April 21, 2024

Fourth Sunday in Easter Cycle B

Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

Up until a few years ago, we had a wonderful parishioner here at Saint James named Ed Baudino. Well, actually both he and his wife Genevieve were parishioners, but by the time I came to this parish when I moved to South Carolina in 2007, she had already passed away and I only knew Ed. Several years after moving here, I was asked to lead the usher ministry, and I inherited head ushers at each Mass that were seasoned vets. Ed was that person for the 8 am Sunday Mass.

Ed was born in France and came with his parents as a child of six to the United States. After high school, he joined the Air Force in 1943 and, as a radioman in B-24 bombers, was involved in fourteen combat missions over Europe during the Second World War. After the war, he became an electrical engineer and worked as a civilian for the Army at their Research and Development Command. His time spent in and around the military was noticeable in his approach to life: he had a selfless sense of duty to those around him, especially his church, as well as being a stickler for the little things. He was always helping get the bulletins ready for the weekend, doing other volunteer work as needed, and he would show up almost an hour and a half early for the 8 am Mass, where he would set up everything in the church the way he thought it should be. As you can imagine, he was simultaneously one of the backbones of our parish and someone that would worry you to death if he thought something wasn't right. But he always, even after he was in a nursing home, always tried to come to Mass at least monthly, to visit his friends here and to continue to contribute his tithe. He and his wife were not blessed with children, so when Ed passed away in 2018, he left his entire estate to Saint James. I tell this story because Ed serves as a link that combines two things we need to talk about today: a lesson from the readings, and our resumption of services here in our church.

We learn in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles about Peter and the other apostles first efforts and building a community of disciples in Jerusalem. Peter is speaking in front of the most important Jewish religious body: the Sanhedrin. This is the same group of men that condemned Jesus to death, and now Saints Peter and John are brought before it, accused of preaching about that same Jesus at the Jerusalem temple. Peter, who just a few months before had denied knowing Jesus, now, through the power of the Holy Spirit that he received at Pentecost, boldly proclaims him in front of a group of men that have his and John’s lives in their hands. It is what Peter proclaims to this body of Jewish priests and scholars that interests us today: Jesus is the cornerstone of the new kingdom of God.

We heard this twice this morning. It was in the Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 118, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes” [Psalm 118:22-23 NABRE]. Now Peter knows this psalm well, since the Book of Psalms was the hymnbook that all Jews used daily, and he knows that every one of the men in the Sanhedrin know it well too. So not only is Peter telling these Jewish leaders that the man that they condemned was the Messiah foretold in this as well as many other passages of Old Testament scripture, but he is also telling them that Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, is the first building block of a new Church based on a new covenant with God. He is telling them that he and the other disciples are proclaiming this new covenant community based on the salvation that Christ has promised. He wants them and the entire Jewish nation to join them in forming this new covenant church, but build it they will, with or without them.

And now, almost 2,000 years later, we can see what they built: a Catholic Church of over one billion people worldwide. But today we here at Saint James, a small part of that larger Church, also celebrate what we have built, or at least rebuilt: our newly refurbished church. We should thankfully acknowledge Ed Baudino's contributions to this effort, since his financial legacy funded a good deal of the initial work. And it is great to have a building for our Masses that lifts our spirits and puts us in a place that makes our worship meaningful and beautiful. But a church is more than a building. Ed's gift was more than just money. He spent a good deal of time each week helping to build the people of Saint James into the caring community of disciples that it is. Jesus was the cornerstone, building a Church as the Good Shepherd. And it is people like Ed, and like you and me, and all of the ministers and volunteers here that form the stones that are laid on the cornerstone that form the rest of the Church.

So let’s take a moment to appreciate our church as a building restored and improved to make it a fitting place to offer worship to our great God. And we then turn to the ongoing job of building our church as a community of joyful disciples, forming the Body of Christ. Jesus, true God and true man, came to earth to make this new covenant with us, forming the cornerstone. Peter became the first leader of that Church, bringing in other disciples and building up the Church. Now we too, just like Ed and his wife, continue that work to build the Kingdom of God here on earth. That is a legacy that we would all be proud of when, at the end of our days, we go to meet our God face to face.

As we continue with our Mass, let the Eucharist be the renewal of our commitment to the new and eternal covenant that Jesus made with us. May the Holy Spirit help and guide us to be bold in proclaiming our faith, just as Saint Peter was bold before the Sanhedrin. Let us pray for the repose of the souls of Ed Baudino and his wife, and may they inspire us to build the Church of Christ, both the church as a building and the Church as a community of joyful disciples.