church, who aren’t just passengers but also deck hands.

The Church works best, when like a sail boat, all hands work as one, working together to harness the wind, and maximize its effect. That’s why today Jesus prays for the Church That it might be one. This unity is so important to our common salvation because each of us like members of a team are responsible for helping each other reach our common goal. If you have ever seen a tall ship under sail or a racing boat mid-race you know how majestic this ultimate act of teamwork are. When the Church works like a well oiled machine, or better yet, like a living breathing organism it is so impressive to behold that it draws people to it.

That’s why I was saddened this week, on the Feast of the Ascension, to see how few of you, how few of my teammates in the game of life, took this responsibility seriously.

Just like not eating meat on Fridays of Lent and making some sacrifice on every Friday, coming together on these days is essential to the unity of our team. It’s not that there is any intrinsic wrong about eating meat on Friday’s of lent or not coming to a church on Sunday’s. In fact, you might know that Jews keep the Sabbath on Saturday. As a team as, a Church, we have decided that these are the best ways to honor and practice the sacrifice that Christ made and the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath, and it is sinful to dishonor that commitment.

Like Sundays, Holy days of obligation are days when the Church calls her members together to celebrate the mysteries of Christ’s life. Christ is the Way, and so like a football team,

We come together on these special days to study the game plan, and to play together practicing the plays. Most importantly, we come together to help each other, out of love, so that we might be one, as Jesus prays today. To choose not to come, on a Sunday or on a Holy Day, is to choose by your actions not to Love. You fail to love God by placing other priorities ahead of the team, the ship, that is your one sure path to eternal life with Him, and you choose not love your teammates, the members of the Church, who you simply can’t make time for.

To choose not to gather together at the Church is like choosing to skip practice it’s a serious sin against the team and against our coach, God. What’s more to choose not to come is to miss out on the joy of playing with your teammates, your brothers and sisters in Christ, the only game that you were made for.

Thankfully our coach is a merciful coach who instead of kicking us off the team, asks us simply to sit out a game, by not receiving communion with grave sin on our heart. God asks us to ask forgiveness of our team and our God for our mistake in confession, as He does whenever we make a serious mistake. Finally He asks us to do better in the future, because the unity of our team is not about power, it’s not about mean priests and bishops enforcing archaic rules on the laity. Our unity, a unity that can only be achieved in truth, is about helping each of us follow God’s plan to be all that we were made to be. It’s about making us heroic lovers like our model, our game plan, Jesus Christ.

Jesus went to the cross to show us what true love means as members of the team whose only play is the Cross imitating the love of Jesus Christ we must choose to love each other by helping each other, ihis is what it means to be one.

Choose to make this team, this ship’s crew, your family. Help one another always to grow in holiness, in the Church, so that one day we can together share in the victory of Heaven.