Finding Love in God

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  A few years ago, after visiting Boston and the bar that served as the model for its self-named series, I had a hankering to re-watch “Cheers,” the 80s sitcom about a bar owned by a washed-up, Boston Red Sox pitcher who is not a paragon of moral virtue.  It turns out the series wasn’t as good as I remember it being when I watched the show (probably because I was young enough that most of the topics the show dealt with flew over my head).  But one part that many people know, even those who haven’t watched a full episode, is the theme song, or at least the lines, “Sometimes you want to go / Where everybody knows your name / and they’re always glad you came…”. There’s a couple more lines, but for the purposes of this homily, that’s enough.
    What made me think of “Cheers” is the Most Holy Trinity, whom we celebrate today.  When it comes to our God, He always knows our name.  And He’s always glad we come to spend time with Him.  Our Trinitarian God, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist tells us in his first epistle, is love.  And love affirms, to paraphrase Bishop Barron and quote a country music title from Dan and Shay, “I’m Glad You Exist.”  There is something especially good about having another person affirm your existence and affirm that they treasure you.  
    There’s nothing “soft” about wanting to be wanted.  God, who is Himself a Trinitarian Communion of Divine Persons, made us in His image, which means that He made us for union with others, whether that be the union of friendship or even, for many the union of Holy Matrimony.  But likewise, God made us for union with Him, which can happen in any and all states of life.  So many people try to mask over that desire with goods which will never truly satisfy.  Maybe, as Luke Combs sings, beer never broke your heart, but it also doesn’t support a healthy self-esteem and a feeling of desirability.  You can buy a lot of things, but as Paul McCartney sings, you can’t buy me love.  
    So many young people, and I’ll admit that I got a little caught up in this too, think that social media affirms them.  And maybe, in some small way, it does.  But a like, or a share, or a snap-streak cannot compete with true love.  The trouble is that social media seems to be set up to give some good feelings, feelings of acceptance and desirability, but ones which quickly fade.  So you post more to get more attention.  But that still fades.  So you post more and more, until you find yourself addicted to social media reactions.  Or, on the flip side, as much as you post, people don’t like or favorite or share your status or pics or posts, which only reminds you more of the lack of true love in your life, sometimes leading to depression or even suicide.  
    God made us for love.  God made us with the desire to be in a communion of human persons and divine Persons.  We need love, just like we need God.  And nothing else will fill that hole in our heart.  Nothing else–not riches, power, fame, or sex–will ever fill up the tanks in our hearts that love can.  
    “God showed His love for us,” St. Paul says, “in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  Or, to quote John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  Love does not equate simply to an emotion, but requires action.  And Christ demonstrated in a way we could understand just how far the love of God would go to reclaim us for Himself, to remind us that nothing earthly thing could ever truly fill our need for love.  God the Father showed His love for us by creating us in His image and likeness.  God the Son showed His love for us by dying on the cross for our salvation.  God the Holy Spirit shows His love for us as we get those God moments, of various types, that remind us just how much God loves us.  The action of love, from the beginning of all time until the consummation (very much a love word) of all time at the return of Christ, is a work of the entire Trinity, who is Himself a Communion of Love.  
    Our role is to accept the invitation into that love that truly makes us whole, and to invite others into that love, too.  The command of Christ at the end of Matthew’s Gospel to baptize all nations is a command to invite the entire world into the love which truly fulfills us.  Baptism, by uniting us to Christ, gives us entry into Trinitarian love.  And everyone needs that, even if they don’t recognize it.  Otherwise, they’ll try to find it in a bottle, in a paycheck, in notoriety, or in power.  And while those will satisfy for a little while, they will leave people feeling even more empty than before, because the thing they thought would fill their need for love abandoned them and lied to them and did not give them what they wanted.  
    We have a God who knows our name.  We have a God who is always glad when we come to Him.  We have a God who is love and who wants to embrace us with His love.  So many other things cry out and pretend to love us.  But in the end, only God’s love, and any true loves connected to God’s love, will last and sustain us.  Through Holy Baptism God joins us to His love.  Through the Mass, we see that love in action as God allows us to join in to the sacrifice of Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, made once for all on Calvary.  Through our daily lives the Holy Spirit helps us to respond to that love that God first offered us.  Don’t search for love in a bar, not even a famous one in Boston.  God’s love is here, ready to be shared.  And God wants us to share that love out there, outside of this church, so that all people can experience the fullness of love, from the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

New Life

Easter Vigil
    It is a special moment in a family’s life when a child first learns to walk.  The child usually takes the first steps a bit gingerly and awkwardly, but as the child’s leg muscles and core develop, and as the child learns balance, he or she gains more independence concomitant with more mobility.  While there is a period where the child will go back and forth between crawling and walking, with the mastery of the skill of walking, the child gains a new form of life, and parents have to exercise increased vigilance over the child in his or her new life.
    Tonight as we celebrate the beginning of Easter at this Vigil Mass, we celebrate new life.  All of our readings told of some form of new life.  We heard about the beginning and new life of literally everything in the first reading as we heard God create the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.  We heard about Isaac’s new life after his father, Abraham, was willing to sacrifice Isaac, though God stopped Abraham at the last minute.  In the third readings we heard about the new life that Israel received after passing through the waters of the Red Sea, with their oppressors, the Egyptians, being destroyed in the same waters after the Israelites made it through safely.  Isaiah prophesies about new life, as he spoke for God in the fourth reading: “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.”  Israel receives new life from its renewed covenant with God.  Likewise, in the fifth reading, Isaiah talks about the new life that comes when one receives the word of God, just like the fields receive new life from the snow and rain and the seed sown in the ground.  The prophet Baruch reminds the people that life comes from following the commandments of God, and abandoning their sinful ways.  And the prophet Ezekiel in the seventh reading speaks for God and tells the people that, while they turned away from God, and God let them feel the consequences of their sins, He will give them new life and prove His holiness and fidelity, so that the nations may know that He is the true God.  St. Paul talks about the new life that comes from baptism and dying with the Lord so that we can “live in newness of life” by rising with Christ.  And the Gospel is the climax of the focus on new life as we heard the angels proclaim that Christ had been raised, and Jesus Himself met the holy women on their way back to the Upper Room.

    My dear brothers and sisters, tonight is all about new life.  We enter into the new life that Christ won by His Death and Resurrection.  We renew our covenant with the Lord, the covenant began at Holy Baptism when we died with Christ so to rise with Him to newness of life.  And for some of our brothers and sisters, tonight will be the beginning of new life for them.
    Our Elect will receive newness of life through Holy Baptism, as God washes away all their sins, adopts them as His own children, and makes them members of His Holy Church.  Our candidates, those who were baptized in other Christian ecclesial communities, will join with our Elect in receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, after they profess full faith with us, and they and even adults baptized as Catholics earlier who never completed the rest of the Sacraments of Initiation, will be given the new life that comes from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  And then all those who have not yet made their first Holy Communion will receive new life into them by sharing for the first time in the Body and Blood of Christ, the truly unblemished Lamb who saves us from death, just as the blood of the unblemished lamb over the lintels saved the Chosen People in Egypt from the Angel of Death, which wiped out the first born.  
    Whether we are receiving new life through the Sacraments for the first time, or renewing our covenant of new life with God tonight, God calls us to continue to live in new life, not in death.  It would be odd for a 5-year-old to return to crawling on the ground all the time, rather than walking.  We should approach our old, sinful way of life in the same way: it would be odd to go back to that.  Sin holds us down.  The new life of Christ gives us the freedom to run to God with the dignity of our heads held high on our own two feet.  The temptation will be to treat tonight as a beautiful ceremony, but only a ceremony that doesn’t change how we live.  Instead, God calls all of us to recommit to putting behind us our old habits of sin, and live in the new life of grace that Christ won for us.
    Tonight, Christ has risen from the dead.  Tonight, Christ takes your hand and invites you to walk with Him in the new life of holiness.  Tonight God reminds us that we should be dead to sin, and alive in the new life of Christ.  Alleluia!!

Communion with God

 Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    One of the questions people have been asking me most about my role as pastor of both St. Pius X and St. Matthew (especially now that the new Mass schedule has been released) is how I’m not going to burn out.  And it’s a valid concern; there’s a lot of work and I’ll be kept quite busy.  But I’m not just relying on myself.  I have some good friends that I see almost every week who allow me to relax with them, have some dinner, and set aside the concerns of work.  Sometimes we run together, we often eat (and drink) together, and we just hang out.  My time with them allows my batteries to recharge so that I’m ready to go with whatever the week throws at me.
    I think we all have people that we lean on to help us unwind.  For some people it’s a phone call to mom and/or dad.  For others it’s a spouse or a friend.  Maybe it’s your Bible study group, or a group of friends with whom you go to dinner.  But time with those people seems to make things better, and allows us to enjoy life again, and handle whatever stresses come our way.
    As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate our God who is both One and a Communion of Three Divine Persons.  Jews and Muslims recognize the oneness of God, but only Christians recognize the Trinity of Persons.  We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, One God, equal in dignity and majesty, co-eternal.  God is transcendent, beyond the confines of our reason.  And yet, in Jesus, God the Son, God also humbled Himself to imminent, to be like us in all things but sin and to be with us in communion.  
    God didn’t need us.  God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–is perfect in Himself, and lacks nothing.  And yet, out of an abundance of love, God created the universe and everything in it, and then, even beyond any imagining, extended that perfect Communion in Himself to the creatures He had made in His image and likeness.  
    That’s the message we hear from Deuteronomy in the first reading.  Moses says, “‘Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?  Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation?’”  We might not think of that as so great, but, as Moses points out, it was unheard of!  God didn’t simply deign to speak with His creatures, but saved them from their oppressors and gave them a law to help them live the fullness of life for which God created them.  And, as far as Moses was concerned, that was proof enough that God is God, and that He is worth obeying.
    But Jesus did more than simply speak to us from fire and thunder.  Jesus spoke to us while looking like us and sharing our human nature.  He communicated even more of what would truly make us happy and give us joy.  Jesus built on the Ten Commandments that were given on Mount Sinai with the Eight Beatitudes that He gave in the Sermon on the Mount.  He filled out the deeper meaning of the law, and showed us that true happiness comes from giving of ourselves, rather than taking.  
    But by Jesus’ Incarnation, and then by His Passion and Death, He allowed us to be joined to Him through baptism, and to be sustained by Him in the Eucharist, so that the Communion that the Most Holy Trinity enjoys, we could also enjoy.  St. Paul writes about this in the second reading as he talks about our adoption that the Holy Spirit accomplishes so that we are children of God the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.  We are not simply slaves to a law, but co-heirs to glory and the Communion of God.
    And communion is what God wants for us: He wants to have communion with us.  And that is what truly sustains us, even in the most stressful times of our life.  Friends are great, and I value mine.  But God is the one who can sustain us through anything.  He lightens our sorrows and increases our joys.  He gives us strength and wisdom to deal with the hardest parts of life, beyond even what our human friends, even beyond what a spouse, can help.  
    And that is the greatest gift of our God.  He is transcendent, higher than the heavens.  And yet He is also imminent, closer to us than we are to ourselves.  God does not only want us to know that He is–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–a Communion of Divine Persons, He also wants us to be united to that Communion.
    So when things are rough and when things are easy; when life is painful and when life is full of joy; when storm clouds gather and when the sun shines brightly; yes, turn to friends on earth to share in the experiences of life, but turn even more to God, the Communion of Three Divine Persons, and know the strength and happiness of being in Communion with our Creator.

Jesus' Crown

 Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

     Some time back I got into watching “The Crown,” a Netflix series which dramatizes the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, starting with right before she ascended the throne.  Season 4 just came out, and it only took me a couple of days to watch the 10 episodes.  This season especially covers the story of Prince Charles and Princess Diana–how they met, their courtship, and the beginning of their rocky marriage.  Season 4 ends before they get divorced, so there’ll be more to come next year in Season 5.
    To be fair, this is a drama series, not a documentary, so, as a fellow priest pointed out after watching the latest season, there are things which certainly were exaggerated or added for cinematic purposes.  But, whether exaggerated or not, what came through in Season 4 was how selfish both Prince Charles and Princess Diana were.  I don’t want to give away too much, but in the episodes, throughout their rocky marriage, it was clear that each wanted to be the most important in the relationship and wanted the other to have a supporting role, which is not the best approach for marriage.
    When we think of queens, kings, princes, and princesses, we tend to think of power.  Indeed, we tend to view everything as an exercise of power these days.  Modern political and social thought has cast everything in the light of who has power, who should have power, and how more power can be gained by this or that group or cause.  So perhaps this idea of power struggle has bled its way into our minds as we approach this Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, our last Sunday in Ordinary Time, which we celebrate today.  
    But what does Jesus show us time and time again about His reign?  Not that He doesn’t have power.  In fact, Jesus says at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, right before Jesus ascends into heaven, “‘All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’”  It’s not as if Jesus has any equals when it comes to His power, any more than my legos as a child were in a power struggle with me.  But Jesus doesn’t use this power as a display of might, but as a commitment of service.  Jesus’ kingship is about doing the will of His Father, and helping us to reign with Jesus.  Everything Jesus did on earth and does in heaven is done with the goal of helping us to get to heaven and be in communion with the Most Blessed Trinity.  This approach a far cry from the self-centered, despotic uses of power that we are most accustomed to these days.
    Yes, Jesus’ power gives Him the right to judge the world at its end, to separate the sheep and the goats.  But Jesus uses this parable to teach us how we are to use the power Jesus shares with us, as we are baptized into him and become prophet, priest, and yes, king.  Jesus shows us that our use of power has to be the same as His, has to be one of service, especially to those who have nothing.  
    And that’s what we see from the saintly royals in the history of the church.  We just celebrated two royal saints last week: St. Margaret of Scotland, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  St. Elizabeth was a Hungarian princess, who was married at the age of 14, widowed at age 20, and died at age 24.  After her husband died, she made sure her children were taken care of, and quickly used her power and especially her money to build a hospital where she served the sick.  She gave up her royal trappings in order to serve.  St. Margaret of Scotland was an English princess who became Queen of Scotland.  She helped her husband grow in faith, served orphans and the poor every day before she ate, and washed the feet of the poor, in addition to her own daily habits of prayer.  She saw her position and power as an opportunity to show others the love of Christ, rather than lording it over them.  
    So for us, who have the baptismal dignity of kings because we are part of the Mystical Body of Christ, who is Himself King of kings and Lord of lords, how do we exercise that power that Jesus has given us?  How do we exercise control over ourselves, most importantly, and, when part of our life, over others?  Is it for self-aggrandizement?  Is it to make sure others know who’s the boss?  Or is it to assist others to be the best that they can be, to serve them so that they can more easily continue on the pilgrim route to heaven?  
    So often we think that, if we have power, others need to focus on us and tend to our needs.  But the truth, as is so often the case in the Gospel, is that, for followers of Jesus, that’s the exact opposite of the way it should be.  Just as it sounds backwards to say that the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, those who hunger and thirst for justice, and those who mourn are truly blessed, so for those who have power, it is meant to be exercised in a way that focuses not on the self, but on the other.  If we use our power to serve, we probably won’t get a crown of gold with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, but we will get an eternal crown that does not rust or tarnish, with jewels that are the evidence of whom we chose to serve.  And that sounds like “the crown” that we would want.

Gone and Yet Here

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

    If there’s one thing that has proliferated during our pandemic, it’s memes.  Memes, if you’re not familiar with the word, is a picture, often with a short phrase, that’s intended to be humorous.  One that came to mind today (which I saw in April but would have also been appropriate earlier this month!) was: Anyone else feel like life is being written by a 4th grader right now?  “And there was this virus, and everyone was scared.  And then the world ran out of toilet paper.  Yeah, and then there was no school for like a month, and then it snowed.”  If we bring it up to the present day we could also include murder hornets and, sadly, the recent floods in central Michigan and wildfires near Grayling.  It does certainly sound like a bad story!
    As we go through the main points of the Gospel, it may also sound a little like a disjointed story.  You can imagine trying to explain the Gospel to someone who has never heard it before: There’s a virgin, Mary, who conceives a Son.  But it’s not conceived with her husband, but by the Holy Spirit.  And Mary’s Son, Jesus, is also God’s Son, but he’s not half-God and half-human, he’s fully God and fully human.  And Jesus heals people and walks on water, and multiplies bread and fish for the hungry, but then He dies on the cross.  But then He comes back from the dead, not like a zombie, but in a glorified body which can pass through doors.  And He visits some people during 40 days after the Resurrection, but then ascends into heaven.  But He’s not really gone, because His Body is the Church. 
    Christianity holds in tension so many things: Mary who is mother and virgin; Jesus who is God and man; Jesus who truly dies, but is truly risen from the dead; and what we celebrate today, Jesus ascended into heaven, but did not leave us orphans without His presence.  He’s gone, but He’s still here.  After all, we heard it at the end of the Gospel today: “‘behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’”
    So how is Jesus still present with us, if, as we heard in the Gospel, He ascended beyond our sight into the heavens?  There are two ways.  The first we’ll celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost.  When the Ascension was celebrated when it should be (on Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter), we could point to the first novena in the church.  This is where you can insert the bad joke, where a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a diocesan priest are all asked individually by a layman, “Is there a novena for a Ferrari?”  The Franciscan, when asked, answers, “What’s a Ferrari?”  The Dominican, when asked, likewise answers, “What’s a Ferrari?”  The diocesan priest, when asked, answers, “What’s a novena?” 
    A novena is 9 days of prayer, usually for an intention.  There are nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost, and the Blessed Mother, Apostles, and disciples were praying for those nine days to continue the work of Jesus, without really knowing what they should be doing.  And their prayers are answered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, where all gathered in that upper room are empowered to preach the Gospel.
    The Holy Spirit continues Jesus’ presence in the world.  Through the Holy Spirit, the Good News is still preached, freedom from sin is still granted, the hungry are still fed, the sick are still healed, the dead are still raised.  All that Jesus did on earth continues through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes that happens directly by the Holy Spirit, but sometimes it happens by people empowered by the Holy Spirit, like the first Apostles and disciples, who continue that work through the Church.
    And the Church is the second way that Jesus’ presence is continued on earth.  The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and is present in heaven with Christ at the right hand of the Father (what we call the Church Triumphant), is present in Purgatory, awaiting the time when they will be ready for heaven (what we call the Church Suffering), and is present here on earth, as St. Paul says, working out our salvation and trying to live the life of Jesus daily (what we call the Church Militant).  The Church continues the teaching of Jesus, frees people from sin through the Sacrament of Penance, feeds the hungry of body through food pantries, and feeds the hungry of soul through the Eucharist, heals the sick through the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, and prays for the resurrection of the dead in the funeral rites and Mass.  And in many more ways, the ministry of Jesus in Judea 2,000 years ago continues throughout the world.
    And that’s you and me.  Our call through baptism and confirmation is to continue the presence of Jesus in whatever way that we can.  People are no less hungry for Jesus than they were 2,000 years ago, and Jesus can satisfy their hunger through the Holy Spirit working through us as the Church. 
    Yes, there is that tension, that Jesus is both gone and present here on earth.  But His presence on earth is both the work of the Holy Spirit and us, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.  This week, let’s make sure that our lives reveal that Jesus is alive and that, while He ascended into heaven, He is still working and active here on earth!

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

 

We're Already in Heaven

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

One of the priests at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, who is now a bishop, once said about homilies, “If it’s not worth stealing, it’s not worth using.”  So allow me to steal a little material later on in today’s homily that will help us enter in to today’s celebration of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.  After all, we can be tempted to remain at a superficial level about today’s solemnity.  We know that Jesus ascended, body and soul into heaven.  But, the next question easily becomes: so what? or who cares?  In all reality, what difference does it make if Jesus is in heaven?  Those are fair questions.

The difference that it makes is that we are, in one sense, already in heaven.  No, this isn’t heaven right here in Flint.  You probably don’t doubt that.  But here’s the thing: St. Paul reminds us that Christ is the head of the Body, the Church.  Our human nature is united to the one Person of Jesus.  Jesus even says at the end of today’s Gospel: “Behold, I am with you always,” and He can say that because we are united to Him through Baptism.  In that sense, all of us who have been united to Christ in Baptism by being united to His Mystical Body, the Church, are already in heaven, at least potentially speaking.  The Ascension celebrates the fact that in Christ, human nature has been given an even better place than the Garden of Eden; we have been given heaven.  That’s a big deal.

Heaven is our inheritance because it’s the inheritance of Jesus, the Son of God, for his obedience to God.  Christ, as St. Paul says, was obedient, even to the point of death, death on a cross, and His obedience was what allowed Him to pass from death to life, and open that new life for us.  Heaven is the one million dollar inheritance that our rich ancestor leaves us.

But, we have to receive that gift.  Jesus does not force that inheritance upon us.  He reigns as King at the right hand of the Father, but does not force us to be a part of His kingdom.  We have to be open to that gift, and the way that we show that we are open to the gift is by the way we live our life.  Our obedience to Christ on earth does not earn us heaven.  We cannot earn it, any more than any other human could have earned it.  Only Christ could gain heaven for us.  And yet, we show that we want to receive our inheritance by the way we show that we’re disciples of Jesus in our words and deeds.

And this is where the stolen parts come in.  There is an ancient document from some time after Christ called the Letter to Diognetus.  Diognetus is one of those names that has fallen on hard times.  I don’t think you’ll find it in the top 500 of baby names.  But, the author of this letter beautifully writes:

[Christians] live in their own countries as though they were only passing through.  They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens.  Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign county.  […] They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh.  They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven.

The author of this letter reminds us that our homeland is not here.  We are only passing through this world.  It can be so tempting to live as if this is all there is.  We try to make our decisions to have as good as a life as we can on earth.  But do we pay attention to having a good life after we die?  Do we live so as to receive our inheritance?

And we should live this way because we try to live as if we’re in heaven.  It’s not easy, but if we want to live in heaven for ever, it helps to practice for it.  It’s like sports: to be ready for the game, we have to practice.  The more we live on earth like we’re in heaven, the more familiar heaven will hopefully be for us.  And the more familiar heaven is for us, the more that we show that heaven is what we want.

That’s why our way of life is (or should be) different as Catholics.  We may drink, but we don’t get drunk; we date and marry and have kids (well you do; I don’t), but our understanding of dating and marriage and children is not the world’s understanding; we work hard to make a living, but we don’t work as if making money is all there is to life.  We live differently because heaven is different.

And coming to Mass on Sundays is part of our practice.  Mass is a foretaste of heaven.  The Book of Revelation says that there is a fair amount of singing praise to the Lamb in heaven.  In heaven we spend our time worshipping God and being surrounded by His love.  We get a foretaste of that worship in the Mass, and we receive Love Himself in the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Mass helps to prepare us for heaven.  The less we come, the less we are prepared.  The less we are prepared, the less likely we are to actually be ready to go there.  

In Christ, our human nature is already in heaven.  That’s the joy of today’s celebration.  Our response is to try to be as ready as we can to be there with Jesus, not only in potential, but in actuality.  Prepare yourself for heaven.  Prepare yourself for the home Jesus has prepared for you.

Too Good To Be True...But It Is

Easter Vigil

There are more movies than I can count where the ending seems too good to be true: the awkward guy gets the gorgeous girl; the bomb is defused in the last second before it explodes; the lies of the villain are exposed and the persecuted hero is vindicated.  We’ve all seen it in movies, we’ve all read it in books.  But when it comes to real life, very rarely do those things happen.  Life, it seems is more tragic than fiction could ever create.

But tonight is not an example of tragedy.  Tonight, in fact, is when we celebrate something that is too good to be true, but is true, nonetheless.  No one, save perhaps the Blessed Mother, would have dared to hope that Jesus would rise from the dead.  Even the holy women who went to the tomb, weren’t going because they thought Jesus might rise.  They were going to complete the mourning rites which had to be suspended due to the celebration of Passover on the previous Friday night and Saturday.  In fact, none of the disciples can believe the news that Jesus rose from the dead until they see Him and recognize Him.

All of our Old Testament readings from Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, and Ezekiel were all examples of stories that looked like they were going to have a happy ending, but didn’t.  Adam and Eve are created by God as the crowning of His creation; they are made in the image and likeness of God.  Yet, as the story continues, we know that they disobey God and put mankind on a trajectory of pain, suffering, and death.  

The Chosen People are doubting God as the Egyptians grow closer.  Then God, through Moses, splits the Red Sea in two and they pass through it, even as the water closes in on the Egyptians who follow and destroys Pharaoh’s army.  But, we all know that story.  Not long after they sing their song of freedom, which was sung by our choir after the reading from Exodus, they once again doubt God, and worship false gods.

Isaiah and Ezekiel both prophesy about a time when Israel will be restored to glory, when God will shower His love upon them and give them a new heart and new life.  God promises to take care of Israel, give them peace, and forgive them of their sins for the sake of His Name.  But even after the Israelites return to the Promised Land from their exile in Babylon, after they realize that they were sent away because of their infidelity to God, they still turn away from God, and eventually lose their land and their sovereignty to the pagan Romans.  All of those Old Testament stories have so much potential, so much build up, but never seem to come to the desired climax.

But not so tonight.  Not so with the Resurrection.  This is the night when the good ending finally happens.  This is the night when evil and darkness are conquered, once for all, and good and light win the day.  This is the night which “sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them to his holy ones.  This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.”  Tonight we celebrate that we are not relegated to tragic endings, to falling into sin and darkness.  Tonight we participate in and God renews in us the truth that in Him we can thrive and succeed.

And that new life in Christ, made possible by the Resurrection, will be imparted through the waters of Baptism, which Christ Himself makes holy, to Alexis, Brooklyn, and Camryn.  They will put on Christ and have the opportunity to live a life free of grave sin, free of separation from God, free from Satan.  

The new life of Christ will also be perfected in Christine as she makes her profession of faith and as she and Alexis are confirmed and receive the Eucharist for the first time.  They will be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit not only to claim that new life for themselves, but also to share it with those they meet by word and example.  And for those of us who are baptized, for those of us who are confirmed, we, too, have that new life of Christ in us, and tonight we can start afresh in living that new life.  

Tonight, as we come to the empty tomb of Christ to worship Jesus and His Resurrection, leave at the tomb all that is not of God.  Do not be afraid to place all your sins, your worries, your fallenness at the place of death, and walk away tonight with the Risen Christ, who offers to us the best ending that we could ever imagine: the new life of the Resurrection.

Icons of the Trinity

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

I invite you to look at the two icons to my right and my left for a second.  The icon to my right and your left is an icon of the four evangelists.  The icon to my left and your right is an icon of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  Icons are a beautiful way of praying, because they are like a window into heaven.  We do not worship these images, but we honor them as guides to help us pray.  The gold leaf shows how precious they are in the eyes of God and that they are in the heavenly Jerusalem.  Their peaceful, otherworldly faces show the peace and joy that come from being in the presence of God.  They are meant to remind us that, as we gather in this church, we are not at an earthly gathering like a meeting or a social.  We are in a place which straddles heaven and earth and gives us a taste of heaven in the eternal worship of God with angels and saints singing “Holy, holy, holy,” and the prayers of the just rising before God like burning incense.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity today, we may wonder why we celebrate a teaching.  The belief that God is triune, One God and Three Divine Persons, can seem very academic, and removed from the day-to-day cares and concerns of life.  The mysterion, the mystery of the Trinity is not meant to be something only we think about, but something we live.  Mystery in this case does not mean a puzzle to be figured out, but a reality which is unseen and yet fully real.  Our lives, as believers in the Trinity, are meant to be icons of the life of the Trinity, since we are all created in the image and likeness of our Triune God.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we are called to have a multiple personality disorder.  We are radically different from God because He–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–is the Creator while we are creatures.  But while we are different, there is some similarity between us and God, and we are called to become more and more similar to God each day through His grace until we pray that He finishes making us like Him for eternity in Heaven.  In Church language we call this process divinization: to become like God by the power of God.  Our daily prayer life, our sufferings, our worthy reception of the sacraments, and our works of charity are meant to help us accept God’s grace to become more like Him.  St. Athanasius, one of the great Fathers of the Church, who died in the late fourth century, said it this way, in the light of the Incarnation: “God became man so that man might become God.”  

If we are to become like God, then we should know something about him.  We know that God is merciful, like a loving father who runs out to meet his wasteful son; we know that God heals and brings wholeness to His children; we know that God is just and will reward those who follow Him and punish those who reject Him; we know that God has a special love for the outcast and the abandoned; we know that God is Truth; we know that God is Almighty and eternal.  We know that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as reveled to us by the Son.  The list could go on and on.  We learned some of these things from our readings today.  We especially learned from our first reading and Gospel that God is not far away from us, but is near to us for all time.

If then we are to be icons, we have to match those images that we have received from the Deposit of Faith: the Scriptures and the teachings of the Apostles.  To be like God, to be divinized, means to be merciful, even to the point of foolishness; to heal and bring wholeness to the extent that we can by our words and deeds; to stand up for justice; to proclaim and defend truth; to have a special love for the outcast and the abandoned.  How do we receive the strength to do this?  Through the ongoing use of the sacramental grace that we have received; through the worship of our one God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–at Mass; through letting the Holy Spirit empower us to preach the Gospel.  Otherwise, we, as icons, will not look serene, peaceful, and heavenly, but agitated, anxious, and earthly.  Those earthly icons do not lead us to God, but keep us bound up on earth.  They are not windows to heaven, but mirrors reflecting the fallen state of our world.

Marriage is especially meant to be an icon of the Trinity.  Marriage, the union of a man and woman for life, open to new life, is meant to show us God the Father, who pours out all of who He is to the Son, who pours out all of who He is to the Father, and in that sharing of perfect and full love, a new Divine Person is breathed forth: the Holy Spirit.  The Church spends so much time with marriage and the family because married couples and families are meant to remind us of the love of God.  

But for all of us, married or not, by our baptism we were called to be an icon of the Trinity.  One way in particular we can do that is by witnessing the love of God in truth.  We are a narcissistic culture.  We are first and foremost concerned with ourselves.  God’s love, on the other hand, is always open to being shared and creating new life, as we see from the very creation of the world.  God the Father had perfect love in Himself with the Son and the Holy Spirit; He lacked nothing; He needed nothing.  And yet, out of love, God decided to create the world to have new ways to share His love.  Let us be icons of the Trinity; not self-centered, but selfless, and so help others to see the God who love us: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

Goodbye, Farewell, Amen

Ascension of the Lord

           I didn’t plan it this way, but it happened to work out that the Sunday Mass at which I say “farewell” to this community is also the Sunday that, as a Church, we celebrate Jesus saying “farewell” to His disciples and Mother as He ascends into heaven.  Of course, there are major differences: I won’t be leaving today’s Mass or reception on a cloud into the heavens, and I’m not going to ask you to wait for the next week in the upper room of a house, praying for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

           

The rock from which, by tradition,
Jesus ascended into heaven just
outside Jerusalem

As Jesus leaves today, He doesn’t leave for good.  We heard about the two men, whom we traditionally think of as angels, telling the disciples, “‘Men of Galilee…This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.’”  But, just as important are Jesus own words recorded at the end of today’s Gospel: “‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’”  Jesus, even as He leaves His disciples in such a way that they will no longer see His glorified body, promises that He is not abandoning them.  He promises to be with them always.  That is why, of course, they also pray for 9 days, awaiting the promised Paraclete, the Advocate, who will fill them with power from on high, the Holy Spirit, Who is Christ’s presence for all ages, and teaches them things that they could not understand while Jesus was on earth.  Jesus doesn’t abandon His flock, His People, His Church, but remains with them always.

            We see that through the Holy Spirit working through Bishop Boyea as he made decisions about where priests would be in the coming year.  Bishop Boyea needed Fr. Dave Hudgins to study canon law, and to learn how to be Christ’s presence on the Tribunal, and he is sending me to Adrian, to be Christ’s presence there.  And he is sending you another priest to take my place, to be Christ’s presence here, as well as another priest to take Fr. Jim’s place.  In some ways I’m sure those priests are similar.  In other ways I know they will be different.  I’ve already been told that I need to tell Fr. Dan Westermann that he will be expected to attend as many sports games as possible, and announce STA basketball games.  We’ll see what he can do.  But Jesus supplies the priests that this parish will need to grow as disciples, and Jesus will remain with you through them.

            Jesus also gives a mandate, a command, as He ascends into heaven: “‘Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…[and] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’”  Jesus commands His disciples to tell others about Him and teach them to observe His commands because He has given us the way (not one way, the way) to happiness, which prepares us even on earth for the eternal joys of heaven.  Jesus does not want His presence to be limited to those who physically saw Him while He preached on earth.  Jesus wants His presence to be spread all around the world, and, after Pentecost, we see the disciples do precisely that: they spread out and preach the Gospel to modern-day Syria, Iraq, Iran, India, Egypt, Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, perhaps even Spain, and so many places in-between.  Filled with Jesus’ presence, they are compelled to tell others about Jesus and live and preach His way of life to others.

            People have sometimes asked me how I was able to be everywhere: sports, band concerts, plays, classrooms, parish meetings, etc.  I just tried to be a father, and I emulated the sacrifices so many of you parents have made and are making to be at your children’s events.  The only difference was that I have a lot more children than any one family here!!  But in trying to go to everything, if only just for a little bit, I was trying to show you that, while Jesus of course cares that you go to Mass each Sunday and holyday and that you go to confession regularly, Jesus also cares about the things you do outside this church building: the games you play, the events you’re engaged in, the clubs and organizations to which you belong.  Jesus cares about it all, and He wants you to spread His presence to all those events in which you participate.  To the extent that you could see Jesus caring when I showed up, give praise to God.  To the extent that my presence didn’t communicate Jesus’ presence, I apologize.  And I’m sorry I could not do more.

            We don’t really hear about it in Scripture, but we know that Jesus laughed from time to time.  We know that Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus.  We read in Scripture that Jesus consoled sinners and extended His mercy to them.  He spoke difficult words and set a high bar for what it means to follow Him.  He called all to deeper conversion and a fuller life through a deeper relationship with God.  I have laughed with you.  I have wept with you at funerals.  I have been the vessel of God’s mercy more times than I can count.  I have spoken difficult words, and reminded all of us that to be a disciple means to daily carry our cross with Jesus.  I have tried to encourage all of us to get to know Jesus better and love Him more.  Thank you for all of those times.  Thank God that I was able to try to be His presence in those times.  And while we say farewell today and in the coming days, the most important thing is that the Father remains with you; Jesus remains with you; the Holy Spirit remains with you, because Jesus promised, “‘behold, I am with you always.’”

Endings and Beginnings

Ascension of the Lord

            The way that something ends can be very important.  In what little free time I have, I enjoy reading Grisham novels.  But, to be honest, it’s a love-hate relationship.  I love reading the books, until I get to the end because, in my opinion, the man doesn’t know how to end a book.  It’s always so abrupt and dissatisfying.

Or, we could look at our high school students who have graduated, or any high school students who have been or will be taking exams.  While the rest of the semester is important, finals week either caps a successful semester, maybe saves someone from having to retake a class with a last-minute display of real knowledge, or puts the nail in the coffin to a horrible class.

Rock from which Jesus ascended into heaven
(Jerusalem)

            What we celebrate today is the is the completion of the Paschal Mystery.  This main Mystery of our Faith, what makes us unique as Christians, began Holy Thursday, as we celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, continued on Good Friday as we solemnly recalled Jesus’ death on the cross, and then continued on further as we celebrated the rising of Christ from the dead.  But our celebration of that Mystery did not end on Easter Sunday, or even after the Octave of Easter.  No, today’s solemnity, that of the Ascension, when Christ, 40 days after He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven (even though we celebrate it a few days later) is also part of this Mystery.  And this part reminds us that, after our resurrection from the dead, after we have been judged, if we are found faithful to God, we can expect our glorified bodies to rise from their tombs and be reunited with our souls in heaven.  Where Christ has gone, we, too, hope to go someday.

            That is why today is such a great celebration.  Not only have sin and death been conquered by Christ’s dying on the cross and rising to new life; not only do we get to have eternal life after death; but our human nature has been taken up into heaven and, united with Jesus’ divine nature, sits at the right hand of the Father, “far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,” as St. Paul says in our second reading.  Human nature has been taken up into the heavens where it enjoys the fullness of the reign of God, and by our faithful stewardship of the gifts that God has given to us: the most precious gift of faith, hope, and love and the gifts of time, talent, and treasure, we can share in that reign.

            But, while this day marks the completion of the Paschal Mystery, it also marks a new beginning, as all endings do.  When we finish elementary school we begin middle school; when we finish middle school we begin high school; when we finish high school we begin college or a job; when we end single life we begin married life, ordained ministry, or consecrated life; when we end this life on earth, we begin a new life, hopefully in heaven.  So when Christ completes His Paschal Mystery, it begins a new part of the work of Christ, the work of the rest of His Body, the Church.

            Because as Jesus was about to ascend into the heavens, He commands them, “‘Go…and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’”  As Jesus’ physical presence in His glorified body ends here on earth, His work continues through the members of His Body, the Church, through all generations.  He gives us the mandate to preach the Gospel and bring people under the obedience of Christ, obeying all His commands.

            We generally don’t think of Christ as commanding, but as we look through the Gospels, we see a few that come up again and again: “‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’”; “‘Sin no more’”; “‘Love one another’”; and today we hear, “‘make disciples of all nations.’”  This is the work that Jesus Christ expects us to do while we are on earth.  This is part of the work that His Body continues, part of His ministry to all people. 

            The temptation, of course, is to be like the disciples at the ascension, and not really get this mandate.  They keep looking up, even after Jesus was taken from their sight, and so God sends to angels to say, “‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?’”  They wonder why the disciples are not returning to the upper room to pray for the Holy Spirit so that they can be Jesus’ messengers themselves.  While we may not look up in the sky, we might be tempted to think, ‘Wow!  That was a great homily!  What a powerful Mass.  I never realized that Christ has commanded me to preach the Gospel!’ and then leave our practice of the faith in this building, just like the disciples standing on the mountain.  But Jesus doesn’t tell us to bask in the glow of the Spirit while we’re in Church for an hour, and then return our faith to the bookracks before we exit the building.  He gives us the mandate to take that faith out into the world and use it in our interactions with family, friends, co-workers, and all those we meet, bearing witness in word and deed to the joy and the hope we have in Christ.

            It is good to realize how important this completion of the Paschal Mystery is, and to rejoice in the fact that our natures, and even our bodies, one day, can be united with God in heaven.  But this completion leads us to a new beginning, the beginning of our ministry in the Holy Name of Jesus as we make disciples of all nations and lead then to the saving waters of Baptism.