Category Archives: homily

The Humble and Patient King

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Christ, Christ the King, Christian living, Feast of Christ the King, holiness, homily, humility, Uncategorized

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jesus before pilateAt one point in his commentary on this Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 93), St. Augustine shares this observation: Humble people are like rock.  Rock is something you look down on, but it is solid.  What about the proud?  They are like smoke; they may be rising high, but they vanish as they rise. 

In the gospel for today’s Feast of Christ the King (Jn. 18:33b-37) we are given the humble and patient God.  Pilate (representative of all the powers of the world but powers that really have no authority of Jesus) questions Christ – a seemingly defeated and isolated man, abandoned by his friends and followers and mocked by his own people.

Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?  Your own nation and chief priests handed you over to me.  What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?”  Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  

Today, we as Church, proclaim Christ is King yet, like Pilate, our understanding and idea of this title is often limited.  It is interesting to note on this Feast of Christ the King that our Lord, himself, never took on the title of “king”.  Even on this most final and bitter of stages; when the fallen pride of our human condition would eagerly grasp onto a title of assertion to throw back into the face of the powers of this world (how often we see this exalted on our movie screens in the myth of redemptive violence) our Lord chooses a different path.  “You say I am king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Our Lord rejects the title “king” and by so doing he forswears the fallen world and all it has to offer – self-indulgent pride, sad divisions and triumphalism and all forms of violence.  Our Lord chooses a different path – the path of humility.  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  

Humility has more in common with truth than does pride and power.  In fact, humility is essential if there is to be any real understanding of truth.  If we would know the truth then any temptation to put ourselves and our way of thinking at the center of creation (and these temptations come in all shapes and sizes: blue and red state, enlightened secularist and righteous religious, male and female, rich and poor, all colors of skin and shades of culture) must be put aside.  Everyone (I repeat “everyone”), needs to accept the purifying light of humility because the only constant, the only necessary is God – all else is contingent upon God’s will.  We are not necessary.  The more we realize this then the more we open ourselves to those moments when we catch a glimmer that God is indeed the “rock”, the only solid basis of all creation.  We also catch a glimpse of the infinite patience of God who submitted Himself to our illusions and misguided hatred.  Gratitude grows in our hearts when we honestly acknowledge and reflect upon the humility and patience of God.

Ours is a different type of king.  All is grace.

Do you want joy and gratitude?  Then look to the one we proclaim “king” yet who never sought that title for himself.  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Cultivate humility.  Humility leads us to truth and truth brings gratitude.

The coming of the Son of Man. We are not Afraid. (Thoughts on the Sunday readings: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – B.)

15 Sunday Nov 2015

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new_jerusalem1One of my professors in seminary would often remark that the events of the last days as portrayed in the Scriptures should be read like the labor pangs of birth rather than cataclysmic destruction.  In fact, the birth analogy is more in keeping with the fuller sense of Scripture than any “cataclysmic, world destroyed in a ravaging ball of fire, Hollywood movie” version.

The texts of Scripture do not confirm a sort of “theory of catastrophes,” according to which there must first be a complete destruction of the world after which God can finally turn everything to good.  No, God does not arrive at the end, when all is lost.  He does not disown his own creation.  In the book of Revelation we read, “You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (4:11). We must also remember that at the very beginning of Scripture, after God has made everything, God looks upon creation and proclaims it to be good. God does not disown his creation.

The “upheaval” expressed throughout the New Testament is that when the Son of Man comes, he comes not in the weariness of our habits nor does he insert himself passively into the natural course of things.  When Christ comes, he brings a radical change to the lives of men and women and it is always a change that brings the fullness of life.

Notice that in this Sunday’s gospel passage (Mk. 13:24-32) after our Lord speaks of the coming of the Son of Man with “great power” he goes on to state: Learn a lesson from the fig tree.  When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.  In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. 

Our Lord does enter into our lives and the life of our world with “great power” but the upheaval he brings is an invitation to turn away from sin and the works of sin and to turn toward the fullness of life.

As Christians we are to live in this world not bound by the deadening works of sin and pride but rather in the upheaval and pangs of birth of the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  Because every day and in every situation Christ is near, at the gates.  The Book of Revelation gives us an image of this hope toward which we yearn and work.  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth … And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:1-2).

The great “Day of the Lord” is not yet to happen. It has already happened!  God has entered into creation and history in the person of Christ, eternity has entered into time, and now this upheaval comes to every generation and even each day!  We are caught up in the great work of God where all peoples and nations will be gathered together into the new Jerusalem!

The “end of the world” must come every day.  Every day, we must put an end to both the small or big pieces of the world’s evil and malevolence … Scripture invites us to keep the future, toward which we are led, in front of our eyes: the end of the world is not a catastrophe, but will in fact establish the holy city that comes down from heaven.  It is a city that is a concrete reality, not an abstract one, gathering all the people around their Lord.  This is the goal (and, in a sense also, the end) of history.  But his holy city must begin in our daily life now so that it may grow and transform the lives of men and women into God’s likeness. 

Our thoughts and prayers this weekend turn to Paris and the victims of Friday’s terrorist attacks. One of the stated goals of ISIS is not just to bring about a caliphate (a Muslim state) but the apocalypse as they view it. They wish to bring about the apocalypse through acts of violence. Theirs is a sick and twisted ideology. Already the people of Paris are responding to these violent attacks by standing up and saying “We are not afraid.” This is a classic Christian response. We are not afraid because the coming day of the Lord is not a day of destruction but a day of life. The coming Day of the Lord will be when all injustice will be righted, every tear will be wiped away and life will reign! We are not afraid because God has entered into human history and has overcome violence and emptied the tomb of its power!

We are not afraid because Christ is Lord!

(Quotes taken from The Word of God Every Day by Vincenzo Paglia.)

The Feast of All Saints

31 Saturday Oct 2015

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All saints1Maybe it is just the time of the year but lately I have been thinking about people I have known in my life and the influence they have had on me. I can say that I have been blessed with having good people in my life. One such person was Billy. During the latter years of high school and into college I worked in the maintenance department of Appalachian Oil Company (Appco). This was the family business. It began as Cummins Oil Company (started by my grandfather) and grew to Appco. The company was located in Blountville and every morning the maintenance crews would meet there to get our jobs from our supervisor Mr. McCoy and then go throughout the Tri-Cities to the different gas stations and convenience stores we serviced.

Billy was a soft-spoken, down to earth man who spent his whole life working for the company. He walked with a limp but he was as strong as an ox and he knew how to fix just about everything. Billy was a born again Christian, he played in a gospel band, he didn’t put up with cussing or gossip and he always had the music in his maintenance truck tuned to a Christian station. I remember one of the things he used to often say was, “The only mistake you can make is not learning from a mistake.” For all these reasons, primarily the no cussing and no bad talk rule and the gospel music in the truck, the rest of the maintenance crew (who were not so devout) did not really care to be paired with Billy on maintenance runs. Strangely though, these things never bothered me … go figure … so often Mr. McCoy would assign me to work with Billy.

I remember one day we were driving to Mountain City to repair some gas pumps at a store and Billy shared his conversion story with me. Apparently, he had quite the wild life which was fun for a while but then quickly turned sour and he was seriously close to losing his wife, his family and his job. As we were driving along I remember Billy saying, “At that time I did not know who I was anymore.” He knew he had to change and that next Sunday he went to church and was, as he said, “born again”. And Billy lived it; it was not just a pat phrase for him.

This last week the priests of our diocese were together on retreat and, as you may expect on a priest retreat, there were very high theological discussions. At one point our retreat director (a priest from Brooklyn) shared a scene from that truly theological masterpiece – Disney’s “The Lion King”. It was the scene where the young Simba is lost and confused after the death of his father. He is led into the wilderness by the wise baboon and he has a vision of his father. In the vision the father challenges Simba and says, “You have forgotten who you are and so you have forgotten me … Remember who you are. You are my son!” Simba remembers and knows what he must do but he knows it will be hard to face his past. To this the wise baboon says, “Yes, the past can hurt … you can either run from it or learn from it.” (“The only mistake you can make is not learning from a mistake.”)

All Saints 1Today the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints where we honor all those men and women (recognized by the Church or known only to God) who truly and authentically witnessed to Christ in their lives. In the First Letter of John we hear, “Beloved: see what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are … we are God’s children now…” Whether they came to the realization early in their lives or late in their lives, all the saints share this common awareness: “…we are God’s children now…” By remembering who their Father is, they learned who they were. When we remember who our Father is, we learn who we are. Further, it is when we remember who our Father is and who we are that those moments/attitudes named by our Lord in the beatitudes become “blessed” – not just a moment to endure and get through but truly a source to deeper awareness and a path to the Father and the Kingdom.

Today we celebrate the saints – those publically recognized by the Church whom we should cultivate friendship with and those who are known only to God and perhaps to a few people who had the privilege to encounter them. The saints remind us of who our Father is and who we are meant to be. And they teach us that amazing truth that, yes, each of us are also called to be saints.

… we are God’s children now …

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “All things are possible for God.” (28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B)

10 Saturday Oct 2015

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It is said that where a person’s heart is, there his or her will and actions will follow. We strive after that which we value. We set our lives by that which we love. The young man in today’s gospel (Mk. 10:17-30) is in many ways a good person. He is someone who is seeking to live his faith; he is striving to live his life by the commandments of God. He also recognizes or intuits that there is something unique about Jesus. This is why he runs up even kneels down and uses the title, “good teacher”. The young man’s heart is searching but, we come to realize, his heart is also divided.

Our Lord knows this. Our Lord knows the human condition weakened by sin. The gospel passage is not so much about material possessions as it is about the divided human heart and God’s consistent love.

Christ knows this young man. The gospel tells us that Jesus “looking at him, loved him…” Now, imagine being before Christ. Picture yourself being in the full and immediate gaze of Jesus. It is an amazing and humbling thing to stand before the presence of God. Christ knows us through and through. He knows us more than we know ourselves. Christ sees that this young man is seeking to live the commandments but he also recognizes that divisions remain within his heart. We follow our hearts! How can we follow that, which itself, is divided? The young man is divided by even seemingly good intentions. It makes sense to live the commandments. It is logical and philosophically consistent to seek to live the commandments and to do good towards others. We should treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. We can strive to do all things within ourselves and by our own abilities. Even in seeking to do these good things we can remained enclosed within ourselves.

But there is more! And Jesus wants to invite this young man into this “more” which is living not with a distracted and divided heart content within oneself but living fully and authentically in the mystery, living in relationship with Christ. Jesus wants the young man’s heart to be firmly rooted in friendship with God and an ongoing encounter with God. “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Christ is inviting the young man (and us) to true richness – to live fully and authentically with an undivided heart not within an enclosed self but in friendship with God and others.

The young man goes away sad because, we are told, “…he had many possessions.” This is where we need to remember our Lord’s reaction to the young man; “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” Our Lord’s love for the young man remains even as the young man is conflicted with a divided heart. Our Lord’s love for us remains even as we are conflicted with divided hearts!

On our own we cannot overcome the divisions and distractions in our hearts. Jesus himself tells us. “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

The gospel does not tell us where the young man’s life took him but I have hope that eventually he came around to the recognition that it is not about the ability to live the commandments by one’s own effort but rather about receiving the love and friendship of God into one’s heart. I have hope because the gospel says that Jesus loved the young man and that love remained even as the young man went away sad in the moment. I have hope that the young man learned that for God “all things are possible”.

The same hope remains for us. Yes, we all too often, have divided hearts but Christ looks on us with love, Christ continually invites us into friendship and for God “all things are possible”.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Politicians, Jesus and Zen Foxes

12 Saturday Sep 2015

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Jesus - way, truth, lifeSo … we are into the presidential primary election season. Already the news is happily swamped with politicians posturing themselves. We, for our part, keep watching and asking ourselves, “Who is the one that seems to have that presidential timber and swagger?” In light of the political climate we find ourselves in as well as this Sunday’s gospel reading, a question to be entertained is, “If Jesus were running for my party’s nomination, would I vote for him?”

Truth be told, I do not think Jesus would receive many votes in either political party but I also do not think Jesus would really care! Throughout the gospel our Lord does the one thing that a politician would never do because the politician knows it to be political suicide: Jesus never confuses the illusion of control with true leadership and true personhood. Therefore, he never needs to pretend control. Our Lord is free of this temptation.

In today’s gospel (Mk. 8:27-35) we are told that Jesus is walking with his disciples and he asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” This question, itself, sets Jesus apart from the career politician. The politician says, “Let me tell you who I am. These are my skills… This is what I have achieved…” Jesus doesn’t do that, rather he asks, “Who do people say I am … who do you say I am?” Jesus knows full well who he is and what his purpose is but he does not impose himself. Rather, he waits. He allows the Father to work in the hearts of his followers and he allows his disciples to come to him. He allows them to come to the realization of who he is. Jesus does not force his disciples’ recognition. He needs neither to control nor manipulate the situation.

Then and only then, he begins to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed and then rise. Imagine this as a political platform! We cannot and this is why Peter’s reaction is so perfect because it is our honest, human, knee-jerk reaction! “No, Lord, this cannot be! You do not need to suffer! You do not need to be rejected! You can control the situation! You are the Christ!”

But leadership and control are not necessarily synonymous. Our Lord wants to show us a different way of both authentic leadership and personhood. “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do … whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

Our Lord is showing us a way of living which can forego the illusion of control. Isn’t it interesting to note how so many times after our Lord performs a miracle he is quick to say to the person healed, “Your faith has made you well.”? He does not need to grasp that credit. In the fourth chapter of John’s gospel, our Lord says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.” (Jn. 4:34) Not my program, not my agenda, not my control but rather my Father’s will. Every moment of our Lord’s life was focused upon and directed in trust toward the Father’s will.

This letting go of the illusion of control is not a passive resignation akin to despair. It is far from that. Rather, it is the most active of stances in our world. It is learning to seek and make the choice for God’s will in all things and all situations. There is nothing passive about that. This is the one choice which can truly transform lives and the world itself!

One of my favorite social media sites is entitled ”Bored Panda Animals”. It is a site that hosts often stunning photography. Just this last week the site highlighted a photographer who captures images of foxes in the wild. These pictures are beautiful and they depict these animals completely relaxed, eyes closed, enjoying the breeze, Zen-like in their posture. The site also interviewed the photographer who shared how she is able to capture the photos of these wild animals so relaxed. “There’s a contradiction going on when it comes to capturing Zen foxes: the harder you try, the more you’ll move away from your goal. If you are too eager, an animal will sense that eagerness and will remain alert. I learned to do as foxes do, just being there and see what might happen.”

Let go of the illusion of control. It is not real. Learn to trust in the will of the Father.

Allow God to be God and trust.

“…whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

The Eucharist, the “guest room” and twenty years of priesthood

07 Sunday Jun 2015

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The_Last_SupperThe teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”

With this question in this kind of clandestine encounter in Mark’s gospel the stage is set for the Last Supper where the Lord enters into his sacrifice for us and where he gives us his very body and blood that we might have life.  It is worthy, I think, to reflect on this question of our Lord, “Where is my guest room?” because it is a question that our Lord continues to ask now throughout history and in each of our lives.  Where, amidst all the distractions of life, might I meet you?  Where might I encounter you?  Where might I be welcomed by you?  Where might I bring you life and share with you my very body and blood?

One way to begin to understand the great mystery we celebrate today as Church – the mystery of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – is to reflect on the different contexts, the different “guest rooms” through which we ourselves have been privileged to encounter and experience that mystery.

On June 3rd I celebrated my twentieth anniversary of ordination.  As a priest – not by merit but by call – one is privileged to serve at the altar and in this “guest room” of our Lord.  Whenever we gather for Mass we are gathered at that Last Supper of our Lord with his disciples.  It is an amazing thing really yet so common that it can be taken for granted.  Praying over the gospel this past week has led me to reflect on all the “guest rooms” that I have been privileged to enter into these past twenty years where our Lord encounters his people in the gift of the Eucharist.

The chapels at the two seminaries I attended – daily encounters along with friends wrestling with the same questions of call and vocation.  The warehouse church of All Saints Church in Knoxville which had no air-conditioning; where you had to turn off the industrial fans in order to hear the readings and the homily.  The chapel at Knoxville Catholic High School celebrating Mass with classes and different sports teams before a game.  The old A-frame church of St. Mary’s in Athens which shook whenever a truck drove by and then the new church that we built with devotion and sacrifice.  The little chapel of the ETSU Catholic Center tucked away in a neighborhood by the university where we would celebrate Mass, move the chairs around and then sit down for dinner together.  The chapel at UTC where we did the same thing … college ministry revolves around food!  The auditorium at Notre Dame High School, up on a stage trying to help high school students encounter Christ as both Lord and friend.  Now here, in this beautiful church and community of St. Dominic’s – at the church and at the school.

But there have been other “guest rooms” I have been privileged to enter these twenty years – the chapel where Bl. Oscar Romero was shoot and killed, the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastavere, Rome for the celebration of Pentecost when at the main altar my friend, Fr. Marco Gnavi, tapped me on the shoulder pointing upwards where I looked to see rose petals being dropped from the top of the church’s dome for the feast, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the chapel of an orphanage in El Salvador, an outdoor altar in Assisi, Italy where St. Francis often prayed, at a poor senior center on the outskirts of Rome, on the boat of some friends, at national youth gatherings of twenty-five thousand people and in innumerable small gatherings of two or three, in nursing homes in South Bend, IN and New York City.  In my mother’s room at the Assisted Care facility where she lived her last years with just she and I sitting at a table.

It is worthwhile to reflect on the “guest rooms” we have been privileged to enter in our own individual journeys of discipleship.  On this feast when we reflect on this great mystery of the Eucharist, I encourage us to take the time to do this.  We each have them – our home churches, places of retreat, churches we have stumbled upon while on a trip or vacation, churches we have entered for funerals, baptisms or weddings.  For each of these places and each of these moments sharing in the Body and Blood of our Lord we should give thanks because they are indeed holy places and moments filled with beauty and life – places and moments where we have encountered the Lord and where he has fed, nourished and strengthened us with his Body and Blood and with his Word.  The very contexts of encounter, the “guest rooms” where we have met and received our Lord in the Eucharist themselves lead us into a greater understanding of this most sacred and holy of mysteries.

I think it safe to say that the true “guest room” our Lord most earnestly seeks to be welcomed into and dwell within is each person’s heart.  God wants nothing other than what is best for us.  God wants relationship with us and to give us his very life!  If priests are able to help facilitate this encounter, even in the smallest way, then we are indeed among the most blessed of people – given a richness that the world can never afford.

I give thanks to God for these twenty years and for the “guest rooms” that the Lord has allowed me to enter to encounter Him and to serve his people.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Pentecost

24 Sunday May 2015

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PentecostHave you ever held an acorn in your hand?  In that seed all the potentiality of a towering oak tree is present.  Have you ever held a newborn infant?  In that newly born child is all the potentiality of an adult human being whose very life will affect countless other people and maybe even the course of human history itself.  It has been said that growth is the only sure indicator of life but growth has to begin somewhere, from some kernel of life.

In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11) we hear that the disciples and some women were gathered together when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the sound of a strong driving wind and in the appearance of tongues of fire – this smallest of groups.  They began to speak in different languages so that the people outside heard them speaking in their own language.

An unknown African writer of the sixth century offers these thoughts in regards to this miraculous event:

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realize, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.

On that first Pentecost we find all the potentiality present of what the Church was and still is to become. We find the kernel of the beginning of the Church Universal – a Church present in every land, every culture, every class and ministering in every human condition.

The author knows that it is the love “poured out” out into hearts that allows for and sustains this life and growth. This love is nothing other than the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is not the “love” so often touted in our world today – a love that is often really just a reflection of our own ego. The love that is the Holy Spirit does not originate from us and our concerns rather it is “poured out” upon us. It is the love of the Father and Son which is given on Pentecost and which continues to enliven the Church throughout history.

Paul reminds us that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. It is only the Spirit who enables us to turn those mere words into a true profession of faith, rooted in lives which are continually being transformed and transfigured by the light of Christ.

In some sense looking back is also worth noting. For the most part, I do not today look anything like I did when I was first born. I’ve gotten taller, I weigh more, I grew hair and I have begun to lose hair, I have learned much more but, even though I may look very different from that newborn infant born forty-seven years ago, I am still the same person just more fully so. The Catholic Church today may not look exactly like that first gathering of disciples on Pentecost – there is two thousand years of history, institutions and roles have developed and continue to do so – but it is the same church just more fully so. The Holy Spirit enables this growth in truth.

Our Lord told us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. We know this. We have been living it now for two thousand years as Church and continue to do so even today. The love which enables all this to happen does not originate from us. It is poured out upon us. It is the love of the Father and the Son, the very Holy Spirit of God.

Holy Spirit, continue to come upon us, continue to guide us into all truth, into who we are meant to be as your Church!

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: the concreteness of the Ascension

17 Sunday May 2015

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Ascension3Today’s gospel (Mk. 16:15-20) has the risen Lord sending his disciples into the whole world in order to proclaim the gospel to every creature.  This very same mission continues today.  Christianity cannot stay within, locked behind closed doors!  But, before we run out to the world, we need to know for whom we are running and whose message it is exactly that we are proclaiming.  I once heard a seasoned Catholic blogger give some sound advice to some young seminarians eager to evangelize the internet for Christ.  She cautioned that before you start saying things about faith and Christ make sure you actually have something to say.  The only way to speak authentically about Christ is to encounter Christ.  Another way of getting at this is by asking the question actually whose disciples are we?

We are not disciples for ourselves even if we might claim the name Christian.  Taking only the teachings of our Lord that we like and find agreeable and then trying to manage and live our lives on our own – agreeing with Jesus but not really feeling a need for him, too closely, in our lives.

We are disciples because God has first loved us – he has called us and saved us in love.  He sends us into the world in order to proclaim the good news in love and peace.  In many ways the gospel is a weak strength – the gospel needs us to proclaim it, if not love begins to disappear and peace begins to lose to violence and hatred.  But for any of this to happen we must live continually in relationship with Christ, remembering that we are his disciples and not disciples for ourselves.

Despite the seemingly, other-worldly nature of today’s feast (What does it mean that Jesus ascends to the Father?), the Feast of the Ascension is a very concrete reality.   It is so because of the simple fact that the hope we celebrate today is not founded in some abstract or utopian principle or ideal of a better tomorrow but in the very resurrected body of Christ.  Christ is indeed risen which means he is risen body and soul, flesh and blood.  Anything less would not be fully and authentically human.  Christ ascends to the Father not just in spirit or thought but in the very concrete reality of his full humanity.  Throughout this Easter season we have heard Christ, time and time again, assuring his disciples that he is indeed present in “flesh and bone”.  This means fully present not just up to the moment of the ascension but in the ascension itself and now at the Father’s right hand.  From the day of the ascension heaven “began to populate itself with the earth, or, in the language of Revelation, a new heaven and earth began.”

In the ascension we truly realize that we are not orphans.  We are not left to the cold and cruel winds of chance, fate and odds or a history without direction.  Direction has been set.  The resurrected Christ now sits at the Father’s right hand!  This, and nothing less, is our goal.  It is what we are meant for and what we are called to by God’s grace.

It is truly concrete and it is achieved and experienced concretely.

In the gospel Jesus tells us that he is “the way” and the way, it turns out, is walked concretely.  The ascension is experienced again not in some abstract manner but in how we concretely treat and love the smallest and poorest brothers and sisters in our midst. When we love concretely we experience the ascension and we are brought toward the fullness of the future that God has prepared for us in Christ.

Let me share an example.  When I was chaplain at the Catholic Center at ETSU our Sant’Egidio group decided to take sandwich bags once a week to the John Sevier Center.  (The John Sevier Center is a low-income housing unit in downtown Johnson City.)  We did not go there as experts in anything.  We knew we could not solve the residents’ problems and struggles.  We just went and we were faithful in going and in this simple act of being present a human space was created both for the residents and for us.  We became friends.  By this we were brought a little bit further toward the fullness that awaits us all.  In this human space miracles happen and signs are given – demons of isolation, fear, hatred and resignation are cast out and life is gained.  I have seen it for myself time and time again.  Now, our Sant’Egidio group here at St. Dominic’s has begun visiting Holston Manor nursing home and it is beginning to happen again – a human space is being created.

Christ bestows his love upon us.  We are disciples for him and we are meant to communicate his love.  Love that is not communicated soon withers and dies.

Love is lived not abstractly but concretely and it is in the concrete act that we are brought toward the fullness that awaits us all.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Love and Friendship (6th Sunday of Easter – B)

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in friendship, homily, life in Christ, love

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Rue_dyingEarlier this week I was channel surfing and came across a broadcast of the first of the “Hunger Games” movies.  I have to admit that when the books and movies initially came out I was skeptical and avoided them altogether but then one day, kind of on a whim, I joined some friends who had decided to see the movie.  I am now a fan.  At the heart of that first movie (which I saw again this last week) is a scene where a young girl is killed in these games that pits child fighting against child to the death.  The heroine, who was trying to protect this young girl is heartbroken.  But in her pain and grief she does a tender thing.  She gathers flowers and places them around the body of the young girl lying dead on the forest floor.

In the cold world depicted in this story where, I would say, the sense of God has been lost (a world that at best can only say, “May the odds continually be in your favor.” rather than, “God be with you.”) the heroine performs a corporal work of mercy.  She buries the dead and she does it in love and friendship.  Via video cameras the nation silently watches and in response, in an imprisoned part of the country, a fight against the injustice of the oppressors breaks out! All because the heroine performed this simple act of taking the time to acknowledge the humanity and the dignity of this young girl … a humanity and dignity that all the “powers that be” were trying their best to negate.

There is a power to love and friendship. You know, if you think of all the great stories – whether they are expressed in movies, plays, literature, opera, whatever medium – a common element that runs throughout them all is the exploration of love and friendship. The settings both geographical and in time may be worlds apart. The characters and plot may be very different but in any good story there is an underlying story and exploration of the dynamics of love and friendship in life. The reader or viewer might not know what it is like to fly a bomber in WWII or stare at the walls of Troy or fight off zombies but everyone knows what it is like to yearn to give love and receive love and to desire friendship and remain in friendship.

Part of the essence of love and friendship is that it does not have to be flashy in order to be true. I thought of this yesterday in our parish’s celebration of first communion. Christ gives us himself (his body and blood) in the form of bread and wine – two things so utterly common. God does not need flash, God does not need smoke and mirrors and God does not need the latest fad in order to accomplish his plan in our lives. We might believe we need these things but God does not. Think of moments of friendship or moments when you gave or received authentic love … I would wager that the memories that come to mind are anything but flashy, more than likely they are common even to the point of being unnoticed by others – laughing with a friend, holding a loved one’s hand, comforting a child…

In today’s gospel (Jn. 15:9-17), Jesus says, As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love … love one another as I love you … You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 

What does Christ give us and what does Christ call us to? Love and friendship. We must not pass this over, because this is the heart of it all! What unites all the great stories? What speaks to the depth of universal human existence? What does Christ give us? What truly transforms our lives and our world? Love and friendship. And the gospel message is that it is both love and friendship with one another and, through Christ, love and friendship with God! Christ calls us his friends; we need to take this to heart. We can never be friends in a sense of peer to peer with Christ but, nonetheless, he calls us friends. We need to pray on this truth and therefore on the great power of friendship that our Lord himself alludes to in this passage.

We should never underestimate the power of love nor the power of friendship.

…love one another as I love you.

I no longer call you slaves … I have called you friends…

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “Remain” (5th Sunday of Easter – B)

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in discipleship, homily, life in Christ, vine and branches

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Vine1Like me, this past week, you may have been saddened by the rioting occurring in Baltimore.  Now that it has been determined that there is need for a criminal investigation we pray for justice and peace in that city.  In the midst of the rioting though, I was personally moved by the report of the gathering of clergy of many different denominations also marching through the streets calling for peace.  These clergy have chosen to remain.  You may also remember not long ago reports of Orthodox priests literally placing themselves between the warring factions in the Ukraine also praying for peace.  These priests chose to remain.  Recently, there were doctors and nurses who chose not to leave the different regions of Africa that were struck by Ebola rather they stayed to help the ill.  They chose to remain.  Every day, unnoticed and unreported, men and women help the elderly, the homeless, the addicted, the imprisoned and the ill.  These men and women choose to remain.

In today’s gospel (Jn. 15:1-8) our Lord specifically uses this word “remain” over and over again.  Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me … Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

True strength is found not in violence, or insults, or in making a scene or calling attention to oneself but rather in the choice to remain.  The choice to persevere.  The choice to trust.  The choice not to live a distracted and self-focused life.  The choice to trust in the good of the other person.  The choice to bear patiently the injustices of our world and even wrongs endured.

No Christian is nor can ever be an isolated island.  The Christian life, by its very nature, must be rooted in the very life of Christ.  For us, Christ is not just a nice idea or ideal or great teacher; for the disciple Christ is Lord and our very lives must be rooted in his.  We must remain in Christ.  The Christian can be thrown into different raging fires of our world and not be burned, not wither precisely because the Christian is rooted in Christ who has overcome the world.  This has been seen throughout history and it continues to be seen in our world today.

A prized part of this “remaining” in Christ is found in the power of his words.  Our Lord says specifically to his disciples, You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.  Later he says, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.  God’s word prunes but it prunes for life – it cuts off that which corrupts and that which stunts life.  When we begin to live God’s word then we remain in Christ.  St. John knew this and it is what he shares in his letter (1 Jn. 3:18-24), Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them… 

Every day we need to pick up and read God’s word!  Every day we need to let these words sink into our hearts and every day we need to strive to live these words!

Christ never says that his disciples will not experience the fires and troubles of this world.  What he does say is that the one who remains in him will not wither, will not burn even in the midst of the fires of our world precisely because he or she is rooted in the very one who has overcome this world!  The Coptic Christians martyred by ISIS died saying the name of Jesus.  They did not wither in this fire of brutality, they remained in Christ, they endured and witnessed the hope we have in Christ and from their witness new life will emerge.  This has been seen throughout history and we see it in our world today.  We are today, and have always been, a church of martyrs.

Christ is Lord!  We remain in him.