The Shepherd Judges by Love

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year A

We stand, this Sunday, at the threshold between one liturgical year and the next, and the liturgy offered to us by the Church is meant to shape and structure our time, our lives, and the way we look at and understand the world around us. We are reminded that Jesus is our Lord and King, our Savior and Redeemer… King not just of Christians, but of the whole universe, of all creation! As King He is also Judge… but not only Judge, but also Shepherd. Our readings on this feast give us both images, with the creative tension that lies between them.

Sometimes we think the Old Testament presents God as harsh and stern, while the New Testament instead shows God to be tender and loving. However, these stereotypes, or even prejudices, have little to do with the text itself!  Our readings this Sunday run the opposite way! Our first reading today, from the Prophet Ezekiel, is full of tenderness and promise. Soon it will be Advent… think of just how God fulfilled His words spoken through the prophet:

I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.

It’s not like God didn’t tell us what He was going to do! And, yet, when He came Himself, it was a surprise, and so hard to accept and believe! God is not far away, distant, uninvolved, and unconcerned… rather He came Himself, in the Flesh… Jesus Christ, both God and man.

When we proclaim Christ the King of the Universe, we remember that He rules all that is, not from afar, and not by violent acts of power, but rather He rules at our sides, gently, drawing us by love. He speaks softly to the voice of our consciences, He speaks with beauty and splendor in every sunrise and ever snowflake, He speaks kindly with His invitation to mercy and truth.

Much of this movement of the King happens in our hearts, below the surface, in the quiet of listening prayer… and this gentle powerful King allows us to stray, rather than force us to follow. He knows that straying will bring us to grief, that His commandments point us towards joy and peace, and away from bitterness and sadness. We who know Him and His love struggle to listen attentively… how is the world to know of His love, when so often they aren’t even trying to listen? How is He to speak in a world full of noise and hurry?

This brings us to the scene of Judgment in our Gospel. When people speak as if Jesus doesn’t care what we do and say… as if His unconditional love means that following Him makes no demands on us… I get frustrated! Whoever that guy is, it’s not Jesus Christ they’re talking about! The same tender persistent shepherd who cares and heals His sheep will also sit upon his glorious throne and separate the nations as they come before Him! Jesus uses no hidden surprising criteria to judge us… it’s exactly what He’s told us, exactly what God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai… we will be judged on whether or not we have followed the commandment to love! (Repeat) Let that sink in and root itself in your heart… each one of us will stand before the throne of our Loving Shepherd, He who laid down His life for us, and we will be judged, separated, upon a simple criteria… did we respond with loving generosity to those in need around us? Did we give away what we were given, or did we hoard it to ourselves? Did we treat others as Christ, or did we ignore and disdain to share God’s blessings?

Now… it’s worth noting… this isn’t the only chapter of Scripture! Jesus teaches a lot more than is contained in this one passage… He told us to keep the commandments, and He didn’t kick any off the list.  As we look into our hearts, we know we have often fallen short. Where, then, does the grace and wisdom come to love? What sustains us in giving of ourselves? It is God at work in us… through the Eucharist and Confession, through our Daily Prayer. How is the world to know of these gifts and these commands? Through us! God’s living active presence in the world didn’t end when Jesus ascended into heaven… it’s continued in our midst by the life of the Church… that’s us, as surprising as that may be! We’re God’s big plan… that we who know Him, His love, His mercy, His grace, His commands… that we would live and model these truths, and invite others to them as well. If the world is not full of love, we need look nowhere else but in the mirror… we have been given the gift of faith, baptism, grace, the Living Word, the Word made Flesh, our parish… so many rich blessings!

May we follow our King, then, may we obey Him, in laying down our lives. On Saturday morning we packed up 30 food baskets for local families… that happened due to the generosity and hard work of many of our parishioners. In the days ahead, we’ll be gathering with family… our inlaws and outlaws!  Love those who are nearby, even when it's hard.  If there’s money in your checking account or food on your shelf… give some away to those in need! Whether you have things to give away or not… give yourself! Listen to a relative or friend, give someone a call, take them out to lunch or offer a Rosary for them. There is no end to the concrete ways we can love and serve today… this is what Jesus calls us to now. Never allowing us to get ahead of Him, He gives Himself to us now, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, from this altar… receiving Him, we receive everything… may we give it all away!

+ A. M. D. G. +

Bulletin Column on Purgatory: A joyful, hope-filled expression of God's LOVE

+ J. M. J. + 

 Bulletin Column on Purgatory, All Souls' Day, 2 Nov. 14
(I've been wanting to write this up for a while, and this isn't perfect, but perhaps it's helpful!)

We’ve really had a lot of stuff falling on Sundays this year, and here we go again! This Sunday the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, commonly called “All Souls’ Day,” takes the place of the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, while next Sunday the beautiful Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica takes the place of the 32nd Sunday. This is a rich gift, because it gives us a chance to celebrate these liturgies with our larger weekend congregations!

November begins with All Saints’ Day, a joyful pouring out of praise to God for all those who have served Him with heroic charity, modeling and living holiness in their concrete circumstances (including formally canonized saints, and all the saints known to God). All Souls’ Day, in contrast, is the moment par excellence dedicated to the beautiful dogma of purgatory. What’s that you say, we still believe in Purgatory?!?!? Well… for a while it was “out of fashion,” but of course what’s true doesn’t fluctuate according to people’s tastes! It seems that some people thought purgatory was kind of dark and heavy, and perhaps they encountered some vividly detailed descriptions of the pains of purgatory, and it all seemed a little over the top. Let’s try to set the context, using as I mentioned last week, the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. We’re all going to die… not the words of a pessimist, just the truth. Our mortal lives will come to an end. We can admit what is true and deal with it or pretend! Upon death we come before the Judgment Seat… and after that moment of death, there’s a lot that is mysterious. We use physical images to speak of spiritual realities that God in His wisdom has not spelled out in detail. The outline is firm and clear, the details mysterious. So, the “Judgment Seat” of Christ uses what we know about judges and courts, but if we try to pin down how that seat’s upholstered (or forget that while judgment is certain, whether or not Jesus will be sitting in a chair is not), then we go beyond God’s Revelation, and the Church’s teaching.

As C.S. Lewis so eloquently says, at the moment of our death either we will say to God, “Thy will be done,” or God will say to us, “Thy will be done.” A person is only sent to Hell by his or her own obstinate choice to refuse God’s mercy. In love, God doesn’t force Himself, His Grace, His Mercy upon us, and if we refuse it definitively, then He allows us to spend eternity away from Him. It should be a terrifying prospect… and so we should turn away from sin, and towards God. Who’s in Hell? We don’t know… the Church makes no positive declaration that any particular person is damned, but we do know Hell exists, and we know our loving Savior talked about it with some frequency… we’ve been warned!

If by His grace we say “Yes” to the Lord, that yes, however incomplete, opens the door to His mercy, and He brings us into His presence. However, God loves us too much to leave us half full of lies and sin… precisely because He is perfect mercy, He lovingly purifies us of all attachment to sin, all the temporal effects of sin. Think of a mother wiping the dirt off her son’s face as he comes in from playing, so that he can be presented to guests. Think of a physical therapist leading a patient through the painful repetitions that lead back towards walking… think of Jesus asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” As we try to imagine what that purification or purgatory is like, we enter into imagery that is not literal, and here we might well admit that some of the lurid imagery of the past may not be particularly helpful!

Everyone in Purgatory, each soul being purified, knows that he or she is going to spend eternity with God, perfectly united with Him in joy and peace, and this is why we speak of the “Holy Souls in Purgatory.” Nonetheless, that purification is probably not pleasant, anymore than having your face wiped or your newly replaced knee bent is… anymore than Peter “enjoyed” affirming his love three times to heal his three denials. And how does time or duration play a role? Well, having died, the soul is separated from the body and outside of time, so “spending a long time” in purgatory is a metaphor that’s hard to make precise. It is obvious that someone whose life has been dedicated to sin and selfishness may need “more” purification than someone who had one small bad habit they never overcame, but God hasn’t chosen to spell that all out. The images from the saints and theologians try to express these mysteries, and we may find them more or less helpful.

Thus we remember the Living Body of Christ in all its fullness: we the Church Militant, engaged in the battle of earthly life; the Church Suffering, being purified by God’s love; and the Church Triumphant, joyfully singing God’s praises before His Throne! On this All Souls’ Day we remember our solidarity with the whole Church as we offer our prayers for all the Faithful Departed, asking God to receive them into His Kingdom, where they will in turn pray for us!

   + A. M. D. G. +

Black is Beautiful: An All Souls' Day Reflection on Purgatory

+ J. M. J. + 

Homily Outline for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed  

(All Souls' Day) 2 Nov 2014

 Every year we enter into November, the last month of the liturgical year, with two beautiful feasts… on November 1st, All Saints’ Day, and on Nov. 2nd, All Souls’ Day! The Church makes use of the natural symbols of the year's end, at least in the northern hemisphere... the shortening days, the cold, the first snows... us gardeners are making our final harvests (I picked my parsnips yesterday!) In the course of the years, about every 7 years it falls on Sunday, and we celebrate this liturgy in the place of our normal Sunday liturgy. This gives us a beautiful chance to reflect on the significance of this feast!

To set the context for All Souls’ Day, let me remind of you of a traditional way of thinking about all those who make up the Church, the Living Body of Christ. We can divide the Church up into three pieces: first, the Church Militant, that is, all us who are living, engaged in the daily battle of earthly life. We call it the Church Militant not because it is violent, but because life is truly a struggle. Then we have those who have already entered into the Father’s Glory, who we celebrated with All Saints’ Day, the Church Triumphant, or Glorious! Countless men, women, and children, some of them canonized, who see God Face to Face, who sing His praises, who experience the perfect joy of Heaven. The group in-between, so to speak, is the group we pray for today on All Souls’ Day… the Church Suffering, or the Church Penitent… all those souls in Purgatory. Just as we are united by ties of love and prayer with all those living the mortal life, and with all those living the eternal life, we are also united with those who are being purged and purified. We ask the saints to pray for us, and we in turn pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

I discuss this at some length in my bulletin column, which I hope you'll read, but let me just briefly mention that the Catholic Church absolutely believes in the existence of purgatory… it was not fashionable to say so, and many people have been falsely taught otherwise, but this is the firm, dogmatic teaching of the Church.

What is purgatory all about? Well… it’s all about God’s love, the full extent to which God loves us! The only thing that can send us to Hell is our obstinate and definitive refusal to accept God’s grace before the moment of our death.  As C.S. Lewis says, "At the end of our lives, either we will say to God, 'Thy will be done,' or God will say to us, 'thy will be done.'" As I’ve said before, our choices here in this life have eternal consequences! If we say yes to God’s love, even if it’s imperfectly, even if it’s at the last minute, with our dying breath, then God floods us with His mercy! I have seen this grace at work on many deathbeds myself!  I've been blessed to see people make a good confession after years, or even decades, or to anoint someone who has been unconscious for days or weeks, and have them suddenly breathe their last, just moments after being anointed, as if they were waiting....

But imagine that one who has said yes to God has nonetheless held onto sin in his or her life? Take two extreme cases… what if in his final gasps after he had taken the poison pill, Adolf Hitler silently cried out to God for mercy? What if Judas Iscariot repented as he fell from the tree where he was hanging himself? It’s grisly to think about, but we don’t deny the possibility… and if God’s mercy was in even the slightest way accepted, we trust that even those two men could be saved. They come into God’s presence, suddenly seeing with perfect clarity all the ways they have spat upon His generosity… what would that be like? God loves us too much to leave us for all eternity lamenting our scabs and scars, lamenting the ways our yes has been incomplete… and so the fire of His love burns all that away! Think of a wound being cleaned so it can be sutured, or of grueling physical therapy that restores full range of motion.  My mom just had her knee replaced, and she has hours of physical therapy each week... it isn't easy, it isn't enjoyable.  And imagine the physical therapist... he or she doesn't enjoy causing pain to their patient, but the love them enough to seek their healing. Think of the way we must learn to love once again someone who has deeply hurt us. Parents and children recovering from division... any married couple that has been married for more than 10 minutes!  It's not easy to renew a relationship after hurt or betrayal.

God won’t save us with out us… His gift of eternal life isn’t superficial, snow on a dung heap as Luther so infamously said… rather God’s love must penetrate to the very depths of our being. To whatever extent we have not allowed that at the moment of our death, purgatory is the place where that purification and transformation is accomplished. How exactly this works, we do not know, and so we use the image of a purifying fire, or even in jokes the idea of a penance opposite our sin, or the idea of the passing of time… but this is all metaphorical and mysterious. In some sense, the soul in Purgatory is in the very same place it will always be, in the Fire of God’s love, but at first that is painful as the brokenness is cleansed away.  What if one of us were to suddenly be at the surface of the sun... momentarily we'd be very much unlike the sun, but suddenly we would become heat and light.

And so, having said all that, we come to these black vestments I’m wearing! Since the Vatican Council, the Church has specified that for funeral Masses and for All Souls’ Day, the priest should vest in either black, or purple, or white. Like you, I've almost always seen white used, but all three are suggested. White is the color of resurrection and baptism, purple is the color of penitence and sorrow, and black is the color of mourning and humility. The use of black is not meant to specify hopelessness, but rather to recognize the reality of mortal death. To take a phrase from a very different cultural context, black is beautiful! Let suggest three images…

First, a simple one, Cajun blackened catfish… if you like spicy food, this is the cat’s meow! The intensity of flavor and spice is out of this world. As the fish is fried in a heavy coating of spices, the heat melds and intensifies the flavors, deepening their zest and power.  So also, live lived in light of mortality is full of flavor and spice, rather than being superficial and bland.

Second, for the gardeners out there, think of good black soil! A gardener doesn't want pale sand or greasy red clay, but rather dark black rich soil.  All the organic material in a compost pile breaks down into a rich humus, full of nutrients, able to absorb water.  Such soil yields a rich, fruitful harvest.  A life lived in contact with the reality of our mortality, the reality of God's justice and mercy, will also be fruitful, yielding a rich harvest.

Finally take a black night, say in February when it's 20 below zero (it seems like we had about 50 of them last year)... there's no moisture in the air, and before the moon rises, it's a black as it can be.  But what can you see on such a night?  The stars... thousands of them, in all their brilliant glory and beauty.  So many beautiful stars that it can be hard to even find familiar constellations.... and the milky way emblazoned across the sky!  If we live our life in light of our mortality, the beautiful truth of God's merciful love, then we will be able to see the beauty of God's light shining in darkness, far more beautiful than the artificial light of false hope...

So on this All Soul's day, we come now to this altar to receive the food of eternal life, to offer this sacrifice for all our loved ones who have died.  We bring them in our hearts to this altar, and we ask God to receive them into His kingdom, purified, cleansed, and made new.  We ask God for the grace to live in the light of His truth, aware of our mortality, aware of His offer of eternal life...  In the silence now let us call to mind all who we pray for today, our family members and friends who have died, especially those most in need of God's mercy.

+ A. M. D. G. +

To my sisters in Christ... your reflections on modesty?

+ J. M. J. +

Five years as a priest and I haven't even come close to figuring this out....

Summer is here, even in the Keweenaw, and as the pastor of a campus ministry parish, and working with young people of all ages, I'm still trying to hone my skills around preaching and teaching modesty.  As a flesh and blood man, I'm also still trying to hone my skills around custody of the eyes and seeing hearts and souls rather than body parts...

In that context, I've been thinking for years about how modesty hits men and women differently.  In terms of dress, I think guys more often struggle with being sloppy, while women are tempted to dress such that attention is focused on their bodies in a way that doesn't contribute to their dignity.  I think men and women struggle to understand each other in these areas because we are so different, and it's not an easy conversation to begin, much less carry on to a fruitful conclusion.

I have been blessed with many good and holy women as friends and family members, and very many of them carry themselves with great dignity and beautiful modesty, for which I am deeply grateful!

I just read these two blog posts from Simcha Fisher and Jennifer Fulwiler, two of my favorite Catholic bloggers, and I would love to hear people's thoughts.  In all of this, please work against our shared tendency to make assumptions, to hastily judge, and to assign motivations to others without knowing them!

Let the conversation begin, God-willing, prayerfully and lovingly!

Standing Out or Blending In? by Simcha Fisher

Modesty is an Opportunity to Love by Jennifer Fulwiler

+ A. M. D. G. +

"I wish to clarify inaccuracies that have appeared in the media over the past several days." St. Michael's pastor offers clarifiction

Fr. Larry Van Damme with me the summer I was ordained.

This letter was recently published in area newspapers, but unlike the story told by Bobby Glenn Brown, it's not in their headlines, and is often behind the subscriber wall where it is conveniently difficult to access!  Please share the rest of the story! - Fr. Ben Hasse

St. Michael’s pastor offers clarification

I wish to clarify inaccuracies that have appeared in the media over the past several days. Among our members at St. Michael Catholic Church in Marquette we have valued parishioners with same sex attraction who serve in many capacities, including liturgical ministries. As their pastor, I love all of my parishioners whatever their circumstance. At no point have I instructed anyone to stand at the back of the church, the cry-room, or in the vestibule. Reports of this having occurred are a misunderstanding.

In the Catholic Christian Church there is a well-known, biblically-based teaching that those who are attracted to the same sex live a life of chastity, and that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Jesus himself is our exemplar of chaste love. Chastity applies to everyone: the married and the unmarried, the divorced and widowed, those who have chosen a single life and those unable to get married. Within marriage, chastity means being faithful to one’s spouse, being open to life, and treating one’s spouse with dignity. For the unmarried, chastity means abstaining from sexual relations. This expectation is consistently made known to new members of the Catholic Church, and is freely chosen when they make the decision to become Catholic. With God’s grace and the prayerful support of others, living chastely can be a life of rich vitality, deep loving relationships and generosity.

All Christians struggle and sometimes fail to live up to the teachings of Christ, myself included. Distinct from this is the case in which someone makes a deliberately thought-out life-decision to live in a manner which runs contrary to the teachings of their faith and of Scripture. When it becomes a matter not of failing to live up to the teachings of Christ, but of actively opposing them and celebrating their contrary, the situation calls for a particular pastoral response. More specifically, if a parishioner has chosen to celebrate and promote views contradicting the words they would sing in the choir, or proclaim from Scripture as a lector, then they are asked not to lead in the singing or proclamation of those words. However, they are still welcome to worship in the church with fellow members of the Body of Christ.

As a Catholic Christian, I recognize my own unworthiness; I, too, fail to live up to the Word. All the same, I must not deliberately oppose It. As I strive to remain steadfast in faith, one of the most loving things I can do for my parishioners is ask them to be similarly faithful, and prayerfully help them strive for integrity when their personal choices and actions clearly contradict the faith we profess as Catholic Christians.

In all sincerity, my prayers are with anyone who is confused or feels hurt by the misunderstandings that have taken place in the past several days. With many concerned parishioners, I don’t want to see anyone separated from our parish family or the Church.

Rev. Larry Van Damme
Pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in Marquette

Here also is Bishop Doerfler's public statement made a few days after the initial story hit the press.

Christ calls us to His Mission: Who is God calling you to love?

 +J. M. J. +

Draft Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension, Year A

This Sunday, in most to the United States, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Although this feast properly takes place 40 days after Easter on a Thursday, here it is transferred to Sunday. As we draw near the end of the 50 days of Easter, the momentous work of Jesus in rising from the dead is completed… first He ascends into heaven to the Father’s Right Hand, and then They breathe forth the Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Mother, and upon the Church. Without the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Easter would be incomplete.

What are we to make of the Ascension, what should we do with it? To the apostles witnessing it, it must have seemed like another disappointment… once again Jesus was leaving them, even if this time it was in victory. We know they do not yet fully understand, because their question to Jesus indicates they are still expecting an earthly kingdom, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus instead tells them about the mission with which they are being entrusted:

It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Once empowered by the Holy Spirit, they are to become Jesus’ witnesses… they are to give testimony by their lives and their word unto the ends of the earth.

If the Church has us celebrate Lent, and Holy Week, and the Easter Season, and if the Church has us celebrate the Ascension and Pentecost, it is really for the same reason that Jesus had His Apostles present at those events, for their mission is our mission.

We have walked day by day with Jesus is penance, in suffering, in His death, in His tomb, and in His glorious rising so as to be renewed, reminded, and empowered for this mission… to be His witnesses. As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we are meant to proclaim Jesus by our lives and words. Do people see Jesus in you, or in me? Do they hear Jesus when you speak, or I speak? Do they encounter God’s love and mercy and truth in us? We all need to grow in ways large and small in living this mission, and all that we have shared together since Lent began way back in March (it’s hard to remember March right now, isn’t it!), all that we’ve shared together is meant to strengthen us in this mission.

St. Paul is speaking to the Ephesians of his heartfelt desire for them, and the Church desires this for us just as much:

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe…

God hasn’t stopped working in us since that time… this isn’t just old news! I want to share with you two expressions of this mission so that we may take heart and know the hope and riches and greatness for us who believe!

On Friday morning I picked up 2 of the 8 Totus Tuus missionaries (our Diocese of Marquette Totus Tuus FB page) and brought them down to Precious Blood Parish in Stephenson where we celebrated Mass and then had lunch together before they headed for Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, MN where they will be in training until next Friday. This

program began in the late 1980’s, started by a seminarian, now a priest, of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas.

2014 Diocese of Marquette Totus Tuus Team Selfie

Teams of four college-age missionary teachers, two men and two women, travel from parish to parish putting on a weeklong program of catechesis and faith formation for all the kids K-12. Last year I recruited and organized our diocese’s first team, and this year we have two teams serving 10 different locations, including the program at Resurrection Parish in Hancock and Sacred Heart Parish in L’Anse. This program operates in dozens of dioceses around the country, and brings the faith and joy to children, families, and parishes! These young missionaries are answering Jesus’ call in a beautiful and direct way!

On another front, I just received very joyful news this week, that in August we will be receiving a mission team from FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Back in the 1990’s, Curtis Martin, had come back to the Catholic Faith after drifting away during high school and college, and he longed to help other young people come into, or back into, the life of the Church. 1n 1998 the first team of FOCUS missionaries began working on the campus of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas… this past year they served over 80 campus nationwide and have fostered the deeper conversion of tens of thousands of young people, as well as nearly 400 religious vocations! This fall they’ll be coming to work at MTU, reaching out to the hundreds of non-practicing Catholics, and the thousands of other students that God is certainly calling into the Church! The missionaries not only dedicate themselves full time for several years of service, but they also fundraise the great majority of the cost of the program!

Now… most of us here aren’t in the position to go running off as missionaries somewhere far away… but notice that the call and mission is still vibrantly alive in our midst! This call comes also to us, in whatever walk of life we find ourselves, with just as much urgency, and with just as much promise and potential. It begins with hearing, recognizing, and acknowledging the call… this mission isn’t just for specialists, its’ for you and me. Here are some concrete suggestions:

• Do you have a parent, sibling, child, or grandchild you’ve been meaning to pray for or call? How about one with whom you need to be reconciled? 
•  Have you noticed a classmate or co-worker who needs support, encouragement, or help?
•  Who has God been nudging you to invite to a parish event or to Mass?

I believe that everyone here has faces before our minds’ eye right now! These people, these faces we love, or struggle to love, are our mission. Recognizing that is the first step! This is Jesus’ call to us as He ascends into heaven… next week we will examine how He empowers us to act on this knowledge through the Fire of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus Christ will be among us once again on this altar in just moments, offering us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. May we prepare our hearts to approach this altar, and receive this Gift, holding in our hearts the faces the Lord has placed before us!

 +A. M. D. G. +

"If you love me, keep my commandments," ... or, "How wrestling shows us how to love Jesus!"

+ J. M. J. +

Draft Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

It is already the Sixth Sunday of Easter! Next Sunday, not only will it already be June, God save us all, but we will also celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, and after that, Pentecost! Our 50 days of Easter are drawing to a close, and the readings are shifting towards preparing us for the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We hear in the first reading of ministry of the Apostles, and the way that even the Samaritans received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The central mystery of our Christian Faith is the Trinity, because this mystery gives us a glimpse into the reality of God Himself, God in Himself. The mystery of the Trinity is both the hardest to think about, and the most important! However, for that reflection to bear fruit, it has to go from speculation to application in our lives!

In the Old Testament, we see God often represented as Creator, Lawgiver and Judge, but also as Husband. The most common Old Testament metaphor for God’s relationship to His People Israel is marriage… God, as it were, marries His people, takes them to Himself in fidelity and love. In calling His the Chosen People to Himself, though, God wasn’t finished!

Rublev's Trinity

In the fullness of time, God came Himself ; the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Word, took on flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ, both God and man. The Law and Word that God had spoken to His people dwelt with them as one like them in all things but sin. We can think of God the Father giving the Law, and God the Son living the law in perfect fidelity. That authentic living came to its climax in all that we celebrate in Lent and Holy Week and now Easter.

As amazing and transformative as the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ are, that’s still not it, not the end of what God has done and is doing… we’re beginning to prepare for this mysterious gift of the Holy Spirit as we hear in our readings of the Paraclete, a Greek word meaning helper, comforter, advocate. Risen from the Dead, Jesus doesn’t simply stay put back where He began with His Apostles, because soon He ascends into heaven to the Father’s Right Hand.

The Father gives the Law, the Son lives the Law, and the Holy Spirit sets the law on fire in the hearts of believers. The Holy Spirit brings the bold fire of love, of generosity, of self-control, of self-giving. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the followers of Jesus Christ, men women and children from then until now have faced every obstacle and overcome every fear, facing even death itself in martyrdom and persecution, giving of themselves in beautiful and fruitful ways.

Let me give you a simple analogy… as I think I’ve shared before, I wrestled in high school. I also ran and enjoyed track and cross-country, but not with the intensity with which I loved wrestling. Nothing I’ve done is quite so pure and distilled as stepping out onto the mat face to face with one other man. As you begin to learn how to wrestle, you start out with rules… you have to wear a headset, you can’t have long nails, you can’t have razor stubble (it’s really the only time in my life I’ve really shaved regularly). You can’t punch or hit, you can’t use a Full Nelson. Now… learning those rules, that law, is hardly the fullness of wrestling, but without it you’ve just got a brawl, a bloody fight. After the basic rules, you also have to learn the moves… don’t stand up straight, don’t lean forward too far, keep your elbows in… And you’ve got to learn the different holds, how to escape from them, etc. You drill and sweat and lift weights and run… and still you’re nowhere near the pinnacle. Once you know the rules, once you are putting them into practice… what’s make the difference between a mediocre wrestler and a great one? There has to be a spirit of competition, of not giving up, a spirit of speed and resolve. A very good wrestler has internalized the rules and moves and holds and postures, and begins to initiate and respond without even thinking.

Do you see what I’m getting at? Wrestling isn’t very important compared to life, compared to our families, compared to our work and homes and schools. But like all other sports, this basic pattern applies to life and to our Christian faith, and Jesus speaks of it in the Gospel:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.

Jesus is really straightforward… “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” That includes the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, most essentially loving God and neighbor. There’s no authentic following of Christ that ignores God’s commandments, however marketable such an idea may be. Jesus doesn’t love sin, even though He loves sinners! Jesus understands how hard it is to turn away from sin… and so he tells us of this Advocate, this Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit who is not accepted by the world, but who will remain with us and in us. We have to know the Truth, which includes the rules, we have to live them…. But that’s not all! A beautiful life, a fruitful life, involves the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit, a creativity and joy and freedom which always rejects sin, but always embraces authentic self-giving! Only in relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit can we authentically live the Law of Truth and Freedom… only with the burning power of love that the Spirit gives can we reject what is false and embrace what is true. The wrestler who spends all his time trying to figure out how to bite his opponent while the ref isn’t looking isn’t going to be much of a wrestler, though he may be a jerk! The Christian who spends a bunch of time looking for loopholes or pretending that our Loving Father doesn’t want us to stop sinning isn’t going to be a saint!

Let me close with St. Peter’s beautiful words from our second reading:

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

Do we know why we hope? Do we live hope? Can we tell others why we live filled with hope? If we haven’t received the gift and attempted to live it, we’ll never have any gift of faith to give others! We can’t do this on our own, but we can do this empowered by the Holy Spirit! In moments we’ll receive the Lord Jesus at this altar, this Infinite Gift… may we open our hearts now to receive, so that we can live, and living, give this gift to others.

+ A. M. D. G. +