Homily for the Week of May 20, 2010

HOMILY Seventh Sunday of Easter, 2012
First Reading: Acts 1:15–17, 20a, 20c–26
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103:1–2, 11–12, 19–20
Second Reading: 1 John 4:11–16
Gospel: John 17:11b–19

Today we live in a world of quick, instant success, food preparations, everything else that comes in an "instant" variety, whether it be our coffee and tea, or a political sound-bite. While walking in the supermarket the other day I thought back years ago when all we had was a small country store. These stores had one freezer which included ice cream, frozen strawberries, and a few of those newfangled TV dinners. Almost all the food in the store was in the form of ingredients that had to be mixed and matched, cooked, fried, or baked, and then served up to the table.

I wonder what our fast food mentality has done to our spirituality. Because we want instant solutions to our problems it can also be tempting for us to seek instant spirituality. An Internet Google search for instant spirituality gives you 13 million choices. Today people flock to self-made gurus, shamans, healers, readers and TV channels for answers and quick spiritual fixes to their lives. The interesting point about this New Age spirituality is no one has to prove anything to anyone. All one has to do is project the illusion of sincerity, truth and a personalized style to your truth.

Many persons distinguish between organized religion and their own “spirituality.” Almost everyone will say that they are spiritual. By this they refer to their personal faith or spirituality as being something inside themselves. In some cases it may be related to some power they call God, or it could be related to belonging to an organized religion. They separate spiritual from religion. For these persons religion means belonging to a church with its buildings, rituals, customs, traditions, sacraments and doctrines. Religion means going to church. For them an individual's religious practice can be separated from one's faith or spirituality. However, from the beginning of recorded human history a person’s religious and spiritual lives strengthened and reinforced each other. The 3rd commandment given to us by God tells us to Remember to keep holy the LORD'S Day. God connects what we do as religious persons to how we act as spiritual persons.

Spirituality influences how we view the world and relationships. For most people, the desire for a spiritual dimension in their life is strong and finding a way to express it has brought about a variety of religious practices. This sometimes puts us at odds with our culture. Our efforts to live a good life is expressed in the practice of religion without which our spiritual behavior would be hypocrisy.

As followers of Jesus we must accept that becoming a total spiritual being is a lifelong process in living out the commandments, the beatitudes and the works of mercy. There is no such thing as instant spirituality. Instant spirituality is similar to building a house on quicksand. The practice of religion is a means for us to become a truly spiritual person. In addition to going to Church our Catholic faith provides us with many different ways by which we can live an active spiritual life. These can include looking at the crucifix, or a special statue or religious picture; reading the Bible, praying with someone, saying a prayer before meals. In each of theses events we may ask ourselves: "How does this particular action change me into a truly spiritual person?”

On this last weekend of Easter we can try to place ourself in the position of the close friends of Jesus who have just seen their best friend leave them and ascend into heaven a few days ago. Their spirituality had changed from being members of the synogogue to becoming followers of Jesus. They had given up everything for him, and many of them had been laughed at, and some killed, because they had decided, not only to be spiritual as Jesus was, but also to practice this religion publicly.

And so in today’s Gospel Jesus prays to God. He prays that his disciples will be protected from evil and that they may experience the same unity in love among themselves as Jesus shares with God in heaven. This will be achieved by the disciples being consecrated in the truth. While he was talking to his friends standing or sitting with them, he has also made it known that each us here today are his disciples. And what are we to teach? We are to teach the truth. And where do we find that truth? Jesus tells us that we find the truth in God's word found through the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.

If the disciples are to continue the mission of Christ they must continue to hear this word of love, reflecting in the life and work of Jesus.

Just as the apostles were going to find their mission a difficult and dangerous one in the midst of a hostile world we too may find ourselves in a hostile world. It is tempting for us to replace our religion with some simple spiritual facts such as God exists, people ought to be nice and fair to each other, the purpose of our life is to be happy and good people go to heaven. At the same time we may believe that God doesn’t need to be actively involved in our lives unless we are in trouble. These facts are very common among persons who say they are spiritual. These are also included in Catholic morality. But they are not what we professed as our Catholic faith on the day we were Baptized.

Only when we continue to dwell on Christ and the word of God will we be drawn nearer to God and to one another--only then will Christ's prayer be fully realized--Let is be done to me on earth as it will be in heaven. The joy Jesus offers is to be found in abiding with Him — both when it is easy and, especially, when it is difficult. We are always under God’s protection.