Group Greatness

Finding peace, purpose and power in the Church

04/17/2019

Matthew 26:14-25 One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples."'" The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

Boys and girls, the most important decision you will make in life is what group you should belong to: cheer or dance, football or basketball, quiz bowl or cross country, Trinity or Chaffin, Catholic or Protestant. God made us to be social persons, and therefore, both our earthly happiness and our eternal happiness hinge on our family, on our friends, and on our faith community, the groups we belong to. When we find the right group to be part of, we discover three things: peace, purpose and power, in a word, we find group greatness.

Let me illustrate this by inviting you to think about your own family. Our family of origin – mom, dad and siblings – is our first and fundamental group. Those of you who come from an in-tact, healthy home will feel first of all a deep sense of peace. But those families where divorce or abuse or neglect are common, you may feel a profound lack of peace. Please don’t hear me judging or condemning anyone. We’re all doing the best we can. Nevertheless, I just want you to know where you first find your peace, and maybe where you first don’t feel peace. It’s not your fault, and often comes from circumstances out of your control. But our family is the first fountain from which we drink of peace.

Secondly, we find purpose in our family. Kids in healthy families find their purpose more quickly because they usually do what their mother or father did, becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, a teacher. I am convinced I found my priestly vocation thanks to my fairly healthy family life. By the way, no family is perfect or ideal; every family has skeletons in the closet we try to hide. Still, the more stable the family, the faster you will find your purpose; why you are here, why God made you.

Thirdly, you find power. When the family unit is stable and strong, each member feels a sense of self-confidence, a quiet power that no one can snuff out or steal. You try new sports or band or cheer or dance because you feel the power of self-confidence. You say: “I can do this.” A priest-friend of mine likes to say: “Remember who you are and whose you are.” When we remember whose we are – that we belong to a strong, loving family that always has our back – we are strong; we feel the power of self-confidence.

Whatever group you belong to – like the first group of your family – will give you peace, purpose and power, that is, group greatness. I think this is why gangs are growing in popularity these days. As families struggle to stay together, gangs offer young people what families should but don’t: a group that provides peace, purpose and power. Every gang is a pseudo-family, trying to replace the natural family with an unnatural family. They offer a very unhealthy group greatness.

In the gospel today, Jesus tries to maintain the stability of the supernatural family he came to create, that is, the Church, the greatest group of all. He is at the Last Supper and predicts one of the twelve apostles will betray him. You remember who that was: Judas. We read how Judas plotted his betrayal: “One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.” In other words, Judas left the family of faith that Jesus established in order to join the gang of the chief priests and, as a result, he lost all sense of peace, purpose and power Jesus came to give. Do you remember how he died? He hung himself from a tree in despair; he committed suicide: no peace, no purpose and completely powerless.

On the other hand, the apostles who stayed in Jesus’ spiritual family felt profound peace, purpose and power, and changed the face of the earth. They were fearless because they belonged to the spiritual family of faith. So much depends on the group we join and become part of: our natural family of origin, an unnatural family of a gang, or the supernatural family of the Church. You will only be as great as the group you belong to.

Boys and girls, I want you to see Trinity Junior High as an “academic family” that you are part of, a very important group you belong to. As members of our Trinity family, do you help create stability and harmony, like the instruments of a band playing in perfect pitch and rhythm? Or, do you cause division, spread gossip, or undermine your classmates, and disrespect teachers, like Judas did with the spiritual family of the Church? When you fully invest yourself in this school family, you will find peace, purpose and even power. Sometimes even when these is upheaval at home, in your natural family, I hope Trinity can be a place of normalcy and acceptance. At least for eight hours a day, you might feel a little peace, purpose and power here.

Let me leave you with this example from my own life. I attended Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock – that’s right, no girls allowed, sorry, ladies. In 1985, my sophomore year, Catholic played Fort Smith Northside in the state football championship. Catholic was completely outmanned: the Northside Grizzlies were bigger, faster and more athletic than the smaller Catholic High Rockets. Our student body, after all, was made up of just a bunch of pencil-necked geeks, like me. But we won the state championship that day. Why? Because I believe (with no disrespect) we had a stronger sense of our school family, and we felt profound peace, purpose and power. You will only be as great as the group you belong to, so be sure to choose them wisely.

Praised be Jesus Christ!