ON  BEING  CALLED 

A  CHRISTIAN  

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Tuesday after Easter is, “On Being Called a Christian.”

In our lifetime I think we’ve seen people and heard about people being called and seen as a Christian.

I like that last sentence in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, “… and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.”  That’s Acts 11: 26b to be exact.

THREE REASONS TO BE CALLED A CHRISTIAN

As I thought about this last night for  a sermon this morning, I came up with 3 reasons why someone might want to be or would be called a Christian.

First reason would be that a person does Christ like things: turns the other cheek, goes the goes the extra mile, gives the shirt off one’s back, visits the sick, feeds the hungry, loves one another as Jesus loved us. This happens without knowing whether who the person is or what have you. I wonder, I hope, the following also happens in other parts of the world that someone says when someone is charitable to another that someone says, “That was very Moslem like of you.”

Yesterday – in the Metropolitan Diary section of The New York Times – I noticed the following story. Every Monday morning I look for at these incidents and anecdotes about life in New York City.  A man named Kevan Slattery writes, “I had the privilege and the pleasure to usher at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the morning of March17. The members of the 69^th Infantry Regiment are the guests of honor at the Mass celebrated before the parade. My assignment is to stand on the front steps, starting at 7:30 a.m.and continuing until the 69^th marches through the central doors.  

Today’s gospel has a great 3 word sentence, “It was winter.”

That story in the New York continues, “It was very cold and quite windy early on March 17. Well, in advance of the time the central doors were opened, while the regiment waited in formation on51st Street, a color guard of eight enlisted men and women were posted on the top step. As they flanked the entry with national, state and regimental flags, they stood and waited in place, outside the closed doors, in the biting cold.”

He continues, “The cold was having a particular impact on one young enlisted man. The major noticed the enlisted man’s plight and persuaded him to accept the offer of the Army-issue long undershirt the major word beneath his battle-dress uniform tunic.”

The story teller concludes, “There on the steps of the cathedral, out of view of the public with no diminishment in the hoor or accorde the colors, the major gave the shirt off his back to the enlisted man.”

As I read that I said to myself, that’s probably the only thing Mr. Kevan Slattery will remember from the St. Patrick’s Day parade this year. Then it hit me, it’s the only thing I remember from reading the whole New York Times yesterday. Then I smiled, because it will be the only thing you’ll remember from this sermon – if that.[N.Y. Times, A-13, May 12, 2014]

Second reason would be that a person is baptized a Christian. C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, states loud and clear this viewpoint. Instead of using the word “Christian” as an adjective to describe a giving or loving or caring person he makes Christian a noun. You’re baptized, you’re a Christian. This takes us away from subjectivity – to objectivity.

Third reason would come from today’s gospel. A Christian is a person who is united into the Trinity – into Christ – into the Body of Christ – like a grape on the vine or a hand or foot or a voice in the Body of Christ.  This comes from the last sentence in today’s gospel: “The Father and I are one.”

Being a Christian is all about being one in Christ - having a living relationship with Jesus – entering into God in and through Christ.

This makes me a Christian. We Redemptorists were brought up stressing what St. Alphonsus  discovered: The whole of life – the whole of spiritual life – is to practice the love of Jesus Christ. That makes one a Christian – regardless of the words.  

CONCLUSION

Let us be loving Christians this day – as we march in the parade of life.