Homily for Third Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2015, preached 8 and 11 at St. Margaret Mary

Sunday's readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/041915.cfm

            “You do not have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body.”  Let me say that again – ““You do not have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body.”

            This statement, often attributed to the author C.S. Lewis, although he never wrote it, has become very much in vogue of late.  Writers quote it and celebrities tweet it.  And, I must confess, as I grow older and my body often feels weary and I even feel the heaviness of carrying around an aging, declining body, I might even believe these words .  Fighting a sinus cold and lung infection for the last two weeks and not feeling at all “myself,”  Lord knows there are times when I might even look forward to the hereafter, when I am freed at last from this body-home of mine!  I’m sure some of you can relate.

            Problem is, these words are simply not true, in fact it flies in the face of what Our Lord taught and what we believe to say “you do not have a soul.  You are a soul.  You have a body.”

            We, you and I, are both - soul and body.  Both, not one or the other.  That might be surprising to many, many who’ve been raised to believe that the soul is what matters, the soul is more important, or even that the soul is somehow better than the body.  Soul good, body bad.  Simply not what the Church teaches.  We humans are body and soul.  Soul good, body good.

            And for many, it’s all about a battle with the body.  This world teaches our young people to not be satisfied with their body, to hate their body even, and it’s not just young people.  I’m convinced that the best-attended church Sunday mornings in Irondequoit is not even a church, it’s L.A. Fitness, where yes, many go to keep their bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit, healthy and fit, but many go to worship their bodies and where many put in hour upon hour working to change their bodies into something they hope they’ll like better.

            All week long, as I reflected on this Gospel, I kept coming back to the scene in the upper room – the Lord mysteriously appears before the disciples, and tells them not to fear, He is not a ghost, He is “flesh and bones,” and He invites them to see His hands and feet and touch Him. 

            And the clincher for me – “do you have anything to eat?” They gave Him a piece of baked fish and He ate it in front of them.”

            The inescapable fact of Our Lord’s Resurrection is this – Jesus was truly dead, and He was really raised up again – not just soul, not only a spirit, but body and soul.  Only a body has flesh and bones.  Only a body is hungry and eats a piece of fish.  His is a different body, to be sure, a body the disciples didn’t immediately recognize.  A glorified body, a body no longer subject to death.

            And the resurrection He promises to you and me, sisters and brothers, is this same resurrection – of our souls, yes, but on the last day the resurrection of our glorified bodies as well.  We profess this belief in the Apostles Creed – “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”

            We do not believe in a heaven in which we are mere spirits floating around on clouds.  We believe that Christ will raise us, body and soul, our glorified bodies and purified, sanctified souls re-united, re-integrated, never to die again, destined to live eternally within the life-giving communion of the Trinity.

            Brothers and sisters, that is good news!  And it makes me look differently on my body.  My body is not merely a temporary abode, and it’s not even a permanent dwelling place, but an integral part of who I am and who I will eternally be!

            And if we really take that in, really assimilate that, we can’t help but look very differently on ourselves as bodies and souls.  We will stop hating our bodies, stop yearning for different bodies, stop the battle between body and spirit. 

            We will find newfound respect, even reverence, for our own and others’ bodies.  With this respect and reverence, our desires will become rightly ordered.  We will realize that we can’t continue the desire to possess others’ bodies, or lust after others’ bodies.  We will look on all our sisters and brothers as human beings who are both body and spirit, created in the image and likeness of God, created male and female, good and beautiful each, and we will reverence them.

            One of the marks of our fallen world is the distortion we have all, to some degree, suffered in how we look on our bodies and souls.  In how we think of our bodies as our possessions, as something we own and can do with as we please, rather than an integral part of who we are as God created us.  And this distortion from God’s original plan is a source of great sin, of great disorder.  How much sin there is in the world because of the distortion of how we look upon the human body!

            The good news is that by the power of Jesus Christ, crucified, dead and risen from the tomb, He can forgive us and heal us, resurrect us if you will, from this distortion in the here and now.  As Saint Paul writes, as resurrection people, we are to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive for God in Christ Jesus!”

            Yes we will still one day join Christ in death, and His empty tomb gives us great joy, great hope in looking to our own resurrection, but His power in us, which comes especially in receiving His own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Eucharist, can begin right now to heal and correct our distorted ways of thinking, heal and free us of our sinful tendencies, and open our hearts and eyes to see as God sees.

            Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, body and soul, never again to die!  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Blessed Easter! Homily for Easter Sunday, 9am, St. Cecilia Church

Today's readings:  http://usccb.org/bible/readings/040515.cfm
Colossians as first reading)

                             

            “You’re all fools!

            “Wasting your time here in church.  Believing in God – might as well believe in a sky fairy.  Intelligent people know better.  Intelligent people don’t need any of that. 

            “And believing that some dude died and came back from the dead and is still alive?  C’mon! What a joke. “

            Increasingly, at least in our part of it, these are the attitudes of the world out there.  Atheists, agnostics and “secular humanists” and even people who could care less either way - are becoming more and more emboldened to mock and look down their noses at people of faith, and will do so especially on this day.  This holiest of days on which we, who have the gift of faith, celebrate Jesus risen from the dead!

            And I dare say that it may be that there are some among us here today, who’ve perhaps come along with family or friends, who pretty much think this same way.

            So I spent some time this week pondering this question – what can I possibly tell them or tell the world out there, that will make them believe that what we believe, that what we celebrate here, that what we celebrate here especially to day – is true?

            I got on line and looked for what wise and intelligent men and women might have written to try to prove that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

            I found an especially good article – an excerpt actually from the book “Handbook of Christian Apologetics” – it’s a whole chapter from that book, written by Drs. Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli – only problem is it doesn’t really “prove” the resurrection.

            Rather, the authors go about discussing all the possible explanations of the resurrection account if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead – such as - perhaps He didn’t really die.  Or maybe His disciples hallucinated?  Or was Jesus as well as His death and resurrection all a myth?  Or was it all a conspiracy – did the disciples all just get together and plot to deceive everyone into thinking this dead man rose from the dead?

            The authors, admitting that they can’t actually prove that Our Lord rose from the dead, set out to disprove all of the possible alternatives to the resurrection, and they do a very good job of it, I think.  Time prevents me from delving into all of their well-thought-out arguments, but I’d like to focus on just two, in answer to the idea that it was all just a big lie, a plot, a big conspiracy:

            First, if the whole thing were a lie, somebody along the way, at some point, would have ‘fessed up.  Would have admitted the lie.  To quote the book – “no one, weak or strong, saint or sinner, Christian or heretic, ever confessed, freely or under pressure, bribe or even torture that the whole story of the resurrection was a fake, a lie, a deliberate deception.”

            But more importantly, this event changed the lives of all of those who witnessed His resurrection – who saw Him die and then saw Him alive!  Yes, His disciples were very different people because of the event that happened that Sunday morning. 

            To quote Dr. Kreeft – “their sincerity is proved by their words and deeds.  [His disciples] preached a resurrected Christ and they lived a resurrected Christ.  [And] they willingly died for their ‘conspiracy.’ Nothing proves sincerity like martyrdom.” We pause to remember the 148 students martyred for their faith just three days ago at a college in Kenya.

            Kreeft continues:  “The change in their lives from fear to faith, despair to confidence, confusion to certitude, runaway cowardice to steadfast boldness under threat and persecution, not only proves their sincerity but testifies to some powerful cause of it.  Can a lie cause such a transformation?” unquote.

            Sisters and brothers, it is true that there is no “proof” that we can speak to an unbelieving world and make them believe what we believe and celebrate this day – that is, that Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, was born, died for our sins and to reconcile us the Father, was buried, and on the third day rose again from the dead. 

            But you and I can give them powerful witness, powerful evidence.  And that evidence is the way we live our lives - if you and I live resurrected lives ourselves.  You see, Christ’s rising from the dead defeated death and restores life, and yes, that means on our last day to be sure, praise God!, but it also means right here and now in our lives. 

            You see, we all have our share of brokenness, dishevelment, disorder, sin, in our lives.  We are all sinners, all in a sense, dead in one way or another – be it stuck in a particular sin - greed, or pride, lust, sloth, indifference.  Trapped perhaps in habits or addictions, or maybe burdened by worry or self-doubt, or perhaps carrying grudges, unyielding and closed to forgiveness, or maybe imprisoned in a sinful lifestyle. 

            Christ’s good news today is that by the same power that raised Him from the dead, we, too, may rise.  By the same power that raised Jesus Christ from death, you and I, too, may be set free of all that burdens us, all that ties us down, and live in His freedom, His peace, His great joy.  Set free to live our lives very differently from the world around us.  Set free to lives of great joy, of great peace, of great hope, for He is the only hope.

            Yes, brothers and sisters, if only we ask Him and place our trust in Him, we, too, will rise from all that is dead in our lives.  By that same power we, too, can live lives of faith, not fear, confidence not despair, certitude not confusion, and steadfast boldness not cowardice.

            And you and I will be the most powerful evidence to this world of the presence even now of the Risen Savior Jesus Christ. The most powerful witness.  If you and I live our lives very differently from this world, they will want to know why.  And they, too, will come to know Him and believe.

            And they, too, will share with us the hope and the joy that we celebrate this day – that this life, and its all its brokenness and pain and sin, has been redeemed by the saving power of Our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. That by His death and resurrection, He has once and for all conquered sin and death. And that eternal joy awaits us upon our own Resurrection on the last day, if only we confess our belief in Him and persist to that day.

            Brothers and sisters - Jesus Christ is indeed risen from the dead!  Alleluia!  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Homily for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion - 3/28 and 3/29 2015 - Christ the King Church

Today's readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032915.cfm

Long Gospel, so I just want to share a couple quick thoughts.

A couple quick words, actually, as we reflect on the Gospel we’ve just heard:  Love.  And surrender.  Love and surrender.

Love – what amazing, extravagant, passionate love Our Lord has for the Father, to submit to the torture, the suffering, the shame, the absolute humiliation, and unspeakably painful death, death on this cross!  And what amazing, extravagant, passionate love Our Lord has for you, for me.  These solemn words you’ve just heard proclaimed – He did that for you, for me!  He loves us THAT MUCH!

My sisters and brothers, as we journey through Holy Week, it would be good, I think, for us to contemplate, to meditate, on His love for you, for all of us.  To spend quiet time simply gazing upon His Holy Cross, upon His broken, dead body, and try to wrap our minds and hearts around the fact that He. Loves. You. That. Much.  That He would be willing to be humbled, scourged, nailed to a cross, and killed, all to save you, to save me.  He loves us THAT MUCH!

And the other word is surrender.  Out of pure love, Our Lord surrendered to the will of the Father.  He became “obedient to the point of death,” as St. Paul writes.  In the garden, He prayed “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.  Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”  Complete surrender, out of love for the Father, out of love for you and for me.

And as we’re contemplating His love all this week, let us also contemplate His surrender to the Father, His complete self-giving love of the Father. 

And brothers and sisters, I think it is natural when we’re pondering His extravagant love, His humble submission, His surrender, it is natural to say to myself – “What can I possibly do, what can I give back?”

And the answer is complete surrender.  Complete surrender to Him, at whose name we bow and kneel, and whom we confess as Christ and Lord.  Our completely surrendering our lives to Him is the only adequate response to Him who died for you and me.   Surrender is what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of Christ.  It means we must also, in a sense, be put to death.  Not physical death, although yes that will come for each of us, but as St. Paul writes to the Romans, to make of our bodies, meaning our bodies and souls – all of us - a “living sacrifice” – to be by our entire lives a living offering, a living sacrifice back to Him who died for you and for me.

And what does that mean, exactly?  It means this:  to quote a Protestant minister Timothy Keller - “the essence of the Christian life is to put to death the right to live as you want.”  Put to death the right to live as you want.  To abandon the right to decide that you can live the way you want.  What Our Lord wants for us as He hangs on the cross is to take complete possession of our lives, that we turn over to Him and His will every corner of our lives, every room of our house, our every word, our every action, our every heartbeat, our every breath.

In so surrendering ourselves to Him, in making ourselves a living sacrifice, a living offering to Him, these two words – love and surrender - become one  and the same.  For true love requires surrender.  And surrender requires an act of love, a loving act of the will.

So, sisters and brothers, as we begin this holiest of weeks, as we re-enact and make present once again the Lord’s supreme sacrifice of love, the Lord’s supreme act of surrender, and as we begin the rest of our lives, let us listen to Him as He gently invites each of us to surrender our entire lives over to Him.  That is the only adequate response to Him who gave His all for you and me.

Allow me to close with this Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld:

Father, I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all Your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,

For you are my Father.

Amen.

Homily for the Second Scrutiny, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 3/15/15 - St. Cecilia Church

Today's readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031515.cfm

            In your mind’s eye, put yourself for a moment inside this morning’s Gospel.  Imagine just for a moment that you were born blind from birth.  Totally in darkness, except you don’t even know what darkness is because you’ve never seen light.  You’ve never seen the beauty of a sunrise or the sparkling of stars against a pitch-black sky.  Never seen a towering mountain peak, or the deep red color of a rose bloom.  Never seen the face of your mother, your spouse, your newborn baby.  Never even seen your own self in a mirror.  Not a single visual memory  - your only memories are of what you’ve heard, or touched, or smelled, or tasted.  And, since you’ve been blind from birth, actually, unless someone with sight told you you were blind, you wouldn’t even know what blind is – for you’ve never known anything different.  For without ever having had sight, without having ever known light, there’s simply no such thing as “blind.”

            Now here you are, sitting and begging for food, minding your own business, and into your life walks this man, just passing by, this Jesus fellow, and He changes everything.  He doesn’t ask you if you’d like to see, if you’d like to be healed – for such a question would be meaningless to you – but yu hear Him spit and you feel Him anoint your eyes, and He sends you to go and wash, and suddenly, miraculously, for the first time, your eyes are opened - you can see!  You see light, darkness, up, down, colors, faces, and perhaps the very first face you see is this man, this prophet, who has just healed you.  And as you gaze into His eyes you see there eyes filled completely with love and compassion and mercy.

            You have encountered not just a man, not just a prophet, but the Son of Man, the Christ, and He has healed you, and you didn’t even know you needed healing.  And from this encounter with this man, you have come to believe in Him, come to worship Him, as the only begotten Son of God.  This face?  This very first face you’ve ever seen?  Is none other than the face of God.

            Brothers and sisters, this Gospel, it seems to me, is a microcosm of the Christian life, the Christian journey.  Without our even knowing it, we were born blind, you and I were spiritually blind.  On our own, under our own power, we are lost in darkness, lost in sin. Blind and powerless.  And like the man born blind, perhaps not even knowing of our own darkness, of our sin.  And into our lives walks this Jesus, who calls Himself the light of the world, seeking us out.  He anoints us and washes us and opens our eyes, our spiritual eyes.  And we come to believe that this man we’ve encountered is none other than God’s own Son, sent by the Father to save us, and we choose to follow Him.

            Yes, our Christian journey begins with a healing encounter with the person of Jesus Christ.  Yes, that personal encounter with the person of Christ is what it’s all about! You see, our faith isn’t so much about rules and laws and doing this or not doing that as it is about encountering a person – Jesus, the Lord, the Christ.  If you’ve never really personally encountered Jesus Christ, and I dare say many people who’ve gone to Church their entire lives haven’t, if you’ve never professed faith in Him as Lord, if you’ve never said to His face, “Yes, Lord, I do believe,” well this season of Lent is an excellent time to start.

            And this Gospel also describes exactly the encounter with Christ our elect anxiously await in 20 days as they anticipate the Sacrament of Baptism at the Easter Vigil, as they’re anointed and washed in the life-giving waters of Christ, as they go down into those waters, figuratively dying with Christ, and then washed clean of sin are raised up with Him.  Gifted with new life in the Spirit.  Then nourished at His table, fully initiated into the Body of Christ, they will be sent forth to go and do the same, do as He has done.

            But joyful as that moment will be, when we welcome our new brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that this will be just the beginning of their journey with Christ.  And while we all profess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, we know that this process doesn’t happen only once – this process of encountering Jesus and Him opening our eyes is something that must happen time and time again as we grow deeper and deeper in discipleship, in relationship with Him.  For as much as we’d like to think our eyes are open and we see clearly, even if we’re no longer shrouded in darkness, we all have our blind spots.

            This season of lent is a great time of grace, or it can be, as we attentively wait for the Lord to come to us and encounter us again, and further open our eyes to our own sinfulness, our own darkness.  To open our eyes to see differently, more clearly, see more with His eyes.  This is a season of growing in holiness, and Origen defined holiness as “seeing with the eyes of Christ.”  As we shed our own selfish ways of looking at the world and at others, and put on the eyes of Christ, seeing the world and our brothers and sisters as He sees.  To break our hearts to what breaks your heart, O Lord, as one Christian rock song puts it.

            And it’s to be a season of healing, first as Christ opens our eyes and convicts us of our sinfulness and then tenderly offers us His mercy and forgiveness.  For those of us already baptized, the place for that encounter with Christ, where we can tangibly and intimately experience His tender love and amazing mercy is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  So I invite you, sisters and brothers, to prayerfully consider making a good confession some time during these last weeks of Lent.  Experience the great joy, the great peace, of being fully reconciled to Our Blessed Lord, who awaits you with open arms and loving sacred heart. 

            Sisters and brothers, during these last weeks of Lent, in our prayer, our fasting, in our almsgiving, let us be ready when He comes by, when He turns to us to encounter us, when He touches us and opens our eyes and heals us.  Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see your face.