Homily for Sunday, 18 May 2014– Fifth Sunday of Easter

Here is my first homily since my ordination to the priesthood, given during the Vigil Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Saturday, 17 May 2014, at St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. It was good to be back where my Basilian journey began over 7 years ago!

Readings of the day: Acts 6:1-17; Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

First question, since we are here in a college chapel: How many of us are students? I am sure that even those among us who are not currently students have been students at some point. Second question: How many of us have ever crammed for an exam? I am not proud of this, but even I have crammed for an exam or two. Ideally, we would all be prepared for every exam and every assignment (professors would love this!), but most of us have had times as students when we have been less than prepared; times when we have crammed for exams.

The comedian George Carlin once observed that people who are facing their own mortality or that of a loved one often develop a greater awareness of the spiritual. Carlin quips in one skit: “I get it… They’re cramming for their final exam!”

Today’s Gospel reading speaks of Jesus’ own disciples’ experience of cramming for a very important final exam. Jesus announces to his disciples in our Gospel reading: “Do not let your hearts be troubled… You know the way to the place where I am going.” We know that Jesus is about to undergo his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father; the event that we as Church refer to as “the Paschal mystery.” This is an impressive term for something we don’t fully understand that you can use on a theology exam if you find yourself cramming the night before the exam.

Since Jesus’ disciples are in the midst of a cram session the night before the Lord’s Passion, their reaction to Jesus’ announcement that he will die, rise, and then return to the Father is predictable. We begin with Thomas, who says with alarm: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Then Philip is the clueless student after an all-nighter in dire need of a cup of coffee. Philip says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

If I were Jesus, the impatient teacher in me would be reaching for a big red pen at this point to mark a large “F” on each of the disciples’ exam booklets. Imagine this: The Twelve all failing Discipleship 101… The “disciple whom Jesus loved” in John’s Gospel might have narrowly managed a D! Nonetheless I would be ensured an immediate appointment with the Dean: “You know, Fr. Warren, you really cannot fail them all…”

Fortunately, on the night before his Passion, Jesus gives his disciples a chance to recover from their inability to understand what his death, resurrection, and ascension all entail. Jesus does not give them a failing grade right away, but he is still stern with them: “I am the way, the truth, and the life… Have I been with you for all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? …How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’”?

“Class announcement: A mandatory remedial course for everyone will begin after I rise again and ascend into heaven.”

Fortunately for us as his disciples, Jesus gives us a chance as he once gave to Thomas and Philip to come to understand more fully the meaning of his Paschal mystery: His death, resurrection, and ascension, and our call to Christian discipleship in light of this mystery. Jesus does not assign us a failing grade outright as disciples, but instead gives us a space in our Easter season to work through our lack of understanding. Jesus gives us a space through this celebration to question: “How can we know the way”? Jesus gives us a space for our confusion: “Show us the Father.” Jesus gives us a space in which to hear, repeatedly if necessary, his words of consolation: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. [You] believe in God; believe also in me.” Jesus gives us the space, here and now, to cram for our final exam and still come out with a passing grade in Discipleship 101!

Not only are we assured a passing grade, but Jesus goes on to say to his disciples in our Gospel reading today: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”

St. Peter, who knew his share of failure and yet of recovery as a disciple of Jesus and leader of God’s Church, reflects on our calling as Christian disciples in our second reading today. Peter describes us as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” whose mission is to “‘proclaim the mighty acts of [God] who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.”

We, as disciples prone to failure; prone to confusion; prone to temptation to cram for the big exam, have been promised that we “will do [even] greater works” in Jesus’ name than Jesus himself did when he walked this earth among us! We are called by God as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” despite our frailty; our failures; our confusion; our sin. This is why these words we hear from our Scriptures today are so remarkable!

I find these words especially moving in that we hear them so late in our Easter season; five Sundays after the night when we celebrated Christ’s resurrection from the dead. In the parish in which I currently serve, St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Rochester, New York, the Gospel reading we hear today from Chapter Fourteen of John is the most frequently-read Gospel reading at funerals. Our parish averages over two hundred funerals per year and, at more than two-thirds of these funerals, we hear Jesus’ words: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. [You] believe in God; believe also in me… The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater ones than these.”

Those of us who have ever attended a funeral know that, at the loss of a loved one, we become confused. We lack understanding. We ask questions like Thomas and Philip once asked Jesus: “How can we know the way?” “Show us the Father.” Show us the way to our loved one; to God. People at a funeral often act similarly in their confusion and shock to those who have crammed for an exam and so stare blankly at the booklet of questions they are to answer.

I am convinced that Christian discipleship is the only vocation in which, as George Carlin once said, we cram for our final exam at the impending loss of a loved one, in this case Jesus Christ, and can still emerge with a passing grade. I can say, as a priest ordained only a week ago today, that I did not get away with cramming for too many exams while I was in the seminary!

In this course of Christian discipleship; our course of life that begins with our baptism, we are assured of a passing grade despite the occasional cram session. Let me recommend, then, that everyone go out after Mass, if you have yet to do so, and register for this course, which is sure to boost everyone’s GPA (or at least get us all to heaven)!

And it gets even better: If we contribute even a basic amount of faith, Jesus assures us not of only a passing grade in Discipleship 101, but that we will do the works of our Lord and even “greater works” in his name.

We have been called “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” despite our frailty; our confusion; our sin; our cramming for the final exam, because Jesus Christ has died, is risen, and has ascended before us to heaven to show us the way to the Father.