Homily at Our Lady of the Valleys for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B.
Do you every feel like you don’t belong here? Well, that’s because you’re right – but it’s not what you think!
Many of us, even professionals earning a good salary and with a recognised status, suffer from what’s commonly called ‘impostor syndrome’ – that nagging sense that the people around me are eminently qualified to do something, but they are all better than me, so I definitely shouldn’t be here.
It’s true in the workplace. You can take some comfort from the reality that your colleagues think you are the competent one and they’re the impostor. And it’s especially true in our church community, when we’re tempted to think that even though we can do great things at home or at work, we couldn’t possibly do it for something as exalted as church.
Well, remember that Church has been likened to a football match – a couple of dozen people doing all the hard work and thousands sitting in the stands cheering them on. Brothers and sisters, church was never meant to be a spectator sport! In these weeks of the year we focus on the mission of the Church – the work that Jesus entrusted to all of us on the day he ascended into heaven.
Matthias was chosen to be the 12th man because he was a ‘witness to everything Jesus had said and done’. St John, in his letter, says that ‘we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to save the world’. Jesus prayed for his followers to be ‘consecrated in the truth’.
Have you noticed how flexible the word ‘truth’ has become these days? People readily talk about ‘my truth and your truth’. Well, they’re mistaken. We can certainly talk about ‘my opinion’ and ‘your opinion’. But in the words of The X-Files, ‘the truth is out there’. If the word ‘truth’ means anything, it means a reality which we can discover and put into words. Some statements will only ever be opinion. There’s no one true answer to the question “What’s the greatest Eurovision song?” But there is a true answer to questions like “Is Jesus the saviour of the world?”
There are some truths we can discover by philosophy. There are some truths we can discover by scientific experimentation. But truths about religion we can only discover by revelation – when God touches our heart with the gift of faith. How do I know that Jesus really is the Saviour of the world? For me, personally, that’s because I read the Bible seriously in my teens and at the same time, I seriously tried praying. I realised in prayer I was encountering Someone and that Someone was the same person that the pages of the Bible described. We cannot be eyewitnesses to the Resurrection as John and Matthias were. But we can be witnesses to Jesus as a real presence in our lives.
I was fortunate to be given a modern New Testament when I started secondary school. But for some people, you may be the only Gospel they get a chance to learn from. Some of us are called to be ‘evangelists’, to be people who are given a platform to introduce Jesus to individuals or to groups. But all of us are called to be ‘missionary disciples’, people who bring the presence of Jesus to the relationships of our daily life.
Now, how is your impostor syndrome doing? Maybe you’re thinking that you’re the least qualified person to speak about Jesus you could possibly imagine. But Jesus disagrees. He would side with St John Henry Newman, when Newman said God ‘has committed some work to you which He has not committed to another… you are a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.’
You are Christ’s witness to the people in your life who don’t know any other churchgoers.
You have been consecrated in the Truth. Just as the bread and wine which will shortly be offered on this altar will become something infinitely more worthy, so your baptism has made you infinitely more than just another human being. Bread and wine, once consecrated, is set apart to be received as Holy Communion and worshipped as the Blessed Sacrament. You, as a member of the Body of Jesus, have been consecrated, set apart to know that you are loved by God and commissioned to share that love with the world. You, in fact, are Holy Communion for other people because you can be the one to put them in touch with God.
If you don’t know the words to say, you could consider giving a friend a copy of the Gospels. But when you give it, at least say something about why God’s word is valuable to you. And if you dare, say a bit about your personal faith. A recent survey found that “1 in 3 people, after having a conversation with a practising Christian they know, say they would like to find out more or experience Jesus for themselves.” What an opportunity! You can expect that if you tell three friends about your faith, one will want to know more! Yes, the thought of doing it is scary, so why not practice talking about your faith with someone who already goes to church first? Not sure who? Look around you!
With all of that said, do you still feel like you don’t belong here? The reality is, that we belong in heaven, with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. But we have been given a mission, to spread the truth of Jesus to the ends of the earth. So let’s make Jesus known on earth, so that we may lead many people home to heaven. There’s a reason that Pope Benedict XVI edited the final words of the Mass – yes, you really are expected to go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.