Homily for Friday, 15 May 2015– Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 18:9-18; Psalm 47:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; John 16:20-23

Have any of us noticed how, in these last few days of the Easter season, especially now between the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost (the Sunday after next), our daily readings have become dark; troubling?

Today the Acts of the Apostles speaks of Paul being brought once again to trial, this time before Gallio, the Roman “proconsul of Achaia” in Corinth. Is our Gospel reading today not especially ominous? Jesus speaks of his upcoming death, a painful experience for both him and for his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices.”

Would we not think that, during the Easter season, our readings would be somewhat more uplifting? Why must we hear amid such a joyful season of these events of deep pain and suffering: Apostles like Paul arrested, facing trial and eventual death for their faith; Jesus preparing his disciples for his own death?

Our readings, I think, remind us that we live in an “in-between” time; a time of transition. We live in a time that is an intermingling of joy and sorrow; of order and chaos; of new life and death. In our Church’s liturgical year, we are between Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, a joyful event but also a kind of death; joy mingled with sorrow because Jesus is no longer here on earth, and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the Apostles and the birth of the Church. Each of us is between birth and death.

Our baptism marks both death and resurrection in Christ, again sorrow and joy mingled together. Jesus speaks of the experience of childbirth. Anyone who has brought a child into the world or witnessed a birth: Can you not relate to the intermingling of pain and joy of which Jesus speaks? The events of our world today are often troubling: natural and human-made disaster; disease; war; extremism… And yet we see signs of hope.

How many of us have experienced the loss of a loved one and yet remember forever with fondness and joy the goodness of your loved one? How many of us have experienced severe illness or that of a loved one, and yet amid illness perhaps experienced perseverance with joy by the sick person and those who care for her or him?

In these and many more ways, we experience an in-between time; joy intermingled with sorrow; life with death; wellness with illness; order with chaos. And in this in-between time, our readings today encourage us. “Do not be afraid,” Paul hears and we hear in Acts. “You will grieve, but your grief will become joy,” Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “so you… are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

Take courage; “do not be afraid.” This is not to deny suffering; pain; sorrow; even death. These are part of the in-between time we are living. But they are temporary. Christ will reign victorious over all these realities. This is our hope; our reason, in this in-between time, to be here; to continue to persevere in faith; to live with joy. And “no one will take [our] joy away from” us. 

Homily for Thursday, 14 May 2015– Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Readings of the day: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Ephesians 4:1-13, Mark 16:15-20

This Mass was offered graciously by the staff of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish, Irondequoit, NY, in memory of my maternal grandparents, Frank and Simone Salt.

What is the significance for us of this Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension that we celebrate today? Our readings today focus, I think, on two related aspects of the meaning for us of the Ascension to heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ: Future promise and present mission.

The beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which we hear today, focuses primarily on future promise. The Apostles have been instructed by Jesus to wait in Jerusalem for “the promise of the Father,” the Holy Spirit. But once they receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, they are to witness to him by their works and words “to the ends of the earth.” And so here in Acts we also have the beginning of present mission of the Apostles; of the Church.

Mark’s Gospel emphasizes this aspect of present mission. As he ascends to heaven, Jesus says this to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” And in the Letter to the Ephesians these aspects of future promise of the Holy Spirit; future promise from God of ascension to heaven ourselves and present mission converge in a great statement of identity of our Church. We are united as Church in future promise and in present mission: “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

But might the sheer grandiosity of this present mission as Church given us by the risen and ascended Christ not scare some of us? How are we to “proclaim the Gospel to every creature”? What about the times (and we all have them) when we have not lived “with all humility and patience [and] love,” and promoted peace, not only in the world but in our own relationships, as Ephesians asks of us? We understand future promise. At least I hope, and I have confidence in this because we are here, that we all hope in the future promise of heaven. We hope to rise to eternal life; to ascend to heaven after our Lord one day. We hope, closer to the present, to receive more and more God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, whom we already receive in the sacraments of the Church; in baptism and confirmation; through one another.

We understand future promise; I think we might have more trouble with present mission. So what is our present mission as Church, so that we might better accomplish it? Many of us do not leave our city, our communities, or even our homes very often, let alone go “to every creature” the world over to work and preach in the name of Jesus. So what can we do to live out our Christian mission?

Since the intention for this Mass is for my maternal grandparents, Frank and Simone Salt, who went to be with God this past January, I look often to their example of how to live out both present mission and hope of future promise. When I first announced to my grandfather that I felt a call to the priesthood, he reminded me: “Live your faith with a sense of humor. If you aren’t living your faith with a sense of humor, you aren’t living your faith.” In their waning years, but while they were still living in their own house, Grandma and Grandpa would still walk every day to the new church that was being built in their neighborhood to unlock it before the construction workers arrived.

Late in their lives, Grandma and Grandpa were still “unlockers” of the Church. They lived by the future promise of resurrection; ascension to heaven; of having received the Holy Spirit. They lived by present mission, all within a few blocks of their home: Humility; patience; gentleness; love; unity; peace and, yes, a sense of humor. Their example is an excellent one for all of us: Show one another the love of God; the peace and good humor that derives from the Holy Spirit.

We do not need to travel great distances to do this. Unlock the Church; open the Church to all who seek God! In (usually) small ways, we are all called to live this present mission, even as we hope in future promise given us by the resurrection and ascension of Christ and the dwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in each and every one of us.