In one of my favorite scenes from the movie, Jesus of Nazareth, Franco Zeffirelli melds two scripture passages to create a powerful and poignant image of acceptance and living the Word.  Jesus calls as a follower, Matthew, a sinner and hated tax-collector.  Matthew responds by welcoming Jesus into his home.  As they share a meal with other “sinners”, the only Jews who will enter Matthew’s home, Peter literally blocks the door and prevents the other disciples from entering.  Peter “knows” what it means to be a good Jew; you follow the rule and don’t associate with sinners; never, under any circumstances, would you share a meal, a most intimate ritual in that culture.  Jesus sees Peter and knows his heart.  At this point, Jesus tells the story of a father and two sons, one reckless and wild, the other faithful and rule-bound.  As he comes to the end of the story, leaving the elder brother standing outside the father’s home, Jesus turns and looks into Peter’s eyes.  Peter melts.  His stony heart breaks.  Peter enters Matthew’s home and embraces the sinner as brother.

 Shortly after beginning my ministry here at Saint Anne I had the privilege of getting to know Vera and the story of her journey.  She shared how she had first come to Saint Anne because the “new church has air conditioning and the day was hot.”  But when she returned the following week and she was known to the pastor and other parishioners by name, she knew that she had found a home.  She journeyed across town from a parish in which she had been a member all her adult life to a community who knew who she was and welcomed her warmly.  Her story was, to me, an important lesson about the heart of Saint Anne Parish.

 Today a friend sent me an article concerning a bishop who had ordered a parish’s ministry to gays and lesbians shut down, I had just read about another bishop who had extended his Communion ban to anyone who publicly supported abortion, and last night I spoke with a woman who had been refused baptism for her child because her second marriage did not come with an annulment of her first.  As Church we often profess the need to evangelize and bring people into the fold, we fret about the Catholics who no longer fill our pews, we argue about authentic liturgical language and licit rituals while, too often, we stand like Peter: blocking the door, preventing others from sharing the meal and company of Jesus, knowing that we are right and that’s all that is important.

 One of the truly great qualities of the Catholic Church is its universality; we have welcomed everyone, we have embraced cultures and people and brought them to Christ.  We are, in the words of James Joyce, “Everybody!”  In doing so, we have widened and enriched the Church.  It is when we forget the lesson of welcome and hospitality, when we forget that Jesus “came for the sick, not the healthy” that we become obstacles to bringing about the Kingdom of God.