My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a great joy for me that we gather together today for this special Liturgy of Reconciliation. We celebrate this time of prayer in fulfillment of the commitment made in the Covenant which was signed this past January between the Anglican Diocese of Qu’Appelle and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. I believe it is most fitting that we celebrate this liturgy on the Feast of Pentecost.

This great feast brings the fifty day Season of Easter to its conclusion. In many ways Pentecost sums up the meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection both for ourselves personally but also for the Church which Jesus founded. It is commonly understood that the Church was born on this day, as Jesus breathed his risen life into the apostles and then gave the Church its mission.St John writes: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”                     

As we reflect on why the Father sent Jesus, we remember the words of Zachariah in St. Luke’s Gospel: “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and guide our feet into the way of peace.”That dawn from on high broke fully on a dark world when Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday morning. Darkness and death were conquered and we were given the light. That light is Jesus himself, a light that we now must bring to the world, sent as Jesus was sent.

 

In John’s Gospel, at the last Supper, Jesus prayed that all if us who follow him be one, perfectly, completely one. He prayed that we may become completely one, so that the world may know that the Father has sent Jesus and that the Father has loved us even as He loved Jesus.

 

Jesus links the unity of those who are his followers in the world with the success of the mission that he received from His Father and has committed now to us. It is our being one, completely one, that will enable the world to know that the Father has sent Jesus.  Then the world in its violence, its pain and its darkness will reach out to Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.

 

We know very well that today the world does not know Jesus, nor does it know the salvation that Jesus brings or the life that Jesus offers to the world. Surely we must ask ourselves if our lack of unity, our failure to become completely one as Jesus’ disciples, perhaps at times our refusal to seek to become one, is not greatly behind why the world does not know Jesus. Do we not need then to make Jesus’ prayer our own if we are to accomplish what Jesus has sent us to do in our world?

 

In his letter to the Ephesians, which we heard today, St. Paul writes about the source of our unity as Christians, as disciples of Jesus. He says:There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

 

 

When each of us was baptized we were born into a new life, the life of the Risen Jesus. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we breathe the very life breath of God. At our baptism we were made part of the one body of the Risen Jesus. So St. Paul urges us to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

 

 

 

We are well aware of how difficult this unity that Jesus prayed for is to achieve. We can see why St. Paul urged his Christian communities to “make every effort” to maintain and protect this unity. I believe that we can find great spiritual encouragement and indeed take comfort in knowing that we are making efforts here in our own dioceses to recognize those areas of unity which we enjoy among us at present and to seek out ways to celebrate and deepen this unity.

I think that we can be grateful to God for his merciful grace that has enabled us to enter into this Covenant between our two church families. It is also good to recall the words and the sentiments with which we entered into this covenant:

“Honouring the teaching and prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all may be one (John 17:11, 21), we give thanks to the Father and rejoice in the power of the Holy Spirit working within us which can do infinitely more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). In the name of our churches, we solemnly enter into this covenant.”

On the Feast of the Ascension, Jesus promised that he would be with us always, until the end of time. Today we hear Jesus saying to us “Peace be with you,” offering us a peace that can only come from him, a peace which comes to us through the power of His resurrection. And as we set out to put our Covenant into action, we feel again his tender strength as, with a sigh of love, he breathes into us His Spirit, giving us life, and giving us all that we need to bring our world to know Jesus and God’s great love for all people.