The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 3, 2026
St. James Cathedral

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people that you may declare the wonderful deeds of God who called you out of darkness into marvelous light.” Those words are from the First Letter of Peter but they draw on important passages from the Jewish scriptures – from Exodus and Isaiah. They are words that speak about the vocation of God’s holy people and were most likely part of a homily on baptism in the early church. So important are they that, when we were renovating the Cathedral back in 1994, I asked to have them carved into the stone floor around our baptistery where they are to this day.

“Chosen race…royal priesthood…holy nation…God’s own people.” The late, great Jesuit preacher and theologian, Fr. Walter Burghardt, referred to these as “four titles of honor” and that they surely are, and I would add that they are way ahead of – and far more important than other titles of honor the Church is fond of using (like Your Holiness, Your Eminence, Your Excellency – even Pastor Emeritus!). In the Jewish scriptures the four were titles given to God’s chosen people, to remind them of who they were. In the New Testament, they became titles for all the baptized. They point out the unique dignity, the high calling of each and every member of the Church. Let me say just a word about each of those ‘titles of honor.’

First, Chosen Race. We who have been baptized into Christ are chosen by God. There is no chance here: only choice. And the choice is God’s, not ours. For reasons we will never grasp, God has chosen us, called us into this community of the Church. God loves us passionately and unconditionally, loves us as individuals, loves us as a community of believers. We are called, we are chosen.

We are also a Royal Priesthood. For Catholics, this truth can all too easily be overlooked because when we think of ‘priest,’ we typically think of people like me. But before anyone like me can be called ‘priest,’ all of us are priests! That’s because all of us, in Baptism, were anointed and made one with Jesus Christ who is really the only priest. And the priestly sacrifice he offered on the cross becomes ours here at Mass when we offer our lives, our joys and our pains, and the joys and pains of the world - offer them to God along with Jesus, the priest. We are indeed, “a royal priesthood!”

The third title is a Holy Nation. This, of course, has nothing whatever to do with nation in the political sense of the word. It would be hard to make such a claim for our nation or any nation, for that matter. No, here, nation means community. We are a holy community. Now I know that ‘holy’ can be an off-putting word, a word that conjures up images of ‘holier-than-thou,’ of otherworldly people looking like plaster statues, but that’s a caricature. We are holy, and the Church is holy because, even with all our sins and failings as individuals and as a Church, God’s Spirit lives and breathes in us. St. Augustine used to begin his homilies by addressing the people as “Your holiness” – and his reference was to the people, not the pope! We are a holy community of believers!

The fourth title is God’s Own People. Another way of saying that is “God’s own possession.” And we are that, my friends. We have been purchased at a great price - with the precious blood of Christ. We belong to God, we are “God’s very own….”

Now I realize that those exalted titles don’t always ring true for us, that we are sometimes more aware of our dark side than of our dignity. We believe, but we doubt; we hope, but sometimes we lose heart; we love, but not always. We are human, but that doesn’t for a moment deny that we are touched by divinity, infused with divinity. The early Church Fathers were fond of saying that ”Christ became human so that humans might become divine.” Think of that for a moment. It’s true!

And, of course, it has profound implications for how we live our lives. Who we are should be reflected in what we do. Notice I said we. Every one of us. By virtue of our baptism, we are to preach the gospel, to live the gospel. St. Francis of Assisi put it perfectly: “Preach the gospel always,” he said, “using words when necessary!” Often, more important than the words we speak are the lives we lead, the principles we live by, the positions we espouse. These are the things that tell people who we are.

Let me offer an example. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel we have been called to preach and to live is, in the words of Pope John Paul II, the Gospel of Life. These are his words: “The Gospel of Life deeply values and honors each and every human life without exception - beginning with God’s precious gift of life in the womb and ending with God’s call at death - fostering, nurturing, and supporting that life at every step along the way.”

The Gospel of Life. Pope Francis talked about it frequently – and so does Pope Leo: to the vital issue of sanctity of life in the womb they invariably add other ‘life issues,’ including the lives of the poor and underprivileged, the vulnerable elderly, immigrants and refugees, and victims of human trafficking. And then there are global life issues such as care for this planet, our common home, and the elimination of nuclear arms.

My friends, the Gospel of Life. We are to preach this gospel in all its breadth and depth, using our voices to advocate for it, and our votes to promote it: embracing the entire gospel, not picking or choosing. This is surely one way – one extremely important way – for us to live out our baptismal call as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…called out of darkness into marvelous light!

Father Michael G. Ryan
Pastor Emeritus