My friends, I thought it appropriate on this day that marks the day that I was born lots of years ago, to remember at the beginning of this homily, some other important dates that go hand in hand with this beginning date. 

   As a young girl of almost 8, I received my first, holy communion on the day before my birthday, May 4, 1958, never realizing that 50 years later, on May 4, 2008, I would be ordained a priest with the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) here in Winona. If I had been born male 58 years earlier, even the male bishop in town would have celebrated with my family and friends here and it wouldn’t have come over 30 years later than when most men are ordained.  Such was not the case of course, but we celebrated anyway, members of the new All Are One Catholic community being “born” here in Winona. 

   I humbly speak of my ordination because this event is ultimately not about me, but about all of you and many who have gone on to their heavenly reward, along with all others who share in this ministry.  On May 10^th, this next Friday, we will officially commemorate the 16 years of being a Vatican II parish and community, striving in the memory of Jesus of Nazareth, to be our best. 

   Of course, as you all know, I, along with each of you who participate here, has been excommunicated by the official, hierarchical Church, but we know too that our loving God, who began all this, doesn’t excommunicate us, so, “we are good,” as they say. 

   You are all aware of Bishop Tom Gumbleton of Detroit having recently died.  A friend of his said, after his passing, “When push came to shove, Tom always chose the Gospel over the institution”[!] So, we are in good company my friends! 

   And this leads us then into our Scriptures for today, the 6^th Sunday of Easter, which, by the way, should always be our process and journey—from life to the Scriptures—from the Scriptures to our lives. 

   We are winding down on the Easter Season and as I have been saying throughout, “Love has been the theme!”  In fact, we have heard this one topic addressed so much as to be redundant!   We might actually be thinking, “all right, already, I got it!” But, as we were reminded last week, the challenge to love, is not just something that we “talk” about, but something we must in fact, “do,” and therein lies the rub, as loving truly, day in and day out, is not always easy. 

   The Scriptures for this week I find very encouraging and challenging at the same time, as we hear from Peter, seemingly leading new followers of Jesus, the Christ, and from John, both in his First Letter and in his gospel. 

   Peter shows us the true stance that a “leader” within our Church should take.  He tells Cornelius, a Gentile, who is wanting to worship him, in a sense, “to get up, as he (Peter) is a human being too,” –not to be worshipped, but as one on the journey with him!  Peter goes on to say –“all are acceptable,” [who do what is right!]

   This sentiment is what I have always held onto in my priesthood and in the naming of our parish.  Taking Jesus’ words in his priestly prayer the night before he died, “That all would be one, (John 17) I have always invited anyone who wants to pray with us, to know that they are welcome here. 

   Because I consider all of us as equal, simply with different tasks, I sit among you, not apart, or on a pedestal during times when I am not presiding.  Additionally, with Peter’s command to Cornelius to see him as “not above or special,” but “equal,” is why I invite all at our Masses to say the consecration prayers with me—I have the privilege of presiding/leading, but we all are celebrants here. 

   Also, in the beautiful gospel of John today, we hear our brother Jesus say, “I call you friends,” a stance that I have always considered most important in this parish we have shared for 16 years—I am not above any of you –I consider each of you, “a friend” and hopefully you consider me, “a friend” as well.  That is why I can say that it is with great humility that I serve here as your pastor.  In my dealings with many of those in our hierarchical Church, over the years, I feel they have forgotten that this should be their stance too. 

   I have mentioned Katty Kay and Claire Shipman’s 2023 book, The Power Code, and their basic message that, “power over” doesn’t work nearly as well in our present-day world as, “power to” all others.  They show through many individuals—mostly women, (who have been denied power) trying to find their way in business, politics, Church, and State, that having power—sharing in it—was always meant to be that way, not greedily held onto by half of the population.  Most interesting to me was to discover from their research that men, when they could get on board with this concept, found their lives too, much better, more fulfilling, more stress-free, more peace-filled in fact, in finding equal space for women at the table! 

   So friends, this brings us back then to this homily’s beginning where I stated that this Sunday’s Scriptures are again about, “love.”  We see how the task, “to love” is fine-tuned by Jesus in John’s Gospel, and by John himself in his First Letter. 

   Jesus reminds us that, God loved us first, in him, and therefore, Jesus chose us, and loved us, so that we, “could live on in [his] love,” becoming our best. But what does that actually mean?  How do we respond then to our world?  A few things come to my mind from the Scriptures of the past, and our present-day lives.

• Jesus simply says—“keep my commandments,” and then , you will live on (we might say, act upon) my love. For our purposes here, I think we could attempt to, love God and our neighbors as ourselves! 
• Jesus in today’s gospel also says, “I would lay down my life for you.”  Repeating that in our own lives is something we all are called to ponder, and as life goes, will probably have cause to act upon as we serve in this world as parents, spouses, friends, lovers, and more. 
• Think what our world would truly be like if “love” rather than “law” alone was always applied.  Certainly the strife in the Middle East would be a case in point.  This past week on PBS, a program was presented on Palestinian and Israeli young people coming together to share music.  Several, on both sides were reluctant coming into it, fearing that because of their differing views on the war between their respective peoples, they would be unable to basically get along.  Their experience in spending time together, attempting to, “become a choir,” proved that in listening to each other, they could be more understanding of one another.  For our purpose here, perhaps that is what “love” gets us to, so to speak.
• One final example –you will recall that I spoke of Ari Wallach, in a previous homily about a piece that has been shared also on PBS where he speaks about “what humans may be in the future.”  I have watched two of the segments of this series and in each one he speaks about, how, in many ways, life right now in our world, isn’t all that we might like it to be, what with poverty, inequality among people/races/genders, and so on.  So given that, I was struck by his final statement where he basically said—we have the power to change.  His exact words were, “the injustices in our world today have no place in our tomorrows”[!] From that comment alone, one could gather that the challenge to us, of this Easter Season along with our entire Christian lives will not be necessarily easy, but it will be right. 

    So my friends, as a Vatican II parish community of 16 years that has and will continue to be about inclusivity, and welcome to all, let us be grateful, as we celebrate,  for the responsibility of being who we are, here in Winona, Minnesota, today, in the memory of Jesus of Nazareth, willing to attempt this elusive thing we call love.   Amen? Amen! Alleluia!

   Friends, we are winding down on the Sundays of Easter with one more before we move on to the Ascension and Pentecost, and the overall theme and message has been, “to love” –that has not changed, and in fact, it has only grown in importance.  The clear message through today’s readings is that basically, “we have to walk-the-talk!”

   John, in the second reading today from his 1^st letter says, “Love” [can’t just be] “words,” [but must show itself in] “actions.”  The first followers of Jesus, the Christ, sometimes known as the followers of “The Way” were challenged to do just this by Barnabas, a follower of Paul, who advocated for him in today’s 1^st reading from Acts.  Understandably, these human followers of Jesus were afraid of Paul who formerly as Saul, had persecuted Jesus followers, also later called “Christians.”  If these so-called followers of Jesus were true to their words, they must show it in their actions, and at least try to give Paul a chance. 

   I had a personal experience of this dynamic this past week that challenged me to “walk-the-talk,” of which I am very grateful.  A friend and I were having a disagreement, and were delineating our particular points through emails for a few days.  Finally, my friend suggested that we have a phone chat to resolve our issues, or at least see if there was any place for agreement.

   I immediately knew that my friend was right, and I suggested that we Facetime, if she was willing, of which she was, to further help in our hearing one another.  As we began, I suggested a couple of things that we probably agreed on, to get us started.  One was that we are both strong women, and that if an issue arises between us, it would probably be “an engagement,” and secondly, that we probably each liked each other, and because of that were more able to hurt each other. 

   My friend agreed with me on these points, and then we asked the Spirit to “help us hear each other.” I am happy to report that “we did hear each other” and that it was a healing conversation.

   Friends, I do believe that our baptisms and our belief in our brother Jesus call us to this kind of intimacy in attempting to love as he did—otherwise, it is just a sham. 

   Another good friend of mine calls this kind of behavior, where we say one thing, and never, or seldom, act upon it, “crazy-making!” We can’t say things like, “I love God,” but refuse to even try to love my neighbor.  Or a statement that I have heard from some Evangelical ministers, “I wouldn’t want him as my pastor, but he would make a good president.”  The part that makes this “crazy-making” in my mind is that someone who I would call a good and worthy pastor would be someone that I would think would make a good president too! 

   I say this because we want people of strong characters and strong morals that include caring for the least among us in both Church and State instead of individuals who will go to any lengths to care for themselves and control, rather than lead, those who follow them—right?

   Looking toward another issue out there for our consideration is the discussion going on in the highest court in our land—“what is criminal?”  Apparently, those most learned among us where law is concerned, don’t know, or won’t say, as the majority it is thought, will defer to a lower court to decide!  Crazy-making!

   And finally, a very thorny issue at present are the demonstrations going on at many college campuses over the fighting in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Israelis over the Gaza Strip, and specifically over the United States assisting Israel militarily in this fight. 

   Some of these demonstrations have become violent and all I can say is that if the demonstrations by students, which they have a right to do, would remain peaceful and peace-filled, they would be so much more effective—you can’t become what you say you are fighting or better yet, working against. These demonstrations, in some places, we have learned, are very complicated with some of the demonstrators not being students, entering the fray with hate-filled speech and actions. As in all such cases where people disagree, many innocents are hurt.

   Words from the Dalai Lama XIV today seem appropriate: “Peace does not mean the absence of conflicts; differences will always be there.  Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge, and through humane ways.’’  Such was the case with my friend and me in the earlier example.  

   John, in today’s gospel writes of Jesus words about God’s love for each of us, comparing this same God’s desire for relationship with us in the symbolism of “the vine and the branches.”  As we witness spring bursting all around us in the small buds on trees waiting to open, and become leaves, fruit, whatever it might be; we can shift our thinking to ourselves as branches on the vine of life and love of our God. 

   Our God is just waiting for us to burst open too, to feel the warmth of that love, not unlike the sun in our skies, warming and sustaining our beautiful earth, becoming our best selves, for ourselves, but also for others by “walking-the-talk,”  Easter is simply about this—love received, and love given! Amen? Amen! Alleluia!