Don't Stay in the Upper Room

Pentecost

In 1217 a man named Domingo did the unthinkable.  It was less than a year earlier that his small group of companions, along with a convent of nuns, had been approved by Pope Honorius III as the newest religious order in the Church.  But, even though he only had 16 mobile members in this new religious order, he sent them out: some to Spain, some in France, and some to Italy.  The other members of his small group of companions objected to this radical move.  They needed more members before they could spread out so much!  But Domingo insisted, stating that seeds that are kept in a container rot; only seeds that are scattered and sown can create new life in the ground.  These sixteen companions, along with the convent of nuns, was the beginning of what is known better today as the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans.  Domingo is the Spanish way of saying Dominic.

Today as we celebrate Pentecost, we go back to the group of disciples, some 170 people, who were crammed into the upper room (I’ve been there; 170 people would have been very tight!!).  Throughout the Easter Season we have heard about the disciples and the apostles.  They were scared, much like the first Dominicans would be some 1200 years later.  We heard about the Lord appearing in their very midst in the upper room, though the doors were locked for fear of the Jews.  They see Jesus, and yet, they are afraid.  They stayed in that upper room for some time, and even after having seen Jesus numerous times, they didn’t know what to do.  St. John records an account of Peter and the apostles deciding to go fishing, sometime after they had seen Jesus twice.  Even after seeing the Risen Jesus twice, they still don’t know what to do.  They are held back by their former way of life.  But then Jesus tells them to cast their nets over on the other side, and they catch 153 fish, one representing each known nation at that time.  John recognizes Jesus, and Peter, always the impetuous one, jumps in and swims to shore to see his Master.  It is then that Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”, foretells Peter’s martyrdom, and then tells Peter to follow Him.  

But even after the Ascension, the disciples are in the upper room again.  They are obedient to Jesus, waiting for His promised gift of the Spirit, but they are there in the room.  It is then that the first Christian Pentecost (it was already a Jewish feast) happens, and the Holy Spirit moves the apostles outside of the upper room and leads them to proclaim the Risen Jesus, the importance of Baptism, and the call to a new life through conversion to all they meet.  The Holy Spirit is the catalyst that gets the apostles out of their comfort zone, out of their past, and into their future as evangelists.  The Holy Spirit gives them courage to conquer their fears and trust in Jesus.

On Memorial Day we remember and honor those who were not held back by their fears.  I’m sure that there were some soldiers in our military who were never afraid.  Perhaps this was a special gift; perhaps it was just rashness.  But I would guess that most soldiers, especially as they engaged in battle, had some fear.  That is natural.  It is part of how we usually stay alive.  And yet, for the greater good of God and country, they fought to protect those whom they served, to defend our freedom, and to defeat those who sought to do these United States harm.  They did not let their fears hold them back.  They acted with courage, even when it meant laying down their life.  What a precious gift they gave us, and it is right and just that we remember them.

But we are all called to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to move us beyond our fears.  We may not necessarily go into battle with earthly forces, but the Holy Spirit wants to give us the gift of courage, to fight the fears in our lives that seek to keep us in a room.  Few have mentioned it to me, but I’m sure there are some fears with working with St. Mary for religious education, if for no other reason than this is new (at least in this iteration); I know that some of you are afraid because of your own poor health, or the poor health of those you love; I know that some of you are afraid because of the loss of a job, or a new job which is going to call for new gifts; some of you are afraid for the future of your children or grandchildren in their life of faith, and in their financial stability.  Allow the Holy Spirit to bring you out of that room of fear and have confidence that the Holy Spirit will take care of you.

Our 9th grade students received the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit in a new and powerful way at their confirmation this past Tuesday.  One of those gifts is courage.  They will need it, because living as a faithful Catholic is becoming more and more difficult, at least in certain teachings that we have about life, marriage, and truth.  But we need courage, too, to proclaim Jesus as Risen and the Church as His Mystical Body.  We need to courage to try new things, maybe a Bible study or a faith sharing small group.  We need courage to be evangelists in an age where it is much easier to hunker down and hope that we can survive this current time of antagonism to the Church.  

Whatever keeps you in the upper room of fear, today God wants to give you a gift of the Holy Spirit to allow you to proclaim, like the apostles, that Jesus is Lord and that we are called to change our lives to conform to His because Jesus shows us how to be truly happy.  Together now, let us pray for that gift of the Spirit to fill us and give us courage to be, like St. Dominic, an evangelist in the way that God calls us.  Come, Holy Spirit…

"Inconceivable!"

Sixth Sunday of Easter

There are many great movies, but one of the great movies is “The Princess Bride.”  It’s a clean movie, a love story, with an all-star cast including Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, Peter Falk, and Billy Crystal.  It’s a love story with action, adventure, pirates, international characters, and a little bit of kissing.  It has a cult following, and many people, especially around my age, can quote you lines from the movie like it’s nobody’s business; lines like, “Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?” “If there are, we all be dead.” “No more rhymes now, I mean it.”  “Anybody want a peanut?”; or “Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”; or one of Billy Crystal’s lines, “It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead.  There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.  Mostly dead is slightly alive.  With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” “What’s that?” “Go through his clothes and look for loose change.”; and, saving one of the best for last, and the one that will get this homily going again rather than just a reading of quotes from “The Princess Bride”: “Inconceivable!” “You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Today we hear a word that we say a lot, but I wonder if we know what it truly means.  That word is “love.”  We heard it a lot in our second reading: 

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God….In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world…In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.

And in our Gospel today we hear about Jesus’ love for us, how He desires us to remain in His love.  And we hear the commandment of the New Testament: “‘love one another as I love you.’”  That’s a lot of love!!  We use the word “love” a lot.  I think we need someone to say to us sometimes: you keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

We hear all sorts of ideas of what love is: love is a feeling; love is an emotion; love is never having to say you’re sorry; love is never wanting to be with someone else; and the list goes on and on.  There are different types of love, of course.  And maybe some of our confusion comes from the fact that in English we use one word, “love,” to express the way we feel about parents, spouses, friends, sports teams, and food.  Other languages, especially ancient ones, had different words to express the different types of love.  It doesn’t take a philosopher to know that we shouldn’t love our mothers, whom we celebrate today, with the same love we have for pizza.  

We often put love into the context of an emotion or feeling.  But love is truly an act of the will.  We can choose to love or not love.  We may not be able to choose our attractions, but we can choose to love.  When we make love simply an emotion or a feeling, we divorce love from truth, with tragic consequences.  Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in veritate, “Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity…it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion.  Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality.  Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.”  Love becomes whatever we want it to be, and can be expressed however we want it to be.  When we try to redefine love without truth, pain comes.  How many TV shows and movies geared towards teens show a young woman who is suffering emotional torment because a young man told her that he loved her, just for a one-night stand.  Once the fling passed, he was free to go away, leaving a wake of sorrow and the death of the soul.

On this Mother’s Day, we give thanks to God that our mothers didn’t treat love as an emotion or devoid from truth.  I’m not a mother.  But I know there were days when my mother was not thrilled with my sisters’ behavior (I was always the perfect child, remember).  I’m sure there were times when she had no warm, fuzzy feelings.  And yet, the truth remained that she was our mother, and that truth carried her through when the feelings were momentarily gone.  Another example of love is when a single mother has to work two jobs just to make ends meet, and has to miss games and concerts and plays so that there’s food on the table, even though she would rather be with her children seeing them succeed.  A mother’s love is meant to show us something of God’s love, since God is the source of motherhood (and fatherhood).  Jesus Himself spoke about His love for Jerusalem in the image of a mother hen.  That love, the love of God, is connected with truth, and is not based upon the whims of culture or feeling.  Love, connected with truth, is doing what is best for the other, even when it is painful.   

Sometimes we have to make sure that we really understand what love is.  We know that Jesus calls us to love one another, but that doesn’t mean that anything goes.  Our mothers know that all too well, and have tried to teach us that.  Our understanding of love should be based on the Word of God, not on a passing culture, so that we can truly love one another as God loves us.  

Staying on the Vine

Fifth Sunday of Easter

While I know that we have two families who grows grapes in our parish, I’m not sure that we have many more.  So when Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches, it might not strike us as much as it struck the apostles who were listening to Him in the upper room.  They were, undoubtedly, familiar with how we go from grapes in the field to the wine at their table.  We, like with much of our food, are more often than not removed from the process, and just go to Meijer, Country Market, or Wal-Mart to get the finished product, whatever it is.

But even though we’re not as familiar with grapes and grape vines, we are probably familiar with Maple trees.  Now that it’s Spring it’s beautiful to see the Maple trees starting to have leaves once again.  And in the Fall I was in awe at the beauty of the yellows, oranges, and reds of the leaves.  Of course, I didn’t have to rake them up after they fell.  But we know what happens if you cut a branch off a Maple tree: the branch dies (just like the branch from the grape vine).  Sometimes you can see even when a branch has died but remains on the tree: there are no more leaves, no more beauty, and you have to be careful for when the rotting wood finally collapses under its own weight and falls to the ground.

We need Jesus to live.  That’s true not only in the absolute sense (without Jesus willing us to exist at every moment, we would simply cease to be and would disappear), but also in the sense that Jesus makes our daily life better.  Being in a relationship with Jesus is meant to change who we are and give us more life, more vitality, more beauty.  When we are cut off from Jesus, we start to die spiritually, and if the rot continues for too long, we are good for nothing else than the fire (and we know what place is associated with eternal fire!).

We probably have heard this Gospel and this message hundreds, if not thousands of times, but many Catholics don’t live as if this was true.  This weekend we’re celebrating first communions for our second grade children.  I am so proud of them and their catechists and rejoice with them at this special privilege of receiving Jesus into themselves in the Eucharist.  Our parish policy is that they have to be involved in Faith First before second grade, that it’s not just showing up for a year to get the sacrament.  The same goes for those who wish to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  And yet, how often do families feel that, once they have passed this milestone, they can check out of church until the next sacrament comes around?!?  I’m sure that’s not true of our families here, but it’s true in so many parishes all around the world.  Pope Francis even decried this sad situation when he said that, for all effects and purposes, the Sacrament of Confirmation is called more accurately the Sacrament of Farewell based upon the lived reality.  Pope Francis must’ve heard the joke that if you have a bat problem in your church, just confirm them and you’ll never see them again.  

The sacraments, like the Eucharist and Confirmation, are meant to be the beginning of a stronger, deeper friendship with God, not the end of the road.  It’s like reaching a new section of Candy Crush: it’s not the end of the game, it’s the beginning of a new set of levels.  

But this problem is true not only of those who have received sacraments, but also of Catholics of all ages.  Today Adrian College and Siena Heights are celebrating their graduation ceremonies.  We so often take as the norm that college students will not go to church and will not live their faith.  Why do we accept that as the norm?  Why does this not cause us great sadness?  Or, as the warm weather comes, and we come closer to the end of school, families start to travel on the weekends and take vacations.  Vacations are great.  Pure Michigan has so much to offer.  But, as it turns out, there are Catholic churches all throughout Michigan.  Yes, it may take a little effort to figure out when Mass times are, and work our schedules around that, but too often our vacation from work and school becomes a vacation from God.  We, in effect, feel it’s no big deal to cut ourselves off from the vine or the trunk, as if we can have divine life without Jesus.  

Of course, people have free will.  That is a gift from God, and we can’t force people to go to church.  But do we make that choice for ourselves to keep up our relationship with God, to stay connected to our source of life?  Or do we figure it’s no big deal?  So many people I speak with who have fallen away from the church say that for a while they just skipped once a month; then twice a month; then they just started going a few times per year; then they didn’t really go at all.  Cutting ourselves off from God is a slippery slope which can snowball more quickly than we imagine, in the same way that a branch starts to lose life the moment it begins to be separated from the vine or the trunk.

Of course, it’s not only about going to Mass; it’s also about daily prayer.  Do we talk and listen to God daily?  Do we work to keep ourselves connected to God?  St. John tells us in our second reading to love “not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”  Do we only say, “Yes, of course I love God!” without our actions proving that?  By the way we live our life can others tell that we are in a relationship with God?  Put another way, if God gave us the same amount of time that we give Him, how would our life look?  The Good News is that God has already done everything to try and keep us connected to the vine, to give us new life, and to have the fulness of life.  All we have to do is respond to that love.  Will we work at staying connected to Jesus, the grapevine?