Knowing, praying and imitating the Trinity

Homily for Trinity Sunday Year C 2016

Proverbs 8:22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15

Introduction

Unlike Christmas and Easter, today’s feast of the Holy Trinity is not that exciting.  The Trinity, one God in three persons; that seems so abstract, so theoretical, something only for theologians and not for the ordinary Catholic.

Many analogies have been tried, to explain how there can be three persons in one God: St. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock, St. Ignatius used the musical chord which has three notes, and modern theologians use the image of water, which can assume three forms of steam, ice and liquid.

But all these images fall short; they don't really leave us understanding the Trinity any better.  For God is a mystery whom the human mind can never fully grasp. That is why in some Eastern religions, before people pray in front of a statue representing God, they apologise for having to pray to him in that form, when in fact he is formless and he is everywhere.  They understand that the human mind is limited in its ability to grasp God completely. 

Scripture and Theology

And yet we don't give up.  While we don't know everything about God, we know something.  Pope Benedict suggests that the love in a family is the best analogy for the Trinity.  He says that the family a community of love and life where differences contribute to forming a communion.  It is in the family that we first learn and practice the love that God, one in three person teaches us.

And so if we leave aside the math of three persons in one God and concentrate on the eternal love shared by the communion of the three persons, then the Trinity begins to make sense.  Our God, one and yet three persons is love.

God reveals himself as love gradually throughout the Bible, first as the Father and Creator; then we soon learn that God is also Son and Redeemer; and as we heard on Pentecost Sunday, God is also Spirit and Advocate.

Already in Genesis we see God as the Father of humankind and the Creator of everything; the sun, the moon, the stars, plants, animals and of course human beings.  We learn that the Father loved humankind so much that he wanted us to be like him; so he created us in his own image and gave us the world to care for.  Of course we returned the favour and tried to recreate ourselves in God’s image, thinking that we could live independently of the Father, disobeying him and foolishly cutting ourselves from God.  And yet despite this disobedience and sin, God the loving Father did not abandon us.  He set in motion a plan to restore his friendship with us.  To this end, he made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, making them the instrument of his salvation.

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the simple message, “let my people go.”  God led them through the desert for forty years of testing, giving them the Ten Commandments and entering into a new covenant with them.  He led them to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  But as human beings are wont do, Israel once again strayed from God.  He could have washed his hands off them at this moment, but he did not.  Instead God the Father sent prophets with a consistent message: “The God of love who wants you back; reform your lives and return home to God your Father.”  Thus throughout the Old Testament we see God as a loving Father reaching out to his wayward children and trying to get them back to himself.

The history of our salvation took a decisive turn, when God the Father sent his Son to continue the work of salvation begun by him.  Although he was always part of the Father’s work, the Son now takes centre stage in the work of saving humankind.  In the New Testament we learn from Jesus that he is the Son of God, sent to tell us about God’s love for us and challenging us to repent and return to God’s friendship.  That is the basic message of the gospel.  Jesus, the Son of God, did not only teach about God’s love, he lived this love even up to giving up his life for the sake of the world.  God the Father, faithful as ever, resurrected him from the dead and placed him at his right hand.

The third stage of God's work of salvation begins on Pentecost, when as Jesus promised, the Father sends the Spirit.  The Spirit had to come, because the world had not yet fully returned to God.  In today's gospel passage Jesus speaks so clearly about the Spirit:  "But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" Jesus says.  Moreover the Spirit "will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, . . . [and] will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine. . . ."

So now the third person of the Trinity takes centre court, the Holy Spirit who comes to fulfil the work begun long ago by the Father and taken a step further more recently by the Son.  In the Early Church the Holy Spirit helps the first disciples to understand what Jesus said and did, who he was and what he was about.  Just as Jesus was the central figure in the gospels, we see the Holy Spirit at work in the Acts of the Apostles, throughout the history of the Church and even today.  We live in the age of the Spirit.

And so, even though we cannot fully understand who our God is and how is a three persons in one God, we can be sure of one thing; God is a God of love.

Christian Life

Let me offer a take-away message for us, from this feast of the Trinity.  It is fitting that this take-away message is also threefold: knowledge, prayer and action.

First, although we cannot know God in himself, since by definition he is mystery, let us know that little that he has chosen to reveal of himself to us.  God has revealed himself as a God of love, a love that he repeatedly shares with us, as God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.  Our Trinity is a God of love.

Second, let us be aware of this Trinity in our prayer life.

·        In the Creed every time we recite it at Mass and when saying the rosary, we profess to "believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth . . . . ; one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God . . . . and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life."

·        Catholics begin their prayers with the sign of the Cross, accompanied by the words "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  We also baptize and absolve sins in the same name "of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

·        Finally we give glory "to the Father, and to the Son and to the Spirit;" and the priest or deacon does not bless in his own name, but asks that the Almighty God may bless you: "The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Besides knowing that the Trinity is love, and praying to this Trinity of love, the third message is action; what can we do about it?  Let the Trinity be a model of our own Christian lives.  In the Trinity we see a communion, a union, a working together of one God for the same end, sharing his love with human beings.  At one moment the Father takes centre stage, at another, the Son, at another the Spirit; but they are always working together and nobody claims the whole credit.  Can we as a Church, as a Christian community live and love as one, united in the same mission of bringing God’s message of love to the world?  Can we each play our part, building up the Body of Christ, just like each person in the Trinity plays their part in the work of our salvation?

Conclusion

That the Trinity is a mystery should not get us off the hook.  We must know and believe what god has told us about himself; we must pray to him as such, and we must live like, loving as the Trinity loves.

Jesus passes the baton on to us

Homily for Ascension Year C 2016

Acts 1:1-11; Hebrews 9:24-28,10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53

Introduction

Today's feast of the Ascension could be compared to the middle child.  Coming as it does between Easter and Pentecost, sometimes we forget about Ascension.

Everybody knows that at Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, when he conquered death once and for all.  And at Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower and inaugurate the Church.  So what is left to celebrate at Ascension?

Scripture and Theology

If you are asking that question, you are in good company; for the Apostles were just as clueless.  On Ascension Day, when the Lord gathered them together, they knew that something big was about to happen; but they were not sure what. Was he going to perform some miracles like he did before his death?  No.  That was old news.  Was he going to die and rise again from the dead like he did at Easter?  No. He had done that already. There was only one possibility left; he was finally going to re-establish the Kingdom, the Kingdom that the Jewish people had been waiting for, for hundreds of years, since the Exile.  This was the big payday for which they had been working and waiting.  That is why they asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

To their great surprise, Jesus instead 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, “Look guys, I have done my part in establishing the Kingdom – I am going back to the Father. You now have to carry on the job that I started and bring the Kingdom to completion.”

·        And so, we could think of the Ascension as being like the day when a successful CEO takes a step back from actively running the company and hands the reins to his successor, saying, “Carry on now – take the company to greater heights; I will continue guiding you in the background.”

·        We could also think of the Ascension as being like when the runner in the relay race, who has ran a good race, 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 are the last athlete, and we have been given the task of completing the mission.  The feast of the Ascension is therefore the line that marks the age of the Church, the age when we have charge of God's mission of establishing the Kingdom.

But were the disciples qualified to carry on this mission of establishing the Kingdom of God?  They were good fishermen; but what did they know about running a worldwide religious organization?  Some were tax-collectors and that expertise might help with the collection; but what did they know about preaching God's word?  Thankfully, Jesus did not just throw them into the water and tell them to swim or sink.  Actually he had empowered them for the task in two ways.

First Jesus had taught them, by his word and by his example.  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 cause of our salvation.  And these are the things they were to preach to the nations, these are the things of which they were to be witnesses. Like the retiring CEO who has been grooming his successor for several years, Jesus had indeed groomed the disciples.

Secondly, and unlike the CEO, Jesus gives spiritual muscle to the apostles.  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” he tells them.  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 by the life-giving Spirit of God. The coming of that Spirit, for which they have to wait in Jerusalem, is what we shall celebrate next Sunday, on Pentecost. 

·        And so if Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit comes down upon the apostles, Ascension is the conceiving of the Church, when Jesus gives the 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, has its niche.  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.

Each of us must decide what role we will play in this noble mission.  If I were to list all the things we can each do, we would be here until the cows come home.  But broadly speaking, we have three theatres of action: teaching the word, celebrating worship and performing works of love: the Word, Worship and Works.

When Ascension Sunday coincides with Mother's Day, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on the witness of parents in general, but especially the witness of mothers.  I am sure that most of us learnt about the faith from our mothers and grandmothers.  I know I did.  My mother taught my siblings and me the basic prayers, the commandments and the sacraments, for that is simply what mothers do!  She read to us stories from the Bible about Jesus, for that is simply what mothers do!  But most of all, she showed us by her example, what it means to live as a Christian and a Catholic, for that is simply what mothers do!

In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis reminds us of those who are at the peripheries of the Church and of the world.  And so, we cannot forget the witness of mothers who are in very difficult situations.

·        Think of the single mother, made single either by divorce, separation or widowhood, or by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.  And yet she ploughs on, working two, three honest jobs to put food on the table; showing her children the values of Jesus, despite their lack of material things.

·        Think of the woman who has no children, either because she was not able to bear children, or for various reasons chose not to be a mother, or has lost her children to death or imprisonment, or has simply been abandoned by her children.  Such women often witness in their own way to carrying the cross of Christ.  Can we witness to them too, by an act of love today?

·        Finally, you have children who have no mothers to celebrate, either because they lost them to death or imprisonment or abandonment, or who have a strained relationship with their mothers.  And yet, they too witness to Jesus, by forgiving them, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Conclusion

May Ascension takes its rightful place in our spiritual lives, reminding us of the great commission given us by the Lord, to proclaim the gospel, to worship him and to be his witnesses to the whole world especially by our works.

The Holy Spirit, the Apostles and Presbyters

Homily for 6^th Sunday of Easter Year C 2016

Acts 15:1-2,22-29; Revelation 21:10-14,22-23; John 14:23-29

Introduction

We live in times of conflict:

·        Civil war in Syria, Ukraine and the Sudan; political differences between Republicans and Democrats; and in this election year record levels of acrimony between politicians of the same political parties.

·        Even religion is not exempt from conflict, between Christians and Muslims in parts of West Africa, Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

·        And the one place you would expect to be peaceful and harmonious, the Catholic Church, even here we have our own share of friction, on issues ranging from the beginning of life to the end life and in between.

No wonder then that today's first reading tells us of a serious conflict that happened in the Church of Antioch.  But fortunately, that same incident also provides a solution, a way of resolving conflict that we can use today.

Scripture and Theology

The reading comes from Acts Chapter 15, describing the life of the Church about 10 to 15 years after Jesus had returned to the Father.  The Church in Antioch was divided over whether or not to require Gentiles who became Christians to undergo the Jewish custom of circumcision.

·        One group, the Jewish Christians, insisted that "Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved."  They saw Christianity as being simply an extension of the Jewish religion.

·        But Paul and Barnabas disagreed.  They argued that although Jesus was a Jew and observed the Jewish Law, that he had come to establish, a new religion, a way of relating with God that superseded Jewish customs.

Unfortunately this conflict was only the first of many in the history of the Church.

1.    For example, we take for granted the Creed which we profess at Mass, that Jesus is God and man, that he is of the same substance as the Father.  But Christians, even bishops came to blows over these issues until the councils of the fourth and fifth centuries solved them.

2.    Similarly for several centuries there were disagreements on the number of sacraments, how they worked, and how they were celebrated.  These issues were settled only in the councils of the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

3.    And then most recently, in the last century, Catholics disagreed on how to relate with the modern world, with other Christians, with other religions, until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, decided these matters.

And so, conflict and disagreement, like the argument over circumcision in Antioch, always exist in the Church and must be resolved.

As we heard, the Church of Antioch took care of the problem, by passing the disagreement on to the Apostles and presbyters in Jerusalem, 471 miles away.  They did this because the Apostles, who had witnessed first-hand the life and teaching, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, were responsible for the Church. Important decisions like the criteria for admission into the Church should be made by them.

What they did reminds me of a scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan.  In that World War II movie, a group of soldiers are sent behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose three brothers have already been killed in action, so that his parents would get to keep one son.  Some of the soldiers don’t see the wisdom of putting a whole platoon of soldiers in danger just to save one.  And so they continually complain about the mission, except the captain, who remains silent all the time.  One of the men then asks him: “Hey . . . so, Captain, what about you? I mean, you don't gripe at all?” This is what the captain says: 

I don't gripe to you, Reiben. I'm a captain. There's a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don't gripe to you. I don't gripe in front of you.

In a similar way, by deciding to send their gripe to Jerusalem, the Church in Antioch is following the chain of command and hierarchy set up by Jesus.

And when the matter reached the apostles and presbyters, they called a council, the Council of Jerusalem, in which they did three things.

1.    First they listened to all the parties, allowing all to be heard.

2.    Second, they turned to the Scriptures and the teaching of Jesus and applied God's Word to this particular situation.

3.    Finally, they made sought the help of the Holy Spirit.  For as we heard in the gospel, Jesus had promised them: "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you."

This well laid out procedure allowed the Apostles and presbyters to reach a satisfactory decision, which they sent to the Church of Antioch, saying:

It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities,  namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right.

In the usual Catholic "both . . . and" manner, on one hand, the apostles and presbyters agreed with Paul and Barnabas, that now baptism had replaced circumcision as the means of becoming God's people; but they also agreed with the Jewish Christians, that some basic Jewish practices had to continue, because Jesus had come to fulfil, not to abolish God's work of salvation through the Jewish people.

Christian Life

This same method, of discussion, reflection and prayer has been used quite well in the councils of the Church, by the successors of the apostles and presbyters, the Pope and Bishops, even in the two recent synods on the family. 

That's why Marcus Grodi, a former Presbyterian pastor, who hosts a TV program on EWTN, says he became Catholic.  He says:

Every Sunday I would stand in my pulpit and interpret Scripture for my flock, knowing that within a fifteen mile radius of my church there were dozens of other Protestant pastors, all of whom believed that the Bible alone is the sole authority for doctrine and practice, but each was teaching something different from what I was teaching.  ‘Is my interpretation of Scripture the right one or not?' I'd wonder. ‘Maybe one of those other pastors is right, and I'm misleading these people who trust me.'

It was as if Marcus was in the community of Antioch, but, unlike Paul and Barnabas, he had nowhere to go to resolve his doubts and disagreements.  He could find no peace of heart, until he found the Catholic Church, the one Jesus has equipped with a hierarchy and chain of command, that resolves issues not on its own authority, but in the Holy Spirit, in the Tradition and in the Scriptures.

Conclusion

Yes, conflict is part of life, even Church life.  But we too have our own apostles and presbyters, the pope and the bishops, tasked by Jesus to resolve today's disagreements.  And the reason we can trust them to do so was given by a third grader, who, for his religion homework wrote: “a bishop is someone, who knows someone, who knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone and so on and so forth, who knew Jesus.”

Let us pray that like the Holy Spirit did at the Council of Jerusalem, and throughout the history of the Church, he guides the Pope and bishops, so that in resolving today's conflicts, they are faithful to the teaching of Jesus.

Loving as Jesus loves

Homily for 5^th Sunday of Easter Year C 2016

Acts 14:21b-27; Revelation 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a,34-35

Introduction

A few months ago, I gave my students an assignment in which they could write a five-page paper on any aspect of the priesthood.  But they did not like this blank check, because I was not specific enough in my expectations.  I got more grief over this short assignment than the twenty-page final exam they have to do.

Scripture and Theology

Jesus is better at giving assignments.  Not only does he say: "Love one another." He also says how we are to do it: "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another."  He gives both the homework, and how to do it.

Jesus does this because while many people know what love is, caring about another person, there are many different ways to love.

·        Some love as the golden rule says, by treating others as they themselves would want to be treated.  But this way of loving is rather limited, limited to how well I want to be treated myself, which can sometimes be a low bar.

·        Others love only their neighbours who love them back but hate their enemies.  Again this way of loving is also limited; Jesus said even sinners and pagans do as much (Mt. 5: 43-47); they love only their friends.

And so, Jesus is more specific with his command, saying, "Love one another, as I have loved you." 

How did Jesus love us?  Remember that Jesus gave this instruction at the Last Supper, the day before he was to die. In fact, before he gives this new commandment, he tells his disciples, "My children, I will be with you only a little while longer."  And so, this command to love is given as the last will and testament of Jesus, which he would put into action the very next day.

·        Until this point, Jesus had loved by teaching and inviting all, even sinners, tax-collectors, prostitutes, even the Pharisees to the life-giving way of God.

·        Until this point, Jesus had loved by healing the sick, raising the dead to life, by giving bread and fish to the crowds and wine at the wedding of Cana.

·        But now, he is going to love by dying on the Cross, giving up his life for the life of the world.

And so his instruction is not just that we love one another, which anybody can do, but also that we do so as he did, giving ourselves completely for others, without expecting anything in return.

Christian Life

In his recent document, appropriately entitled "The Joy of Love," Pope Francis spoke applied the teaching of Jesus on love to marriage and families.  Even as he mourned the difficulties that marriages and families face today, he insisted that the joy of love is to be found first there.  I encourage you to read the whole document, which you can find online or buy from the Pauline Bookstore.  But let me give you a summary of some points the Pope makes, in Chapter Four, using the verses from Paul's poetic description of love in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13:4-7.

According to Pope Francis, when Paul says "love is patient" he means that one who loves is "slow to anger" like God; for patient love does not act on impulse.  It accepts the other person as they are, as it slowly help them become better persons.  Parents do this all the time in raising children, starting them off with milk before giving them solid food, both literally and metaphorically, treating them first with kid gloves and only then later with tough-love.  Even spouses can do this.  In the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, Raymond's parents Frank and Marie irritate each other at every turn; but they also accept each other with patience, because they truly love each other as husband and wife.

The second quality is that "love is kind."  According to Pope Francis, kindness means being at the service of others.  When love is kind, it helps other people, it benefits other people.  There is no better place for kind love than in a marriage, where husband and wife give themselves completely for the other, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.  There is no better place for kindness than in a family, where parents give themselves completely for their children, and later where adult children return to give themselves completely for their elderly parents, because love does not seek its own interests, but those of others.

The next few verses from St. Paul, describe eight negative attitudes that are incompatible with love: jealousy, pomposity, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness, quick-temperedness, resentfulness and rejoicing over wrongdoing.  Pope Francis turns these negative phrases into positive suggestions for love in the family.

·        Instead of being jealous, true love values the achievements of each family member, recognising that God has given us different gifts for the good of all.  For when one succeeds we all succeed, when one fails, we all fail.

·        Instead of being boastful or arrogant, true love focuses on the other person, even when that person has less or knows less, for example, when their faith or its practice is not as strong or vibrant as mine.

·        Instead of being rude or harsh or demeaning, true love imitates the gentleness of Jesus to others.  As the saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, only resorting to the vinegar as a last resort.

·        Instead of holding on to anger, even righteous anger, true love forgives, true love makes a sacrifice, giving up what is truly ours.  Loving as Jesus loves means we cannot hold on to old family wounds for decades, opening the scars once in a while to brood over them.  Rather it means forgivinglike Jesus did to his executioners on the cross saying: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34).  The Pope advices families, "do not let the day end without making peace in your family.”

In the last verse, St. Paul speaks again about some positive qualities of love: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  Pope Francis runs with these qualities and suggests some practical application for marriage and family:

·        "Love bears all things" when family members resist the urge to quickly condemn, to speak about the weaknesses of each other.

·        "Love believes all things" when the basic attitude in the family is trust, letting go of control, and so promoting transparency and sincerity.

·        "Love hopes all things" when family members know that each person can change, mature and become better, and most of all that "Each person, with all his or her failings, is called to the fullness of life in heaven."

·        Finally "Love endures all things" when family members bear every trial with a positive attitude, replacing every negative current with goodness.

Conclusion

And so, Pope Francis by applying Jesus' teaching love to the family, is helping us do our homework, teaching us to practice loving as Jesus loved in the family, before we can go out and do it in the world.  Despite the often terrible news in the media, every now and then you hear of men and women, who, loving as Jesus loved, starting in their families, take this love out of the family, onto the streets, into the workplace, many of them doing so quietly without seeking recognition.  May they inspire us to do well our assignment from Jesus, which will be graded, not by Jesus but by the world.  For as he said: "This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

My sheep hear my voice

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Easter Year C 2016

Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

Introduction

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish."  In this short verse, Jesus teaches four things, two of which his disciples do and two of which he does himself.

·        The disciples "hear my voice," and "follow me," Jesus says.

·        And as for himself, "I know them" and "I give them eternal life."

Scripture and Theology

The voice is a powerful instrument.  You have probably seen the TV show called “The Voice.”  In the first stage of this competition, participants compete in a blind audition in front of four coaches, who are usually accomplished musicians themselves.  During the audition, the chairs of the coaches face away from the performers towards the audience.  Each coach must pick a potential artist to coach, based only on their voice.  And so when a coach has heard enough to impress him or her, they press their button and turn their chair towards the performer.  A few years ago, in the Italian version of this show, when the coaches turned round, they were surprised to see that the beautiful voice they had just heard was that of a nun, Sr. Christina.

And so, Jesus can confidently say, "My sheep hear my voice." For sheep have a knack for identifying their shepherd by his voice.  All the shepherd needs to keep his sheep in line is his voice, unlike the cowboy who needs a whip to drive the cattle.  And so the disciples of Jesus, should be able to identify him by his voice, by what he teaches.  Like the music coach in the Show can identify talent just by the voice, the disciple should be able to identify the Lord's voice of truth.

The second thing that the sheep do is to follow the shepherd's voice.  Because they are used to him and know him, they will follow him when he calls them; they will not follow the voice of a stranger or thief.  They hear in his voice that he cares for them and that is why they follow him.  And so, whether Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount, or talking to Nicodemus at night, or conversing with the small band of apostles around him, they hear the Word of God that he shares, and they stick with him, on account of that voice.

And now to what Jesus himself does.  First, he says, "I know my sheep."  The real shepherd had to know his sheep.  He probably had to stay with them in the desert for days on end, looking for water and grass.  All this time, the shepherd was entirely responsible for their fate and well-being.  It is even said that the shepherd could tell each individual sheep from the others.  He probably named them too.  He knew the needs of each sheep; the shy one, the slow one and the one with attitude!  And he took care of their needs accordingly, encouraging the shy one, carrying the slow one and reining in the mischievous one.

In the same way Jesus knows his followers and sometimes tailors his message to them according to their needs.  To the sick he brings a message of healing and patient endurance; to the prostitutes and tax-collectors, a message of repentance and forgiveness; and to the Pharisees and scribes a message of God’s boundless and gracious love.  That is why he can claim to know his sheep.

And finally besides knowing his sheep, Jesus gives them eternal life.  Yes, the shepherd provided his sheep with material things (food, drink, protection, shade).  But Jesus the Good Shepherd, by his teaching and miracles, by his death and resurrection, gives the sheep more than material and physical comfort; he offers them the chance to get to heaven, where they will live with God forever.

And so, it is because Jesus the Good Shepherd does his part in knowing the sheep and giving them eternal life, that the sheep can hear his voice and follow him to where he leads them.

Christian Life

Jesus is still our Good Shepherd today; he still knows us and gives us eternal life.  His is still the voice we should hear and we should follow.  Unfortunately for us, there is a cacophony of voices today, some good, some not so good, all calling for the attention of our ears.

·        There are the ideological voices of the network and Cable News channels, as well as the sitcoms and dramas whose voice is often not that of Jesus.

·        There are the voices on the internet, newspapers, blogs, youtube, many of them peddling philosophies and ways of life, that are not of the Lord.

·        You also have the voices of our family, co-workers and friends, sometimes the source of gossip, slander and even hate, clearly not the voice of Jesus.

How can we hear and listen to the voice of Jesus in such a crowded marketplace of voices and ideas?

My friends, let me suggest three places where the voice of the Good Shepherd is loud and clear.

First, like I often say, let us to go the horse's mouth, the Bible.  There is no problem or situation in the world today to which Bible in general, but especially the fulfilling Word of Jesus has not spoken or given some guiding principle.  There was a time, when Catholics were not encouraged to read the Bible, perhaps because they did not have the tools and the help to understand it.  Today, Catholics read the Bible all the time.  But how do they read it?

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, there is a story of the Ethiopian official, who was reading the Bible as he rode along the highway; but he could not understand what it was saying.  Then Philip the Deacon joined him and explained to him what it all meant; he got it and was baptised.  That is why Catholics read the Bible within the Church and not independently of the Church.  That is why the premier place for reading the Bible is in the Liturgy, in the readings and in the homily that explains them, as well as in Bible-Study groups.

For me, one of the reasons I like being Catholic and not Protestant is that I don’t have to do all the heavy lifting by myself.  Yes, I have to personally accept the Lord Jesus as my Saviour; I have to read the Scriptures and meditate on them; I have to pray; I have to love God and my neighbour.  But I don’t have to work out every single detail of Jesus’ teaching from scratch.  I rely on the testimony and witness of all those Catholics who have gone before me in the past 2000 years, going back to the apostles.  I believe that the Spirit, which the Lord promised to send, has continued to inspire the Church of every generation, so that the message he left us, has been handed on faithfully until our generation today.

That is why besides the Bible, the voice of Jesus can also be heard today in the in the teaching of the Pope, Bishops, priests and deacons of the Church.  This voice can be heard in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nicely divided into four sections of Belief, Worship, Moral Life and Prayer.  The Catechism, in its complete form, or its youth formats, can be good gifts for Confirmation, First Holy Communion, birthdays and so on.

The third place to hear the voice of Jesus is our conscience.  Conscience is the secret chamber of the soul, to which only you and God have access.  When a conscience is well formed by prayer, by reflecting on God's Word and Church teaching, by celebrating the Sacraments, it can point us towards good and away from sin.  Some people call it a gut feeling; but it is really the voice of Jesus.

Conclusion

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, let us go home reassured that Jesus truly cares for us and speaks to us in various ways.  But let us also go home challenged to good shepherds in our own ways, as parents, as friends, as teachers, so that people can hear in us, the voice of Jesus.  And especially, for some of us, let us consider becoming priests, deacons and religious men and women, who are in an official way, the voice of Good Shepherd.

Who's your favorite Pope?

Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Easter Year C 2016

Introduction

"Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."  With these words, Jesus entrusts Simon Peter with task of caring for the Church.

Because I am the first born child, whenever my mother had to be away from the house for most of the day, she too would say to me: "take care of your siblings."  I was nine or ten, the age at which Ugandan children start taking on independent responsibilities, including baby-sitting their siblings.  I certainly was not fully equipped for my tasks, but in our circumstances, mom had to make do with me. 

Scripture and Theology

So did Jesus.  He entrusts Peter, the guy who denied him three times a few weeks earlier, with caring for the sheep.  What was Jesus thinking hiring Peter for the top job of CEO of his mission?

Three elements in the story we have just heard help us to understand what Jesus is doing here: the setting in Galilee, the fishing trip and the charcoal fire.

You might remember that Galilee was the place where the Lord first met Peter and some of his fellow disciples.  Matthew's gospel, for example, tells us that as Jesus "was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen".” (4:18-19).  After the resurrection, what better place to return to, after they had all abandoned him, to start all over again!  And so, the Lord is meeting his disciples in Galilee, Ground Zero, the place where it all started, to send them off again on a new mission.

The second element of the story is the fishing.  Like every man from South Louisiana, Peter and his friends were avid fishermen.  After returning to Galilee from following Jesus, they had resumed their previous job – after all they had mouths at home to feed.  But on that night they caught nothing; perhaps having been away from fishing for three years, they had lost their touch.  Now the Lord appears to them and suggests: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”  Putting their fisherman pride to the side, they obey the stranger and indeed they catch a boatload of fish. 

Just like the return to Galilee, the fishing context also symbolizes a return of the disciples to their beginnings.  Not only had Jesus chosen them in Galilee, but even the first time, it was after another miraculous catch of fish (Lk. 5:1-11).  At that time, Jesus had told them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19).  Now after the resurrection, with another miraculous catch, he has the same message for them, that they are now to become fishers of men during his absence.  John's gospel even gives the small detail of how many fish they caught – 153.  Because 153 was thought to be the number of types of fish in the sea, it suggests universality of their; the disciples are called upon to catch men and women of all nations, races and languages.

Besides Galilee and the fishing, the charcoal fire is the third significant element  of the story.  Do you recall another fire in the gospels, the charcoal fire at which Peter denied the Lord, not once, not twice, but three times (Jn. 18: 15-18, 25-27)?  Now at a different fire, one on which Jesus is making breakfast, the Lord gives Peter a chance to retract his threefold denial, asking him three times: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these [other disciples]?"  As we heard, three times, Peter responded that he loved the Lord.  And each time, the Lord entrusts Peter with a task: "feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep."

When my mother gave me virtually the same instruction, all I had to do was bathe my siblings, cook for them and put them to bed.  In the case of Peter, he has his work cut out for him; he is responsible for the salvation of all the disciples, for the whole Church.  Peter thus became the first Pope, the first papá or father of the whole Church, for that is what pope means.

Christian Life

Since Peter, Popes have carried on that same task of feeding and tending the lambs and sheep of the Church.  To be honest, some did a terrible job at it.  But most have done a great job, like the last three popes that we have had.  Let me share with you briefly how these successors of Peter have affected my life.

When Pope John Paul II he visited Uganda in 1993, I was in college seminary.  I was fortunate to attend one of his Masses and see him from about five feet away, as he walked to the altar.  Perhaps like every other 21 year-old, I was more interested in a photo opportunity with him, than listening to what he had to say.  But I still remember his message to Ugandans, which was "Be the light of the world."  And as I continued my seminary studies, I was to read a lot of what he had to say.  But his greatest influence on me was at his funeral in 2005, when from the media coverage I heard about his charisma, his numerous world travels to catch all 153 types of fish, and his constant message of "Do not be afraid" to a world caught in fear of nuclear war and recovering from the effects of the 1960s.

As for Pope Benedict XVI, I was fortunate that my time of graduate studies in Rome began when he had just been elected Pope.  While in Rome, I often saw him from a distance, at the Wednesday General papal audiences and the Sunday Angelus.  I was even once within five feet of him at a private audience, together with a thousand of my best friends, other priests studying in Rome; I saw close up how humble and shy a man he was.  But his greatest influence on me was that virtually in very class I took, we read his work, both what he wrote as Cardinal Ratzinger and his work as Pope Benedict.  Pope Benedict had a lot to teach.  He used his great intellect, always clear, precise and insightful, to teach the faith and the truth.  He reminded our world that has lost its way, of the eternal Truth that Jesus teaches.

And now we have another Peter, Pope Francis, the first non-European Pope in modern times.  Two years ago, I attended a Mass presided over by him in St. Peter's Basilica.  This time I was not five feet, but fifty feet away from him; but since I was right behind the altar, with a clear line of sight, I saw how reverently he celebrated the Mass. The biggest contribution of Pope Francis is that he always preaches a message of love and mercy.  He wants God's love and mercy to be fed to all God's sheep, especially the lost sheep: children and elderly, the sick and the disabled, prisoners and immigrants, people with same-sex attraction as well as the divorced and remarried.  Like Jesus himself, Pope Francis does not exclude anybody from the call to receive the Good News.

Conclusion

People will often ask me: "So, of the three popes, who is your favorite?"  Whenever I hear this question, I want to wring the neck of the person asking it, because Peter and the popes are not celebrities to be liked or disliked.  Their job is to feed the sheep and not to win a popularity contest.  In fact, at the end of today's gospel reading, Jesus prophesied that Peter would be killed for doing his job of tending the sheep.

The more fitting question should be the one Jesus asked Peter: "Do you love me?"  For if we love Jesus, then we shall listen to and like whichever Peter he sends to feed us, his sheep.  Whether it is Pope John Paul II who used his charisma to feed us with hope; or Pope Benedict who used his great intellect to to teach us faith; and now, Pope Francis, who continues to use his vast pastoral experience to remind us  of God's love and mercy.  And who knows what the next pope will feed us with?  We must like them all, because they feed us with the life-giving message of salvation.

Jesus cares for his friends, acquaintances and strangers

Homily for Easter – 2^nd  Sunday Year C 2016

Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1:9-11a,12-13,17-19; John 20:19-31

Introduction

Friends, acquaintances and strangers: these are three types of people we have in our lives, people we treat differently.  We might say "hello" to a stranger, chat about the weather with an acquaintance, and perhaps give a kidney to a friend. 

For example, when Americans tell me that I have an accent, although my mother doesn't think so, the clarity of my speech depends on who I am speaking to.  .

1.    When I am speaking with strangers, I am very clear; I take great care to articulate my words, because these people don't know me.

2.    I am slightly less clear when I speak to acquaintances, because I know them a little; I expect them to do some work and listen a little more carefully.  Even then, because our conversations are usually short and usually about superficial topics like the weather, I am still fairly clear.

3.    It is my friends, my close friends, who suffer most with my accent.  Because we know each other very well, I let my guard down and speak I naturally, like I am at home in Uganda.  Moreover, our conversations are usually longer and more passionate; so that what I gain in passion and informality, I lose in clarity.

How does Jesus treat his friends, his acquaintances and perfect strangers?  He treats them all with mercy, as today's gospel shows us.

Scripture and theology

"I call you friends" Jesus had had told his close disciples.  But as we heard during the Passion story, what terrible friends they turned out to be.  One betrayed him, another denied him and rest ran away from him when he was arrested.  They had given up on the Lord, because they thought that Project Jesus had failed.  But after his resurrection, Jesus seeks them out.  We heard that "On the evening of that first day of the week [Sunday], when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'"

Think about that for a moment.  If you were the one who had been betrayed by your friends; I am guessing that your first words would have a few choice words among them, for which you would have to go to confession.  But Jesus first words to this bunch of cowards were "Peace be with you;" "Shalom aleichem" in Hebrew; "Salaam alaykum" in Arabic. The Lord greets his disciples with words of peace, words of welcome, words of reconciliation.  That's how Jesus treats his friends, even disloyal friends, showering God's mercy upon them.  For as the saying goes: "a true friend is one who, when you've made a fool of yourself, doesn't think that you've done a permanent job."

The second group, the acquaintances, is represented by Thomas, who was playing hooky on the first Sunday when Jesus appeared to the community.  Why was Thomas absent on that Sunday?  Let's speculate.  Perhaps he was caring for his sick mother; or his horse, his only means of transport, was at the vet’s.  But we know why he was absent; the Jerusalem Football team were playing at home that Sunday; or he was sleeping in, Sunday being the only day when he did not have to get up early to get to work.  Like an acquaintance, Thomas was not really invested in the Jesus project; he was happy to hang around if it was fun and going well, but as soon as it started to crumble he bailed.  Thomas even refused to believe his friends when they told him that they have seen the Lord.

But even to Thomas, the acquaintance-like disciple, Jesus has mercy to share.  On the next Sunday when Thomas cares to show up, Jesus once again appears to the disciples.  And after greeting them with shalom as usual, he tells Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”  If for the larger group of disciples the mercy of Jesus was to let bygones be bygones, for Thomas the Lord shows him mercy by providing him with the evidence he needed to believe.  Thomas saw and believed and expressed his faith crying out: “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus still has mercy left over to share it with the third group, the strangers, those whom he does not yet know.  To do this, he enlists the help of the first two groups, the disciples.  He tells them: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Jesus turns the disciples into apostles to go and share the Good News with others.  He even empowered them to do this, by breathing his Spirit on them and saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  These words of Jesus have been understood in the Church as referring to the sacrament of confession, where the priest forgives sins, in the name of God the Father of mercies, and God the Son whose death and resurrection brought mercy, and the Spirit the agent of mercy.  Just as Jesus personally shared his mercy with the disciples, now he wants the disciples to go and do likewise, and be the instruments of his mercy with others. 

Christian Life

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, we should be consoled by these merciful actions of Jesus to the friends that failed him, to the acquaintance that doubted his mission, and most of all to perfect strangers.  To be honest, you and I at one time or another, are these three types of people to Jesus.

Our baptism made us friends of Jesus.  And most of the time, we are good friends, especially when we do as he taught; when we love God and our neighbour.  But often, like the disciples we abandon Jesus when we sin.  And yet, to us he says, "Peace be with you."  And when we go to confession and change our lives, like the Prodigal Father he says: "let us celebrate with a feast, because this son [daughter] of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found" (Lk. 15:23-24).  As the response to Psalm said, "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting."

Perhaps there are times when we act like we are merely acquaintances of the Lord.  We don't come to Sunday Mass, except perhaps at Christmas, Easter and the Friday fish fry.  Our relationship with the Lord stops at the level of appearances.  In our prayer we don't really talk about anything profound, perhaps only about the weather.

But even when we are in this state, like he did to Thomas, Jesus comes and shows us evidence of his presence, in the people around us, who have seen the Lord.  And like Thomas we can turn our doubts into belief, our struggles into joys.  And because of his mercy we confess: "My Lord and my God."

Perhaps at one time, either before we became Catholic or even after, we are strangers to the Lord.  We don't know who he is, what he teaches, what he has to offer us; or we completely forgotten.  Even when we are in this state, to us the Lord shares his mercy, by sending us messengers, in the example and the words of his disciples who are around us; the preaching and liturgy of his Church.

Conclusion

Like human friendships, our friendship with Jesus has its ups and downs, its highs and lows.  But the Lord does not give up on his friends; neither should we.  Whether we have become strangers to him by unfriending him, whether we have downgraded our status to that of acquaintance, or whether we have become untrue friends, he still wants us as his friends.

But having received the Lord's mercy, we must in turn share this mercy with others.  The Lord sends us out to our friends both the faithful and unfaithful ones, to our acquaintances, and even to the stranger.  As Jesus tells us, whatsoever you to do my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.