I received much positive feedback from last week’s homily. So much so that I’d like to try something I’ve never done before: to preach a short series of homilies stemming from it. ~Fr. Seth

Last week I talked about many hearts turning to God in these turbulent times, and that we ought to prepare ourselves to receive and foster revival in our Church by living Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

But how? How do we do it? That’s what I’d like to discuss with you in these next weeks.

Well, how does Peter do it?

Peter’s preaching for the second time after Pentecost. He’s just healed a lame beggar, who still clings desperately to the former fisherman turned Fisher of Men as the crowd stares in amazement.

And Peter tells the crowd how he and John healed this man: not by their own power, but through the power of Jesus whom they, the crowd, had murdered.

Not exactly the way to win them over.

But then he gives them an offramp. He gives them an opportunity to live differently despite their past evil, telling them they acted out of ignorance.

You didn’t know. You didn’t know who Christ really was.

And then he shocks them: He tells them that even their evil worked to their good, yes, even to their salvation, to their healing, to their deliverance from sin.

Your sin didn’t stop God. Your ignorance, stupidity, malice, didn’t stop Jesus from going to the cross. It didn’t change His mind about rising from the dead, or prevent him from healing this former cripple now standing strong before you.

Now, he asks, don’t you want to share in that goodness and power?

Don’t you want to leave that live of wickedness behind?

If so, repent.

And just in case they’re not yet convinced, Peter continues: Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures, the long-awaited hope of our forefathers.

Luke records that more than 5,000 are convicted and added to the number of believers.

So here in this post-miracle interaction between Peter, John, the now-healed cripple, and the crowd, we might notice some ways of drawing others in to Christ.

First, Expect something from God.

Peter and John certainly did.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a convert, priest, and author, writes that many Catholics don’t live with the expectation that their faith can “do” anything for them or anyone else. “They have been taught to fulfill their duties and say their prayers, and they give at least lip service to the beliefs that confession really absolves them of their sins…But they don’t expect the daily surge of God’s power in their lives.”

If that’s you, consider changing that. Paul says, be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Read just a few paragraphs of any of the four Gospels, or explore the life of any saint. Or just hang around after Mass and you’re sure to hear of some way God has been at work in someone’s life.

You’ve been baptized, sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, you dine on the Lord’s precious body and blood week after week. Something is going to happen. God desires it. You should desire and expect it too.

Second, Have something to offer, something to sacrifice.

This past Friday was the Gospel of John’s version of the multiplication of the Loaves and Fish. John says it was a small boy who offered to Jesus 5 loaves and 2 fish and Jesus feeds over 5,000.

In a few moments we will offer a little bread and wine and Jesus will perform another miracle, coming to dwell with us in the Eucharist.

What do you have to offer?

It doesn’t have to be something material. It doesn’t even have to be something good. Do you have any sufferings you can offer for another’s conversion? Offering our sufferings is such a powerful means of grace because by doing so we imitate Christ himself, who offered His sufferings for our salvation.

Can you sacrifice time relaxing to offer help or prayer to someone you know who needs it? Can we sacrifice a persistent sin we commit to the mercy of God in the confessional in exchange for conversion of heart?

The crippled man offered Peter his deformity, his disability, and was healed. The crowd didn’t realize it, but they offered death, Christ’s death, and Christ took it and exchanged it for resurrection and a life no longer bound by space and time.

God can take anything and use it to work to another’s good. So offer it to Him, sacrifice it to Him.

Third, if you haven’t already, pledge yourself to living the Christian life in community, in this community. The early Christians shared one heart and one mind

Yes, I know I know. People can be troublesome. There’s gossip, drama, disagreements, hurt feelings, and all the rest. Not here in this parish, but I’ve heard of it happening in other parishes.

The Christian life can’t be lived alone. God doesn’t live alone; He is a communion of persons. Jesus is always gathering people to himself: the 12 apostles, the many disciples, tax collectors, prostitutes, gentiles, and many many others. It’s one of the signs of the Messiah, that he would gather in the lost tribes and lost souls.

St. Peter’s Basilica has two outstretched colonnades, like two long arms, reaching out to gather in the nations into the heart of the Church. Catholic, says the author James Joyce, means here comes everybody.

Even if, as Flannery O’Connor said, you have to suffer as much from the Church as for the Church.

Without the Church, without each other, the heat and zeal of faith will only burn so long. And it won’t be long, because Jesus reveals himself in the community.

He does so in 4 ways: in the Eucharist, in His Word, in the priest, and in the congregation. Here, we have opportunities to pray and worship together in order to love, serve, study, and yes, forgive.

The world is chaotic, but these deep, stable bonds grounded in Christ and His Body the Church fuel self-giving love, fuel sanctity.

Revival will come, if it begins here with us. And Peter, John, the healed cripple, and the crowd give us some fundamental ways to begin: Expect God to act; have something to offer, something to sacrifice; and commit yourself to the Church.

In short, we’re first in taking up the offer of repentance. Repenting from disbelief, egoism, and disunity. The 5,000 will follow.