A Promise and A Power

 

Deacon Dave · A Promise and A Power

Homily for the Sunday of the Ascension of Our Lord, May 29, 2022. Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:46-53. Theme: A Promise and A Power 

Today’s Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven is the crowning event of the whole story of the Incarnation, that is, of God becoming human. Having successfully completed his mission of healing us from sin and rescuing us from death by his Cross and Resurrection, Christ goes back to where he came from. He takes up once again the divine powers he had left behind when he came to planet Earth. You see, to truly heal and save the human person from the inside out, Jesus had to become limited and vulnerable just as we are. Otherwise his humanity would be just play-acting or a sham. But now at the Ascension, Jesus returns to the Father and puts on once again, so to speak, the glorious robes of his divinity. 

The Ascension is like a supernatural gold medal for the human race, because for the first time in our history a human being is enthroned in Heaven, sharing the very life and majesty of God! And so we see that the Ascension isn’t just telling us something wonderful about Jesus. It’s saying something incredible about us - about you and me! The Ascension proclaims that we who are united with Jesus by baptism are also destined like him, to be raised up to a place of glory and honor. But also like him, we must first fulfill our God-given mission on planet Earth!

Jesus speaks to us about this mission in today’s readings when he says that we are to be his witnesses. As we know, a witness is someone who gives testimony to the truth. And we do this about Jesus both in the way we live and by the words we speak. This can often take a lot of faith and a lot of courage but not to worry, because the Ascended Jesus has pledged to send us a Helper to equip us for our mission.  We just heard him say this in today’s readings that we will receive the “Promise of the Father” who will fill us with “power from on high” and that this “baptism in the Holy Spirit” will provide us with all that we need to carry out our mission. 

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Promise of the Father” because in the Old Testament God promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon his people through the Messiah. This immersion or baptism in the Spirit would change those who experience it, transforming them from the inside out. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit means that we will become consciously aware of God’s love and presence in our lives. It manifests itself in us by means of a spiritual awakening or a renewal in our hearts that results in a firm personal decision to make and to keep Christ as the center of our lives. We Catholics often call baptism in the Holy Spirit a reversion or conversion experience. 

Jesus also calls the Holy Spirit a Power. We heard him say, “you will be clothed with power from on high…” and “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” We all know that power means the ability, energy and strength to do something that is beyond our normal capabilities. This Power that is the Holy Spirit will give us the ability to do things that we do not think we are capable of doing. Its purpose is to enable us to give credible witness to Jesus among those with whom we live, work and socialize. And it manifests itself in different and various ways in the lives of ordinary Christians like you and me. 

Both the New Testament and the lives of believers throughout the centuries show us that the power of the Spirit can work great signs and wonders through us ordinary Christians. Why does the Spirit do this through us? So that we can give credible and tangible witness to the truth of Christ and the power of his Gospel to change and transform those who believe. The Power-from-on-high we are given can enable us to do such things as invoke physical healings and speak words of knowledge that touch the listener’s hearts. 

 (In the audio version, I now tell 2 true stories about the Spirit's power to bring about a physical healing and a word of knowledge) 

 It is extraordinary things such as these, brought about by the faith of ordinary Christians, that can cause people to pause and consider the Message that we preach. The Church has always been adamant that it isn’t just the apostles or saints who work such wonders. The Bible makes it very clear that ordinary Christians like us - like you and me - can do extraordinary things if we trust in Christ to act through us by the power of the Spirit within us. 

So, let’s spend the coming week between Ascension and Pentecost Sunday praying for a renewed outpouring and manifestation of the Spirit in our lives. Let’s pray for the grace to truly embrace the “Promise of the Father” who was first given to us at Baptism. Let’s pray for the grace to allow this “power from on high” that was bestowed on us at Confirmation to become a living reality in our lives. If we prepare for Pentecost with an open mind and heart, sincerely asking the Father for a new baptism in the Holy Spirit, then I assure you that by the time next Sunday comes around, we will be ready to claim that Promise and ignite that Power in ways that we have never imagined or experienced before.

Tools for a Time of Crisis

Deacon Dave · Tools for a Crisis

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022. Gospel of St. John 14:23-29. Theme: Tools for a Time of Crisis 

“Crisis” is a word that we sure hear used a lot these days. It can be simply defined as the upheaval that happens to us when life as we know it gets turned upside down. There is the crisis of potential nuclear war, the fuel supply crisis, the economic crisis, the political crisis, and of course the recent Covid crisis. In today's Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the Crisis of his Passion. In addition to this crisis causing them to question if Jesus truly was who he said he was, they will have to figure out what life will look like without the presence and power of Jesus among them. 

Jesus knows full well the fear that will grip them and the confusion that will engulf them. So he promises them - and us - three pieces of equipment, so to speak, that will help them - and us - handle any crisis that may come: his Word, his Spirit, and his Peace. 

First, he calls us to embrace his Word when he says, “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word.” We Catholics have the Word of the Lord passed on to us in many ways such as the texts of the Liturgy, the teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and of course in the pages of the Holy Bible. These vehicles of his Word enlighten us and show us the sure way in the midst of murky darkness. Cultural and political forces may try to reinterpret the truth and destroy its real meaning, but they will always fail. Truth can be denied and ignored, but it can never be destroyed! 

The second tool Jesus gives us for a crisis is the Holy Spirit. He calls the Spirit by the name Advocate, which is what the Greeks of his day called a Defense Attorney! An Advocate was someone with stature who would plead your cause, who stood up for you in time of trial. The Advocate-Spirit is first given to us through Baptism and his Presence is made more powerful in us through Confirmation. This Advocate is like our own personal interior GPS, guiding us to what is true and good, pointing us in the right direction, showing us the way to go. So as long as we have not told him to leave us by rejecting our Faith, the Advocate remains within us always, ever ready to plead for and direct our steps. 

Finally, the Lord bestows upon us his blessing of Peace. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you,” So, what did he mean by saying, “not as the world gives…” Well peace as the world understands it is defined as the absence of war, the lack of social conflict and the end of hostilities between peoples. It is something that happens outside of ourselves and so we are at its whim. But the peace Jesus is talking about is very different. It’s a tranquility and calm that resides deep within us and has its origin in God. It is planted in the innermost part of who we are, our very souls, and brings about a confident serenity from God. 

This difference is why Jesus calls his peace something that the world simply cannot give. But too often we search for peace in so many ways that are not God, such as wealth or social status, in body image or relationships. But none of these things will calm a restless heart. The problem, the void, the brokenness is deep inside us. All the things we chase after can never reach deep down into our core and sooth the disturbances that reside there. They can never calm our consciences of the wrongs we have done and which still haunt us. 

The peace people truly desire and desperately seek is a fruit of personal relationship with God. This kind of relationship begins when we personally respond to the Word of Christ in our lives, for he himself has told us that it is the proof of our love. When we embrace his Word, the Advocate-Spirit is activated within us, so to speak. The Holy Spirit will help us to turn our lives over to the care of God with confidence in his love no matter what kind of crisis we may be experiencing. When we do this, and really mean it, we then will begin to experience the peace that Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel; the peace that the world cannot give. 

None of us know what lays ahead in the trajectory of our lives. But each of us do know that we will have to face one crisis or another, for such is life on planet Earth. But we can move forward with confidence, knowing that Jesus has given us these provisions for our future: his WORD to enlighten us, his SPIRIT to guide us, and his PEACE to anchor us in the love of God that nothing can overcome.

Jesus Speaks with his Apostles at Last Supper

Jesus-Caritas aka Jesus--Love

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus-Caritas aka Jesus-Love

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter, May 15, 2022. Gospel of St. John 13:31-35. Theme: Jesus-Caritas, aka Jesus-Love 

Today in Rome, a man who lived the first part of his life only for himself and whose behavior was so immoral that it got him booted out of the French military, is being canonized a saint by Pope Francis. His name is Charles de Foucauld, a member of the wealthy and famous French nobility, but he spent most of his adult life known as Little Brother Charles of Jesus, giving witness to Christ in a lifestyle of poor simplicity among Arab nomads in the Sahara. And it’s so providential that he’s being declared an official saint on this day because today’s Gospel was the theme of his converted new life in Christ. 

In that Gospel, Jesus says to us, “I give you a NEW commandment…” so that might make us ask ourselves: what was the old commandment? Well, you might recall that the original commandment was this, “love your neighbor as yourself.” But you see, that old commandment was just a starting point that put us on the same playing field as most other religions. The prophets of Judaism taught this kind of love and we see in the Old Testament. Islam embraces this kind of love in its solemn duty of sacred hospitality. But all of these expressions of loving others as oneself keep it on the purely human level. 

However, Jesus calls those who follow him to aim higher. In Biblical language, “to follow” someone means to imitate them. Not in their mannerisms nor the way they dress or speak, but in how they think and how they act. In other words, it means to have the same mind, the same type of outlook, the same sort of attitude. And so for the Christian, to love as Jesus loves means to go beyond the original commandment. It means to love others MORE than we love ourselves and to prove it by our actions. 

This is exactly what Charles de Foucauld set out to do when he left France to live the Gospel among the Moslems of Morocco and Algeria. Inspired by Jesus’ words that people would know what it means to be Christian by seeing love-in-action, he made this the entire theme, program and mission of his life. He called himself the Universal Brother accepting all who came to him and making his home and chapel a place of hospitality and welcome. He took the original commandant of love and through his union with Jesus, especially in the Eucharist, sought to make it supernatural, transforming human-love into Jesus-love. As a matter of fact his personal motto in Latin was “Jesus-Caritas”, which means “Jesus-Love”. 

And to be honest, this is a love which is not easily understood by many. Because from our limited and all too often selfish point of view, Jesus-Love is crazy love, foolish love. It’s a love that doesn’t make sense apart from Christ. Jesus-love doesn’t focus on what it will cost the lover, the giver. To love as Jesus loves means that our love must be unconditional. To love as Jesus loves means that our love must be sacrificial. To love as Jesus loves means that our love must be forgiving. 

To say that Jesus-Love is unconditional means that it’s not attached to a list of what others must be like or act like before we will be loving towards them. Notice in the Gospels how Jesus met with, socialized with and helped all who came to him with sincere hearts no matter if they were Jew or Gentile, foreigner or countryman, saint or sinner, friend or foe. Jesus-love encompasses all. 

To call Jesus-Love love sacrificial means that it is unselfish and puts the welfare of others before one’s own. Now, for us frail human beings, it’s a struggle to love like that, and it’s especially difficult to keep on doing so consistently! However, in Christ it can indeed be done because his Spirit empowers us to do things that we didn't think we were ever capable of doing. 

Lastly, Jesus-Love must be forgiving. Forgiving doesn’t mean that the bad things people have done to us are insignificant or even forgotten. It means that we refuse to allow their evil actions to master us and have the last word in our lives and relationships. We refuse to make ourselves victims of hatred and ambassadors of revenge. It means that we will do our best to love like Jesus loves no matter how others act towards us because we are called and empowered to live on a higher plane. 

Notice that Jesus gave us his new commandment of love within the context of the Last Supper. And his words about being glorified bring us to his crucifixion which will lead to resurrection. How fitting it is that the commandment of love is connected to both of these things because, as St. Charles of Jesus teaches us, the Eucharist is what fuels Jesus-Love within us and the Passion is where we see it lived out in its stark reality. The figure of Jesus crucified, with his arms outstretched and his pierced heart opened, is the most powerful example we have to urge us on to love unconditionally, to sacrifice freely, and to forgive humbly. If we have this Jesus-Love within us like St. Charles de Foucauld, we can become universal brothers and sisters to those who come into our lives, witnessing to Jesus and his Gospel by our kindness and hospitality.

St.Charles of Jesus de Foucauld

1858-1916

Praise and Honor to Mary our Mother!

 

Deacon Dave · In Praise of Mary our Mother

A Homily for Mother's Day on Mary our Mother, May 8, 2022. 

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to the ladies in our congregation, and thank you for saying yes to life. Thank you for being witnesses to life. There is a spiritual link between each of you and the Blessed Mother, between your maternity and hers, and so how fitting it is that we crown her image in our church today. 

Our Catholic Faith has always honored the Motherhood of Mary as something precious that allowed her to know and love Jesus more than anyone else. Jesus and Mary shared a deep interpersonal bond from the first-time she held that precious Infant in her arms at Bethlehem to the last time that she held Him, bloody and lifeless, on Mount Calvary. And death has not broken that bond because, as Easter shows and promises us, death is not an end to our lives but simply a change in their expression and mode of existence. 

We love and honor her because Jesus loved her and honored her. Following the example of the Lord, who entrusted himself to Mary in his dependent humanity, we ask her to mother us and teach us to walk in the ways of God. Mary’s yes to motherhood made it possible for Christ to redeem us from the inside out, by becoming one of us, healing our wounded humanity by his divinity. Without Mary’s free and generous consent, this God-becoming-man event could not have happened. Without Mary’s motherhood, we would not be redeemed because it was her yes that opened the pathway to earth for the Savior of Mankind. The plain and simple fact is that without Mary’s motherhood, we would not be Christians, the adopted sons and daughters of God. 

Even though Mary’s Son was like no other, this did not spare her from the struggles and sufferings of motherhood that many of you know so well. These began for her in the days of her pregnancy when she had to face the judgmental stares of her neighbors. And it continued after the Lord’s birth when the Holy Family had to escape into Egypt to save the Holy Infant’s life. And what mother couldn’t agonize with Mary over the mysterious disappearance of her Son for three very long days? 

Finally, imagine how difficult it must have been for Mary when the time came for her only Child to leave home and begin his mission. Joseph had already died and so surely Jesus was the center of her home, the bright spot of her day. And yet, having the desire that all mothers have for their children to do what they were meant to do with their lives, Mary doesn’t stand in his way, she lets go of him because that’s what a mother’s love does. 

I am sure that Mary also felt that his love and presence was not something to be kept to all to herself, to be hoarded for herself. She wanted everyone to know and experience the great love, the tender mercy and the gentle compassion of her Son. And Mary wants each one of us to know and experience these things as well. She makes this possible for us through her mission as the Blessed Mother of Christians. Just as she taught and formed Jesus in his humanity, so she offers to teach and form us in our Christianity. By her motherly prayers for us, she will guide us to the people we need to meet, the things we need to learn and the ways we need to change in order to live as true disciples of her Son. 

However, just as Jesus does not force anyone to accept him as their Lord and Savior, so he does not force anyone to accept Mary as their spiritual mother. This is another one of God's free gifts. All we have to do to unwrap it and use it is to ask her, invite her, to be a mother in our lives, and then open ourselves up to her material direction and influence. The prayers which we address to her, the hymns that we sing in her honor, and the crown we place upon her head will only be truly meaningful if they represent this kind of love and this kind of praise for her that Jesus wants us to have residing within our hearts.