Easter: Peace - Homily for April 15

Readings for Sunday, April 15 / 3rd Sunday of Easter: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19  |  Psalm 4  |  1 John 2:1-5 |  Luke 24:35-48

Christ comes to bring us the fruits of the Resurrection: peace. May His presence and grace fill us with this gift always. 

Life! - Homilies for the Sacred Paschal Triduum

Readings for Thursday, March 29 / Holy Thursday: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14  |  Psalm 116  |  1 Corinthians 11:23-26  |  John 13:1-15


Readings for Friday, March 30 / Good Friday: Isaiah 52:13-53:12  |  Psalm 31  |  Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9  |  John 18:1-19:42


Readings for Sunday, April 1 / Easter Sunday: Acts 10:34, 37-43  |  Pslam 118  |  Colossians 3:1-4  |  John 20:1-9

Where's Your Coffin?

Readings for Sunday, June 5/ 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
1 Kings 17:17-24
Psalm 30
Galatians 1:11-19
Luke 7:11-17

It’s nice to be back in green! I don’t know about you, but one of the things I enjoy about the liturgical year is that each season goes on just long enough to make me look forward to the next one. And so it is with joy that I vest today in the vibrant green of ordinary time. We pick up, and will continue until November, reading the Gospel of St. Luke. He is the only Gentile (non-Jewish) writer of the four Gospels and so he focuses often on the outreach of Jesus to those who were on the periphery of society, the outcasts, and the most vulnerable. This would have included the Gentile peoples, but also included women in general, widows, orphans, and those with disease or major affliction. So it is appropriate that we pick up here this weekend with the story of Jesus raising up the son of a widow. And it is appropriate, too, that it is prefaced with the story of Elijah.

As you may recall, the Jewish people was a faith but also an ethnic group – their faith was the nationality – and their oral culture was steeped in the telling of their stories. The people were so well-versed in their history that, despite the lack of books, they knew the major people of their culture and the stories that accompanied them. The Church gives us the reading for Elijah to help us prepare ourselves for the encounter with Jesus. Elijah, we hear, goes to stay at the home of a widow in Zarephath. The prophets were not desirable folks to be around because their presence often was accompanied by great works but also terrible trials. The prophets very frequently bore bad news to the Israelites since the people often fell away from the Law of God, and this was not well received. It is with this stigma that Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, comes into the scene. He stays at the widow’s home and right on cue, the terrible things begin to surround him in the form of the sickness and death of the son of the widow. She immediately arrives at the conclusion that it is because Elijah has come that her son has died and tells him such rather bluntly. In response Elijah takes her son, goes up to the room where he stayed, prayed three times as he extended himself over the boy in prayer, invoking the Lord to bring the boy back to life. In response to his prayer, the boy is revived and he is brought back to his mother and she exclaims joyfully that Elijah is truly a man of God, that rather than a curse, he has brought great blessing.

With this as our backdrop, we return to the story of the Lord. We see Him into the city of Nain with a large group following, when He comes across a funeral procession. A funeral procession was something of great importance in that time, with many people joining in the journey and even professional ‘wailers’ who would come to lament and cry out in sorrow on behalf of the deceased and their family. Unlike the majority of such scenarios, when a person from the crowd approaches Him with some plea for help or a disciple makes someone’s need known to Him, here the Lord sees the woman in great sorrow and His heart is pierced with pity for her. He knows that she is a widow and that this is her only son. She would now be completely vulnerable and unable to care for herself, requiring others to provide for her for the rest of her days. It would have been kind of the Lord to go up to her and to assure her of the salvation of her son, or to call to mind the life of the world to come, or to give some charitable donation to her from his pocket. And yet He doesn’t. He tells her “Do not weep” and proceeds to the coffin, where He touches it and says to the young man, “I tell you, arise!” The boy rises and begins to speak and the Lord gives him back to his mother. Instead of a kind word or some assurance of faith, He raises the son from the dead! The people respond with two different acclamations. The first recalls the story of Elijah, as the crowd says “A great prophet has arisen in our midst.” They acknowledge the similarity between the two occasions and connect the dots that Jesus is a great prophet, one who speaks the word of God. But the difference between the two is in the second response: “God has visited his people.” Elijah had to call out to the Lord to ask for the boy to be raised but Jesus simply commands it. Elijah is a man of God, but Jesus is God himself – the God who has visited his people. The people see it and are in awe.

The occasion is one in which the Lord shows mercy to a widow as well as reveals Himself as God and man. He showed the people that God was with them, walking among them. Furthermore, He walked up and touched the coffin, which was something that was not to be done. To touch the dead was to be rendered ritually unclean and thus unable to enter the Temple and worship, as well as unable to touch others, lest they too become unclean. And yet He reaches out to that thing which ought not to be touched and with his presence He brings the boy back to life. And He wants to do the same to us.

So the question is: where is your coffin? Where is that place in your life that Jesus ‘shouldn’t touch’, that place where Jesus ought not to go because He’s not supposed to. A place of pain, shame or fear, that thing which we wish would be revived in us but that we don’t even normally think to bring before the Lord Jesus. That’s the place the Lord wants to come to touch when we come to Mass. He does just as He did in the Gospel and comes to us on the altar and then descends to us without being called upon in order to touch us, to raise us to life. So ask for the grace to know where it is that you need the Lord’s touch today, where we need new life, new hope. And bring it before Him today, that we too might be able to rejoice and say that truly “God has visited his people.”

UNITY and YOU

Readings for Sunday, June 8/ Pentecost Sunday:
Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

Today we gather to celebrate a feast that has roots dating back well over 3000 years. That’s right 3000. We often forget that our Catholic faith didn’t just spring up out of nowhere but instead is firmly rooted in – and is the fulfillment of – the Jewish faith until the time of Christ. Our architecture, worship, teachings, are all intimately tied together. In Jewish life Pentecost was a day that God marked out seven weeks after Passover (50 days is what Pentecost indicates) for the people to turn to Him in thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth that had grown in the recent weeks. In like style, our Christian faith also turns to God 50 days after the New Passover of Easter and gives thanks to God once more, not for earthly fruits but for the fruit of the Holy Spirit who has made His dwelling among us.

In liturgical observance, we often think that the two most important feasts of the year are Christmas and Easter, but the truth is that Pentecost is more important that Christmas. It makes sense that Easter is first in rank because that is the day when Jesus conquered sin and death and opened the gates of Heaven for us. Without Easter, we all go to Hell. That’s why we sing ALLELUIA just about every other word during the Easter Vigil and all throughout the Easter season. But as we know, things didn’t just stop at Easter. The Lord Ascended into Heavenly glory, which we celebrated last weekend, and sent among us the gift of the Holy Spirit. What would have happened, you think, if Jesus gave us the great commission to baptize the nations and teach them to do all He had commanded and didn’t give us any help in carrying it out? I bet the gates of hell would have prevailed against the Church before Peter had every stepped foot out of the upper room! Without the Holy Spirit coming to us, we are as good as dead. We have no hope of doing anything good or holy because we wouldn’t have He who is holiness itself in our hearts. Pentecost means we are not alone. God is with us! Even in our very heart!

The fact that the Spirit is with us means that we are now able to carry out the mission begun by Jesus. That mission was basically to draw all of humanity to the Father. Jesus is like a big magnet who seeks to draw all people to Himself and hoist us up into the Trinitarian embrace of Love; it was about uniting us all together and going as one body to God the Father.

In the Vigil Mass yesterday we heard recounted the story of Babel from Genesis; that ancient story that explains the division of peoples. The story explains that everyone initially spoke the same language and in their pride they sought to make a name for themselves, saying, “otherwise we shall be scattered over all the earth.” They relied upon themselves rather than trusting that God wanted to do great things for them if they were humble. It was pride. Adam and Eve were the first but certainly not the last to commit it. And because they relied upon themselves rather than the Lord, they were made to speak different languages and scattered over all the earth, just as they had sought to avoid. Sin and self-seeking sows division.

In our first reading today we hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the disciples were gathered together in one place. This is significant because during the Passion of Christ they were all scattered and went their own way. But as they began to reflect afterward, they began thinking about the Lord and the promises that He had made and each began to come back to that place where Christ wanted to show them His power. They focused not on themselves but on God and were naturally drawn into union – all in the same place.

So if the mission of Jesus was to bring about unity in the world and to bring us together as one body before the Father, how are we doing? What ways are you and I actively promoting unity in our community and in the larger Church?

I can think of three ways to help us in this task: conversion of heart, thinking in the plural, and highlighting the good.

In the Gospel we just heard the Lord Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to the disciples. This was the first thing He did after the Resurrection, so that means it is of the utmost importance. Are we taking advantage of that gift? In order to build up unity and draw others to God, we must first be drawn to Him ourselves. Christ is calling us to come to reconciliation and experience the forgiveness of sins that takes away all barriers between us and the Lord and makes us conduits of grace for Him to work to reach others. A practical schedule that all of us ought to keep is to make a good confession at least once a month, to attend Mass at least once a week, and to spend time in prayer at least once a day. It is easy to find reasons not to do those things in that schedule, but if you do, you won’t regret it.

The second step is thinking in the plural. Our first step is to encounter Jesus and have the ‘me & Jesus’ moment that continually changes our hearts, but we cannot stop there. If my whole spiritual journey is ‘me & Jesus’ then our journey will end not at the pearly gates but the fire pit because our faith necessary requires us to reach out to others. ‘Whatever you do for the least of these you do to me’ means that we have to think of others and put the needs of others before our own sometimes. The perfect prayer given by Jesus reminds us of that same fact in that it begins ‘OUR Father’. We have to think not I/Me/My but Us/We/Ours and to do our best to work for the good of all and not just what benefits us most in the moment.

The third thing is to highlight the good. A couple of years ago Fr. Ronal Knott gave our continuing education conference for the priests and he was talking about factions and rifts among clergy and how easy it is to talk bad about other priests. He then challenged us not simply to avoid bad-mouthing brother priests, but to actually do some good-mouthing. That struck me because 1) is good-mouthing even a word?! And 2) how difficult is it to say something positive about others who you may not like?! All of us are members of the Body of Christ and have spiritual gifts and strengths, and even those who aren’t part of the Body of Christ yet still have some gift that builds up the world around them. Are we willing not just to avoid saying bad but to actually emphasize good things about others? To point out places where we agree rather than disagree? To list strengths and improvements instead of weaknesses and failures? We are all part of the same Body. Why not rejoice in the good that each part does and so spur the whole body forward to the glory that awaits us?

To celebrate Pentecost is not just to recall an event that happened 2000 years ago. It is to realize that the Spirit lives in us even today and seeks to continue the saving mission of Jesus in uniting all people to the Father. We have a mission and, thanks be to God, we have the gift of the Spirit to strengthen us in it. So let us thank the Lord for His love shown to us and to pray that we might be drawn ever more closely to God and many others with us.

Reality Changes Everything

He Is Risen As He Said, Alleluia.

Readings for April 20/ Easter Sunday:
Acts 10:34, 37-43
Psalm 118:2, 16-17, 22-23
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
John 20:1-9

CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!

What great to be able to say those blessed words. For over 40 days we have been journeying with the Lord Jesus in the desert. We have fasted and abstained, prayed more intensely, offered sacrifices and mortifications. For weeks have had heeded more purposely the call to conversion of our hearts by becoming aware of our sins and need for the grace of the Lord. And today we have the fulfillment of all of that work in the glory of the Resurrection. Today Jesus destroys death and sin, He conquers everything that is not Godly, and He has arisen. He is alive. The question that we ought to pause to reflect upon today is this: Do we really believe this? 

My dear friends, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead changes everything.

Often in our culture today we hear people talk about the Resurrection like it's just another ancient mythical story to try to make sense of this life, but the thing is that while in all of the other ancient religious cultures those stories were written but understood to be false, the story of Jesus is written and understood by to be absolutely true. It's not a story to make us feel good. It's not a new rendition of an older tale. It is something entirely different and entirely new. The Gospel accounts don't believe with "Once upon a time..." or "In a galaxy far, far away...." They begin with names, dates, place, specifics that can be verified. We can go there today and see the place where Jesus was born, the place He healed specific individuals, the place where He ate the Last Supper, the place where He died on the Cross. The writings of the New Testament are not just a bunch of guys that wrote a really powerful story. They describe themselves as witnesses. St. John in his first letter begins by saying, "What we have seen, what we have heard, what we have touched with our own hands..." to describe his relationship with the Lord Jesus.

St. Paul Miki & Japanese Martyrs

I guess we could be even more blunt and say simply that people don't suffer and die for fairytales and myths. Nobody is offering their back to be beaten on account of Cinderella, the Roman God Zeus, or some other ancient deity. But for the Lord Jesus they continue to do it even down to today. In my estimation St. Paul gives us one of the most powerful testimonies in the Second Letter to the Corinthians when he recounts his list of sufferings: 5 times he received 39 lashes, 3 times he was beaten with rods, he was stoned on one occasion, shipwrecked thrice, left alone a day and a night on the sea, endured persecution from Jews and Gentiles both, and endured hunger, pain, toil, cold, sleeplessness, and homelessness all for the sake of spreading the Gospel. You don't do that for a story that isn't true. 

The story of Easter Sunday isn't just for us to come and feel good for a few hours today, eat some chocolate, and enjoy whatever activities we partake in this afternoon. It is a call to conversion and to turn definitely away from sin, death, and anything which separates us from Jesus Christ. It is a call to allow the joy of the Resurrection to be something that pervades every moment of the day. It is a call to let Jesus Christ be the true focus in the midst of all that we do; not to let Him be a piece of the pie of our life but to be the crust on which everything else is built. It is a call to call to let this moment be stretched into eternity, to live Easter joy every day and to share that with the world just like the Apostles. Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia! Do we really believe?

Waterfalls and Stinky Tombs

Me (in yellow shorts) making the leap!

Readings for Sunday, April 6/ 5th Sunday of Lent:
Ezekiel 37:12-14
Psalm 130:1-8
Romans 8:8-11
John 11:1-45

I’ve never been a very adventurous individual. I generally try to keep safe, not do crazy things and keep my bones and brain intact. But as a seminarian working at a boys wilderness camp, this reserved nature of mine was pushed and challenged almost daily to do things that were way outside my comfort zone. One such thing was jumping off of waterfalls or high cliffs into rivers or lakes below. I’m not a fan of heights to start with, but then I just knew that as soon as I jumped off a thirty foot ledge into the water I would hit an unseen rock or tree and they’d have to let my parents know that I wouldn’t be coming home…ever. But this didn’t stop the rest of the guys at the camp. As I sat and watched them guys jump fearlessly into the water below and come up just fine, my courage began to increase and eventually I was able to make the jump myself. The thing was that in order to do something a bit crazy by my logic, I had to have some help to make the leap of faith.

In the Scriptures God continually promises us all sorts of absurd things. He told us in our first reading: “I will open your graves and have you rise from them.” If that’s not crazy, I don’t know what is. And yet it’s one of the many things God invites us to believe in, but He also gives us that help we often need in making the leap by showing us glimpses of what is to come. This is what the story of Lazarus is for us today.

When I was praying with the Gospel it struck me as odd the way Jesus responded to the news of Lazarus’ illness. John tells us that, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where He was.” He remained for two days in the place where He was!? That sure doesn’t sound like love. Love would seem instead to drop everything and run quickly to Lazarus’ aid, and yet that’s not the case. God’s ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. The love for Lazarus and his sisters, as well as the others with them, is characterized not in Jesus’ resuscitation of Lazarus so much as the timing of the resuscitation. Jesus waits two days, probably travels on the third, and arrives on the fourth (Lazarus had been in the tomb four days we’re told) so that He could show the people present that even what seems to be impossible to bring back to life (there will be a stench, Lord!) He could raise up again. It was an opportunity and invitation to embrace faith in a new, deeper way.

Icon of Christ raising Lazarus

We see this in the words that Jesus Himself speaks. When the news first arrives He says, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God.” It was for the glory of God because people would shortly glorify God because they would believe in the Son He had sent. Again to the Apostles He says, “I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe.” He basically said, “I’m glad Lazarus died, because now I can show you what I am really capable of!” And if that is not enough, He says it even more explicitly as He stands at the entrance to the tomb and lifts up His voice to the Father, saying, “because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus let Lazarus die in order to evoke faith from the individuals present, most especially Martha and Mary.

Each week we profess our faith and we profess that we believe in the Resurrection of the Body and we say that not just in reference to Jesus, but also to ourselves, that you and I will have bodies in the next life too and they will be even more glorious than the ones we have now! As difficult as that can be to understand, we profess faith in it. But the deeper question is where is the Lazarus experience in your life? Where in your life, in that of your spouse, your children, coworker or friend is the place where it seems like God has left someone for dead? Where is the place where you in your pain want to cry out with Martha and Mary, ‘Lord, if you had been here things wouldn’t be like this!’ and are frustrated because of the stench of the tomb, that it's too late to be fixed? That is the place Jesus wants to come to today, to that place of pain and suffering, grief and loss. He wants to come there because He wants to invite us to take a new leap of faith. Do we believe? Do we really believe the Lord wants it and can do it? Or are we waiting for another sign to show us that it’s safe to jump?

Lord Jesus, increase my faith!