INTRODUCTION: In our first reading we hear Peter’s first sermon
which was on Pentecost Sunday. Just a few weeks prior to this speech he
denied he even knew Jesus. Now he speaks out boldly about Jesus. I want to
call your attention to one little detail. We are told he stood up “with
the Eleven.” It’s one of many places in the gospels that the position of
Peter is shown as primary among the rest of the apostles. This coming week
our Holy Father, the successor of St. Peter, will make a short visit to
our country.
HOMILY: Today’s gospel is a story of discouragement and hope. We
all experience discouragements and disappointment at times throughout our
lives. We even get discouraged with God. St. Luke tells us a story today
about how two people met with discouragement after seeing how Jesus had
been put to death. They had hoped he would drive the Romans out of Israel
and restore freedom and self-government to Israel. When Jesus died their
hopes were shattered and they walked away. How often we want to walk away
from God when he doesn’t do the things we want him to.
Briefly, let us recall the events in today’s gospel. Jesus joined his two
disciples and entered into conversation with them. They didn’t recognize
him. He explained to them from the Scriptures that it was necessary for
the Messiah to suffer as he did. As evening approached they invited him to
stay with them. He did, and broke bread with them and then they recognized
him. They returned to Jerusalem to the apostles and believers.
Even when we turn our back on God, he doesn’t turn his back on us. St.
Luke wants us to know that even in our discouragement and disappointment
we are not alone. We may not recognize God’s presence as we go. But it’s
there. Most of us remember the poem that was very popular a few years ago:
footprints in the sand. He promised us: “I will be with you always.”
St. Luke is telling us also that in hard times, the Scriptures can throw
new light on the difficulties we are having. Jesus helped his two
disciples to understand the Scriptures better, renewing their hope. As
they said “Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us on the
way and opened the Scriptures to us.” I can’t count how many times that
has happened to me that when I felt discouraged, God’s word lifted my
spirits. God’s word is always a word that gives hope.
As the story goes on, the disciples invited Jesus to stay with them
longer. What was happening there? Did they, for a moment, forget about
their own sadness to think about the safety of this stranger? Travel in
those days was dangerous, especially to travel by oneself. Or was Jesus
beginning to get through to them and they didn’t want their time with him
to come to an end? For whatever reason they asked him to stay longer.
Before they knew it, Jesus was breaking bread with them and suddenly they
recognized Jesus and they knew he was alive. Luke doesn’t really tell us
this was a Eucharist, but notice the words Luke uses to describe what
Jesus did: Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it
to them. These are the same gestures St. Luke used to describe what Jesus
did at the Last Supper. Furthermore, whenever St. Luke always refers to
the Eucharist in the Acts of the Apostles, (the other book he wrote) he
call it the Breaking of the Bread. If it wasn’t a Eucharist Jesus did with
the two disciples, St. Luke certainly has this in mind when he tells us
this is when the disciples recognized who they had been talking to all
this time.
There is one last piece to this story, the two disciples returned to
community of believers. They had given up their hope in Jesus as the
savior of God’s people and they walked away from the community of those
still gathered in Jerusalem who believed in him. Their encounter with
Christ on the road, in the Scriptures, in the hospitality they offered
him, in the breaking of bread restored all their hope and joy. And they
came back to the Church, the community of believers they had left. It is
there they would continue to remain united with Christ.
When disappointment fills our lives with sadness and darkness, we can let
it consume us or we can let God help us find light and healing, for God is
our only hope.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 13, 2008
Modern shepherds often control their sheep with dogs, horses, pick-up
trucks or other advanced technological methods. Shepherds in the ancient
world didn’t have such methods and they guarded and guided their sheep
themselves. Shepherds make their living caring for sheep and, since sheep
require full time care, they were together almost constantly with their
sheep. Old time shepherds gave each lamb its own name just as we give
names to our pets. Like our pets recognize our voice and come running when
we call them, unless they’re cats, which are very independent, so also the
sheep came running when their shepherd called.
Even though we do not see real sheep and shepherds very often, still the
image of the good shepherd is one of the most comforting images in the
Scriptures. The best remembered and loved psalm of all 150 psalms is Psalm
23: “The Lord is my shepherd.” It symbolizes God’s protection and care and
guidance. But there are two sides to that coin. If he is to be our
shepherd and protector, he expects that we will follow him. We will hear
his voice.
A second image Jesus used in today’s gospel is that he is the gate of the
sheepfold. Whoever goes in and out through him will be safe and find
pasture. Gates serve the same function as doors. Think of how important
doors are. They let us in our homes where we find safety and family. They
let us go out so we can meet friends or make a living or buy things we
need or do something fun. They close out people who shouldn’t be there.
Jesus is telling us as doors and gates are important so is he. When he is
part of our comings and goings, when we make him central in our lives,
when we ask his blessing on all our activities, our life will be secure
and our happiness will be ensured.
Does this mean nothing bad will ever happen if we follow Christ? If it
were true that if we do everything God wants, God would do everything we
want, church would be packed every week. I know there are rewards in this
life when we stay faithful to him. I have certainly tried to stay on God’s
good side and God has been very good to me, but as we all know bad things
do happen to good people. Even many of Jesus’ good friends suffered, some
were even tortured and put to death as Jesus was. But it’s not just to
protect us in this world that Jesus came. The last verse in today’s gospel
is one of my favorites. Jesus said “I came so that they might have life
and have it more abundantly.” Or as it’s sometimes translated: “I came so
that they might have life and have it to the full.” When people ask why
Jesus doesn’t keep bad things from happening to those who are faithful to
him, perhaps one answer could be that life in this world is not where the
abundant life really is. Even if we have looks, popularity, health,
wealth, youth, wisdom and everything else our hearts desire, we don’t
“have it all.” We’ll always feel some emptiness in our hearts, we’ll never
be totally satisfied, because our hearts were made for perfect union with
God, and we won’t know what that’s like until we get to heaven. Our faith
is that’s where Christ our shepherd wants to lead us and that’s why he
came to us.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2008
INTRODUCTION
Three weeks ago we heard St. Luke tell us in the Acts of the Apostles how
the first Christians got along so beautifully. They devoted themselves to
prayer and instruction from the Apostles and generously shared their
material possessions so that no one was in need among them. As the
community grew, so did the problems. The first Christians were probably
conservative Jews from around Jerusalem who spoke Hebrew or Aramaic. They
were culturally and traditionally different from converted Jews who lived
in other parts of the Roman Empire and who spoke the common language of
the day, Greek. They are referred to in today’s first reading as the
Hellenists. Besides this cultural difference, there were economic issues.
Widows in those days were entirely dependent on the community for their
basic needs. The Hellenists, those who spoke Greek, complained that their
widows were being discriminated against when food was being given out at
Christian gatherings. The Apostles felt their role was not to give out
food but to stay focused on prayer and preaching so they solved the
problem by creating a new office in the Church, the diaconate.
HOMILY
Our gospel reading puts us at the Last Supper with Jesus and the Apostles.
Jesus knew that the Apostles’ world would soon be turned upside down. In
spite of repeated warnings, the Apostles were not ready for what was going
to take place once they left the Supper room. So he gave them one last
word of wisdom: “don’t be troubled, don’t be afraid, just trust me.” What
an order! In spite of Jesus’ words not to be troubled, they were
devastated after he was arrested and put to death. If Jesus’ words at that
time did not give much comfort to the Apostles, they have been giving
comfort in times of suffering to all the rest of us for the past 2000
years. They are reflected in a very popular hymn: “Be not afraid.”
Jesus describes to them why they should not be troubled or afraid: because
there would be a better life ahead for them and he was going away to
prepare a place for them so they could be with him forever. He told them
there were many “dwelling places” in his Father’s house. Sometimes the
word “dwelling places” is translated “mansions.” We have to carefully
understand just what Jesus is saying here. Too often we interpret his
words in a materialistic way, thinking of multi-million dollar homes we
will have in heaven as a reward for being good. Some people may even
picture a Mercedes in the garage, a pool in the back yard, a well-stocked
wine cellar in the basement and 70 virgins waiting to meet them. This kind
of a vision reduced happiness to sheer materialism and that is not what
happiness with God will be all about. The Greek word translated as
“dwelling place” does not mean “mansion.” The word puts emphasis, not so
much on a building or structure, as on the act of staying or dwelling.
Reading further on in John’s gospel we learn that the “Father’s house”
where Jesus is going and where there are many “dwelling places” is really
to be understood as the experience of communion with God and with Jesus
and being able to share in God's glory. This will be a source of joy that
is greater than anything we can know in this world. This may be a
disheartening thought for those who are looking for material rewards or
untold physical pleasures.
St. Paul tells us “What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought
could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.”
(Translation: Good News Bible – I Cor 2,9) What’s ahead for us is beyond
our understanding. True, Jesus did use images we could understand to give
us a hint of what heaven would be like. Heaven is like a hidden treasure,
a pearl of great worth, a wedding banquet a king has for his son, a place
without sadness or suffering or death. His examples can be very comforting
to think about and can motivate us to live a holy life. What is more
important to think about, though, is not what we’ll find when we enter
into the next life as the way that leads there. It’s of major importance
because if we don’t go the right way, we won’t end up in the right place.
Our culture today tells us it doesn’t matter what way we follow, we’ll all
end up in the same place. That’s not what Jesus tells us. Jesus tells us
today “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” He is not only the way, but also the truth. Contrary
to founders of certain different religions who have told their followers
they have found the truth, Jesus goes further and tells us he is the
truth! It is in him, in Jesus, we will see the glory of God as he tells
Philip today. When Philip asked to be able to see the Father, Philip was
thinking as we often do, that somehow God is hiding somewhere and if he
would only show himself to us we would be happy. We don’t realize how much
he wants us to see him and know him, to share his life and to know his
joy. God is not made of material things. He can’t come out of hiding
because he is not hiding from us. He is all around us, but we can only
know him through a faith that fills our minds and hearts, and Jesus has
pointed that way of faith out to us.
While I was praying the other day, the image of Jesus as a compass came to
mind. A compass always points north. I don’t understand exactly how
magnetism works, but I know if I follow the way it points, it will not
mislead me. I don’t understand God perfectly either, because God is
infinite and the infinite is too great for my finite mind. But I trust in
Jesus, and I know that if I follow the way he points, he will not mislead
me. He is the way, the truth and the life.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2008
INTRODUCTION:
Last week, in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard
about the institution of the diaconate, a word that comes from the Greek
which means “service.” Seven men were chosen by the community to care for
the needs of the poor. In a short time, the first deacons did more than
simply care for the poor. We have all heard of St. Stephen who became such
a convincing preacher that his enemies killed him. He was the first
martyr, a word that comes from the Greek that means witness. Today we hear
about another of the original deacons, Philip. He too became a powerful
healer and preacher and baptized many people into the faith of Christ.
Baptizing continues to be part of the ministry of a deacon.
HOMILY
In today’s gospel Jesus is talking with his Apostles at the Last Supper.
He was trying to prepare them, as best he could, for the shock and trauma
they would go through when he would be arrested and crucified. He had just
told them, as we heard last Sunday, that he was going to go to get a place
ready for them in his Father’s home, then he would come to take them with
him so they would be with him always. In today’s gospel he tells them
that, although he is leaving them for a time, he would not abandon them.
First of all, he would give them another Advocate. (The Greek word here
for Advocate is παράκλητος which is hard to translate). Often it is left
untranslated and is put into English as paraclete. When translators try to
translate it, they use words like “Advocate,” “Comforter,” “Intercessor,”
“Helper,” “Mediator.” It means, basically, someone who will support you,
stand up for you, or stand by your side to help you. Of course, Jesus was
referring to the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not planning on leaving them with
a substitute for himself for he said to them: “I will not leave you
orphans. I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer
see me, but you will see me…” In other words, the Holy Spirit would be
with them in addition to Jesus, but Jesus would be with them in a new way,
a way they would know only through the help of the Spirit.
There are so many themes packed into today’s readings, and I can only
touch on a few of these ideas. One of the important themes is love. It is
out of love that Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. From the beginning he has
loved us and he asks only for our love in return. In our gospel today he
gives us a criterion to keep us from thinking love is just a matter of
having warm, fuzzy feelings toward him. The test of true love for Jesus is
to do his will, just as he has always done the will of the Father. “If you
love me, you will keep my commandments.” He says it twice in today’s short
gospel. In other words, love is measured more by what we do than by what
we feel! I have found that to be such a hard message to get across to
people. The attitude so many people have is: if they don’t feel it, they
don’t think it is. It’s not that feelings are bad. Having warm, loving
feelings toward God or toward others is wonderful. But love has to go
beyond just feelings or it’s just superficial. Anyone who’s married knows
that!
Jesus describes the work of the Holy Spirit in numerous ways. Here he
mentions two things about the Spirit: he tells us the Spirit will be with
us always and he calls the Spirit the Spirit of Truth. I want to end with
a little story I read recently. The partners at a huge New York law firm
were discussing their most lucrative – and controversial – client: a
gigantic chemical company. The managing partner summed up the situation:
“Their billings are in excess of $100 million a year, and they pay like
clockwork. But for that, can we justify defending them against polluting
rivers and lakes, unlawful toxic dump sites and emitting poisonous gasses
into the atmosphere?” Everyone on the board was silent until the senior
partner spoke up. “You’re right, entirely right. We should raise our
fees.”
Too often, life is like that. We use all kinds of defense mechanisms,
rationalizations, justifications, denials, projections, etc. to avoid
dealing with the truth. Jesus called the Paraclete the Spirit of Truth.
Facing the truth without regard for profit, power, comfort, convention or
popularity takes courage and help from the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit of
Truth Christ gives us guide us to recognize the wisdom in his commands to
us and to know his loving presence with us as we come to the Eucharist
today. He is with us always; we have his word on that.
