THE  CHURCH: 

THE ONE  AND THE MANY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, is, “The Church: The One and The Many.”

When I read today’s first reading from Ephesians, I began thinking how we are all connected - like different bricks - that make up the wall of a building - or a sidewalk.  I’ve been to various churches where they have a wall or a walk with people’s names in it - for a fund raiser. All those bricks and stones. They are connected - hopefully like a church - like a home.

When I read today’s gospel from John 20:24-29,  I thought about how each of us has our own unique personality - especially in contrast to all those around us.

Put together we are both: the one and the many.

That’s life - the me - the individual called, “me” - or “I” and I have a name. For example, “Thomas - the apostle Thomas.” Yet Thomas was not alone. He was one of the 12.

That’s life, the one and the many.

That’s life - the me and the we - I am part of a family. I can’t arrive on the planet alone. I need a mom - and a dad - a we - and we become three - with me -  then four, five, six or even more as they joked years ago - if we’re Catholic.

The call of the church is that each of us are called to be disciples, to be apostles, to be church - to be a many -  and to be the fullest me I can be.

And both the we and the me are called to be united and not divided.

SCRIPTURES

Listen to today’s first reading again:

Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God, 
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

As Alfred Lord Tennyson put it in his poem, Ulysses, “I am part of all that I have met.”

I am my father and mother’s genes and DNA. My dad planted the seed. My mom knitted me together in her womb - in her sewing room.

If we look at the scriptures, the Bible, we hear all about lots of individuals - but we also hear about groups - families. There’s Adam and Eve, there’s their boys, Cain and Abel.

There’s Martha. There’s Mary. They had a brother named Lazarus.

There’s Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They have cousins and the people of the small town of Nazareth.

Sometimes those neighbors are one; sometimes they are divided.

LOOKING AT LIFE

Looking at life, it’s important that we go it together - but it’s also good to go it alone at times - like taking a walk alone around town or in a park with our dog or with ourselves. We see the morning dew and the morning light. We see the evening sunset. We see the full moon and the sliver of a quarter or half silver moon at other times.

We walk the morning beach at Ocean City by ourselves and watch the sand pipers and waves hitting the beach and the sun rise in the east. We feel a smile on our face. We are alone - but we don’t feel alone because we sense God and the other people in our lives.  We also recall and remember the evening before  when we walked that beach with our beloved - or maybe with a grand kid - or if a spouse died a while back -  we are still walking with them holding a memory or walking hand in hand with them on this same beach quite a few months or years ago.

We might be the first footsteps on the beach that morning or one of ten thousand footsteps on the beach that evening.

The one and the many.

THE ONE

I am a one - with my personality - with my story - my history - my successes and my failures - my stars and my scars.

Who knows my story?

I should know it for starters. It’s good to write one’s memoirs. It’s good to tell our stories - what it was like.

It’s good to bring to prayer - our joyful, sorrowful, glorious and light bearing mysteries.

It’s good to say the rosary with our own mysteries in mind: annunciations, visitations, births, presentations, findings, crosses, assumptions, deaths, weddings, the whole mix.

I am a story. I am an autobiography. I am a library.

I need to read me.

Who else reads me?

I love the saying,  “When an old person dies, it’s like a library burnt down.”

Tell your story to someone - soon. 

Listen to each other’s stories - soon.

Who am I?

Does anyone know?

I like the stories of the apostles: Peter the one who could put his foot in his mouth and also in Jesus’ footsteps.

Andrew the one who brings food and people to Jesus.

James and John - young men filled with passion, fire and fury - but John could also be a poet.  

Thomas: the one with his dogmatic doubts - who had the courage to voice them and forever give us an example of someone who has them.

Don’t we all?

That’s me - but what about the so many on the planet who haven’t told us their gospel yet.

In the gospels we’re told to love one another.  A great way to do that is to listen to one another - and give back another’s chapter and verse.

THE MANY

And the planet is filled with many different and distinct others - like bricks that make up a wall or a house - and we don’t know them.

Check out the persons who are your neighbor or next to you on a plane.

I once was on a plane and I was on the 2 seater side. A blond was sitting next to me - but we didn’t talk to each other till the announcement came on - “Please fasten your seat belt! We are about to begin our descent.”  For some reason in that short last 15 minutes, I got to know this lady - not big time - about a book she was reading and a book she was writing. 

I ended up giving her some comments about getting published. We exchanged e-mails and I got to know someone I never knew before. She doesn’t live in Maryland, but I recently went up to see her in Johns Hopkins Hospital when she was getting an operation two months ago.

How many people in your life have you met in that way?

Just one of the many….

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is “The Church: the One and the Many.”

The call of Jesus is to get to know his “I” - Jesus who told Thomas, “I am the way the truth and the life.” Jesus is the one who Thomas discovered is, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus is the one to have a one to one relationship.

The call of Jesus is also that we enter into the Many - to be in Community with each other - communion with each other - holy communion with each other - here and hereafter. Amen.

Painting on top: Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio