Homily for the Week of April 28, 2013

Fifth Sunday of Easter. 2013 Acts 14:21-27 Ps 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13 Rv 21:1-5a Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35 There is a story about St. John, the writer of our third reading for today, that towards the end of his life he got so feeble and absent minded that all he could remember that Jesus said was: MY CHILDREN, LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Today’s Gospel is Jesus’ last speech to his followers. He focuses it on what it means to love and to be a loving person. He has modeled for them actions that defines love as going so far as to give our life for someone else. It is a love that is extended even to those who will not love in return. At the last supper Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples—even Judas, who was about to betray him, The message from the lips of Jesus is short, said while they were all at table for their Last Supper with Jesus, and while he knew that in a short time Judas would betray him. He tells them and he tells us: You are my followers if you love one another. The followers of Jesus had understood love to mean loving your own, looking out for your own. While that was an authentic kind of love, it was not a love that would include all persons. Jesus tells his friends that they must also love those persons who do not love you or even do you harm. Christians have been told to love one another as Christ loves them. This was a new kind of love, one that had not been known. It was a hard change, and many could not make the change. We have just heard, not only of love, but of the practice of that love and what that love can bring us. Jesus went around publicly for just about 3 years but during this time he was able to gather together a small group of persons who trusted him and would go anywhere that he suggested they go. It was not at all popular to be known as a true follower of Jesus. To do so they would often have to go underground so that they would not be discovered, and when discovered they would most likely be tortured and some times even killed for their religion. What kept them going? What attracted still more to come to follow? It was not that they thought they would become popular, but it was that they believed in the message and the life style of Jesus. All of us have a desire to go beyond the easy, the common place. We are often prevented from doing what we believe, however, because we have no one to follow, we have no one to teach how to live a fully human and spiritual life. That is why we hear so often of the apostles and the early Christians needing to live together in order to support each other. Sorrow, pain, injury, sadness is less feared when it is shared with someone who loves you and whom you love. And when we believe that our pains will lead to something better. Athletes will often push themselves to the limit with a body full of pain in order to win a game or be an award winning player. In the past week our news programs have told of us of persons in the policy or EMT or fire fighters that have gone beyond the ordinary in order to help someone as in Boston or the fire in Texas. The apostles had each other, but they also had a faith that told them that Jesus was going to leave them, but God was always with them. The Jerusalem that these early Christians lived in was city that did not accept them. But they imagined, thought of a new Jerusalem, a holy city where they would live some day. They compared that new city to a man and woman who had promised their marriage vows that they would be together for a lifetime. Love is perhaps the easiest yet most difficult human experience about which to write. Poems, songs, plays, paintings, books and movies tells us about love, but never quite say it all just right. Mothers, fathers, friends, strangers all have tried to reveal to us what love means to them and what it would mean to us. But love is probably one of the most over used words in our vocabulary. Unfortunately, for many the words I love you gives permission to do what you want with me. Love often replaces the word like - I like you. Also, for many falling in love has little resemblance to what Jesus talks about in today's Gospel. Love as Jesus wants us to love does not consist of warm, fuzzy, romantic feelings toward another. To love as Jesus loves, it is not necessary to like or even feel kindly toward the other person. But it is necessary to act toward the other in the way Jesus treated his disciples as he washed their feet. This kind of love is not affection. This kind of love is not feeling. This kind of love is not reserved for those we find attractive or those who think like us or look like us or act like us. This kind of love is doing. It is being ready always to care for the person who is placed in our path regardless of whether we like or do not like this person. This kind of love is often called charity. Jesus encourages us today, to love as he did. With it there is always the hope of a the better life and that we will be loved and appreciated in return. But the only thing more difficult than loving is not loving because that path leads to nowhere. Modern medicine has found a cure for nearly all sickness. The only sickness that has no cure is the feeling of being unloved. God pays attention to our love. Not one of us is indispensable. Jesus wants us to fall in love with him and his way of life. If we do we will follow him today and every day.

Homily for the Week of April 14, 2013

HOMILY: Third Sunday of Easter, 2013 year C Acts 5:27-32 Rev 5:11-14 John 21: 1-19 All the information we have about Jesus comes from what are known as the Gospels of which there are 4. All of the them were written by different persons and written at different times for a different group of people soon after Jesus died. We know from them that when Jesus made his appearances after Easter he did so to a variety of people. But the gospel of John from which I just read gives us the only situation when Jesus met with the 11 apostles. He did this while they were fishing. Jesus is standing on the shore telling his apostles where to fish, and then he prepares breakfast for his hungry friends. I mention this rapid review of the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection on Easter Sunday to show that in all cases there is no extravagant experience as you may have often associated with this great event. This lack of brilliance and pomp may give each of us a clue to better recognize and appreciate the presence of the risen Jesus here and now and in our life. We can be sure that Jesus is not going to appear to us in a blaze of glory. The Risen Jesus who promised us that he would be with us at all times until the end of time is not going to appear to us with all of the action of a Super Bowl at half time, or a 4th of July fireworks display. The main means by which the Risen Jesus has chosen to be present to us in our life is very basic, very simple. The Risen Jesus meets and greets us in all of our ordinary, all of our everyday, down-to-earth existence, in all of our weekend and weekday work and worries. The risen Jesus is in our midst during this Mass as often as we hear his living, loving voice in the Gospel. Jesus is always alive as he continues to tell us his stories and the advice which he told his friends and continues to tell us. Our most direct encounter with the risen Jesus occurs when he does for us what he did for his disciples in today's gospel, namely, when he feeds us. But here and now he feeds us not with fish and bread baked on a charcoal fire. Now he feeds us with the very Bread of Life which is himself. What a privilege, what a marvel it is for us to receive the Risen Jesus. Our faith also teaches us that when the risen Jesus appears to us he asks us the same question he asked Peter in today's gospel: Do you love me? Our reply should be the same as Peter's: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. But because true love is a not a word but a way of life, the Risen Jesus tells us: Feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my Sheep. In this command is the real test of our meeting with Jesus. And then Jesus tells Peter: Follow me. We saw in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles that Peter was no longer fishing but he was leading others to Jesus. Peter teaches in the name of Jesus. Some 600 years ago before Jesus was born a great Chinese philosopher said: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. These are profound words between giving and feeding and teaching, words that many of us as leaders and parents and teachers would do well to follow. Jesus shows us how to tell the difference between sheep and goats. The sheep of Jesus are those who are hungry and thirsty, those who are strangers, those who are naked, those who are sick, those who are in jail. Whenever we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome strangers, clothe the naked and visit the ill and those in prison, do our best to be loving and caring parents to our children, and being loving and caring children to our parents, we then meet the Risen Jesus himself. For Jesus once said that whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do for me. We too must be like Peter. Our life in Jesus requires us to share that life with others. How do we do this? It can be in small ways like saying something kind to others, or not saying something critical of others, an apology, a smile. At times we can feel joy and happiness in it; at other times we might find it a burden. Whatever we try to do to follow Jesus, we must believe that Jesus will give us all we need to do what we have to do, even forgiveness when necessary. Yes, Jesus has Risen from the dead. But Jesus is always with us.

Homily for the Week of April 7, 2013

Second Sunday of Easter, 2013 Acts 5:12-16 Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 Revelations 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 John 20:19-31 A mother took her three young old son to church one weekend, They got there rather early. The child got impatient waiting for Mass to begin. Turning to his mother he said: When does Jesus get here?” I wonder if this was what the Apostle Thomas was asking himself all week. The other Apostles had seen Jesus on Easter Sunday evening. Thomas, for one reason or another, missed out on this first appearance of Jesus to the Apostles. Jesus did not appear again until the following Sunday, that is this weekend. Thomas did not reject the idea that Jesus could rise from the dead, but he certainly set up conditions for his believing that He had risen. Thomas wanted to see before he could believe. Thomas comes across as a classic doubter. That is how we get the saying A doubting Thomas. Our first reading describes the very first Christians. It seems that they had no trouble believing in Jesus, but also doing what Jesus said they should do. These early Christians shared their goods with one another and they worshipped and prayed together. They formed the very first Catholic communities doing what we are doing today over 2000 years later. The gospel I just read shows that the Jesus sends out his Apostles to bring his message to the world through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to them and he says to us: Peace with you, As the Father has send me so I send you. Then he gave them the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that we all received when we were Confirmed and Bishop LaValley will bring to to our young parishioners who will be Confirmed on May 10th. Some years ago Pope John Paul II was so inspired by this passage that he declared this Weekend to be called Divine Mercy Sunday. It is not that this is the only time that God offers Mercy to us, but it is a good time to for each of us to realize that God’s mercy is always available for forgiveness. Whenever we ask for and receive forgiveness we really appreciate the peace we feel. Yet, so many people do not believe they need mercy. Worse, more and more of do not even think they need God. Soon there will be more who say we do not believe in God as understood through the teaching of Jesus Christ rather than those who will say they do. Many of us from time to time have a hard time accepting God's mercy and forgiveness for ourselves or for others. Sin separates us from ourselves, it separates us from others, and it separates us from God. Through Jesus God offers us mercy and forgiveness. Unfortunately it is a struggle for us to show mercy. The best way to obtain mercy is to be merciful. Jesus said at one time: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Failure to forgive others is a major human problem. Holding grudges is common. Failure to forgive routinely tears apart families, neighborhoods, and even nations. Jesus stressed mercy as when he asked God to forgive those who crucified him. The sacrament of Confession is an expression of God's gift of endless mercy. Each person needs to have the burden of sins and guilt removed from their hearts. If there were no need for forgiveness, Jesus would not have died for us. Each time we see the crucifix we are reminded of God's mercy. A look at the life and teaching of Jesus shows us that his loudest message was his teaching on forgiveness, compassion and mercy — the very things that seem so lacking today. But these are not dead. The cross could not defeat Christ; therefore, hope cannot be crushed. Thankfully, before Jesus told us to be different from everyone else, he breathed on his disciples: “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Before Jesus asked us to do the hard things, to live the challenging path, he gave us the Holy Spirit. Each week as we gather here in Church to celebrate the Lord’s Day we profess our faith in the living presence of Jesus in our day-to-day life. Each week we listen to the word of God and of Jesus through our readings from the Bible. Unlike the three year old boy I mentioned at the beginning we are trained to listen carefully to these words, and then to look at ourselves as to how we apply them into every situation of our life. If we do we can almost see the active, faithful presence of Jesus living in and through us. Although our doors may be locked at times-- locked by distractions, busyness, weariness, success or failure -- Jesus Christ still passes, still moves and addresses each one of us and says to us personally: PEACE BE WITH YOU. Today, listen carefully at the words I will use right before Holy Communion when I pray Look not at our sins, but on the faith of our Church, and graciously grant us peace and unity in accordance with your will. Then I will say: The Peace of the Lord be with you always.