Homily for Monday, 13 April 2015– Monday of the Second Week of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 4:23-31; Psalm 2:1-3, 4-7a, 7b-9; John 3:1-8

Who is the Holy Spirit? Our readings today give us a sense of the effects of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Jesus’ earliest disciples, of how the Holy Spirit was acting through them. The Holy Spirit empowers Peter and John and the first Apostles “to speak the Word of God with boldness.” Our reading this morning from Acts says that Peter and John “went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.” Peter and John had just been warned by these “chief priests and elders” not to speak publicly of Jesus any longer. The Holy Spirit gives Peter and John the courage to risk their lives in defiance of this order of the religious leaders of Jerusalem; to risk their lives for Christ, the living Word of God.

The Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John’s Gospel, will enable Nicodemus to be “born again,” not only by water but “by water and the Holy Spirit.” For the Pharisee Nicodemus and for all of us, the Holy Spirit is the way to salvation. We, too, are “born again”; we, too, receive the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. 

But, again, who is the Holy Spirit? Is this not an almost impossible question for us to answer? Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in our Gospel reading this morning do not seem to help us much in identifying, much less understanding, the Holy Spirit. “The wind blows where it wills… so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit,” Jesus says.

Who, then, is the Holy Spirit: A mysterious “wind”; a force that cannot be contained; God, the third person of the Trinity who is all spirit; does not have a body…? One of the best descriptions I have read of the Holy Spirit, I believe from the theologian Bernard Cooke’s book, The Spirit and the Power of God, is of the Holy Spirit as divine “mischief.”

But do we not think of mischief as usually a bad thing? The Holy Spirit as divine mischief still remains a distant, mysterious power that is not necessarily good. Let me propose, then, as Bernard Cooke does in Power and the Spirit of God, that we think and pray about how we understand and experience power.

Power can be negative: “Power over” another by controlling wealth and resources; by making others fear acting against the wishes of the more powerful; the power of fame or of one’s public office (although this can also be used to benefit other people)… But none of this is how God acts; none of this describes the power of God.

God’s power, worked through the Holy Spirit, is power for creativity, for imagination, for kindness; for seeking the good of one another; for love. These kinds of power can be and are mischievous; uncontrollable. Still today, like Peter and John in Acts, many risk arrest; risk their lives because they are empowered by the Holy Spirit. These people challenge power structures in our world. Many more, and all of us, are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit by our baptism. This is the power to live and speak God’s word boldly, for the good of one another.

Homily for Friday, 10 April 2015– Friday in the Octave of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 4:1-12; Psalm 118:1-2, 4, 22-24, 25-27a; John 21:1-14

How often does our Lord encounter us exactly where we are in our lives? And, at the same time, how often are we unprepared or even afraid to encounter our Lord in these humble, everyday circumstances?

From Acts today we hear the continuation of the story of Peter’s and John’s healing of a crippled man outside the temple. Peter and John are brought before the religious leaders for healing in the name of Jesus Christ: “Annas the high priest,” the “elders and scribes,” and “all who were of the high-priestly class.” The two Apostles face with tremendous courage this same group of leaders who had killed Jesus. Peter and John, as well as the religious leaders themselves, know that this strength to witness to Christ and the power to heal the crippled man in the first place was not their own. This power; this strength, Acts emphasizes over and over, is from the Holy Spirit. We hear that Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit, answered” the elders, scribes, and priests who were trying him and John.

When have we been “filled with the Holy Spirit”? If we were to face persecution for our faith, would we have the same strength and courage of Peter and John; the strength and courage that are gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive in baptism and confirmation? For us to face persecution for our faith here in the United States is unlikely, but not so in many places in our world. And so we pray for the people who are persecuted and killed; who are witnesses to Christ by their lives today. And let us pray for the same Holy Spirit to give us the strength to end violence and poverty in our world and here in our country and city.

But are there not times when we feel anything but strong and courageous? Have there been times in our lives when we are more like Peter and the other disciples in our Gospel reading this morning than like Peter and John in Acts? Are there times when we expect a great sign or surge in strength and courage from our Lord, and here we encounter him in simple, everyday events of our lives?

Imagine this: After his resurrection, Jesus had appeared to his disciples twice. But eventually Jesus’ disciples want to return to their everyday activities. Are they maybe still fearful for their lives should they identify openly as followers of Jesus, who had been brutally killed? Peter, the same Peter who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would later show great courage before hostile religious leaders, announces, “I am going fishing.” And the others follow him: I am going back to my everyday activities; back to the life with which I was comfortable.

And it is then when Jesus encounters us again, not with a great sign at first but humbly and quietly. Jesus joins us; joins Peter and the Apostles, for a simple breakfast. Jesus breaks bread and fish with them. In this simple act, the Apostles recognize that “it is the Lord.”

In the same way, Jesus encounters us in our everyday activities, but also calls us beyond our comfort zones to acknowledge him as our risen Lord and to be his disciples.

Homily for Wednesday, 8 April 2015– Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 3:1-10; Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9; Luke 24:13-35

How often do we pause and reflect on where Jesus Christ has been present in our lives during any particular day?

During one retreat I attended while in seminary in Toronto, the sister who led the retreat proposed that we retreatants reflect on two instances when God was present to us during that day. Now, a few years later, I still enjoy taking this short time to pray and reflect, every day, on when Jesus has been present in my life today. I think that this can even be a worthwhile examination of conscience, daily or for instance when we are preparing for the sacrament of reconciliation. Yes, to be mindful of our faults and even sins is important, especially when preparing for reconciliation, but it may be just as important and powerful to ask simply and prayerfully: When has Jesus; when has God been especially present to me today?

When have I immediately recognized Christ present in one of these events of this day? When have I had a moment like that of the man healed at “the Beautiful Gate” of the temple by Peter and John, when it is clear that somebody has acted in our favor “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean”? These could be great instances of healing; of forgiveness; of comfort, or they could be (as often they are in my daily experience) small instances: The smile or laughter of a child; a kind greeting; somebody going out of her or his way to anticipate another’s need, and so forth.

And when have I not recognized Christ present in an event in my life, sometimes until much later? In these instances, what caused me to recognize Christ in that event when I finally did? When have we been like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel reading, conversing with Christ as though he were a stranger? Perhaps we have encountered Christ in this way when we have been grieving or upset, or even depressed.

The disciples on the Road to Emmaus met the risen Jesus as a stranger on this road. They had been grieving the horrible death of “the one” they had hoped would “redeem Israel”; the Christ; the Messiah. This stranger, Jesus, challenges the disciples sharply for being “foolish” and “slow of heart.”

But even more significantly the disciples invite Jesus to “stay with” them just long enough for them to recognize who he is. And how do the disciples recognize Jesus when finally they do? Luke says to us that Jesus “opened the Scriptures to” them and “was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

Jesus “was made known to them” in the same way he is made known to us: In the Word of God and in our Eucharist, which many of us are blessed to partake in almost daily. How is the risen Jesus made known to us in our everyday events? Jesus is made known to us in our prayer. Jesus is made known to us in our kindness toward one another. Jesus is made known to us by a simple moment of joy; a smile; acts of compassion. Jesus is made known to us here “in the breaking of the bread.”