SEVENTH SUNDAY EASTER

Seventh Sunday of Easter 5:30 PM 2008 John 17:1-11
Keeping A Promise
By Kirby V. Nielsen
Columbus, Ohio USA
My mother-in-law has been in the nursing home for two years. Every day either my father-in-law, my wife, or I go visit her to make sure she is properly fed, dressed, and comfortable. It was there that I met a remarkable woman I’ll call “Alice”. I noticed Alice after my father-in-law mentioned that she was an interesting person. She’s a very well-dressed woman in her 70s with an aura of intelligence and charm, which complements her direct approach to life.
As I talked with her an amazing story began to unfold. Many years ago she made a simple promise to a man who was afraid of getting Alzheimer’s disease: “If you ever get Alzheimer’s, I’ll take care of you until the day you die.”
When Alice made her promise, she didn’t know what keeping it would entail. She now comes to the nursing home each day to visit “Lenny”. She does so even though he doesn’t know Tuesday from October. He is poor, old, and in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. He has no family to visit him and no money. He has nothing left but the clothes on his back, an old record album, and Alice.
Lenny doesn’t say more than a few phrases. He can’t walk, feed or dress himself. He doesn’t seem to remember anything. All he does is sit in his wheelchair and repeat one or two phrases over and over, hundreds of times a day.
Alice has come to see Lenny daily for the last four and one-half years, driving 17 miles each way. She stays until she has fed him his evening meal, and made sure he is clean and comfortable. She also buys his clothes. Only the occasional day finds her absent from the nursing home. Perhaps in those few days she takes care of her own life.
Alice is as faithful to Lenny as any person could be to another. When you talk to Alice, with pride in her eyes she tells you about Lenny, who in his prime was a well-known local musician. She will play for you his record album— which Lenny and his band recorded many years ago. Although it was the only record he made, it is in fact a good one.
One might be tempted to think Alice is Lenny’s wife. But she isn’t. She is his friend. When the rest of Lenny’s world disappeared, Alice stayed with him just as she had promised she would.

In our gospel story Jesus entrusts his work to his disciples and prays that his disciples will be faithful to continuing his work. He prays, I have entrusted to them the message you have entrusted to me.”
Jesus the Vine depends on you, the branches, to produce the fruit of good works. Jesus also promises you as he did his disciples that he will be with you always.
Although Jesus isn’t even mentioned in our story of Alice and Lenny, whenever his work is being done, Jesus is present.
Alice was a disciple of Jesus because she continued his work of caring for the least, in this case, Lenny.
How seriously do you take your obligation of being Jesus’ disciple?
Is your discipleship being shown forth by your caring for those who can no longer care for themselves? For example, a lonely neighbor who can’t get out to the store. Or someone like Lenny who is in a nursing home. Or a child who is mentally disabled.
Every time you come here to celebrate Eucharist, you are presented with a choice: for exmple to continue to be a disciple of Jesus by continuing his work of caring for others or just to take care of your own private piety, your own selfish salvation.
When you come forward to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, you are saying, I will continue your work, Jesus, because you are depending on me.
HUMOR There was a group of church goers who established their own church and thought they were so special that they put out a sign, Jesus Only. They never reached out to the community at large but ministered only to themselves. One day a passer by saw that the first three letters in the sign had fallen off. The sign now read Us Only.
The thought I leave with you today is this: Always continue Jesus’ work.

ASCENSION 2008

Ascension 2008 8:45

The story is told of how once Frederick the Great, one of the most
eccentric sovereigns who ever graced a European throne, was selecting a
court chaplain. He advertised for a number of candidates, who ascended the pulpit and preached before the court on successive Sundays. But the requirement was that
each preacher should not know in advance what text he was to preach
upon. As he was ready to ascend the pulpit, an officer of the court
would step up and hand him an envelope; within that envelope was a slip
of paper bearing a gospel text; and from that text the candidate must preach.

On one Sunday the candidate for the day was handed his envelope; he
ascended the pulpit; he opened the envelope, and took out the slip of
paper. But it was blank. He examined it carefully to see if any markings
had eluded him. But the scrap of paper bore not a single line.

Looking calmly at his audience, the preacher said, "The slip in my hand
says nothing. Now, my brethren, God made the world out of nothing!" And
he went right on to preach a stirring sermon on the creation.
Today on Ascension Thursday, we emphasize the word, ascend.
The feast of the Ascension teaches us a very important lesson.
The lesson is that we must spend our lives ascending from what is inferior to what is superior.
For example, we must ascend from seeking external pleasure to living with interior joy. We must ascend from accumulating things and wealth which never really can satisfy us to a stripping of ourselves of greedy egotism. We must ascend form routine even thoughtless prayer to the ecstasy of mystical prayer.
What is necessary is that we realize our need for these and other ascensions in our life.
Even more important is our faith awareness that Jesus’ ascension power is always available to us and always at our disposal.
For example, when we have inferior feelings about ourselves, Jesus’ ascension power is there to raise us above these feelings to the recognition of our priceless ness in God’s eyes. But through prayer we must open ourselves to Jesus’ ascension power.
Or another example: it is Jesus’ ascension power that helps us to ascend form a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence to a happy self-acceptance because Jesus accepts you, warts and all.
We need to use Jesus’ Ascension power, for example, to ascend from warmaking to peacemaking;
From prejudice to all-embracing acceptance; from selfishness to gracious generosity. This is your challenge of Jesus’ Ascension.
Ask Jesus your ascended Lord to help you to always rise above the inferiority of your sinfulness and enter into the superiority of holiness.
HUMOR
``` An Indian chief ascended a high mountain. All day long he drank gallons of tea. The next morning they found the chief dead in his teepee.

THOUGHT: Always ascend to a higher level.

SIXTH SUNDAY EASTER

Sixth Sunday of Easter A 12:15 John 14: 15-21 2008

Joyce Schowalter tells this story:

My Aunt, Mildred Dungan, was born in 1898 on a farm near Sedan, Kansas.
Her family believed in hard work, education, honesty, and service to
one's community. To attend high school, she "boarded out" in a nearby
town -- it was too far to travel daily on horseback.

When Mildred retired after a career in Colorado, she moved back to
Kansas, to a duplex next to an orphanage. She volunteered to
tutor children needing help in reading or math. At first she was sent
sixth-graders. She solved kids' problems backwards through the grades,
until at last she tutored first-graders.

When one of her Black students arrived upset over being called racist
names, she held her own hand up to a white page, pointing out that it was
pink, not white. She then held his hand up to a black object, pointing
out that it was brown, not black. Her message: "Those silly names are not
reality. NEVER let them distract you from your potential!"

One morning a girl from the orphanage came crying to Mildred's door. The
little girl had fallen and ripped the leaf for her school clay project.
My aunt showed her how the leaf could fit together again, and the child
left for school smiling. The finished clay leaf came back to Mildred, and
was displayed in her living room.

For her nieces and nephews, she was a magical figure. She discussed the
most complicated ideas with us at length. She always said, "I'm so
impressed with how you're growing up!" She gave the impression that our
parents and teachers were perhaps a bit addled if they hadn't noticed we
were growing into "such fine young people."

When Mildred's life ended at age 86, her family gathered at her
funeral, exchanging stories of how she had inspired us. But the last was
yet to be told.

After the service, a young man came up whom none of us knew. He had been in
the front row. He told us Mildred and his father had worked together in Colorado. After both his parents were killed in an accident, he was sent to live in the orphanage next to Mildred’s home. Mildred became an ongoing presence in his life.
She told him he needed to be strong, to have courage, that he could
overcome this tragedy and build a positive future. And there he was,
living proof of her inspiration.

If Mildred could give you one message today, she would say, "There IS a
child near you who needs a hand. When you find him or her, don't look back,
or wonder for a second why someone else isn't helping. Be present in that
child's life, help that child to have courage, and inspire that child to face the
future with a desire to learn, work hard, be honest, and be of service to
their community."

In our gospel story, Jesus promises with eternal fidelity that he would never leave you orphans.
In other words, he would never allow an emptiness like a huge crater in your life. Rather he would always be a presence to you and within you, filling you with himself.

What a wonderful consolation! Jesus lives where you live and you live to celebrate it.

The message of Easter is this: Jesus, who rose out of death into new life, is not a dead memory but a living presence – a living presence within you.

And because Jesus lives within you, you are empowered to reach out with a loving hand of affirmation to others, especially, for example, like Mildred in our story, children who are in any kind of need.

As far as you are concerned, when, for example, you are feeling suffocating loneliness or abandoned even within your family or among people you know or, for example, when you feel shattered by the disappointment in the way your life has turned out, you are not alone, you are not orphaned. You have Jesus always present within you, closer to you than you are to yourself. This is what he meant when he said, I will not leave you orphans.

This is the consolation of our gospel story today. What a magnificent gift!
HUMOR about gifts:
On the last day of kindergarten, all the children brought presents for their
teacher. The florist’s son handed the teacher a gift. She shook it, held it up
and said, “I bet I know what it is - it’s some flowers!”
“That’s right!” shouted the little boy.
Then the candy store owner’s daughter handed the teacher a gift She held it up, shook it and said. “I bet I know what it is - it’s a box of candy!”
“That’s right!” shouted the little girl.
The next gift was from the liquor store owner’s son. The teacher held it up and saw that it was leaking. She touched a drop with her finger and tasted it. “Is it wine?” she asked.
“No,” the boy answered.
The teacher touched another drop to her tongue. “Is it champagne?” she asked.
“No,” the boy answered.
Finally, the teacher said, “I give up. What is it?”
The little boy replied, “A puppy!”

THOUGHT: Always reach out to help all children.

FIFTH SUNDAY EASTER

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER A 10:30 John 14: 1-12 2008
Story: Every week a beggar would come to a millionaire philanthropist and tell him his tale of woe. And every week the millionaire would graciously dole out enough to get the beggar through the next week. One day the millionaire took the beggar aside. “Listen,” the millionaire said, “you don’t have to tell me your tale of woe every week. I will always give you something. You know that. So a little less cringing, a little less whining and we will both be happier.”
The beggar drew himself up to the full stature of his ragged pride and dignity and said,
“My good sir, I don’t tell you how to be a millionaire so don’t you tell me how to be a beggar.”
This story tells you obviously that the two men have different life stories.
We all have different life stories, but our different life stories are influenced with the force of a striking meteor by one life story, the life story of Jesus. And the life of Jesus story has a common impact on our life stories, evoking the particular response of each one of us.
In our gospel story, Jesus announces with a flash of divine revelation: I am the way, the truth and the life.
His words, I am the way, the truth and the life signal the dynamic, transforming interaction between Jesus’ life story and your life story.
It is by entering the Jesus story that you come to the truth that is the way to living life to the fullest.
You come to the Jesus story in the gospel with your needs and interests and emerge from the Jesus story with clarity of vision to see your life and relationships with urgent honesty, and with values that empower you to live your life with shameless generosity as self-sacrificing as a mother giving birth.
Since Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, you need to approach the gospel story with an answering imagination.
John Shea in his book, Starlight, says our answering imagination responds to the inspired imagination of the gospel writer and expands the meaning of the gospel.
For example, the story of the woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. Too much attention is given to Jesus’ statement about not giving the food of the children to the dogs.
The deeper meaning that should come out of this story is that this story is about differences between Jesus and the woman coming together and being overcome.
Then you enter your life story: with whom do you have differences? How can you come together and find some unity, some togetherness?
It may be, for example, differences between husband and wife or between parents and children or between a divorced couple or between two classmates or between the piously lukewarm and the fanatical zealot.
You need, for example, to especially imagine how you can resolve conflicts or give yourself more self-sacrificially. You need to imagine where in your life story you can put the Jesus story into action.
There is another example of a gospel story which your answering imagination can probe for a deeper meaning.
It’s the Jesus story of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof. The emphasis is put on the four people who carried the paralyzed man on the mat. What about this angle? Those who gathered to listen to Jesus blocked the paralyzed man from access to Jesus.
You enter your life story. How are you blocking others from coming to Jesus?
For example, is your piety so self-righteous that you demean the piety of others making them feel unworthy of approaching Jeus? Or does your refusal to forgive make others feel too guilty to come to Jesus?
Jesuit Fr Walter Burghardt in his book, Long Have I Loved You: A Theologin Reflects on his Church, says, Our people need to hear a word that nourishes as well as challenges them.

The Jesus story is forever like a challenger in an election race, challenging you, challenging especially your self-satisfied complacency, challenging you, for example, to be more welcoming to everyone, to have an all-inclusive love that treats a homeless person on the street with the same respect as you would treat a celebrity on a pedestal.
HUMOR
The first grade teacher was reading the story of the three little pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to accumulate the building materials for his home.
She read, “... and so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said, “Pardon me, sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?”
The teacher paused and then asked the class “And what do you think the man said?”
One little boy raised his hand and said, “I think he said, “WOW! A talking pig!”

The thought I leave with you today is this: make the Jesus life story your life story.

PENTECOST

PENTECOST 5/11/08 7:30
A few years ago, I read a novel entitled Mosaic by John Maxim. The plot centered on trying to use people with so-called multiple personalities to train one of those personalities to become sociopathic assassins, feeling no remorse, no regret, no prick of conscience at all.
(I do read spiritual books too).
What made me think of this novel is St. Peter. I thought of Peter because he seems to be a man with two distinct personalities, a split which, I’m willing to bet, you can identify with. I know I can.
There is Peter who, like a gypsy, left everything to follow Jesus but who whined like a spoiled child, Now that we’ve left everything, what’s in it for us?
There is Peter whose faith was as dynamic as lightning so that he dared to walk on water but whose doubt had the magnetic pull of quicksand so that he sank.
There was Peter whose confidence was as sturdy as a oak tree so that he assured Jesus that even though everyone would abandon him, he (Peter) would be there supporting Jesus. Yet his confidence crumbled like a sandcastle in a high tide so that he ended up denying Jesus three times in a row.
Yet with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the split was healed and Peter was made whole so much so that, a few verses down from where our first reading ends today, as he stands up and addresses the huge crowd, 3,000 were converted and baptized that very day! It must have been as noisy as a livestock auction. Or as someone remarked, St. Peter must have had a water hose to baptize that many in one afternoon.
But the point of the story is the power of the Holy Spirit in Peter’s words.
(Makes me wonder about the impact of my own homilies).
That’s what the Holy Spirit did for Peter and does for you: the Spirit makes you whole.
Remember when Jesus was in the Garden of Olives, he said to his three chosen disciples, The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak? And St. Paul echoed these words when he said, That which I want to do, I don’t do and that which I don’t want to do, I do.
There is a split in you, like two scorpions in a bottle turning against each other, and that split needs to be made whole. I suspect that there is a bit of Jekyll and Hyde in all of us.
And the Holy Spirit who comes into you as a fire, cauterizes this psychic wound in you and merges your flesh and spirit until you become whole.
Bob Hulteen in his essay, “Nouwen’s Symphony of Movements.” quotes the wonderfully insightful spiritual writer Henri Nouwen, “The often painful paths to wholeness come in movements from loneliness to solitude, from hostility to hospitality, from illusion to prayer.
John Navone in his book, The Jesus Story, reminds us that “through the Holy Spirit we can internalize the values of the Jesus story.”
Isn’t this what you want to do? Make the values of Jesus your values?
Jesus’ value of sacrifice even to the cross substituted for your annoyance at the slightest inconvenience. Jesus’ value of compassion replacing your icy indifference. Jesus’ value of forgiveness supplanting your steel-hearted grudge-bearing.
On this Mother’s Day, aren’t these the values you want to inculcate in your children as you try to bestow on them the gift of wholeness.
On this feast of Pentecost and every day, ask the Holy Spirit, dwelling within you, to help you to put into effect his inspirations, his power, his stamina, his energy so that you will live the values of Jesus as perseveringly as someone running a 26 mile marathon, that you will live his values as a whole person, keeping in mind the holiness is wholeness.

HUMOR ; An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any interest
in his paintings on display at that time.
“I have good news and bad news,” the owner replied. “The good news is that a gentleman inquired about your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death. When I told him it would, he bought all 15 of your paintings.”
“That’s wonderful,” the artist exclaimed. “What’s the bad news?”
“The guy was your doctor.”
THOUGHT: Always make Jesus’ values your values.

FOURTH SUNDAY EASTER

Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10: 1-10 9 AM 2008
Story:
In her book, Lessons of the Heart, Pat Livingston describes an afternoon with four year old niece, Clare. Clare introduced her Aunt Pat to all her dolls. She told Pat the names of each doll and when they were born. Clare told Pat all about what each doll had done, when they were good and when they were bad.
The next day after Pat had returned home, her sister called to tell her Clare had drawn stick figures. One of her mother, dad, brother and Aunt Pat. One Aunt Pat’s head were two big circles.
Her mother asked Clare what the circles were. Clare answered, “There ears. Aunt Pat always listens to me. She makes me feel special.
The question this story brings up is this: Do we really listen to Jesus when he speaks to us through the gospel story?
Today Jesus makes a statement that is as pivotal to the gospel as the sun is for daylight. I have come that you may have life to the fullest.
Listening to Jesus’ words is not just hearing them by allowing them to go into one ear and out the other as though your mind were a wind tunnel.
You have to absorb and internalize Jesus’ words which, for example, form, energize, guide and direct the totality of your life and relationships, his words that make you more Christ-like.
Jesus not only says I have come that you may have life to the fullest, he is always giving you the power to seek fullness of life. Fullness of life symbolizes continued growth, for example, the expansion of mind, heart, will, character, selflessness, spiritual development.
But expansion can also go in the opposite direction, for example, the expansion of selfishness, spiritual mediocrity, inconsistency and indifferfence toward the fullness of life.
Then there is a middle of the road choice too, for example, you can develop to a certain point and then quit like an exhausted athlete or a lazy employee.
This may be the position many of you find yourselves in. For example, you expand your minds with knowledge but then you become self-satisfied and stop the process of lifelong learning. Or, for example, you expand your affection and then start asking yourself, What’s in it for me? Or how much can I be expected to give?
Doesn’t seeking the fullness of life Jesus promises and is eager to give you require your ceaseless, daily efforts to grow and expand in every area of your life? For example, the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, moral, social and spiritual areas. This is hard work. But isn’t this work symbolized in your taking up your cross each and every day?
The fullness of life is not automatic like pushing a button on a gadget. Rather you have to sacrifice your tendency to slough off. You have to roll up your sleeves and plunge into the escalating labor of becoming all God wants you to be. The paradox here is that the more you sacrifice yourself, the fuller your life becomes.
When you seek the fullness of life, you are not doing it in robust isolation.
Morton Kelsey in his book, The Drama of Christmas, says, Our growth into the fullness of our potential as children of the divine Creator can be measured accurately by the healing love and caring we give to others.
Ask Jesus to help you to listen and internalize his words so that you can continue in the process of becoming all you can be and enter more and more into the fullness of life Jesus so ardently wants you to have.
HUMOR
There is a humorous story about internalizing:
This is a story about a little boy saying his prayers. “Dear God,” he prayed. “Please help me to be good and kind. Like Jesus.”
Later he asked his mother, “Can I change my mind about being like Jesus?”
“Why would you want to change your mind?” his mother asked, perplexed.
Just in case I decide to grow up and be like daddy.”
THOUGHT
Always make Jesus’ words your actions.

FOURTH SUNDAY EASTER

Fourth Sunday of Easter John 10: 1-10 9 AM 2008
Story:
In her book, Lessons of the Heart, Pat Livingston describes an afternoon with four year old niece, Clare. Clare introduced her Aunt Pat to all her dolls. She told Pat the names of each doll and when they were born. Clare told Pat all about what each doll had done, when they were good and when they were bad.
The next day after Pat had returned home, her sister called to tell her Clare had drawn stick figures. One of her mother, dad, brother and Aunt Pat. One Aunt Pat’s head were two big circles.
Her mother asked Clare what the circles were. Clare answered, “There ears. Aunt Pat always listens to me. She makes me feel special.
The question this story brings up is this: Do we really listen to Jesus when he speaks to us through the gospel story?
Today Jesus makes a statement that is as pivotal to the gospel as the sun is for daylight. I have come that you may have life to the fullest.
Listening to Jesus’ words is not just hearing them by allowing them to go into one ear and out the other as though your mind were a wind tunnel.
You have to absorb and internalize Jesus’ words which, for example, form, energize, guide and direct the totality of your life and relationships, his words that make you more Christ-like.
Jesus not only says I have come that you may have life to the fullest, he is always giving you the power to seek fullness of life. Fullness of life symbolizes continued growth, for example, the expansion of mind, heart, will, character, selflessness, spiritual development.
But expansion can also go in the opposite direction, for example, the expansion of selfishness, spiritual mediocrity, inconsistency and indifferfence toward the fullness of life.
Then there is a middle of the road choice too, for example, you can develop to a certain point and then quit like an exhausted athlete or a lazy employee.
This may be the position many of you find yourselves in. For example, you expand your minds with knowledge but then you become self-satisfied and stop the process of lifelong learning. Or, for example, you expand your affection and then start asking yourself, What’s in it for me? Or how much can I be expected to give?
Doesn’t seeking the fullness of life Jesus promises and is eager to give you require your ceaseless, daily efforts to grow and expand in every area of your life? For example, the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, moral, social and spiritual areas. This is hard work. But isn’t this work symbolized in your taking up your cross each and every day?
The fullness of life is not automatic like pushing a button on a gadget. Rather you have to sacrifice your tendency to slough off. You have to roll up your sleeves and plunge into the escalating labor of becoming all God wants you to be. The paradox here is that the more you sacrifice yourself, the fuller your life becomes.
When you seek the fullness of life, you are not doing it in robust isolation.
Morton Kelsey in his book, The Drama of Christmas, says, Our growth into the fullness of our potential as children of the divine Creator can be measured accurately by the healing love and caring we give to others.
Ask Jesus to help you to listen and internalize his words so that you can continue in the process of becoming all you can be and enter more and more into the fullness of life Jesus so ardently wants you to have.
HUMOR
There is a humorous story about internalizing:
This is a story about a little boy saying his prayers. “Dear God,” he prayed. “Please help me to be good and kind. Like Jesus.”
Later he asked his mother, “Can I change my mind about being like Jesus?”
“Why would you want to change your mind?” his mother asked, perplexed.
Just in case I decide to grow up and be like daddy.”
THOUGHT
Always make Jesus’ words your actions.

THRID SUNDAY EASTER

THOUGHT An attitude of gratitude is the memory of the heart.

Third Sunday of Easter Luke 24:13-35 7:30 2008

The two disciples dragged themselves down the short road to Emmaus. But it seemed like the journey of the rest of their lives.
The sun above was eclipsed by the gloom of their disappointment. They stumbled over the broken syllables of their crippling despondency.
Then a stranger joined them with the fresh energy of one who could hurdle any obstacle on the way.After the two disciples opened their hearts to this stranger, he opened the book of their memory and with the colorful words of the prophets, he painted a complete portrait of the Messiah from the crimson of his suffering to the golden glory of his resurrection.
But it was during the breaking of the bread that the two disciples understood that the one who had walked along with them was in fact the Way.
It wasn’t until after the bread had been broken and shared that the two disciples realized that their hearts had been set on fire by the divine arsonist.
Just as the two disciples found the security of their faith renewed in the breaking of the bread, so too, you come to Eucharist to be reinforced in the security of your faith.
Not the security, for example, of an anchor that keeps you fastened in the same place, immobilized, going nowhere. Rather it is the security of a well-honed athlete who knows that the victory of the race is hers.
Kathleen Fischer in her book, Reclaiming the Connections, says, “In process spirituality perfection is modeled on a love that takes risks. It is a spirituality that is a challenge to adventure rather than a satisfaction with security or complacency.”
Sometimes, for example, you may go through the gospel story with a scissors and glue pot until you have pasted together a spirituality that is nothing but a certificate of security. The fact is that the only security in life is to learn to live with life’s insecurities.
Yet we all crave security. Sometimes seeking security is like wanting artificial limbs so you won’t feel pain. Sometimes you’re forced to undergo insecurity like the humorous story of the elderly woman. The story goes that a man left the snow covered streets of Chicago for a short vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel he
decided to send his wife a quick email. Unable to find the scrap of paper
on which he written her email address, he did his best to type it from
memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed
instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had just passed away
the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one
look at the monitor, let out a scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the
screen: “Dearest wife, just got checked in. Everything prepared for your
arrival tomorrow.” Your loving husband.
P.S. Sure is hot down here......
More often than not the security of your faith depends on your willingness to sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others.
Joan Puls in her book Compassion, say, “In our Eucharistic celebration, bread broken and wine poured out are symbols of the demands for our sacrifices.
If your Eucharistic celebration is to be authentic, you cannot, for example, come here to church and then go back into a home where there is vicious wrangling, vituperative altercations, steaming contempt, constant fault finding criticisms or the poison of the silent treatment.
If you truly recognize Jesus in your Eucharist, as the two disciples did in the breaking of the bread, you, as the Body of Christ, will, for example, bring peace where there is anger, compassion where there is suffering, forgiveness where there is injury, hope where there is despair, justice where there is indifference and love where there is loneliness.
The famous inspirational speaker, Leo Buscaglia who died in 1998, said, “It’s not enough to have lived. You must live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what you have for the betterment of others, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.
There is another humorous story about security.
A man and his wife are awakened at 3 o'clock in the morning by the incessant ringing of their front door bell. The man who is obsessed with security takes a baseball bat with him as he goes to the front door and opens it. Standing there was a drunkenstranger, asking for a push."Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3 o'clock in the morning!" He slams the door and returns to bed."Who was that?" asked his wife."Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers."Did you help him?" she asks."No, I did not, it is 3 o'clock in the morning so I told him to get going and slammed the door in his face.”“Well,” his wife said, “that wasn’t a very Christian thing to do.”
“With all the insecurity in households today, I wasn’t going to take any chances,” her husband retorted.
“It still wasn’t the Christian thing to do,” his wife persisted.
Now the man was starting to feel guilty. So he went back and opened the front door.
He couldn’t see the drunk, so he yelled, “Are you still out there?”
“Yeah,” came the response.
“Do you still need a push?” the man shouted.
“Yeah,” came the answer.
“Well,” the man shouted, “where are you?’
“Over here on the swing.”

Ask Jesus your Eucharistic friend to empower you with his body and blood to act out your Eucharist by laying down your life for others as Jesus did by putting the needs of others ahead of your own needs.
Thought: bread broken is the symbol of your sacrifices.

SECOND SUNDAY EASTER

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER – John 20:19 5:30 PM 2008
It was a hot Saturday morning. Because there was no air conditioning, the doors and windows were all open in the church to bring in a bit of air. Some worshipers out of courtesy gathered for the funeral service of an old man who had no family. They could also hear the auctioneer’s voice from the next building almost as clearly as they could hear their own minister.
The service came to an end. “Lord, may thy servant depart in peace,” said the minister. Through the window came the words, “going once, going twice, gone!”
This is the experience the disciples are having. As far as they are concerned, Jesus is gone.
The disciples are hiding out in the upper room. They’re hiding from the Jewish authorities. But even more so, with transparent predictability they’re hiding from their own fear. What will become of us now? they muttered to one another. We should never have followed him, one of the disciples says with more anguish than anger.
Their emotions are running the gamut: from uneasiness to worry to dread to fear and then to turmoil. The mood is like a tornado swirling before it hits its peak of destruction. Finally one of the disciples ties this mix of emotions together like stitching the final thread into a multicolored quilt. I miss him, she says with fierce modesty, I feel so lonely. He filled my every day with his presence and now there is nothing but a void. When he was with us, everything seemed possible. Now nothing seems attainable.
As if directed by a cantor, they all break out in a chorus of response that, yes, it is loneliness that is cutting through their hearts like the nails that pierced Jesus’ hands and feet.

What the disciples are experiencing is this disconnectedness from Jesus. Anyone who has had a relationship that disintegrated knows this feeling with all its nail-piercing hurt and agonizing pain all too well.
But then there is the good news that is refreshingly devoid of wishful thinking. Unlike human relationships that break up, Jesus maintains his relationship by coming and standing in the midst of his disciples. And with the keen insight of divine wisdom, Jesus knows the turmoil of his disciples’ emotions. So he says to them, “Peace be with you.”
It’s not the kind of peace described in Steve Shagan’s novel, The Circle, as the peace that comes from selling and buying of arms to maintain the appearance of harmony. It’s not the world’s peace which is the absence of conflict rather it is the peace of Jesus which is the presence of collaboration.
Jesus’ peace scatters the gloom of loneliness like sunlight dispels darkness.
John Powell says in his book , Happiness Is An Inside Job, For those who accept themselves, being alone is peaceful solitude; for those who don’t accept themselves, solitude is painful loneliness. How essential accepting yourself is if you are suffering from loneliness even within marriage.
If you believe that Jesus is not only risen out of death but is alive within you, living in you, first, you will never be lonely, no matter what disasters strike down your relationships with others. And secondly, you will always be at peace, no matter how many people try to disrupt your life, your plans, your dreams, your joys.
But you must believe that Jesus the resurrected Christ is living in you. You must believe this with your whole heart and mind and soul and with all the strength of your faith.
If you do believe that Jesus the resurrected Lord is living within you, then you, like the first disciples, will go out to others. You will bring to them the loving good news that says to everyone around you, I can raise you up to a new life. A new life of faith, hope, optimism, joy, courage, love, resiliency but most of all peace. Never again will you doubt your faith in cringing loneliness, as Thomas did, because you will believe with unctuous passion that Jesus, who is your Peace, is alive within you.

HUMOR: A salesman was in the country visiting clients and over a couple of days he had to drive down the same dusty road.
Each time he drove down the road he noticed that farmer on one farm was standing in his field with his hands in his pockets looking up at the sky. The salesman did not think much of it the first time, but every time he went down the road, the farmer was always there. Eventually his curiosity got the better of him so he pulled into the farm to find out what was going on.
As he got out of the car he was met by the farmer’s wife.
“Ma’am,” began the salesman, “our country is in dire economic straits and our farmers need to be working hard. But this past few days I have noticed the farmer standing around in his field doing nothing. Can you please explain to me what is going on?”
“Well”, replied the farmer’s wife, “the man in the field is my husband.”
“Yes, but why is he not working?” demanded the salesman.
“He wants to get himself a Nobel Peace Prize” came the reply.
“A Nobel Peace Prize?!!” exclaimed the salesman.
“Yes.” replied the farmer’s wife. “The other day on the news they said that were going to give a Nobel Peace Prize to some one outstanding in his field!”

THOUGHT: Always choose to be peacemakers.

EASTER SUNDAY

EASTER Sunday 12:15 2008 3/23/08
When I was 13 or 14 years old, I thought I would like to be a writer. With the guidance of two older students, I started to keep notebooks. In them I wrote down thoughts and ideas from my readings, reactions to what I had read, my own thoughts on things and events, some lines that I thought were pretty well written either for their content or their style. As time drifted on I decided that maybe I was just too ordinary to be a writer. Now at a more mellow age and with some experience behind me, I realize that ordinariness is the essential quality of a writer.
When I first took up this craft full-time, I didn’t realize how much time you have to spend alone. And that is exactly how it has to be, because it takes a long, long time to discipline promiscuous words into an approximation of what you have in your head. And if it is something in your heart you want to express, that takes even longer and often involves intense emotion. It was Mark Twain, I think, who said the difference between the precise word and the slipshod word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
One of the reasons I write is to be able to keep the thoughts and insights that come from my observations and to make creative connections whenever I can. And a second reason is to share these thoughts and insights with people who might be interested. Sometimes I think I write to preserve my sanity for just one more day.
For example, I see a mother with her little daughter on her lap. And the mother is singing, “Mary had a little lamb.” Suddenly I realize that a hymn to be sacred doesn’t have to depend on the words but on the person who is singing what and to whom and why. “Mary had a little lamb” can be a far more powerful hymn of praise and beauty than anything in our hymnals. And I make the connection with something I read about Jesus’ parables: that not once in anyone of his parables does Jesus ever mention God. And I make a further connection that what we call secular or profane is really shot through with the sacred because Jesus became human. Then I write something of greater length explaining my insight, hoping that some people might want to share it with me.
One time a young person asked me, “What is the essential characteristic of a writer?” About the only thing I could say in response was that for me it is in noticing God in the ordinary stuff of life that makes me want to write. If I don’t write about it, the wonder and the glory of simple moments will disappear. If I do write about it, sometimes the sacred secrets of events reveal themselves to me and as a result to others. I am convinced, however, that you do not have to be a writer to share your insights and wisdom with others. I think you do this day in and day out in your ordinary conversations.
For example, a mother was driving her second grade daughter home from parochial school.
Her daughter said, “Mommy, do you know that in public school, you can’t even mention God or Jesus?” “Yes I do, dear.” “And do you know that in our Catholic school, we can say God and Jesus all we want?” “Yes I do, honey.” There was a long moment of silence, as they little girl was lost in her thoughts. Then she said, “Mommy, when I grow up, I’m going to have two children. And I’m going to call one God and the other one Jesus. Then I’m going to send both of them to public school.

I have given you this brief autobiographical resume on Easter Sunday because as I was preparing my homily, I was wondering what Mary Magdelene would have written about her Easter experience had she kept a journal or a diary.
She may have written something like this:
This morning I had an experience that I can find no words for. All I can say is that it was comparable to the experience I had when Jesus the Galilean forgave me my sins because, as he said, I loved so much. He did not crush and extinguish the flames of my love. Rather he redirected those flames that I might ignite the hearts of others to love him. It was this love that prompted me to go to the tomb to anoint the body of the man I loved as I had never loved anyone in my life.
I did such a stupid thing. I was crying and, blinded by my tears, I mistook Jesus now risen out of death for the gardener. Now I realize that it is only through tears that I could ever have finally recognized Jesus for who he is. My tears of sorrow were turned into tears of joy when he called me by name. The man I thought was the gardener said to me, “Mary.” In that moment I knew who he really and truly was. I should have remembered how many times he said to us, I will be put to death but on the third day I will rise.
As I look back now at how I thought Jesus was the gardener, Jesus must have stifled a laugh. And if I know him at all, he wanted to shout, “Surprise!” But he didn’t even though he had spent his whole teaching mission revealing God to us as the God of surprises. However it was the same Jesus of the meek and humble heart I encountered this morning.
Now upon reflection, I realize that Jesus, in allowing me to mistake him for the gardener, was telling me that in his resurrected life he would be identified with each person I encountered, whether a humble gardener or a wealthy merchant.
I’m not sure if the others believed my words when I told them that I saw the Master risen out of death, alive. But I’m willing to wager that my exhilaration and joy convinced them.
And, somehow, I believe that the exhilaration and joy of all of us will convince people down through the ages that he who was crucified is now alive and living in them.
For now I am packing. Jesus, now the risen Lord, is sending us to the four corners of the earth and I must do my share. I believe that all his followers down through the ages will do whatever they can to share the good news, He is risen and he lives within us! And I also believe that they will live those words in their loving service to others because Jesus told us that what we do for others we are doing for him.

Perhaps you can take out a piece of paper and write down your thoughts and reactions to the Easter feast, to the Resurrection of Jesus. When you do, you will be giving concrete form to what you are feeling.

HUMOR: A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather’s word processor. Her grandfather asked her what she was writing. She answered that she was writing a story.
“What’s it about?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “You know I can’t read.”


THOUGHT: Always externalize your religious experiences.