Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Cycle A - June 1, 2014

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Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Cycle A

June 1, 2014       4pm, 10:30am and 12 noon

Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air

Tuesdays with Morrie

I imagine that many of us have heard of the book “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

It was first published in 1997 and was soon made into a movie.  The book has remained well-known.

Tuesdays with Morrie is about a university professor, Doctor Morrie Schwartz, and a Detroit sportswriter, Mitch Albom.  Morrie Schwartz had been Mitch Albom’s teacher and mentor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. 

In 1994, Doctor Schwartz was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  He was told that he had a year to live and he decided to do just that – to live his last year to the fullest. 

Morrie Schwartz was even interviewed on ABC’s Nightline program.  He talked about what he was learning through his illness.

Mitch Albom saw this program and decided to visit his former professor.  This was the first of fourteen visits -- all on Tuesdays.

Morrie’s Messages

These visits became the content of Mitch Albom’s book, Tuesdays with Morrie. 

In these visits, Morrie Schwartz expressed the importance of transcending the violence and hatred in our culture.  He reflected on life, suffering, family, marriage, aging, and death.

Naturally, Doctor Schwartz’s perspective was as a man facing his own death.  And his reflections brought a whole new perspective to Mitch Albom. 

Mitch had been overwhelmed with work and he was desperate for love and meaning.  In their last visit, Morrie Schwartz really summed up things.

He said that “As long as we love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without really going away.  All the love you created is still there.

“You live on – in the hearts of everyone you have touched or nurtured while you were there.  Death ends life [as we know it, but] not a relationship.”   

Jesus’ Messages

Those reflections of Morrie Schwartz are similar to what we hear from Jesus.

Jesus has taught great lessons to the apostles.  He has taught them, above all else, to become loving persons – to love God as God has loved us, and to love one another as we love ourselves.

Jesus sums up all of this as he is about to return to the Father.  He then leaves the apostles bodily, physically, visibly.

But Jesus has told the apostles that he will continue to be with them and us through his Holy Spirit.  In effect, something similar to what Morrie Schwartz said, Jesus is saying that his ascension or return to the Father ends life as we know it, but not a relationship. 

This means that we live with Jesus present within us and he empowers us to live out of this inner center of love.  This is how life continues with Jesus.

And, I want to add, this is also how we are to view our living on with a loved one who has died.  And on the other hand, it is how we are to look upon our remaining with our loved ones after we have died.

Friday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle A - May 30, 2014

Friday of the 6^th Week of Easter

May 30, 2014       8:30am

We have all experienced “Good Fridays” in our lives.

I do not mean the literal day after Holy Thursday that we call Good Friday.

I mean that we have all experienced sufferings and dyings.

Jesus doesn’t sugar coat that reality for us.

He doesn’t say that he will spare us from these “Good Fridays.”

In fact, maybe the clearest teaching in the entire gospel story is that every experience of Easter in our lives requires a Good Friday.

The birth of a child requires the discomfort of childbearing and the pain of childbirth.

The diploma received at graduation requires hard work over some years in school.

Success in business requires steady, creative, risk-taking efforts.

The celebration of a marriage anniversary requires the giving of self day by day and year by year.

Every new experience of joy and fulfillment requires that we undergo some kind of change that can often be difficult and traumatic.

In some of his final words to his disciples, Jesus reminds us that when we act in the love and compassion of God, then God will transform our grief into joy, our division into reconciliation, our despair into hope.   

Jesus calls us to embrace an attitude of resurrection.

He calls us to see the hope and possibilities that come from embracing the challenges and sacrifice demanded by the cross.

Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle A - May 28, 2014

Wednesday of the 6^th Week of Easter

May 28, 2014       6:30am

Today Jesus says that the Holy Spirit brings God’s truth to us.

The special name we give to this truth is revelation.

It is the revelation of God about himself and about us.

One of the points that Jesus teaches today about revelation is that it is a progressive or gradual process.

It does not happen all at once and is then over and done with.

As Jesus says, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.”

Jesus’ point is based on our humanity.

It is only possible to tell us things that we can receive at the present moment.

For example, when we are in school, we learn the basics of arithmetic before we get into algebra and calculus.

God’s revelation happens in a similar way.

God teaches us gradually, as we can take it in.

This explains certain parts of the Old Testament.

Certain passages call for the killing and wiping out of enemies.

Behind these passages is the belief that Israel must not have its faith tainted by mingling with those of no faith or of false faith.

At that stage of history, the people of Israel correctly realized that their faith must be safeguarded.

But in their limited understanding or in the limited revelation at that time, they assumed that they had to destroy all those of a different faith.

And then comes Jesus with further revelation.

This revelation shows that we safeguard our faith not by destroying or hurting anyone, but instead by loving even our enemies and inviting them to share the faith we have.

So with Jesus the revelation is much fuller.

And, after Jesus revelation continues to develop as God through the Holy Spirit and the Church helps us to understand, for example, how the sacredness of human life applies to issues such as abortion and warfare and capital punishment.

In other words, the revelation is a continuing process.

All of this is tucked into Jesus’ deceptively simple statement today: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.”

Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle A - May 27, 2014

Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter

May 27, 2014       6:30am

 

I think it was four years ago when an American Christian evangelist proclaimed God’s judgment on some people.

His judgment was on the people of Haiti, because they had suffered a great earthquake.

The evangelist said that the earthquake was God’s punishment on the people of Haiti, and that the Haitians brought this destruction on themselves.

They did this because centuries ago, they had made a pact with the devil to get the French out of Haiti.

We see a very different response to an earthquake in today’s first reading.

Paul and Silas are in jail.

They are being persecuted for their faith.

During the night, there is an earthquake.

The doors of all the cells are thrown open.

And what do Paul and Silas do?

They don’t run for their freedom and escape.

They know that if they do that, the jailer will lose his job or even his life.

Also, Paul and Silas don’t condemn the jailer or anyone else.

And they don’t proclaim that the earthquake is God’s judgment against their jailers, as the evangelist did with the Haitians.

Instead, Paul and Silas just stay in their cell.

Imagine having the presence of mind to say that this earthquake that has freed me is not worth my freedom if it imprisons someone else in shame and even death!

Paul and Silas, even while persecuted, have the inner strength to live for the benefit of another person.

And the result?

The jailer is so touched by their love of God and of himself that he and his family become believers.

So, what a wonderful message this earthquake story has for us!

Others can be drawn to God not by self-righteous condemnation and judgment and not by living just for ourselves.

They can be drawn to God by thoughtful, faithful caring for their well-being, all of this empowered by the presence and life of God within us.

6th Sunday of Easter, Cycle A - May 25, 2014

6th Sunday of Easter

Cycle A

Saint Margaret Parish

 

Loneliness

Five years ago, the University of Chicago released the results of a study on loneliness.

The study finds that about 25% of people frequently feel lonely.  And the study says that loneliness is increasing.

Among the factors causing this are our longer life spans, more years spent in widowhood, and the rising number of single-person households.  One finding is that we Americans tend to feel lonely on special occasions.

These are occasions when being together is the social norm, like Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Feelings of loneliness are more frequent at these times.

The study says that loneliness has more to do with the quality than the quantity of relationships.  Studies of college students show that incoming freshmen are particularly lonely during the first quarter of school.

This is true even though they have roommates and are surrounded by many peers.  Again, the finding is that it is not the number but the quality of relationships that determines whether we feel isolated or lonely.

“I will not leave you orphans.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus addresses this very human issue.

Jesus knows that he is about to return to the Father.  He senses the apostles’ anxiety about being left alone, without him.

And so, Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans.  You will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

Jesus promises to be with us through his Spirit, the Holy Spirit.  And then Jesus makes his presence through the Spirit concrete in two ways: 1) sacraments and 2) community.

      

1. Through Sacraments

First of all, our sacraments are visible, earthly, physical ways for Jesus to be with us through the Spirit.

We have the physical experience of Jesus’ presence through the water of baptism.  We also have a physical experience of the Holy Spirit through the anointing with oil at Confirmation.

And then, here at Mass, the Eucharist is the supreme experience of God’s presence.  In the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest prays over the bread and wine.

Today I will pray: “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, by sending down your Spirit upon them… so that they may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  These gifts become the means for Jesus through his Spirit to be with us.

The result is that when we eat the consecrated bread and drink the consecrated wine, the Spirit enters us and becomes one with us.  We even physically experience Jesus becoming one with us.

We are drawn into the life of God and God lives within us.  As Jesus says today, “you live in me and I live in you.”  

2. Through Community

And then the second way that Jesus remains with us is through community.

Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there.”  Sometimes we can be tempted to go it alone in life, to think that we do not or should not need others.

It is so important not to fall into this.  This path easily leads to isolation and loneliness.

Maybe this is why God’s action throughout the Bible is always directed to us as a people, as a community.  Jesus draws the first disciples together as a community and makes this his primary way to be with us.

When we join with other persons of faith, either here at Mass or in the service of others, we are energized.  And this happens because we are drawn out of ourselves – out of our aloneness or loneliness – and into relationship.

And a key part of being in community is to reach out to those who may be alone or lonely – like a struggling single parent or a grieving widowed neighbor.  The idea is that we are empowered by Jesus’ presence here in the community and then we reach out to draw others into that same presence.

Conclusion

So, Jesus addresses a troublesome human feeling today – loneliness – and he gives us some ways to deal with it.