Pentecost 2018

Pentecost Homily 2018:

Tonight, we celebrate the feast of Pentecost.  In one way this is the end of something, the end of the Easter season.  But, it’s the beginning of something too: the beginning of Ordinary Time.  This is no accident.  Ordinary time is the time of the Church.  This is the time of the Holy Spirit, at work in the world.  From the day of Pentecost until this moment, the Church of Christ carries out his work.  So, as we head back into Ordinary time we think about the gift of the Spirit, and the whole Church prays for the gifts of the Spirit to be renewed in the Church.  

If you get some time this weekend, reflect a little bit on the gifts of the Spirit.  What gifts do you need to fulfill your mission, your vocation in this world?  Let the Holy Spirit work through you to build up the Church and to reach out to the world in need.  Let the Holy Spirit help you to walk in the way of Christ.

I would like to reflect a little bit on the Apostles.  I know it can be easy to think of the Apostles as Christian Super Heroes.  Like they received some super power by being bit by a spider or something.  But, this isn’t true.  They were poor, simple, uneducated, normal people.  They were certainly not perfect.  Yet, with the power of God, they did amazing things. The preached the Word.  They healed the sick.  They raised the dead.  Amazing things.  They carried out the ministry of Christ.  This was all possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit can do amazing things through the lives of his saints. The apostles allowed the Spirit to work through them, great things resulted.  The same can be true of us.  We can do great things, the Holy Spirit can make us great saints, if we allow him to flow through us and to work through us.

But, I think the story of the apostles can highlight a tension I can see at work sometimes in people.  This is the tension between personal and public, between internal faith, and external expression of the faith.  

First, just walk through the story.  All the apostles say: even if we have to die with you, we will never deny you.  Then they all abandon him.  Jesus rises from the dead.  They meet Jesus.  They are filled with joy.  They are filled with faith, right?  Jesus is raised from the dead, they see him, they know him.  So, what is the result?  Do they go out and set the world on fire?  Actually, no… they don’t.  What do they do?  They are waiting in the upper room, almost like they don’t have a mission.  At this point they are certainly believers in Christ. They’ve seen him.  They know he’s alive.  But, they are pretty private about it.  Then, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they are empowered to carry out their mission, they break down the doors and tell everyone about Christ. 

I think the same thing can happen to us sometimes.  We are believers.  We have connected with Christ.  Through our prayer, we have come to know that Christ is alive.  But, the faith was never meant to be a purely internal and private kind of thing.  Our relationship with Christ is not simply something that lives inside of us and makes us feel good.  Christ also wants every one of us to carry out his work in the world.  Sure, we need that deep and internal love of God that allows us to be connected to him.  But, we also need to live our faith out loud, we need to be able to share it.  This is the way, walk in it.  This means that our faith should live out in our lives.  For the apostles, this was only made possible through the Holy Spirit.  It will be the same for us.

We join in with the whole Church to pray today for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit made the apostles great saints.  He can make us great saints too.  Let us pray for the gift of courage especially.  Life is hard.  Can we all just agree that life is hard?  That is certainly something I have learned by being at St. Jude.  People have allowed me to be a part of their lives.  I get to share the good times and the bad times. Life can be great and rewarding, but it’s tough.  It was certainly tough for the apostles too.  But, the Spirit empowered them to do great things.  Come Holy Spirit and help all of us to be great saints.  Help us to live our vocation.  Help us to bring the love of God to this world. Give us the wisdom to know the path; give us the courage to walk in it every day of our lives.

Sacramentum Caritatis

6^thSunday of Easter Year B 2018:

For me, two words really jumped out at me in the gospel today: love and joy.  Aren’t those two terrific words?  I mean, so much of our lives are lived in pursuit of these two things.  We long for love and joy.  And if these things are missing, we can be quite unhappy.  Every human being wants love and joy, unless you’re a big grump or something.

Yet, Jesus shows us that there is a deep connection between love and joy.  I have told you this so that your joy may be complete.  What did Jesus tell us?  Follow my commandments: love one another as I have loved you.  If we want joy, and who doesn’t, the pathway is the pathway of love. A life of love will be a life of joy. 

But, I guess it begs the question: what is love?  Most people think of love as an emotion, a feeling. We have these feelings for the people we love: there’s romantic love, love for family, children, love for country, love for justice, etc.  These things might inspire emotions and feelings.  But, love is not the same thing as the emotions.  In fact, love is much deeper.  Love is not an emotion, but it’s a decision.  Love is an action of the whole human person: body, soul, heart, mind, everything.  And what does love look like?  It looks like the cross.  Jesus says: love one another as I love you, no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.  Love is not about feel-good emotions.  Love is about giving one’s self for others.  

In order for the joy of Christ to remain in us, we have to follow the pathway of love.  The pathway to self-fulfillment is the path of self-giving.  The pathway to resurrection and life is the sacrifice of the cross.  We all want that life of joy and fulfillment, so Jesus teaches us the way to that life is the way of the cross.

But, we might find this to be a bit disheartening right? Deep in our hearts we are searching for joy and happiness.  We look everywhere for this satisfaction: money, power, pleasure, prestige: none of them satisfy.  And Jesus comes along to tell us: if you want this joy, peace, and happiness, all you have to do is to love one another as I love you.

Have you ever thought about this command as being a little bit unfair?  Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  He is perfect love and goodness.  He is absolutely free of sin, selfishness, self-interest.  His whole mission on earth is to show the love and mercy of the Father for all of us in the fallen human family.  He is love.  Then, he tells us to love just as he does.  Seems to be well beyond our abilities.  

But, always remember that if Christ calls us to something difficult, he always provides us with the means to attain them.  If he calls us to love one another just as he loves us, he will give us the means.  And this is exactly where I see the importance of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist.  Very often, the Holy Eucharist is also called the sacramentum caritatis, which means: the sacrament of love.  The Eucharist is the very love of Christ.  Jesus loved us so much that he gave his life for us.  He handed over his body, soul, everything.  He continues this handing over until the end of time with the gift of the Mass, with the gift of the Eucharist.  By receiving this amazing gift, we become enabled to live Christ’s call to love.  No wonder the Mass is called the source and summit of the Catholic faith.

I would like to encourage all of us to renew our love and amazement for the mass and for the Eucharist.  This weekend we celebrated First Holy Communion for the young people of our parish.  Talk about love and amazement.  These kids were thrilled to receive Jesus in Holy Communion.  They believe and are convinced that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which he gives to us because of his great love for us. Now, they were also probably excited for cake and parties.  But, at the heart, they were thrilled to receive Christ.

We would all do well to regain some of that excitement. Christ calls us to a life of Joy. The pathway to this life is the pathway of love.  Christ makes it possible for us to follow this path by giving us the Holy Eucharist. What a joy it is, then, to celebrate this mass and to receive the sacrament of love.