Pentecost 2013/05/19 - Vicars of Christ

Are you familiar with the word ‘vicarious’?    It’s used a couple of ways – it can mean to do something IN PLACE of someone, like a substitute – or it can mean to do something or experience something THROUGH someone else. Some people live vicariously through their kids – like the dad who always wanted to play football, but fulfills that dream through his kid.  The mom who always wanted to be a gymnast or singer – who gladly takes her daughter to practice all year long to live the experience she missed-out on growing up.  The parents live their lives through the lives of their children.

My sister does something that’s kinda cute.  The last couple of summers, she has gone one what she calls ‘vica-vacations’… that’s short for ‘vicarious vacations’…She can’t afford to take her family on big vacations, so she just waits for her friends to post THEIR vacation pictures on facebook, then she pastes her own face into THEIR vacation picture and posts it on HER facebook page.  The Vica-vacation … well – I thought it was a cool idea.

We use the word ‘vicarious’ in the church too… we can say that Jesus’s death on the cross was vicarious too… he died in our place… he was our substitute, since WE were the ones who deserved death. 

Let me come back to that thought in a minute.. because today… all that mess about the cross and crucifixion is behind us.  Today is PENTECOST… the birthday of the Church.  You gotta wonder…Why did Jesus start his church?  Well – to answer that – I think first you gotta answer the question – why did Jesus become human?  Think of it this way… Jesus want to come to earth so he could touch his people with a human hand and SHOW us the way to the Father through HIS human actions.  When he left, still wanted to be able to do that… So, He started the church so he could CONTINUE to touch his people through a human hand… through the hand of his ministers.  In other words – when Fr. Eugene baptizes a baby, it is actually JESUS baptizing the baby vicariously through the hand of Fr. Eugene.  You catch that?  Fr. Eugene stands “in the place” of Jesus when he baptizes…  Jesus is still reaching out to touch his people with a human hand.  He wants to continue to live vicariously through his body on earth… thru us… WE are the body of Christ.  You may have heard, one of the titles for the Pope is the “vicar of Christ”… recognize that word… vicar?  It comes from the same word as ‘vicarious’… in other words, the Pope is the substitute – or he sits in place of Christ as the head of the church…his body of Christ on earth.  Jesus continues to live his life vicariously through the ministers of his church

But that’s not all… today at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit entered the apostles and propelled them out of that room and into the street to tell everyone about the great things God had done.  They were the billboards advertising to the world the great things that God had accomplished through Jesus.  They were the spokesmen for the commercials.  And what was really cool was as they spoke, everyone heard them and understood even though they were from different countries. 

What you may not realize though is that the big advertising campaign continues… and you and I are the billboards… we are the spokesmen for the commercial.  So – what message is on your billboard?  What language are we speaking?

We can LEAD people TO Christ or chase them away… depending on our actions, …our words, …and just our sense of joy.  If we’re always in a sour mood – why would anybody WANT to join US at church?  On the other hand, if everyone around us is leading non-Christian lives – maybe - every other word out of their mouths is a four letter word, but WE avoid that behavior…, what does THAT tell people about how Jesus has changed OUR lives? 

I want to use another big word that probably sounds scary to most of us:  Evangelization.  What do you think of when you hear that word?  Billy Graham?  Jimmy Swaggart?  The guy on the street corner shouting at the top of his lungs that the end is near and you’d better repent?  While those guys are evangelists… they are the exception.  Every ONE of us is called to be an evangelist.  No – I don’t mean you need to be on TV or stand or a street corner.  You don’t even need to be like the apostles in today’s first reading speaking different languages…  All you gotta do is try to bring God into the world around you.  You work at a factory:  watch your language.  You raise your family:  teach them to pray.  You run around with a group of friends:  set the right example when they want to go places and do things you know are not right.  How we live our lives is the first, most necessary step in bringing others to know Christ.  Jesus wants to SHOW people how to experience the joy of following him… to do that, Jesus wants to live his life vicariously through you and me.

There are many ways to be an evangelist…. One way is to pass along a good book or CD.  That’s the whole purpose of the CD’s that we have at the doors of the church.  After YOU listen to a particularly good, Catholic CD, the best thing you can do is to pass it along to someone else you know who can benefit from it.  Same thing goes for the books we have handed out.  Not too long ago, we passed out ‘Rome Sweet Home’ – possibly one of the best Catholic books out there (after the Bible).  Then at Easter, we had a couple hundred copies of ‘4 Signs of a Dynamic Catholic’.  The title didn’t really grab MY attention, but the feedback I’ve gotten from this book has been outstanding!  In fact, it is so good, I’d like to make sure EVERYbody gets the chance to read it.  Seriously – if you didn’t get a copy and would like one – drop me an email and I will make sure you get one.

I’ve got another example – it just happened recently to two of my best friends, and it gives us an example of how ANYbody can evangelize.  Many of you know Jack Goodman – he’s been making rosaries for years – somewhere around 60,000 by his best count.  He makes them for the missions, plus he makes special rosaries and sells them for next to nothing – often simply GIVING them away.  Chances are, any time you run into him, if you said you needed a rosary, he’d stick his hand in his pocket and give you one.  Well – recently, my other friend went to buy a car, and the salesman commented on the rosary in his car and wondered where he could get one like it… so my friend just GAVE him that rosary… one made by Jack.  That guy was so appreciative, but my friend wouldn’t take anything for it… instead the guy made a donation to our church a couple weeks later.  Once Jack found out about it – he made my friend another one just like it – so he could carry it with him in case he ever needs to give it away again.  Where are you and I in that story?  Can you make rosaries?  Can you pass out rosaries?  Can we pass along a book or a CD?  Do we have other talents we can use to spread the Gospel

Jesus needs every ONE of us to be Evangelists…  he needs each of us speaking on his behalf – why?  Get this… you remember in the first reading how everyone heard the apostles in their own language?  Do you recognize how that applies today?  Every one of us sitting here today hears the word of God in our own way… based on our own background and experiences.  Even though I’m preaching one thing to everybody… people HEAR different things.  Proof of this comes sometimes after a homily… people will come up and say how they heard something completely different than what I said… the Holy Spirit is speaking to them where they are – through my words.  So – the Holy Spirit needs each of us out there talking – because somebody is listening – and somebody needs to hear the word of God spoken to them in a way they will understand…in the way that YOU speak it. 

The bottom line for today:  Jesus still wants to touch people in the world – and he does that vicariously through you and me.  He sends His Holy Spirit to give us the courage and the enthusiasm to do it… we just gotta LET Him act through us.  If WE don’t do it –How will our families know about Jesus?  How will our co-worker know about Jesus?   how will the WORLD know about Jesus?  We are ALL Vicars of Christ.

 

2013/05/05 Do we recognize Truth?

Do we recognize the truth when we see it?  Let’s take a test – I’ll give you a three questions and you can answer to yourself True or False.  (don’t have to answer out loud)

First – it’s best to plant your sweet potatoes the first week of April.  T or F?

Second – Ben Franklin discovered electricity by flying a kite in a storm.  T or F?

Third - when the Rapture comes we hope that WE are the ones left behind… T or F? 

The purpose of this test is to show that it’s not always OBVIOUS what the right answer is.  Sometimes, we lack the experience to know the answer for… for example, if you’ve never grown sweet potatoes in Southern Indiana, it would not be obvious to you that the 1^st week of April is WAY too early to plant.  In reality, the first of June or end of May is better.  

Even if we have experience with something, it may be easy to THINK something is true, but it turns out to be completely false.    For example – we were all taught that Ben Franklin flew a kite in a storm to discover electricity… it’s common knowledge, right?  Well, the Mythbusters recently proved that Ben would have been dead if he had carried through on that experiment.  So the answer to the first two questions is False.

What’s my point?  Truth can be hard to recognize.  Jesus told us in the gospel today that he would send the Holy Spirit to teach us and to remind us of all that he told us.  In another passage it says – the Holy Spirit will ‘guide us to all truth’.  How is that useful to us? 

Well – remember when Lincoln said, ‘four score and seven years ago’… do you know what that meant?  Many of us probably have a pretty good idea – because historians have preserved the history of the civil war.  If not for historians, we couldn’t have learned about the battle of Gettysburg in grade school.  If not for historians, we might not know what Lincoln was talking about – heck –without historians, we wouldn’t know anybody named Lincoln ever existed… much less that he opened his famous Gettysburg address with ‘four score and seven years ago’.  Somebody had to write it down to preserve the truth. 

Jesus knew that we would have a hard time remembering everything HE said – and even if we DID remember, we could easily get confused or wonder what He meant.  So he sent the Holy Spirit to guide us – to teach us – to help us remember… in short - to guide us to understand the truth.  Not what we THINK should be the truth – but what JESUS would say is the truth.

 

In that first reading, we have the first council of the Catholic Church…the council of Jerusalem.  That was the first one – anybody remember when the latest one was?... Vatican II.  Ever since the beginning of the church, whenever a disagreement arose about what Jesus said, or what he meant, or who he was… it has been common practice to ask for the wisdom of a council of bishops… and particularly… to the head of that council… the Pope.  This council was within just 20 year of when Jesus died!

At this first council, the issue was whether or not you had to be circumcised in order to be a Christian.  To the Jews, it seemed common knowledge…. Of COURSE you have to be circumcised, that’s the tradition we’ve had for centuries.  But the first council of bishops said, ‘no’.  THEY were the ones who had the authority to decide what Jesus would have wanted.  We believe as Catholics that when the Bishops gather as the head of the church, they are guided by the Holy Spirit – and through their prayer and discernment – they guide US to the truth.  We saw this very recently when the cardinals gathered to elect Pope Francis.  We have faith that the Holy Spirit guided these leaders of the Church to this choice.

If not from the Holy Spirit…Where else are you going to find a pope?  … our only hope is to put our trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  But even in the smaller, everyday decisions each of us makes, we can let the spirit guide us.  We don’t have to have a council to decide whether we should do something.   That little voice inside of us called a conscience is our own ‘personal’ connection to the Holy Spirit. 

We gotta be careful though – because only a well-formed conscience can guide us properly.  It’s easy for us to believe something just because it’s ‘common knowledge’.  For example – back to our last true/false question – when the Rapture comes we hope that WE are the ones left behind… true or false? 

Well, Deacon Mike, everybody KNOWs that only the sinners are going to be left behind after the rapture.. so of COURSE we don’t want to be left.  Is that what we’re thinking?  Think again… this is a perfect example of where many people- including many Catholics… have been caught up by a lie.  It’s a case where a false teaching – based on a false interpretation of scripture – has become culturally accepted and believed by most Christians.  We found a copy of this movie ‘Left Behind’ in our library back there – which is based on what might happen after the Rapture.  You know – I read the book, and honestly, it was very engaging and even inspiring to see people learning how to live as Christians and to put their trust in the Holy Spirit… but I had to keep reminding myself that the basis of the story is a false teaching… The Rapture is a false interpretation of scripture.  I’m not telling you to avoid the book or the movie – but just be careful what information you let into your brain – what we let into our thoughts forms our conscience and can eventually lead us astray.  Before we believe anything, we should check our source… what would the Church say is the truth?  Maybe check the Catechism… the wisdom of 2000 years of the best minds in Christianity… guided by the Holy Spirit…has been combined into one handy little book. WhenEVER we hear something that doesn’t quite jive with the teachings of the Church, we’d better be questioning it… then asking the Holy Spirit to guide us to the truth.

2013 April 14 - For the Glory of THE Name

Anybody here know who Theudus was?  Anybody?  What about Judas of Galilee?  No – not Judas Iscariot… I’m talking about Judas of Galilee?  Ever heard of him?  Nobody?  These guys CLAIMED to be the messiah a long time ago….Would you give your life for either of those two guys?  Probably not – because we don’t have a clue who they were or what they stood for.

But what about somebody named Jesus?  Do you know him?  Would you give your life for that name?  Would you defend the name of Jesus with your life?  Most people today wouldn’t.  We’d be more likely to use that name along with curses and four letters words… that seems to be the norm for many people nowadays.  But it wasn’t always that way. 

Let’s go back to that first reading to illustrate…. Because there is something missing… something that could potentially change the way we understand it.  Did you notice what was missing?

We heard how the apostles were drug before the Sanhedrin.  The chief priests were ticked off!  They hold TOLD the apostles before NOT to teach about Jesus – but they hadn’t listened.  So they just got arrested again.  Now remember – these are the very same guys who had had Jesus killed…so we should expect that they would not be very tolerant of these Jesus-freaks.  The Apostles SHOULD have been scared to death… but instead, they were very defiant… basically telling the priests to their face that THEY were the ones who had killed the Messiah.  The priests HAD to be even MORE FURIOUS!!!  But suddenly, the reading says, they warned the apostles not to speak about Jesus anymore and dismissed them.  Doesn’t add up, does it? 

For some reason, the Lectionary skips part of the story –Actually – if you had come to the daily Mass on Friday, you would have heard this… so I want to give you the quick version of the rest of the story.  The priests WERE ticked…more than ticked… they were discussing having the apostles killed!  However, one man, a well-respected teacher among the priests named Gamaliel, stepped forward and uttered some prophetic words.  Basically, he said – be careful how you handle these followers of Jesus!  We’ve had false messiahs in the past – that’s Theudus and Judas of Galilee I mentioned a couple minutes ago… and some of these guys have been very charismatic and gained a large following.  But – once they were dead – the followers disbanded.  Like a sand castle by the ocean, they simply washed away.  So – he advised – don’t hinder these men.  If they are NOT from God, then they will destroy themselves…they’ll never last… but if they ARE from God, then there is nothing any of us could do to stop them anyway… because we would find that we’re fighting against God! 

So – they had the apostles flogged – THEN warned them not to teach about Jesus anymore and let them go.  That’s the rest of the  story… and it changes how we might understand the last sentence.  It says the apostles went away rejoicing that they had been worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.  They suffered more than dishonor!  Flogging is a major penalty – 39 lashes with a strap across the back or chest. 

Why do I think all of this is important?  Because without the rest of the story, it would be easy to conclude that just mentioning the name of Jesus can get you out of a tight situation with the authorities.  (Honest, officer, I HAD to speed so I could get to St. Raphael to preach…so people would hear about ‘Jesus’!  Oh- why didn’t you mention that in the first place – let me escort you to church!... think that would happen?)  Without the rest of the story, it may sound like the apostles were simply rejoicing that they had been SCOLDED… but not so – they were rejoicing because they had been flogged…THEY HAD A SHARE IN THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.  Is that anything to rejoice about? 

For me, THESE stories from the Acts of the Apostles are the ones that really bolster my personal belief in Jesus.  I agree with Gamaliel – if this Christian movement was NOT from God – it would have collapsed centuries ago.  Lord knows, we humans can mess up ANYthing.  But because the Holy Spirit has guided the church, it has grown IN SPITE of all our blunders.  Most of these apostles went on to die for the name of Jesus…. And there ain’t NO WAY that 12 men would DIE if they knew that Jesus HADN’T risen from the dead.  In fact, thousands of people through the centuries have died for the name of Jesus.  Just last week, dozens of Christians were killed in Egypt.  The killing continues… and is actually INCREASING in the world today.

Obviously, this raises some important questions for each of us to answer.  Peter, do you love me?  Jesus is asking you…. Lisa, do you love me?  Ben, do you love me?  Ronda, Loretta, Joel, Andy… do you love me?

Each time he asked that of Peter, he followed with a command – feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my sheep…. As if he’s saying – ok – you SAY you love me… PROVE it!  Jesus asks each of us every day – do you love me?  Each moment, we have to decide whether we are living for JESUS or for Mike? 

I’ve thought about this question a lot the past several months.  Would I have the guts to suffer for Jesus?  Would I still be Catholic if it was illegal to be Catholic?  Would I still stand up for the rights of the unborn if our society stoned people who are pro-life?  Would I still stand-up here and teach the beliefs of the Catholic Church about all of the hot-button topics of the day if even the people in the pew turned against me?  Would I still go to Mass if the police or mobs were watching – just waiting for us to make a mistake so they could torture us or kill us?  I’m not sure my faith is that strong… I’m a weak human.  But I pray that the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of St. Mary will give me the courage to stand up when the time comes. 

The Gospel ends with what may seem like some real downers… Jesus tells Peter that when he is older, he too will suffer and die for the faith… Jesus is saying – if you really Love me, Peter – this is what awaits you.  (stretch out arms)  THIS is what I need you to do!

So when Jesus concluded with ‘follow me’… he wasn’t talking about following him on twitter or facebook… he was saying… follow me … to the cross.

HERE IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS…Jesus knew what we know today… that it was the willingness of the Apostles to die for their beliefs… THAT was what poured the gasoline on the fire of Christianity and spread it across the world.

If there is any way that OUR suffering can help fan that flame, Lord, if there is any way we can bring glory to YOUR NAME… may we be like the Mexican martyrs less than a century ago who gave their lives by the thousands when the Catholic Church was outlawed…, may we all be given that courage… not just to die for our faith … but to LIVE for our faith. 

Easter 2013 - 3/31/2013: Hope Unlooked-For

“He is not here.  He is risen.”  Put yourself in Peter’s shoes… What was going through his mind as he ran back to the tomb?

He is not here…  Did He rise from the dead?  No way… Those women are nut-cases… they MUST have misunderstood what they saw… there MUST be a logical explanation.  People DON’T just rise from the dead like that!

He is not here:  What if he DID rise?  Uh-oh.  He KNEW I would Deny him three times… Surely he’s coming back to punish me!

No, no, no  – there MUST be another explanation.  Maybe the Romans took him… but why?  They don’t care about Jesus.  Maybe it was the temple guards – I wouldn’t put it by them for one minute.  They had it in for Jesus the minute he got to Jerusalem.

But –What if he did rise?  I’d give anything to see my friend again… life without him is empty.  And… I’d like to apologize to him for denying him.

He is not here…HOPE unlooked-for had been rekindled in Peter’s heart.  Just a few minutes before, all was lost. It was over.  Jesus was dead and that was the end of it.  He and the remaining apostles were hiding in the dark; Scared to even leave the building.  They wanted to go home to Galilee, but had to wait around for the final burial rites to be performed.  Suddenly, like light shining into a dark room, the impossible happened as the women burst into the room unexpectedly… “He is not here.  He is Risen”!  What?  Impossible.  Really? 

You know – if the disciples had paid attention to Jesus’ words and believed him, they would have KNOWN the tomb was going to be empty.  They would have EXPECTED to find the stone rolled away.  They would have been OVERJOYED to find the body gone.  But they hadn’t listened – or hadn’t believed… or understood…so they were puzzled and scared.   The tomb was like a line in the sand…. Once you cross that line into the grave … it’s all over.  There is nothing else.  People DON’T just rise from the dead like that! 

And what if He DID rise?  What do we care?  What does it matter to people 2000 years later?
Well – it’s a logical thing.  If we believe that Jesus rose from the dead – then we almost HAVE to believe that He is who He said He is…. The son of God…. Because PEOPLE don’t  just rise from the dead like that… but God can.  And if He is who He says He is, then everything he said must be true – because God cannot lie.  And if everything He said was true, then He really DID start the Church – and give us the Eucharist – and the Sacraments – and the new law to “Love one another as I have loved you”.  If He really is who He says He is – we cannot ignore him… or his teachings… or his church… or his people.

The bottom-line for us today is – do we believe it?  Do we believe that Jesus rose from the dead?  Do we believe he is the Son of God?

See - If for you, Jesus was just a nice guy – or just a great prophet – then WE are wasting our time! – we’re wasting our lives.  But if He IS who He claims to be…. We cannot sit on the fence.   We either try to live as He told us to live  - or we have denied Him like Peter.

You remember the saying – ‘the only things certain in this life are death and taxes’.  We all know there are loopholes in the tax system… but until JESUS, NOBODY had found a loophole to get around DEATH!  True joy will only come from one source…. The empty tomb.   It is a sign that no situation is completely hopeless.  God can turn-around any bad to bring about good.  He can bring hope suddenly, even we aren't looking for it. 

As you and I act on our belief in the resurrection, we become ‘resurrection people’.  We carry that hope from the tomb and take it to every place we go:  into our broken relationships ; to the bars ; to the lonely ; to the worried… the hurried… ANYtime we encounter someone in darkness, WE carry the hope from the empty tomb and shine it like a light into each corner of the darkness.  A couple weeks ago I told about my friends who saved their marriage... A relationship which SHOULD have been dead.  But they are resurrection people – their hope came from the empty grave.  Since then, I have learned of two more couples who have done the impossible.  One marriage was so dead, it was in the grave... Nobody thought they’d ever be able to work it out… But they are resurrection people… Hope sprang up where it was unlooked-for.

Where do we get our hope?  Or a better question – in WHOM do we place our hope?  Let’s look at some of the options out there:  Confucius' tomb - occupied; Buddha's tomb - occupied; Mohammed's tomb - occupied; Jesus' tomb - empty." ~ G. B. Hardy

A 2^nd grade teacher had one special needs student, Tommy, who often got sorta dazed during class – sometimes he’d make gurgling sounds and just stare off into space.  It was quite distracting, but she put up with it for many months – wishing she didn’t have to deal with him.

One day she was teaching the class about Easter and how it was the time of New Life.  She explained about all that Jesus had done for us during those three days so long ago.  To help the students learn, she gave them each a plastic egg.  Everyone needs to bring something back tomorrow in your egg that symbolizes New Life, OK?  The kids got kind of excited about it – talking amongst themselves about what they might bring…but she noticed that Tommy was staring out into space again.  She thought- I’d better call his parents to tell them what the assignment is about since he’s not gonna remember.  Well, that night she got busy with one thing or another and forgot to call.  At class the next day, everyone placed their eggs on the desk and she started opening them one by one.  The first held a tiny flower – ‘yes – a flower represents new life because in the spring the new flowers all pop up through the earth which looked dead just a month before’.  The second egg had a picture of a butterfly – ‘ that’s a good one – we all know that a caterpillar goes into a cocoon which looks dead for months, but then it comes out and turns into a butterfly…that’s a great symbol of new life.  The next egg she opened was empty – Uh-Oh, she thought – I forgot to call Tommy’s parents.  Not wanting to embarrass Tommy, she simply laid the egg aside and reached for another one.  Tommy spoke up – teacher – aren’t you going to talk about my egg?  But Tommy – your egg is empty.  Yeah – but so was Jesus’ tomb.