Homily for Pentecost Year B 2015

The Holy Spirit: an advocate, an executor and the score

Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13; John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

Introduction

“To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God?”  Jesus asks and answers this question, by comparing the Kingdom to everyday images: wheat growing in a field, the tiny mustard seed growing into a large tree, yeast causing a batch of dough to rise and a few other images.

As we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, let me borrow that line of Jesus and ask: “To what shall we compare the coming of the Holy Spirit?”  And my answers are, the Holy Spirit could be compared to an executor, an advocate and a composer.  But first, let us recall what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit.

Scripture and Theology

Pentecost was not the first time the Spirit was active in the world

·        At the very beginning, we are told that God created man by breathing his Spirit into him.

·        And then whenever God appeared to the people of Israel, he usually did so in a cloud of the Holy Spirit.

·        Later, as the Prophets announced the coming of the Messiah, they also spoke about the coming of his Spirit.

·        In the New Testament, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear a child, he tells her, “The holy Spirit will come upon you.”

·        And as Jesus begins his ministry in Luke Chapter 4, he declares that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and is the inspiration of all his work.

And so, when on Pentecost the Spirit came upon the disciples he was continuing a long tradition.  But there was something special with this coming: at Pentecost and since then, the Spirit comes to complete saving work of God in Jesus Christ.

Christian Life

And so to what shall we compare the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit is like an executor of a last will and testament.  The executor ensures that the instructions left in the will are faithfully followed.  

Jesus left a rather important will, which we had him make in last Sunday’s gospel when he told his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

Clearly the disciples could not do this job by themselves without help.  A few weeks earlier we had seen them running away from the Lord when he was arrested.  They needed help.  This help came on Pentecost day, when after receiving the Spirit, we see them carrying out the Master’s instructions.  They are now fearless and effective preachers of the Word, because the Holy Spirit gives them clear directions and the courage, to proclaim the gospel to the whole world.

Today as we carry out our various duties in the Church, we do so effectively only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

·        For example, as a preacher of the Word, I know that it is not my words alone, but rather the Holy Spirit working through me, that enables people to hear God’s word.

·        Also, when I celebrate the sacraments, it is the Holy Spirit who brings about God’s grace.  At Mass, for example, listen carefully during the Eucharist prayer, and you will hear the priest asking the Father to send down his Spirit to change our humble gifts of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  Such things are above my pay grade.  Only with the Holy Spirit, as executor, can the sacraments produce grace for us.

To what shall else we compare the Holy Spirit?  Jesus himself suggests another image when in the gospel he says: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.” The Holy Spirit is like an advocate, a lawyer, an attorney, who speaks up for a client in a court of law.

Lawyers today tend to have a bad name, because of a few rotten eggs.  But lawyers play a very important role because they know the law very well.  Recently I needed some legal papers drawn up and without the help of a lawyer, I was lost.  As the proverb goes, “A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client."

We could say the same for the Church and for us Christians.  If we act without the Holy Spirit as our advocate, we act foolishly.  We need the Holy Spirit as advocate to help us remain on the right side of God’s commandments.  We need the Holy Spirit as advocate to help us face persecution.  We need the Holy Spirit as advocate to help us fight off temptations.  How else would you explain those occasions when, despite every inclination in you, you succeed in avoiding sin!  How else could you explain those situations when despite your unworthy self, you do good!  We are found innocent only because the Advocate intervenes on our behalf.

To what else shall we compare the Holy Spirit?  The third and final image of the Holy Spirit is that of a symphony orchestra.  The orchestra is made up of a hundred different musicians and dozens of instruments.  But each of them is not the real source of the music.  Even the conductor, the visible focus of everyone's attention is not the real source of the music.  The composer is the real source of music; in front of every musician is a music stand holding a few pages marked with black lines and dots - the score, the music.  No one in the audience sees the score, but that score is what brings all those minds together, coordinates everyone's efforts, and produces a beautiful, inspiring performance.

That's what the Church is like, that’s how the Spirit operates in our lives.  The Pope is the conductor.  We are all musicians, contributing our own unique talents to the symphony of holiness that resounds throughout the world and history.  As St. Paul tells the Corinthians, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.”

And so the Holy Spirit is the living musical score, the one who tells us what notes to play, when to play them, how fast to play them, how loud to play them, how soft to play them.  He is the silent force behind the holiness of every saint, behind the growth of every Christian, and behind the unity of the Church.

Conclusion

And so, this Pentecost Sunday should remind us of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the work of the third member of the Trinity, after God the Father and God the Son, who came down to earth as Jesus.

As executor, the Holy Spirit guides our words and actions, as we carry out the command of Jesus to go out to the whole world and proclaim the gospel.

As advocate, the Holy Spirit protects and defends us, so we might not go to hell, but might remain on the path of righteousness.

As composer of the musical score, the Holy Spirit provides the road-map for our lives, sometimes filled with excitement, but sometimes proceeding quietly as we go about our daily duties.

Let us make the words of today’s response our own:  “Lord send out your spirit and renew the face of the earth,” starting with each of us individually.

Sent forth and equipped for the mission

Homily for Ascension Year B 2015

Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 4:1-13; Mark 16:15-20

Introduction

I would like to compare today’s feast of the Ascension, to the proverbial middle child.  The middle child, sandwiched between the over-achieving first born and the pampered baby of the family, often feels neglected and can’t find his niche.

That’s what seems to happen to the feast of the Ascension.  It is sandwiched between the great solemnity of Easter which we celebrated seven weeks ago and the solemnity of Pentecost which comes next Sunday.  And so, one might ask, what is the big deal with Ascension?

But Ascension is important in the Christian cycle of feasts.  Ascension celebrates the return of Jesus to heaven.

Scripture and Theology

For us Christians, the return of Jesus to the Father is indeed a big deal.  It marks the end of his physical presence on earth and the end of his earthly mission.  Since the Ascension, Jesus and his work are still with us, but in another way.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that on that day, when the Lord gathered his disciples in one place, they imagined that something big was about to take place.  They thought that this was the big payday for which they had been working and waiting.  So they asked Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

But they must have been surprised by the answer that Jesus gave them.  He said: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  In other words, he was saying, “I am not going to restore the kingdom, you are.  I have done my bit; now it is your turn to carry on the job that I started and bring it to completion.  Go on; make me proud.”

·        We could think of the Ascension as being like the day when a successful CEO retires from the company and hands the reins to his successor, saying, “Carry on now – take the company to greater heights.”

·        We could think of the Ascension as being like when the runner in the relay race, who has ran a good race and now hands the baton on to the last runner and says “off to the finish line; win this one for us.”

Jesus is that successful CEO, Jesus is that star athlete on the relay team who pass on the task.  And we the Church are the new CEO, we the Church are the last athlete, and we have been given the task of completing the mission.

But are the disciples qualified to carry on this mission of establishing the Kingdom of God?  Well, Jesus did not just throw them into the water and tell them to swim or sink.  Actually he empowered them for the task in two ways.

First Jesus gives them knowledge.  For three years as they lived with Jesus, they heard him teach, they saw his miracles and his example of prayer and compassion, and most importantly, they saw his suffering, death and resurrection, the vents of our salvation.  And these are the things they areto  preach to the nations, these are the things of which they are to be witnesses. Like the retiring CEO who has been grooming his successor for several years, Jesus has indeed groomed the disciples.

Second Jesus gives them spiritual power.  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” he tells them.  The coming of that Spirit, for which they have to wait in Jerusalem, is what we shall celebrate next Sunday, on Pentecost.  In other words in carrying on the mission of the now departing Jesus, they are not going to rely just on their own power and abilities; they will be empowered from God on High, who sends his life-giving Spirit.

·        And so if Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit comes down upon the apostles and they begin to preach the Good News, Ascension is the conceiving of the Church, when Jesus gives the Church its great commission: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

·        If Pentecost is like the wedding day when the bride and groom seal their love with the grace of the sacrament, Ascension is like the engagement when the couple make the firm commitment to get married.

And so after all, Ascension, like the middle child, is important.  Ascension reminds us Christians of the great commission given to us by Jesus.

Christian Life

The Apostles did indeed carry out the great commission.  They preached the Good News, not only in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, but indeed to the ends of the earth.  They in turn passed on this baton of faith to their successors who continued the work until the Good News reached us here in Louisiana.

We today, now have the baton of faith.  We today, are called upon to be witnesses of Jesus.  We today, are responsible for restoring the Kingdom of God.  And by we, I don’t mean just Pope Francis, the bishops, priests and deacons; I mean all the Christian faithful, all the baptized.

What St. Paul in today’s second reading told the Christian community of the Ephesians, he tells our Christian community gathered here.  “. . . grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  In other words, like the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to enable them carry out their mission, Christians have also received the grace of the Holy Spirit, particularly from the sacraments:

·        At Baptism, we are cleansed of sin and made worthy for ministry.

·        At Confirmation, we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit for witness.

·        At Eucharist, we receive the Word and Sacrament, food for the journey.

·        At Matrimony and Ordination, we each receive the graces we need to serve God and others, as married people or as ordained ministers.

We have no excuse!  We have the power to do the work Jesus left us.

That is why St. Paul in the same reading goes on to say: “And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers . . . .”  In other words, there is something for each of us to do.  And Paul continues to explain that these various callings are given “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ.”  These are powerful words that should assure us that we have been equipped for the work of ministry, for the building up the Body of Christ, so that the Kingdom of God is established forever.

Each one of us must decide what role we will play in this noble mission, left for us by Jesus.  If I were to list all the things we can each do, we would be here until the cows come home.  And so I will just suggest three broad areas of action, which build up the Body of Christ.

1.    We build up the Body of Christ by preaching the gospel, in word and example.

2.    We build up the Body of Christ, by celebrating the gospel, in worship and the sacraments.

3.    We build up the Body of Christ, by living out the gospel, in morality and service.

These three things: preaching, celebrating and living.

Conclusion

When the Lord returns, as he surely will, to check on the progress we have made, will he find us at work?  Personally, I hope that he will find me doing at least one of these three things, if not all of them: teaching what he preached, praying as he instructed and serving others as he showed us.

Ascension reminds us of this mission and responsibility; that is why it is important.  Sometimes the middle child eventually finds their niche in life and become the responsible child, the dependable one.

May Ascension takes its rightful place in our lives, highlighting for us and reminding us the great commission given us by the Lord, to proclaim the gospel and to be his witnesses to the whole world.

Love is in the air – the love of Christ

Homily for Easter – 6^th Sunday Year B 2015

Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; 1 John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17

Introduction

Listening to the readings of today’s Mass, I am reminded of an old song of the 70s, entitled “love is in the air.”  Both the second reading and the gospel used the word “love” nine times each.  The message for us therefore is loud and clear: Christians must “love one another.”

But what does the word “love” really mean?  We use it in many different ways.

·        A teenager sends a text-message to her boyfriend saying “I love you.” Do those words mean the same thing when a couple who have been married for 40, 50 or 60 years say them to each other?

·        A mother kisses the forehead of her bruised five-year old son saying “I love you.” Do those words mean the same thing when a father says them to his daughter as he gives her away at her wedding?

·        And then you have the love about which we read in novels, we hear in pop music and we see in movies.  What does it really mean to love?

For us Christians, if we are to understand what “love” truly means, there is only one place to go.  We go to Jesus.

Scripture and Theology

In today’s gospel passage he tells us: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”  The command to love is nothing new. Even the Old Testament and indeed most other religions command people to love.  What Jesus adds to the meaning of love is those four little words: “as I love you.” Besides telling Christians to love Jesus specifies that they are to love just as Jesus himself loves.  And how does Jesus love?

He says: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  That is how Jesus loves; he lays down his life for others on the cross.

But the love of Jesus started long before the cross.  His very coming into the world was an act of love.  Today’s second reading told us that the love of God was revealed to us in this way:  “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”  And it goes on to define what true love: “not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”

A few chapters before today’s gospel passage, St. John describes Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.  John then says: “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.”  And after washing their feet, after showing them a symbol of love, Jesus tells his disciples: “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

As we know, that very night Jesus actually puts his teaching into concrete practice.  He lays down his life, for the world, for you and me.  He is scourged, tortured and made to carry a cross.  He undergoes untold physical suffering, to take the place of a sinful world.  But his sacrifice goes beyond the physical pain; Jesus empties himself completely and gives himself body and soul to God, to redeem a world that rejected him.  That is how he loves!  That is radical love.  That is the way he wants Christians to love a he has loved. 

Christian Life

Christians throughout history have tried to imitate this radical love of Christ.

Think about the martyrs, those saints who give up their lives for the faith, when it would be just as easy to give in to the demands of their tormenters.  For example there have been several news stories recently, of Christians being killed by Islamist terrorists in the Middle East, for no other reason, than their faith.

But let me tell you about the Uganda Martyrs from my own country, whose feast is coming up on June 3rd.  When the missionaries arrived in Uganda in 1879, they set about preaching the gospel to the people.  Several natives joined them and became Christians.  But about six years later the Ugandan King was disturbed that his Christian subjects were turning their allegiance from him to this new religion.  They were abandoning some of the ways of their ancestors and living the Christian way.

·        For example, some of them abandoned the practice of polygamy and were now observing the Christian teaching on sexuality, particularly the teaching on monogamous marriage between one man and one woman.

·        And then the King’s own chief-minister, Joseph asked the King to spare the life of an innocent man who had been condemned to death.

And so, the King asked them to choose what they truly loved more.  They had to choose between their lives and their new faith.  Twenty of them chose to die for Christ, most of them by being burnt alive. They included a 13 year old catechumen who was baptized on the way to the execution. This is the greater love that Jesus speaks about, laying down one’s life for one’s friends.

Closer to home and especially as we celebrate Mother’s day, we must remember the many mothers who live out this radical love of Jesus day in day out.

·        Think of the many mothers, perhaps some among us here today, who juggle two or more jobs, to put food on the table for their children.  Think of the many mothers who spend sleepless nights with crying babies, sick babies, hungry babies.  This of the many mothers who have to deal with naughty teenagers. They lay down their lives for their children.

·        This morning I called my mother in Uganda, to wish her a happy mother’s day.  And I thanked her for putting up with a messy, bratty, naughty child, my sister.

·        Think of the many mothers who raise their children in truth, discipline and hard work.  Because these values are not popular today, these mothers would probably not win “Mother of the Year” award from their teenage children.  But they carry on, because they know that Christian motherhood is not a popularity contest.  It is laying down your life, your popularity for your children and even your husband.

·        Think of those women and girls, who choose the path of motherhood, when the path of abortion would have been easier.  Faced with an unplanned pregnancy that will affect their schooling, work and reputation, they still choose to keep the baby.  Sometimes the pregnancy is the result of rape or abuse; but they still decide to keep the baby.  But most radical are those women you hear about every now and then, who are diagnosed with cancer.  They know that terminating the pregnancy will give them a greater chance at recovery; but they choose to carry the pregnancy to full term, often at great risk to their own health and in some cases with the certain knowledge that they will die in the process.  All these women, in choosing Christian motherhood not only love, but love as Jesus loves.  This is the greater love that Jesus speaks about, laying down one’s life for one’s friends.

Conclusion

Many of us will not be martyred for the faith; some of us are not mothers, perhaps because we are men.  But we are all called to love as Jesus loved.  And we love in our day to day activities, in our daily duties, in random acts of kindness.

In one of my favourite movies, Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks his wife Golde: “Do you love me?”  She is confused and wonders what has brought this question on.  And then she wonders loudly?

Do I love you?

For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes

Cooked your meals, cleaned your house

Given you children, milked your cow

After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?

Jesus loved in a very concrete way, so must we love others in a very concrete way.  “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

I am the vine and you are the branches!

Homily for Easter – 5^th Sunday Year B 2015

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

Introduction

Last Sunday Jesus used the image of the shepherd’s care for his sheep, to teach that he the Good Shepherd loves his disciples.

Today he continues to teach a similar message, using another agricultural image, the vine, its branches and the vine grower.  Like rearing sheep, growing vines was and is still an important means of livelihood in Palestine, familiar to the Jews.

With this image of the vine, Jesus teaches three important relationships of love:

·        The relationship between God the Father and Jesus

·        The relationship between Jesus and his disciples

·        The relationship between the disciples and the Father, which completes the cycle.

Scripture and Theology

And so, when Jesus announces: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower,” he is showing that what he does and what he teaches, do not come from his own authority.  The Father has sent him; the Father continues to guide him; the Father continues to tell him what to say and do.

This image of God as the vine grower was used already in the Old Testament.  The Prophets, especially Jeremiah and Isaiah lamented that the vine, Israel, had failed to provide good fruit to the vine grower, God.  Instead, by their sinfulness they were producing sour grapes.  With Jesus as the vine, there is hope that this time round, good fruit will be produced, because Jesus and the Father are close and united to each other.

Secondly, Jesus also announces, “I am the vine, you are the branches,” thus speaking about the relationship between him and the disciples.  Jesus compares himself to the main stalk of the vine and the disciples to the branches attached to it.  He is the part of the plant that goes down to the roots and is anchored in the soil; he is the part to whom all the branches are attached and from whom they draw their nutrition and life.  Just like the branches must remain attached to the main stalk of the vine to continue receiving nourishment and producing fruit, so the disciple must remain attached to Jesus to be fruitful.

The third relationship is that between the disciples and the Father.  Jesus says of his Father: “He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”  The Father’s job is to prune the branches.  When we prune flowers in our gardens, we cut off unwanted shoots and leaves.  Pruning a plant might be considered an assault on the plant, cutting off some of its parts.  The wine growers pruned the vines especially in the first few years to allow them to spread out and produce better fruit; and every year they continued to prune them.

As pruning, though painful, is necessary for the growth of the plant, so suffering if part of the Christian’s life.  Remember that Jesus spoke these words about pruning at the Last Supper, just before he suffered and died.  Moreover, he had already warned the disciples that they too would have to suffer.  The suffering of Jesus on the cross brings us salvation.  Our daily suffering in some small way also contributes to our own salvation and that of others.  When the Father, hrough the teaching of Christ, through his graces, prunes us by separating them from sinful ways and patterns, that is often painful. But it also makes us fruitful.

Christian Life

Because we don’t grow vines in South East Louisiana, the message of this image might be lost on us.

But we have our own images that can teach us more or less the same message.

·        Think of the wires bringing electricity, the internet and cable into our house and the further connections within the house.  Like the branches need to connect to the vine for nourishment and life, our house must be connected to the main supply, if we are to have any electricity, internet and cable.  When we don’t pay the bill, the company cuts the connection and we are plunged in darkness.   Similarly, when we don’t pay attention to Jesus’ teaching in his Word and the Sacraments, we are plunged in darkness.

·        But perhaps the image most similar to the vine is the intimate relationship between mother and child.  Since Mother’s Day is coming up next week, let’s examine how similar the bond between mother and child, is to the bond between us and God.

The first lesson is that dependence on God.  Like the vine depends on the vine grower and the branches depend on the vine, a baby must depend on the mother for nourishment.  While still in the womb, the baby draws nourishment from the mother through the umbilical cord.  Outside the womb, the baby continues to receive nourishment through nursing for several months.  This bond, between mother and child, often continues even into adult life.

I live with two priests who are in their eighties, including Archbishop Hughes.  I am always amazed at how they still talk so fondly of their mothers.  Mother taught me this, mother said this, mother did this for me.  Sixty, seventy, eighty years later, they still remember what their mothers did for them.  The maternal bond between mother and child is that strong.

Can the bond between us and God be that strong?  Our bond with the Lord is strong if we regularly maintain that relationship.  One of the things to keep our relationship strong is listening to God’s Word and celebrating the Sacraments.  Coming to Mass on Sunday, for example, is not just a rule or obligation that we must fulfil; rather it is like the regular visit we make to a friend or to an elderly mother, a sign of our love for them.  Coming to Mass on Sunday to receive the Word and communion, is like the branches receiving life-giving sap from the vine, or like the baby receiving nourishment from the mother.

Of course even the loving relationship between a mother and child is not without its share of pain and suffering.  You have the tantrums of the terrible twos, the tantrums of the teenage years and the silent treatment of the young adults.  These difficulties need to be pruned.  And after the pruning, usually mother and child overcome these difficulties and grow closer to each other.  Similarly, despite our sinfulness, in the end our relationship with God is restored by conversion and penance, in the sacrament of confession.

Of course the whole purpose of growing vines and pruning the branches is to produce grapes, from which wine is produced. Many mothers usually expect from their children grandchildren.  But others are just content to see their adult children happy and doing well in life.  The fruit we produce as the disciples of Jesus is good deeds that follow the way of the Lord.

Conclusion

And so, as you prepare to honour your mother next Sunday, think about how that relationship somehow mirrors our relationship with God.

And as we have received love and nourishment from our mothers, let us remember all the love and nourishment from God.  And as we reciprocate perhaps by cherishing the memory of our mothers in some way, let us recommit ourselves to always doing good deeds, deeds that would make both our earthly mothers and our heavenly Father proud.