Staying Connected

Fifth Sunday of Easter

    As a child, we had one telephone in the kitchen, and a cordless telephone in my parents’ room.  The kitchen phone hung on the wall, and had the super-long cord, which was great because you could take it into the living room, but then you also, every so often, had to dangle it from the second story railing so that it could untangle.  This will come as a shock to some of the younger people here, but when people called you, you didn’t know who was calling until they identified themselves.  And if you were on the phone, no one else could call you, unless you had a second line (which we didn’t). 
    Back then, the best way to connect with people, of any age, was to actually see them, whether at school, or at the mall, or by going over to their house.  You would meet up and talk with each other, in person, and learn what was going on in their life.  As a kid, you might play together outside, or explore woods around the house, or just eat a snack together.  You might even spend the night, like times at grandpa and grandma’s house, which usually meant amazing food and maybe even a fishing trip or watching grandpa work on something in the shed.
    With the assistance of today’s technology, we can, as we say, connect with each other in ways we couldn’t before.  We can send pictures of ourselves (appropriately) to others, or maybe post a picture of what we’re eating for dinner.  We can send someone a quick text to check in, unless it’s very serious, and then we might actually call someone (but, again, only if it’s serious).  If it’s really sentimental you might FaceTime, or maybe even do a Zoom meeting to see what the other person is doing.
    And yet, with all that technology, with all our capabilities to “stay in touch” with each other, young people are more disconnected today than before, with many who are very active on social media saying that they feel lonely, though they have the opportunity to see what others are doing 24/7.  So as much as we think we’re connected to everyone, perhaps we’re not as connected as we think.
    Jesus tells us today in the Gospel that if we want to have life, we have to be connected to Him.  This doesn’t mean that Jesus is our Facebook friend (a person we just keep in a list of contacts that reminds us of his birthdays and shows us pictures of Him); or that we ‘gram with Jesus (take pictures of holy stuff and stuff we think he would like); or that we follow His short sayings on X (formerly known as Twitter).  In order to be connected to Him we have to develop a real relationship with Him, which means spending time with Him and getting to know Him personally, not just through a platform.  There are no shortcuts to having a relationship with Jesus, and it doesn’t come through social media.  We cannot substitute time anything else for time with Jesus.
    Of course, this means that we have to make sure and create time for Jesus, because our lives are filled with so many things.  We have responsibilities at home and responsibilities at work.  We wake up, get ready for school or work, get to school or work, spend the day learning or working, come home to do homework or make dinner, maybe clean up a little or spend time with family, and then we go to bed.  So the days are full.  But if we value something, or in this case, someone, we make time.  All of those activities are important, but Jesus is even more important than those.  So can we carve out some time for prayer, for speaking and listening to Jesus, in each day? 
    It may mean getting up 10 to 15 minutes earlier, so that we can read over the Scripture for the day or pray a rosary or chaplet of Divine Mercy.  I have a friend who has had a fifty-minute commute to work for the past few years.  He developed a new routine of praying a Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy while driving, and then listening to the readings for the day in a podcast. 
    It may mean giving up some time on the television or on a game or show on a tablet to do some devotional reading or learn about a saint.  Or it can mean trying to pray together as a family for some minutes before the kids go to bed.  This can be as simple as asking each child to say one thing for which they are thankful, or seeing if they have something or someone they want to pray for.  Or maybe reading a Bible story together as a family.  But making sure that there is time for Jesus in our daily family life.
    Lastly, St. John reminds us in the second reading that staying connected with Jesus also means filling His commandments.  Whether it’s going to Mass every Sunday and Holyday, or being honest, or keeping God’s Name holy, or not missing the precious gift of human sexuality, or praying for those who do us wrong, or any of the other commandments that Christ, whether through Scripture or through the Church, has given us, if we wish to remain in Christ, to stay with Him, we follow His will, rather than just our own.  Both prayer and fidelity to what God has revealed to us connect us to Christ, and allow His life to flow through us. 
    Despite all of our technological advances in communication, we are often more disconnected than ever before, because the things we think connect us only do so in a fleeting way, and not in the deep ways that our human natures truly crave.  Make time for Christ; prioritize Him in your daily life.  If you do so, you will remain with Christ, not only on this earth, but in the new heavens and earth that will come.

The Greatest Event that No One Saw

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night
    Phew!!  That’s a lot of the Word of God!  We started at Genesis 1, and maybe you feel like we went through the whole thing to the Book of Revelation (we didn’t of course, we only hit some highlights throughout the Old Testament, and then a profound reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, and then the Resurrection account from St. Matthew).  Why have all these readings?  That’s the point of a vigil, to watch and wait for something.  In this case, we were waiting for the news of the Resurrection, for those first alleluias to ring out since we began our Lenten fast, to announce the joy of the Risen Christ!  And as we heard those seven Old Testament readings, and the one Epistle, the anticipation was growing in us, to get to the good news of Jesus rising from the dead!
    As we look around, though, there’s no one here.  No offense to our musicians, our reader, and Deacon Dave, but this is a small crowd to celebrate the Resurrection, made necessary, of course, because of COVID-19, or, as some are calling it, the ‘Rona.  Maybe that bursts our bubble a bit, and tries to steal our joy from this holy night, this holiest of nights. 
    We’re used to at least more people.  Maybe not a full church, but still, more than I can count on one hand!  We’re used to the anticipation of lighting the Easter fire at the beginning, processing into the church in darkness, and then our individual candles, lit from the Paschal Candle, slowly lighting up the church.  We’re used to the sprays of holy water falling from heaven, like rain from above (and depending on how much is on the branch, sometimes more like a monsoon from above).  We’re used to the overwhelming smell of the Easter lilies, with the aroma of incense mixing in.  And yet, for those of you watching, none of that is present yet. 
    This may seem like a horrible way to celebrate Easter, but it was the way the first Easter was celebrated.  We heard in our Gospel tonight how the holy women went to the tomb on Sunday morning.  The stone is rolled back, and Jesus is not there!  Where did He go?  The angel announces that Jesus has been raised, and He is going to Galilee. 
    So Jesus rose from the dead without anyone knowing it.  No one saw the greatest work of God in all of salvation history.  There were no witnesses.  There was no music that we know of (perhaps the angels were singing, but no one heard or reported it).  There was no fire that anyone saw, no lights, no procession.  In the silence of that first Holy Saturday night, Jesus rose from the dead, and changed human history forever. 
    I think we often expect big world events to be noticed.  Certainly someone will tweet about it, or post the story on Facebook, or snap or gram it!  If it’s important, then the whole world will notice because it will be a bigger than life event.  But when Life Himself conquered sin and death, and escorted the souls of the just from their waiting to heaven, the powers of the world gave no notice; they didn’t even know such a thing was happening.  Even Jesus’ own disciples, even the ones who stood by His cross, had no idea what was happening.
    What’s in the news every day?  The ‘Rona.  How many have it, how many died, how many recovered, if a vaccine is closer, if antibodies hold the secret, how many jobs have been lost, what the government is doing, are people really staying home, how much money can my business get, how much money do I get, etc., etc.  There are good stories, too, about people celebrating the heroic work of doctors, nurses, hospital staff, first responders.  There are the heart-warming stories about people going on Zoom or Skype or FaceTime to visit with elderly relatives, sick or healthy, or singing outside windows, or celebrating birthdays with parades of cars.  Those are good stories, and it’s good that they are noticed.
    But in your life, all this dying, if united to Jesus, will also cause a rising, a rising that the world will likely never notice.  The patience you’re growing in from spending all day with your spouse and/or your kids.  The re-prioritizing of what is truly important, based not on money, but on true happiness.  The appreciation of friends that you cannot currently see, but who are important, nonetheless.  What virtues might the Lord be cultivating in your life right now, because you are open to His grace, yearning to be in His presence, desiring to receive Him in the Eucharist like you never have before.  All of this is big news, and yet the world, and let’s be honest, almost everyone else, probably doesn’t notice.
    But that’s ok.  Because God won, whether anyone took notice or not.  And eventually, everyone will know, as all will be revealed on the Last Day, when what Jesus won for His disciples will be manifest in its fullness in the resurrection of all the bodies of the dead, and the new heavens and new earth.  But until then, we wait.  We read the Word of God, we sing His praises, we worship His goodness and ask Him to raise us to new life.  And we do so knowing that He who raised Jesus from the dead, will raise us with him to life everlasting.  Amen.

The place where Jesus rose from the dead in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre