St. Paul on Twitter

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Isaiah 6.1-2a, 3-8 Psalm 138 1 Corinthians 15.1-11 Luke 5.1-11

St. Paul would be right at place in a headline-news world. With newspapers going out of fashion and in-depth investigative journalism on the decline, we find ourselves more and more focused on the headlines, the news bytes, the quick quotes that can summarize everything we need to know in just a few words. You might even say that St. Paul would be a natural on Twitter – one of the latest technological crazes, where you can use no more than 140 characters to say what you want to say. St. Paul would be a natural. Take today’s second reading, for example. St. Paul gives us a quick summary of our belief in Jesus. Put simply, Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to many. Only 123 characters – and that is pretty much all you need to know. The Twitter version of the gospel – only it wasn’t written by a 21st-century social networker; it was written by St. Paul himself.

Of course there is much more to the story, there is much more to know about why Christ needed to die for us, what his resurrection accomplished, and how he commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel during his appearances to them. The 73 books of the Bible are a good place to start. But there’s even more than that – we have 2,000 years worth of reflections and teachings on the Word of God. Even with all this material to reflect on, not to mention our own personal prayer and relationship with God, some good, brief, summaries of our faith can help us figure out what is most important in our lives and in our Church. And so, from today’s readings, I offer some Christian headlines – some gospel tweets – some short summaries of what is most important in our relationship with God:

From the prophet Isaiah: The earth is filled with the glory of God!
From St. Paul: All the good that I do is accomplished through the grace of God.
From St. Peter: Master, I trust in you.
From Jesus Christ: Do not be afraid.

Really, what else do we need? In these few short phrases we have a lifetime of material for reflection and personal growth in the Christian life. And sometimes, the fewer words we speak, the better.