Deacon Bob Huber

The Incredible Power of Faith

The readings today are really quite simple. They stress the incredible power of faith.  In our first reading, the prophet Jeremiah’s warnings to the Jewish people to turn toward God and away from earthly allurements has gotten on the nerves of the rich and powerful of the time. They get approval from a weak and wishy-washy king of Israel to put him into a muddy pit. Jeremiah refuses to relent in his faith in God, and it is the King instead who relents and releases Jeremiah.

In our second reading, the letter to the Hebrews, Paul urges his followers not to lose heart, to remember the suffering Jesus endured for all of us. He asks them in their everyday life to keep their fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. Paul was to be vindicated, as were his followers. From the few in their ranks was to come a faith that today has a billion followers.

And finally, in our Gospel according to Luke, Jesus reminds us that following him will not be easy, but that the His message of loving God and loving others will be resisted, even cause human division. The peace on earth that Jesus was to establish was a peace first and foremost that begins with each one of us. It is a decision to live our lives in a certain way, forsaking all things if they get in the way of the joy and peace of service-based love.

Now these are all nice words Deacon, you might say. But what does it have to do with us? In our very secular world, do people really live like this? Does faith in God really produce anything?

We have already had our mission appeal so this is not a fundraising homily. But I do want to share with you a story about two humble priests, who answered the call of faith and show its incredible power everyday.

Sixteen years ago, the Soviet Union collapsed.  The practice of religion in many forms was permitted once again. In a very distant city in Russia, Vladivostok, on the far southeastern end of a country which is so enormous that it encompasses eleven time zones, two priests from the Midwest, answered the call of an old Catholic woman who asked them to come to Vladivostok and open a cathedral there that had been closed during the Soviet period.

Vladivostok was settled by the Russian navy, which included in its ranks many Catholic seamen from the Catholic parts of the Russian Empire, notably Poland and Lithuania. Before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Catholic cathedral in Vladivostok was home to an archbishop and 15,000 Catholics. Fifteen years later, they were all gone, killed or exiled and the church closed. The last five active members of the parish were shot for conducting a prayer service in the closed cathedral. The brutal suppression of religion was going on throughout the Soviet Union. During the Soviet period, over 100,000 priests and religious were murdered, the greatest number of martyrs for the faith in the history of any country. Religious practice was practically annihilated.

When the two Catholic priests Father Myron and Father Daniel arrived in Russia in 1992, there were eight parishioners, people who were children when the parish was closed by Soviet authorities in the early 1930s. The two priests did not know Russian, and had borrowed $1,000 from Father Daniel’s mother to establish themselves in Russia. And because of the effects of Soviet anti-religious repression, a country that was once over 90% Christian has a population in which only one-half of one percent actively practices any religion, Christian or non-Christian. These two priests must have felt a little like Jeremiah in our first reading, being lowered into a pit of despair with little hope for success.

Now brothers and sisters, we can read about the power of faith as we have in today’s readings. Your humble deacon can stand up here and flap his jaws about it. But the faith of Father Myron and Father Daniel, these two Apostles to Russia, really is faith.  From the humble mustard seed of faith these two priests planted sixteen years ago has come a budget of $800,000, a parish of 500, feeding programs for the homeless and poor elderly, youth instruction and ministry, crisis pregnancy centers, nursing home care, medicine deliveries for those who are too indigent or sick to leave their dilapidated hovels. Moreover, from a parish of 500 faithful Catholics have come nine vocations to the priesthood and religious life. If only every group of 500 Catholics around the world produced nine vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

As you many of you know, I perform mission work on behalf of the Mary Mother of God Mission in Vladivostok as it is called. I have helped out in the Mission’s social justice ministries and I do speaking on their behalf at parishes in the United States. I know Father Myron and Father Daniel pretty well. Once when I asked them what gave them the inspiration to build up the body of Christ in a most challenging environment, their response was the same. We believed that if Christ wanted us to be there, good things would happen.

Amazing. These two priests have indeed kept their eyes on the prize. And that prize is the loving example of Jesus, who faced similar long odds in trying to get people to change the way they lived, to reach the poor and repressed, to show love of God and others by the way He lived.

Now I don’t expect any of you to rush off to Russia this morning and pitch in. I am not even asking for money. Rather, I hope my message is this. It is the kind of faith that these two priests exhibited that unleashed its loving power. And we too can have this kind of faith in God. We need only ask God to help us share in the enormous force of faith that builds up slowly, one person at a time beginning with us, the Body of Christ. It is this kind of faith that helps us to believe that humanity, despite all the challenges and setbacks, really is moving closer to God.

And it is this kind of faith that leads us, in the ways Jesus asks of us, through prayer, Scripture, sacrament, and service to add our own efforts to the incredible power of faith by the way we live.  Whatever our station in life, let us pray that we use the gifts we have received from God and pass on the love that has been given to us.  
 

The Good Samaritan Revisited

Many of you may be familiar with the television program M*A*S*H.  It is the humorous series about an American mobile medical unit in the Korean War.  During one of the episodes, Col. Frank Burns, a tiresome, whining, moralistic bore, decides he is going to get the unit to stop drinking.  He does this first by seizing everyone’s booze.

He then asks Father Mulcahy, a meek Catholic chaplain, if he could give the unit a fire and brimstone sermon against the evils of drink.  Fr. Mulcahy responds with great doubt.  “Hmmm…I don’t know, he says, I have never given a sermon like that. I’m better with the classics; turn the other cheek, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan. You can’t go wrong when you have good material.”

Well, today we have one of those classics, the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel according to Luke. As I look out into the congregation and see so many faithful Catholics, I wonder what more I can say to people who may have heard this Gospel proclaimed hundreds of times in their lifetime. But I am here, and you are expecting something from me, so here goes.

The parable of the Good Samaritan, at the first level of meaning, is clearly about three things: 1) to be willing to help others even if we do not know them or feel they may have brought trouble onto themselves; 2) to recognize that all people are our brothers and sisters, not just those with whom we are comfortable or with whom we are friendly; and 3) when we help others, the help should be practical.

But there is at least one missing element of meaning on which we seldom focus. That has to do with the victim on the road. This is understandable in one sense. We do not know from the parable, what the victim did once he recovered. Did he seek out the Good Samaritan and thank him for his help?  Did he change the way he lived, perhaps becoming more charitable and willing to live as the Good Samaritan did, loving God and others?

And what about us?  Do we just pocket the help from the Good Samaritans God sends us, or do we, as the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy calls us to do, return such help with all our heart and soul?  Do we fail to change our lives when they are saved in many different ways by Good Samaritans, or do we come to emulate the sacrifices of such people, who are themselves emulating the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all of us, as St. Paul reminds us in our second reading.

For me at least, what the victim does is a somewhat different challenge of the Good Samaritan parable, for it affects us directly and makes the parable more than just an interesting story. Accordingly, I offer you this true story as an example.

One day a man named Robert Peterson met a six-year-old girl on a beach near where he lived. Peterson often drove to this beach; a distance of three or four miles, whenever he felt the world was closing in on him.  The little girl was building a sand castle, or at least trying, when she looked up. Her eyes were as blue as the sea.

“Hello,” she said.  Peterson answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child. “I’m building,” she said.  “I see that,” Peterson said, not really caring. “What is it?”  “Oh, I don’t know, I just like the feel of the sand.” That sounds good, Peterson thought, and he slipped off his shoes.

Just then a bird called a sandpiper glided by. “That’s a joy,” the little girl said.  It’s a what?” Peterson asked.  “It’s a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy.” The bird went gliding down the beach. Good-bye joy, Peterson muttered to himself. Hello pain. He continued to walk down the beach. Peterson was depressed; his life seemed out of balance. But the little girl persisted. “What’s your name? the little girl said. “Robert, Robert Peterson.”  “Mine’s Wendy. “I’m six. “Hi Wendy,” Peterson said. “Your funny,” Wendy giggled.

In spite of Peterson’s gloom, he laughed too and walked on. “Come again, Mr. P,” she called. We’ll have another happy day.”  But the next few days were not so happy for Peterson. He dealt with unruly Boy Scouts, PTA meetings, and an ailing mother. The next day, Peterson saw the sun shining and decided he needed a sandpiper to be out. Once on the beach, Peterson received a cool breeze and tried to recapture the serenity of a few days before.

“Hello Mr. P,”  Wendy said.  “Do you want to play”? “What did you have in mind?” Peterson asked. “I don’t know, she said. “You say.”  “How about charades?” Peterson asked sarcastically.  Wendy burst forth with her delightful laugh. “I don’t know what that is.” Peterson said, “Then let’s just walk.  Looking at her, he noticed the delicate fairness of her face. “Where do you live?’ Peterson asked.

“Over there,” Wendy said. She pointed toward a row of summer cottages. It was early winter, and Peterson thought, what a strange answer.

“Where do you go to school?” Wendy replied, “I don’t go to school. Mommy says were on vacation.”  Wendy continued to chatter as they strolled along the beach. When Peterson left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day. Peterson agreed. He felt better.

But three weeks later, Peterson rushed back to the beach. He was in such a bad mood, he even did not want to greet Wendy. In fact, he was in such a foul mood that if he found Wendy at the beach, he said to himself, he would ask her mother to keep her off the beach so he could be alone.  Sure enough, Wendy was there.

Wendy was pale and out of breath as she encountered Peterson. “Look, if you don’t mind,” he said to Wendy, I would rather be alone today.” “Why?” she asked.  Peterson snapped at Wendy. “Because my mother died!” Peterson wondered and was a little bit ashamed he had said this to a child.

“Oh,” Wendy said quietly.  “Then this is a bad day.” “Yes,” Peterson said, “and so was yesterday and the day before and oh, just go away!

“Did it hurt?” she inquired.  “Did what hurt?’ Peterson was exasperated with the little girl.

“When she died?”  “Of course it hurt,! Peterson snapped at Wendy. He walked off quickly so that Wendy could not catch up with him.

A month later, Peterson was feeling guilty about how he had treated Wendy. He decided to go to the beach to seek her out and apologize. Wendy was not there. After a walk, Peterson decided to approach the cottage where Wendy said she lived. He knocked on the door. A drawn looking young woman with blonde hair answered the door.

“Hello,” he said, “I am Robert Peterson. “I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was.”

“Oh, yes, Mr. Peterson, please come in. Wendy spoke so much about you. I am afraid I allowed her to bother you. If she was a nuisance, please accept my apology.”

“Not at all, she’s a delightful child,” Peterson said.

“Wendy died last week, Mr. Peterson,” her mother said. “She had leukemia. Maybe she didn’t tell you.”

Peterson was struck to his soul. He groped for a chair to absorb the emotional blow and catch his breath.

Wendy’s mother continued. “She loved this beach, so when she asked to come, we couldn’t say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days.  But the last few weeks she declined rapidly. ”  Her voice faltered. “She left something for you, if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?”

Peterson nodded, still in shock over the news. Wendy’s mother handed him a smeared envelope with a MR. P printed in bold childish letters. Inside was a drawing with bright crayons, a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird. Underneath was a carefully printed caption.  A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY.

Tears welled up in Peterson’ s eyes. His was a heart that had almost forgotten how to love. Now it opened wide. He took Wendy’s mother in his arms. “I am so sorry, he said, “I am so sorry, I am so sorry.”  He uttered it over and over again as he wept with Wendy’s mother. Peterson hung the picture card in a frame in his study. Six words, A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY, one for each year of Wendy’s life, spoke of the harmony, courage, and undemanding love the child Wendy had shown to a strange grown man on the beach. 

Peterson’s life was changed forever   Wendy was the ultimate Good Samaritan. It serves as the ultimate reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other. For the price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

Brothers and sisters, in our lives the hustle and bustle, the challenges, even the traumas can make us feel like victim on the road to Jericho. But God puts Good Samaritans in our life to remind us that there is so much in this world that is good, and that by loving God and others we come to love ourselves as more.  Sometimes, they only come once in your life, and you never see them again.

Feeling like a victim is easy and rather ordinary. But when we receive kindnesses from unusual or unexpected places, how do we respond? Do we reciprocate that spirit? Do we become Good Samaritans? Do we learn all over again to love God and others?  Let us pray that all of the victims of life’s challenges learn not just to accept the help of Good Samaritans in our lives, but to become one as well. With God’s grace, may we not be ordinary victims, suspicious of those we call strangers,. but extraordinary Christians who call strangers friends.
 

Father’s Day Message, 2007

Recently, a middle-aged man, we will call him John, was contemplating an upcoming Father’s Day. There had been some changes in his life. The kids were grown and out of the house. His company had been downsizing, and John had accepted early retirement.  But his wife Nancy would have to take a job so that their income would stay the same and their health benefits would be sufficient.  How would John and Nancy adjust to their new situation? How would their roles change in family life?

John decided that he would try and be a loving and considerate husband.  But soon after Nancy went back to work, John noticed that the quality of her housework had deteriorated.  He decided he would not yell at her about it.  Also, when Nancy got back from a day of work, about the same time John returned from fishing or hunting, Nancy would always say that she had to rest for a half an hour before starting dinner.  John was very hungry but didn’t yell at her.  John just asked Nancy to wake him when dinner was ready.

In earlier days, Nancy always did the dishes right after dinner. Now they sat on the kitchen table for hours after they finished dinner.  John thought he was being very considerate by reminding Nancy several times that the dishes weren’t getting done by themselves and that she really shouldn’t leave them before going to bed.  John even said that he understood that now that she was older, she seemed to get tired so much more quickly.

The washer and dryer John and Nancy have was in the basement.  Nancy told John that sometimes she was so tired after work that she just can’t make another trip down those stairs.  John decided not to make a big issue of it, so long as Nancy finished the laundry the next night.  That is of course, unless John needed something ironed for the Monday lodge meeting, or the Wednesday and Saturday poker club, or the Tuesday and Thursday bowling nights.  By being more tolerant with Nancy, John reasoned that this gives her more time after work to shampoo the dog, vacuum, and dust.  By being more tolerant with Nancy, John reasoned Nancy would have more time to gut and scale the fish at a more leisurely pace if John had a good day fishing.

John noticed that Nancy was starting to complain a little, saying that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hours.  In spite of her complaining, John told Nancy to stretch out paying the bills over several days.  He even suggested that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn’t hurt her any since she was not getting any slimmer.  When doing simple jobs, John noticed that Nancy took more rest periods. She had to take a break when she was half finished mowing the yard.

John told himself not to embarrass Nancy when she takes these little breaks.  John told her to fix herself a nice big cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while.  And as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for John too. Then, when Nancy takes her break by the hammock in which John is laying, she can talk with him until he falls asleep.

John felt quite proud of himself. It was not easy, John thought, to be this considerate of your wife as she grows older. Nancy apparently felt differently. On Father’s Day, John was found strangled in his hammock.  Upon hearing the details of the case, the police decided not to press charges against Nancy!

Today is Father’s Day.  It is a day when fathers are honored for their many contributions to the lives of their wives and children. And this is as it should be.  I remember with great fondness and love my own father, who passed away more than a decade ago.  He was not only a great father but he was a great friend.  Together with my mother, their Catholic faith and their passing it along to me are the main reasons I stand before you as a deacon today.  My wife Lois recently lost her father just a few weeks ago. They had a very loving and close relationship. She was daddy’s little girl, and my father-in-law, together with my mother-in-law gave me the greatest gift a man could ever receive: the gift of their daughter who has put up with me now for almost 29 years.

It is also a great joy to be a father myself, and what a gift from God it has been for both Lois and I to raise our two wonderful children.  I am sure many of you have similar memories and experiences.  Thank God for all that has been accomplished by fathers in our lives, and in the history of our country.

Nonetheless, it is also true that how one measures up as a successful father, what maleness means in today’s society is clearly changing, and often not for the better.  Fathers are under growing pressure as professionals to be constantly reinventing themselves to be competitive in a brutal job market.  The days of a man spending decades working in the same place are over.  Young men who enter today’s job market will change jobs at least five or six times over the course of their careers, provided they can find employment without intermittent job loss.

The pressure on men to be breadwinners is daily and can crush the pride of a man.  Globalization has shattered job security, and union busting, worker intimidation, and global trade patterns that drive down wages and lead to business closings threaten economic justice in this country. This has increased pressure on employers not to provide health insurance for their employees or to provide coverage that is not sufficient for families.  And so men and women both work to make ends meet. This raises issues of daycare, childcare, shortages of time to spend with each other in the family unit and concerns about family and faith formation.  And in the process the kinds of very practical issues humorously portrayed in the story of John and Nancy are very real indeed.  Male and female roles are changing and pressures on families grow.  How do we as Christians keep our spiritual values in a secular world that often viciously assaults them?

The first way it is done is by never, never, never, letting God out of your life.  Men are often wired to think that they have to solve the problems of their lives by themselves. In a foolish belief that they control events, a mistake a woman would never make, men can believe that prayer is something for women and children for old widows or for men who are sissies. But time spent with God in prayer, the sacraments, the Mass, and Scripture is always time well spent. And God is always there; ready to clear the confusion and be merciful and forgiving even to clueless men like the John in our story.

The pressures placed on fathers to keep their families safe and secure should never crowd out the one source that is always there to offer us joy and peace. By surrendering to God our troubles, challenges, and crises and asking for God’s help, we can discern what we need to do to preserve our families values and needs.  A life based on service to God and others is the path to salvation in the next life, but it is also the path to joy and peace in this one.

Secondly, in dealing with the challenges of today’s fatherhood, we also have the consolation of Christian truth. That truth is that we have been made in God’s image and likeness.  God does have a plan for the human race, for both men and women.  It is a plan by which all of us can return to God through an ever-deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. And that relationship is about service-based love to one another. We need only look to Scripture and the 2000-year teaching tradition of the church to discern the proper role of maleness. Scripture and Catholic tradition tell us that the nature of human fatherhood is related directly to the nature of God himself. God the Father gave us all life.  Human fathers also give life.

But the Judeo-Christian God is a tender loving God.  God the Father cares for his people. He pays the ultimate price for his children by laying down the life of His only begotten son, God in the person of Jesus.  And so fathers are called to be tender and loving and to lay down their lives for their wives and children.  The covenant relationship that God has with his people is unique to the Judeo-Christian heritage of faith. That heritage stresses that God showers his graces upon his people. And so Christian fathers are called to that same covenant with their wives and children, a covenant that also emulates the love of Jesus Christ for his church, making the family the domestic church with a father at its head.

But the spiritual authority of men includes being able to respond to loving feedback and shared responsibility from women and even children. Women as well as men, St. Paul points out this morning in his letter to the Galatians, are called to live in the spirit of Christ. Fathers need and are called to accept loving advice about how best to act on and carry out their fatherly responsibilities.

Complementarity is critical to a successful marriage and family life. Adam had everything in the Garden of Eden.  Yet Scripture says he was unhappy, because he needed a partner that would complement him and make him whole. This gender-based partnership of mutual love is essential to the happiness of males as well as females and without such an order; peace in human affairs is impossible, not just at home but in our society as well.

In this regard, Jesus in his public life promoted and stressed the dignity of women. While women were not apostles, they were clearly disciples and supporters as we read about today in our Gospel from Luke. We can imagine that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and others did more than just the dishes. They were sources of financial support and sources of the incredible wisdom that women always bring to any table, not just the one in the kitchen.

Men and women complement each other. Men try to be clever, but wisdom is for women (wisdom is always referred to as she in Scripture). Men’s minds are analytic, women’s are holistic.  Women see the forest, men see the trees. Men’s desire to act is leavened by woman’s wisdom in discerning whether action will do more harm than good. Men talk to a subject, women communicate about a subject.

Women humanize men. They often demonstrate greater human dignity in the face of masculine rowdiness and contain and prevent that rowdiness from getting out of control and doing real damage in human affairs. Because women are often more vulnerable to the effects of public authority, they have every right, in the teachings of the Church, to participate fully in public life, seeking economic justice that is legally-based and enforceable, and counseling their husbands to do the same.

Additionally, while gender complementarity is a part of Christian truth, in some spheres gender mutuality is also perfectly appropriate. Contrary to John’s view in our story, there is no special female way to cook or clean, or run errands, or change diapers, or feed the kids or drive them to a whole range of activities.  Male authority, when exercised with dominion not domination, with sacrifice not selfishness is ultimately a strength in human affairs and not a repressive force. While on this earth, Jesus was given all authority over the world. But he did not lord it over anyone; he was in fact the ultimate lord of love who gave up everything for those he loved.  And fathers are called to do the same.

Jesus reminds us in our Gospel today that fathers and mothers, men and women are all called to deny their own desires for the benefit of God and others. The authority given by God to men is a stewardship of the world that is to be shared with women, a service-based love of God and others that takes place in spheres of both the profound and mundane. It is the key to the building of a new earth filled with joy and peace in this life and a new heaven for both men and women in the next.
 

Jesus’ Ascension and Ours

We celebrate today the feast of the Ascension. In the practice of the Church, this is a feast that has been around for a long time, since the latter half of the fourth century.  Until recently, it was a holy day of obligation, a sign of its importance in the practice of the faith.  It is still celebrated as a solemnity, but now on a Sunday, by no means a downgrade.

The Church regards the Ascension of our Lord into heaven as a historical fact. We believe it actually happened. Theologians use a fancy word, theophany, to describe miracles like the Ascension. In theophanies, God uses powerful acts of nature (light, wind, fire, clouds, earthquakes) to get our attention, to tell us we are in the presence of God. In this case, God the Son, Jesus, shows himself free from the limits of nature by overcoming gravity and literally rising up, beautifully portrayed in our first reading from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.

Theophanies are remarkable moments in history. But if that were all the Ascension was, it frankly would not be very important to us.  The meaning of the Ascension lies in moving beyond the mere historical event.

What do I mean by this?  Well, three things. First, let me perhaps shock you a bit. If all that Jesus did was enter our world as a human, die a horrible death for our sins, rise from the dead to show that sin and death could be conquered, and then perform this remarkable theophany of ascension, it would still not have been enough for us to achieve heaven.  Jesus tells us this in so many words in our Gospel from Luke.  For us to achieve salvation, we would still need God’s help after he left the earth in human form with the Ascension.  God the Father created the world, God the Son save the world from sin and death and created the conditions for us to return to Him.

But the conditions for salvation alone are not enough. As humans, God gave us free will, and the choice to return to him is ours. We don’t need God if we choose not to return to Him. But being a Christian, if we really want to be one, is not easy. We would not have the strength to make the choice of a genuine Christian life without God. To make that choice work, God would need to send us the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, completing and making permanent the intervention of God in the lives of human beings. The constant presence of the Holy Spirit, who offers us fruits, gifts, and charisms strengthens us and give others and us what we need to return forever to God.

So there we have it. An all-loving God, God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Counselor and Guide pours out his very three-part divine completeness for us through the special arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is the faith essence of the Ascension.

But there is even more to this feast.  The second point about the Ascension is that we ourselves participate in the Ascension. Our bodies are not lifted into heaven. But we are born in the image and likeness of God, and our souls will indeed rise to greet the Lord. If through the gifts, fruits and charisms of the Holy Spirit, through prayer, Scripture, sacrament, and service we live a Christian life, cannot it not be said that at the end of that life on earth, our souls will ascend? Pretty neat stuff isn’t it.

And finally, we do not even need to wait for the end of our lives to experience the true joy of this particular feast. The letter to the Hebrews this morning reminds us of this. If we cooperate with God in the tools and gifts He gives us, we in turn receive a sincere heart, and the absolute trust to live the Christian life with joy. This is the metaphorical aspect of the Ascension, the joy of the Christian life that can be with us every day.

In fact, here at St. Hubert’s we see ascensions of our spirits every day.  Come on

Deacon, give it a rest. Sit down and let us finish the Mass. Well, I am not quite done. Consider the following:

Do we not ascend when we don’t worry about the square footage of our house, but how many people we welcome into our home?

Do we not ascend when we don’t worry about the clothes we have in our closet, but how many people we have helped to clothe?

Do we not ascend when we don’t worry about what kind of car we drive, but how many people we drive who don’t have transportation?

Do we not ascend when we don’t worry about social status, but how much class we display?

Do we not ascend when we don’t worry about how many friends we have but rather how many people to whom we have tried to be a friend?

Do we not ascend when people separated from Christian families because of long-held bitterness, return to the Church because of the patient love of family members and the prayers of parishioners?

Do we not ascend when we dig deep into our pockets for many years and work together to upgrade our worship and gathering space?

Do we not ascend when there is so much need in our community, and our parish responds with people volunteering in many different stewardship ministries and reaching and surpassing our goals for the Archbishop’s Appeal?

The Ascension is not a mere historical event. It is a critical progression in God’s saving plan for all of us. It helps enable our souls to ascend as well. And it reminds us of the ability of God through the tools and spiritual gifts God gives us to ascend our human spirits to the joy of the Christian life. I hope you agree that all in all brothers and sisters, the feast of the Ascension can indeed be considered an uplifting event.
 

To Which Flock Will We Belong?

            On first glance, today’s readings do not seem to have much in common. The settings are rather diverse. The first reading deals with the evangelizing activities of the apostles Paul and Barnabas after Jesus’ death.  The second is a heavenly vision about a time that is yet to occur; the end of the world and the calling to account for what we have done in our lives. The third, our Gospel according to John then sends us back to the public ministry of Jesus during his time on earth. It can be a little dizzying. Maybe even a kind of Scriptural whiplash.

But on closer glance, there is a pattern. All three readings are about a rather fundamental choice we all face. Do we wish to be a part of God’s flock or the flock of the good life on earth?

In each of our readings, the key figures choose God’s flock.  Paul and Barnabas, in the face of opposition, continue to preach God’s joyful message of love of God and others. In our second reading, the apostle John describes those who have responded to life’s challenges by following the Lamb of God. Their reward is great; eternal communion with an all-loving and all-merciful God, where they will “hunger and thirst no more.” The Lamb of God will “lead them to springs of life-giving water.” God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

And who is the Lamb of God?  Our Gospel tells us that it is of course Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, who guides his sheep, protects them, and gives them eternal life.  To obtain eternal life, Jesus asks us to listen to his voice, a voice that tells us that without Him we can achieve nothing; with him anything is possible.

Many of you may not be aware that much like the United States, the Roman Catholic Church has a constitution.  That constitution, called by its Latin name Lumen Gentium, “Light to the Gentiles,” outlines the structures of the Church and the responsibilities and joys of being a Catholic.  Lumen Gentium states very clearly: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian love and to the perfection of love.  All are called to holiness.”

Holiness comes from loving God and one another, by living the Gospel life.  One of the great accomplishments of Vatican II is the renewal and reemphasis of this basic tenet of faith.  Prior to Vatican II, this part of our Catholic faith had gotten a little lost. Catholics, not necessarily by teaching but certainly by practice were more or less told to follow the rules, and leave holiness to the clergy and religious men and women. 

But the rules, the moral precepts of the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and other official teachings of the Church boil down to a call to holiness through love of God and one another. Without this commitment to holiness, our faith is sterile and rule-bound. It lacks effective action. Quoting again from Lumen Gentium:  “All of us have a special vocation:  to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through us that the Church can become the salt of the earth.”

The sacraments, prayer, and Scripture give us the graces to accept the call from God to love. But then our love must be an active one. Love manifests itself best in service to others.  Our secular world can often compel us to a game of bigger and better. But the basic idea of remembering someone else through a gift or in some other way about which we will soon hear can give us a greater joy than the quest for bigger and better possessions. 

That ought to tell us something.  We enjoy life and experience true freedom when we do for others more than for ourselves.  This is what Jesus did.  He became flesh so that he could be with us.  He gave of himself in every way to others in his earthly life. He prepared our way to salvation in heaven.

This path to joy and salvation is a choice. We can stay in God’s flock, or we can join the flock of the good life, a life that looks out only for oneself.  To which flock will we belong?