Preached June 8 2012 for the Second Night of the Novena of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Blessed Kateri Parish at St. Margaret Mary Church:

“I am so afraid to die,” she told me, and with that, Lucy began to weep uncontrollably.  Between sobs she went on:  “And it isn’t fair.  I’m too young to die.  I have so many plans, so many things I still want to do.”

I had only met her ten minutes before.  On my way to a soccer game, I decided to stop off to meet the new hospice patient I had just been assigned.  You see, I was doing a summer internship in hospice chaplaincy, and Lucy (not her real name) was to be my last patient for the summer.  Unlike so many of the others in hospice, Lucy was completely lucid, completely aware of what was happening to her, and at 60 or so years of age, she wasn’t a whole lot older than I.  In the final stages of Lou Gehrig’s disease, she could only move her head and arms and still breathe on her own, but she knew that even those abilities were soon to fail.

As she broke down weeping, I felt powerless to help her, to calm her fears.  I said a quick prayer, asking for words to help her.  And they came to me - the only words that could possibly calm her fears – the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  I told Lucy that more than any person who ever lived, Jesus can understand exactly what she was going through.  Lucy was staring a horrible death in the face, one in which she would slowly die from asphyxiation as her breathing muscles weakened.  And Our Blessed Lord, nailed to the cross, likely died a slow, horrible death from asphyxiation as well. 

You see, I’m not so good with answers about WHY God permits suffering to happen to each of us, but I find great comfort and solace in knowing that God sent His only Son, to save us from our sins and open for us the gates of eternal life, yes, <slowly> but also to suffer with us, along side us.  God’s own Son, the second person of the Trinity, true God and true man, knows what it’s like to suffer.  Oh, does He know.    

• He suffered the loss of his earthly father. 
• He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. 
• He felt the sting of abandonment and betrayal.
• He was scourged,     scorned,       had a crown of thorns pressed into his skull,     
• He was made to carry his cross up the hill of Calvary,      
• there He was stripped naked,      
• and nailed to a tree to die an excruciating, humiliating,             criminal’s death.      

He did it for you.    He did it for me.     He loves you that much.     He loves me that much.             

In His suffering Sacred Heart, Our Lord shows us His tender compassion – compassion - a word that literally means “to suffer with.”  In His compassionate, loving, suffering heart, Jesus feels every bit of our anguish.  It pains Him, it pains His suffering Sacred Heart, to see us, whom He dearly loves, in our own agonies of loss, abandonment, betrayal, pain and humiliation. 

How can we repay Our Lord, who loves us so much?  What return can we make?  Well, it certainly provides some comfort for us to offer up our sufferings, to unite them to the suffering, passion and death of Our Blessed Lord.  

But moreover, we can witness to and make known the presence of Our Lord’s suffering Sacred Heart in this world by our reaching out to others in their sufferings, in their loss, in their pain.  You and I can bring the Compassion of Our Lord to a hurting, broken world desperately in need of it, walking alongside others in their sufferings.

So as we continue our liturgy, as we worship Our Lord’s Sacred Heart and are blessed by His Sacred Body, may His suffering heart give us comfort and peace in our own afflictions, and may He shed His grace upon us to strengthen us and embolden us to be His loving presence in our hurting world.

June 3, 2012 - Feast of the Holy Trinity

“Some days, I really wish I could just be a hermit!”  That was the message a friend of mine posted on Facebook a couple weeks ago.  “Some days, I really wish I could just be a hermit.”  <pause>   It was obvious that she was having a bad day, and apparently, she had an urge to escape – to get away from a crazy world and annoying people.  Rather, just go off and be alone, self sufficient, nobody to care for, to cook for, to be bothered by.  I think we all probably have that feeling from time to time.   It could be that we’re aggravated by bad drivers on the road, or maybe frustrated with the spouse or kids, or parents, boss or co-workers, maybe you’re angry at the President, or the last President, or Congress, or the Pope or the Bishop, or the weather forecaster – or whomever.  And sometimes you wish you could just steal away to a desert island, or a mountain cabin, and just be      by       yourself.

Reading what my friend wrote brought to mind the story of Noah John Rondeau.  Noah was in his mid-40s at the start of the great depression.  Wanting to get away from it all, to escape from bread lines and a collapsing economy, he hiked deep into the High Peaks of the Adirondack mountains, built himself a little log cabin, and lived the life of a hermit for most of the next 40 years.  Hunting and trapping, Rondeau lived off the land, a life of fierce and rugged independence.  He proudly proclaimed himself the mayor of Cold River City, New York, population    ONE. 

And isn’t there something in us Americans that admires that sort of independence?  We hold rugged individualism in high esteem.  The self-made man, the self-made woman.  Relying on nobody else.

“Today if only I could be a hermit.”  Wishful thinking, I suppose, BUT we know that we can’t do that.  In fact, we know we’re not made for that – that it’s not natural or good for us humans to be alone.  For we, who were created in God’s image, are made for relationship.  

Today’s feast of Trinity Sunday is, in fact, a celebration of our belief in a God who is not a hermit, a God who is not far away and isolated, but a God who is in relationship, and in fact,  IS relationship.  God, a communion of three persons, in relationship.  A family, if you will.  The catechism taught us that this is a great mystery – this One God in three persons, a unity, not of a single person but a Trinity of one substance:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

And we believe that God is not just any relationship, but a relationship of perpetual, ecstatic, unstoppable, life-giving LOVE.  Ecstatic, unstoppable love.  A relationship of self-abandonment, of complete and total self-giving.  Holding nothing back. 

Oh that sounds all very well and good, and it’s wonderful theology (I mean I have to tell you something to show for the last 4-1/2 years of theological schooling, don’t I?), but what is the practical application of this teaching?  I mean, what does this have to do with you, or me, with our lives?  With my family?  My community?  Or the world in which we live?  And the answer, I think, is this:  EVERYTHING.  Everything.  How we see God has everything to do with how we, as Christians, are called to live out our lives. 

You see, we who are named Christian are called to live out our lives in loving relationship in imitation of our Trinity God.  We who were made in His image are called to live in His image.  And we are called to love in His image – loving in this same complete self-giving, this same unstoppable love, holding nothing back.  And we are called to love not only those close to us, but all of God’s children, all who are made in God’s image.

Problem is, too often we live as hermits.  Oh, maybe we’re not physically separated, but aren’t we often emotionally distant?  I know in some of my own relationships I find myself “checking out,” becoming self-absorbed, self-centered.  And it’s not only in my immediate relationships – it’s easy to tune out the poor and hungry of the world by pressing a button on the remote or with a click of the mouse.  And even if we ourselves are not hermits, we can set up walls around our little groups to keep ourselves safe and keep others out, keep others excluded.

But let’s do some imagining, do some “what if’s.”  What if everyone loved the way our God does?  This Trinity of unstoppable love?

Imagine, if you will, relationships of husbands and wives not based on some 50-50 give and take, but rather on a 100-100 covenant of give and give some more!  In complete, unstoppable, life-giving love. 

Imagine families in which the well-being of the others were our only concern, where we let go of hurts and grudges and give forgiveness we’ve been holding back.   

Imagine church communities that are open and loving and welcoming to all - to individuals and to other communities.  Imagine five parishes lovingly becoming united as one. 

Imagine cities and towns and nations where we aren’t content that someone, some place is sleeping in a cardboard box tonight.  Not content that this very day, the lives of some of our tiniest brothers and sisters will end before birth.   

And imagine a world in which we simply cannot rest knowing that somewhere on our planet a child is starving to death.  <pause>

Our marriages, our families, our parishes and communities, our nation and World – these are OUR trinities – our relationships - where we are called, with God’s help and grace, to love as God loves, completely, holding nothing back.

My sisters and brothers, our lives here are a time and place where we are called to learn to love as God loves.  A time and place of preparation for our eternal relationship – for we who were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have this Godhead as our very eternal destiny:  Blessed John Paul tells us “the Trinity lies before us as the goal to which our history is directed, as the homeland for which we long.” <pause>    The heaven for which we long is not a place, but it’s a sharing, a participation, in the very life and love relationship of God.    

And as we contemplate that great day of rejoicing, when one day we will enter fully into the life and love of our Trinity God, our Eucharist today gives us a foretaste of that day, a hint of the joy that will be ours, and the nourishment and strength to enable us to love ever more perfectly, ever more as God loves.

So we go forth from here today unified, renewed and strengthened.  To live in ever more complete self-giving love, to each other, to our communities and world, and to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.