Today’s readings
For the Rite of Acceptance Into the Order of Catechumens
Worry will absolutely kill us, if we let it. As a pastor and confessor, I hear worry from people all the time. Worry about job issues or money in general, worry about illnesses or the grieving of loved ones, worry about children and other family members, worry about relationships gone wrong. Then you could also worry about crime and war and terrorism and the economy and just about our country or world in general. There’s plenty to worry about, and most of us worry about something, sometime, maybe even all the time, in our lives.
But Jesus tells us today to cut that out. Worrying does not solve our problems. And what we worry about is so often not the most important thing in the vast scheme of things. What I love in this passage is that Jesus provides us with the antidote to all that worry: We don’t need to waste time on worry because God’s providence is infinitely greater than our worry. We are worth far more than the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. God takes care of them, and he will take care of us. Maybe not in the exact way we would pick, but always with love and his strong, abiding presence. Even if a mother were to forget her child, as Isaiah reassures us today, God will never forget us.
So now that we have the worry out of the way, what do we do? I think sometimes that’s why so many of us hang on to worry – because that’s the only thing we know. But Jesus says that we should put an end to the worrying so that we’ll have time for the one thing that really matters: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” Because when we possess the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters, we possess everything we could ever possibly need. More than the birds of the air have, more than the lilies of the field possess; the kingdom of God is the pearl of great price.
Today we have the opportunity to focus on that. Jordan and Clinton have come here seeking the kingdom. In the midst of those things that are going on in their lives, they have realized that there was something they were lacking and that could only be filled up by the presence of God. In our gathering today, we pledge to support them in prayer and to walk with them on the journey. Even better, their journeys give us pause to look at our own journeys of faith and maybe give us the encouragement to take a step closer to the cross if we have be lax or have laid it down.
So now they have been admitted to the Order of Catechumens, and I’d like to say a word or two about what that means. Catechumens are those who are preparing for baptism and are not infants. Non-baptized people ordinarily do not have rights within the Church, but catechumens, even though they are not baptized, do. Catechumens have the right to the Sacraments, particularly and firstly baptism, of course. They also have the right, even before baptism, to be married in the Church if they are preparing for that. And finally, they have the right, God forbid, to a Church funeral and Christian burial.
They won’t be catechumens long, however. Because next week, they will go to the Cathedral in Joliet to be chosen for the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation by Bishop Conlon. Then we will call them “the Elect.” They have all the same rights, and election signals that they have entered into the final, more intensive, preparation for the Sacraments, which is called the period of “Purification and Enlightenment,” and focuses on their spiritual preparation for the Sacraments.
All of these leads to the Easter Vigil, in which they will enter the waters of Baptism for the cleansing of their sins and their joining to the Body of Christ and His Church. I hope that you will continue to keep them in their prayers, along with Jett Davis and Sylvia Spangenberg, who are also catechumens at this time. May God bring them closer to himself as they approach the Sacraments, and may God bring us all together one day to eternal life.