"I AM THE TRUE VINE . . . "

Homily for May 21^st, 2014: John 15:1-8.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” Some Bible scholars think that Jesus spoke these words as he crossed the Temple courtyard with his eleven still faithful friends after the Last Supper. It was Passover time, so there would have been a full moon. The golden vine around the Temple wall, which symbolized God’s people, glowed in the moonlight. Pointing first to himself, then to the vine, Jesus says: AI am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower ...@

In calling himself the true vine, Jesus implies a contrast. God=s people, the vine he had brought out of Egypt and planted in a new land, had not been true. Jesus had been true. His death the next day would be Jesus= final act of faithful obedience to his Father=s will. He was calling the little band of friends accompanying him to imitate his faithfulness ABy this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

  To do this, they must remain united with him. ARemain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.@ The person who remains united with him, Jesus says, Awill bear much fruit.@

AMy Father is the vine grower,@ Jesus says. He cares for the branches on his vine in two ways: by pruning those that bear fruit, and by cutting off and burning the unfruitful branches. Jesus= words about the unfruitful branches being thrown into a fire and burned are an implied reference to Judas, who was even then betraying the Lord.

The vine grower=s treatment of the fruitful branches seems at first sight severe: AEvery one that [bears fruit] he prunes so that it bears more fruit.@ The image, easily understood by Jesus= hearers, who were familiar with vineyards and grapes, is that of a gardener pinching off the new green shoots on a vine, so that all the growth can be concentrated in the few early blooming branches which the gardener has selected to bear fruit. 

Faced in life with setbacks, injustice, or suffering B as all of us are, at some time or other B which one of us has not asked: AWhy me? What have I done to deserve this?@ Jesus= words in today=s gospel do not answer these questions. Instead his words challenge us to view setbacks, injustice, and suffering as opportunities to grow. He is inviting us to submit to the vine grower=s pruning, and so to glorify him by producing abundant fruit.

"HOW SWEET THE NAME OF JESUS SOUNDS . . . "

Homily for May 20^th, 2014: St. Bernadine of Siena.

          The collect, or opening prayer, at this Mass spoke about God giving St Bernardine of Siena, whom the Church commemorates today “a great love for the holy name of Jesus.” Born near Siena in 1380, Bernard lost both parents before he was 7 years old. Following studies at the University of Siena, he entered the Franciscan Order at the age of 22, becoming in time a noted preacher. His favorite theme was devotion to the name of Jesus. “Was it not by the light and sweetness of this name,” Bernardine asked in one of his sermons, “that God called us into his wonderful light? … Hence this name must be proclaimed so that it may shine, it must not be hidden.” A 17^th century English hymn proclaims the holy name of Jesus in verse. It goes like this.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!

It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and drives away our fear

It makes the wounded spirit whole, and calms the troubled breast;

’Tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary, rest.

Dear Name, the rock on which I build, my shield and hiding place,

My never failing treasury filled with boundless stores of grace!

Jesus! My Shepherd, Guardian, Friend, my Prophet, Priest, and King,

My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart, and cold my warmest thought;

But when I see thee as thou art, I’ll praise thee as I ought.

Till then I would thy love proclaim with every fleeting breath;

And may the music of thy Name refresh my soul in death.

The holy name of Jesus, repeated reverently, with every breath, every heartbeat, or with every step as we walk down a hallway, up or downstairs, or to and from our car, is a perfect prayer that goes straight to the heart of our heavenly Father.

"YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BUT ME."

Homily for May 19^th, 2014: Acts 14:5-18; John 14:21-26.

          “When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out … ‘The gods have come down to us in human form.’” What called forth is outburst of enthusiasm, and the attempt to offer sacrifice, was Paul’s healing of a crippled man, lame from birth. For the Bible, and especially for the Old Testament, idolatry is the great sin: violation of the first of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods but me.”

          Idolatry is not very high on the sin list of most Catholics today. The false gods we worship are not statues – like the golden calf which God’s people made and worshiped while Moses was away atop Mt. Sinai. Today’s idols are things like pleasure, possessions, power, and honor: good in themselves, until we make them central in our lives. Then we inevitably experience frustration and disappointment, for we can never get enough. There is only One who can satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts, the Lord God.

          False gods are always our own constructs; and the demands they make on us are enslaving, not liberating. How different the God Jesus shows us in today’s gospel. “Whoever has my commandments and observes them, is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him end reveal myself to him.” What could be more liberating, what could cause us greater joy, than to know that we are loved unconditionally by the One who made us, using our parents as his instruments – and who made not only us but the world and all that is? He is Creator all – but he is more. He sent his Son to be our Redeemer – the one who “cancelled the bond [of indebtedness because of our sins] that stood against us,” as Paul writes, “snatching it up and nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14).

          This true God who loves us more than we can ever imagine is also the One who sends us his Holy Spirit “to teach you everything,” Jesus says in the final sentence of our gospel reading, “and remind you of all that I told you.” To Him, therefore, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, as we renew our pledge of loyalty, knowing that he alone can satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.

"THE DISCIPLES WERE FILLED WITH JOY."

Homily for May 17^th, 2014: Acts of he Apostles 13:44-52.

          Following the example of Jesus, Paul and Barnabas, who are now in Antioch, address their preaching first to their fellow Jews. They had considerable success. The passage immediately before our first reading says that: “Many Jews and devout Jewish converts followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to hold fast to the grace of God” (13:43). As a result, the opening sentence of our first reading tells us, “On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” This causes the Devil to deploy one of his strongest weapons: jealousy. “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said.”

          “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first,” Paul and Barnabas respond, “but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we turn to the Gentiles.”  Note the words, “condemn yourselves.” Condemnation does not come from God. It comes from our own free choice to reject God and the love he offers us as a free gift, not as a reward for services rendered.  

          Enraged, those at Antioch who have rejected the preaching of the gospel stir up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and run them out of town. Undismayed by the abuse and maltreatment they have received, Paul and Barnabas shake the dust from their feet and move on to Iconium. In so doing they were following the explicit command of the Lord, who told his disciples whom he sent out to preach the gospel: “If any place will not receive you or hear you, shake its dust from your feet in testimony against them as you leave” (Mark 6:11).

          The final sentence of today’s first reading surprises us: “The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” Do you want that joy? Which of us does not? To have it you must do one thing. Put thanksgiving at the center of your prayer, and of your life. If a long life has taught me anything, it is this. Grateful people are happy people – no exceptions! I couldn’t tell you how often I say every day, as I go through the day: “Lord, you’re so good to me – and I’m so happy.” Find your own way of saying that, and you too will be happy! 

"I AM GOING TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU."

Homily for May 16^th, 2014: John 14:1-6.

          “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” Jesus tells us, “I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” What a tremendous promise! Jesus’ words address our greatest enemy, and for most of us our greatest fear: death. Down through the centuries Christians have pondered and prayed over this promise. Here is what three of them have said.

St. Cyprian, 3^rd century Bishop of Carthage in North Africa:

“We reckon paradise to be our home. A great throng awaits us there of those dear to us, parents, brothers, sons. A packed and numerous throng longs for us, of those already free from anxiety for their own salvation, who are still concerned for our salvation. What joy they share with us when we come into their sight and embrace them! What pleasure there is there in the heavenly kingdom, with no fear of death, and what supreme happiness with the enjoyment of eternal life.” [Office of Readings for Friday of the 34^th week of the year)]

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa from 395 to 430.

“How happy will be our shout of Alleluia there, how carefree, how secure from any adversary, where there is no enemy, where no friend perishes. There praise is offered to God, and here too; but here it is by people who are anxious, there by people who are free from care; here by people who must die, there by those who will live forever. Here praise is offered in hope, there by people who enjoy the reality; here by those who are pilgrims on the way, there by those who have reached their own country.” [Office of Readings for Saturday of the 34^th week of the year)]

Pope Benedict XVI, now retired:

"Christianity does not proclaim merely a certain salvation of the soul in some imprecise place beyond, in which everything in this world that was precious and loved by us is erased, but it promises eternal life, 'the life of the world to come': nothing of what is precious and loved will be ruined, but will find its fulfillment in God. All the hairs of our head are numbered, Jesus said one day (cf. Matthew 10:30). The final world will also be the fulfillment of this earth, as St. Paul states: 'Creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God'" (Romans 8:21). [Aug. 15, 2010]

          How do we reach the joys of which these three great Christians speak? Jesus tells us in the final sentence of today’s gospel: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

"WHOEVER RECEIVES THE ONE I SEND RECEIVES ME."

Homily for May 15^th, 2014: John 13:16-20.

          Jesus’ words in today’s gospel reading immediately follow his washing of the apostles’ feet. Feet shod only in sandals got dirty on the dusty roads of Palestine. It was customary, therefore, for a host to provide water for arriving guests to wash their own feet. Jesus went beyond this gesture of hospitality. By washing his friends’ feet himself, he gives them an example of humble service which they must be prepared to imitate.

          How little the Twelve heeded and followed this example, we learn from Luke’s gospel, which says that at the Last Supper “a dispute arose among them about who should be regarded as greatest” (22:24). After the foot-washing, therefore, Jesus goes on to speak about what he has just done.

          “No slave is greater than his master,” Jesus says, “nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.” Down through the centuries many of Jesus’ followers have recognized this, and acted accordingly. Jesus directs his words to them when he says: “If you understand this, blessed [which means “happy”] are you if you do it. Sadly, there also many who have acted as masters themselves, rather than as servants, conceiving of priesthood as a career, not as service. Knowing that there was one at table with him there at the Last Supper, who in his heart had already rejected his servant role, Jesus quotes a verse from Psalm 41: “The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.”

          Then, to encourage those truly resolved in their hearts to be and to remain his servants, Jesus says: “Amen, amen,” [which means “solemnly”] I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me.” Which one of us would not be thrilled to receive Jesus in person? A recent e-mail from a Philippine deacon now in Rome, soon to be ordained priest, had the words “A great grace” in the subject line. It told about his being able to greet Pope Francis personally at the end of an audience for seminarians.  

Jesus was telling his apostles that those to whom he was sending them would be no less thrilled than my Philippine friend. Jesus concludes by saying: “Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” Every encounter with Jesus is an encounter with God himself.

"GREATER WORKS THAN THESE . . . "

Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A. John 14:1-12.

AIM: To deepen the hearers’ faith.

      A four-year-old boy was in the kitchen with his mother. “I need a can of mushroom soup, Johnny,” she said to him. “Could you go down into the cellar and get it for me?”

      “It’s dark down there, Mom,” he replied. “I’m scared to go down.”

      His mother tried several times, without success, to persuade him that he had nothing to be scared of. When all else failed, she played her trump card. “It’s all right, Johnny. Jesus will be down there with you.”

      At that Johnny opened the cellar door and called out: “Jesus, if you’re down there, would you bring me up a can of mushroom soup?”

      Four-year-old Johnny’s fear was not unlike the fear of Jesus’ friends in our gospel reading. Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet. Then he said he would be leaving them. The news plunged them into grief and fear. At the beginning of our gospel reading Jesus responds to this fear by saying: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” 

      The “trouble” they were experiencing went deep. The gospel writer uses the same word to describe Jesus’ emotions at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus as he joins in the grief of Lazarus’ sisters and other friends. The word is used once again to describe Jesus’ emotions when he realizes that one of his inner circle, Judas Iscariot, is going to betray him. The “trouble” Jesus felt on those occasions, and which his disciples feel now, was gut-wrenching, and stomach-turning. It is the feeling we experience at the news that someone we dearly love has unexpectedly died. Nothing, we realize, will ever be the same again.

      Notice how Jesus counters this fear. “You have faith in God,” he tells his

disciples. “Have faith also in me.” Faith in God Jesus could take for granted. These friends of his were believing Jews. He challenges them to extend this same faith to him. You must trust, he was telling them, that the same God whom we worship in synagogue and temple is truly present and active in me. 

      That is a tremendous claim, when you think about it. The disciples whom Jesus was addressing didn’t yet know him as we know him — as the divine Son of God. To them he was a man like themselves. Realization that he was more came only after the resurrection.

      Jesus’ challenge to his friends to trust him as they trusted God involves the central teaching of our Christian faith: the incarnation. Incarnation means “embodiment.” Children are the embodiment, or incarnation, of their parents’ love, which brings them into being. This building is the incarnation of an idea in the mind of the architect who designed it, and of the sacrifices of those whose gifts made its construction possible. And Jesus is the incarnation of God. That explains how Jesus can say in today’s gospel reading: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer for Christmas says the same: “In him [Jesus] we see our God made visible, and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.”       

      The incarnation begins with Jesus. But it has important implications for us as well. By taking on our human nature Jesus has broken through the boundary between our world and the world of God. The same God who took human form in Jesus is also embodied, though of course in a different degree, in each person who, in baptism, becomes a member of Christ’s body, the Church. Hence we can even say that each one of us is, in a certain measure, the embodiment of God. He dwells in us through the presence and power of his Holy Spirit.

      This truth, that each of us is the temple or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, helps us understand Jesus’ words at the conclusion of our gospel reading: “Truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I go to the Father.”

      What are the works that Jesus did?  First on just about any list would be his miracles: the healings he performed, the stilling of the storm on the lake, the raising of the widow’s son at Naim and of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. Jesus also fed the hungry: the vast crowd in the wilderness, his twelve apostles at the Last Supper. After his resurrection Jesus prepared a lakeside breakfast for Peter, James, and John, tired and hungry from a night of fruitless fishing with the net coming back empty time after time until a man on shore, still unrecognized, calls out, “Cast the net on the right side” — and they feel the net heavy with fish, and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” calls out excitedly: “It is the Lord.” Jesus’ works also include his beautiful stories — the  parables — and all his teaching about the love of God, his heavenly Father: the love that will never let us go.   

      How can Jesus say that we, his followers, will do even greater works than those? Well, consider. During his life on earth Jesus’ works were confined to just a few years, and to one very small part of the world. But these works did not end with Jesus’ death, resurrection, and return to his Father in heaven. He wanted them to continue, and they have continued, through his Church. Starting as a sect of Judaism, the Church which Jesus founded spread throughout the whole world and has continued through twenty centuries of history. 

      We the Church’s members are charged to continue Jesus’ works. He has now no hands to bless people than ours; no eyes to look upon people in love than ours; no tongue to speak words of love, encouragement, or warning but ours; no arms to support people and their burdens than ours. The Church’s works are greater than those of her Lord because they are more extended in time and space than they could ever be during the few years that Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine. And the Church’s works are great — amazing in fact — because they have never ceased despite all the failures betrayals began when, at Jesus’ arrest, “they all forsook him and fled” (Mk 14:50); and when, only hours later, their leader, Peter, three times denied that he even knew the Lord. Should we be surprised when we hear of similar betrayals today?

I began with a story.  Let me close with another. 

When the Lord Jesus returned to heaven at the ascension the angels wanted to know everything he had done on earth.  So Jesus told them how he had gone about doing good, healing the sick, and teaching people about the freely given love of God.

AThat=s wonderful, Lord,@ the angels said.  ABut now that you=re no longer in earth, won=t people soon forget about what you have done and said?@

AOh no,@ Jesus explained.  AI founded a Church.  I chose twelve men to be its first bishops.  I spent three years teaching them: how to pray, how to heal people, how to free them from their burdens, how to teach others about God=s freely given love. They are going to carry on my work.@

AThat=s all well and good, Lord,@ the angels replied.  ABut we know how fickle and unreliable these human beings are. How do you know that they will keep on doing all those things you trained them to do? How do you know that they will remain faithful?@

At that the Lord fell silent. He looked down and seemed to be thinking.  Then he looked up and, with that beautiful, radiant smile of his, said very simply:

AI trust them.@

"IT WAS NOT YOU WHO CHOSE ME . . . "

Homily for May 14, 2014: Act 1:15-17, 20-26; John 15:9-17.

          Our first reading shows us the Church performing what might be called her first juridical act: finding among Jesus’ disciples one to take the place of Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed the Lord and, unlike Peter who repented, had despaired and taken his own life. Peter, by the Lord’s appointment the Church’s chief shepherd, takes the lead. The man chosen, he says, must be one who has been with us from the day of Jesus’ baptism, until his death, resurrection, and ascension, so that he could be, with us remaining eleven apostles, a witness to [Jesus’] resurrection. 

          Note how carefully they proceed. Not trusting to human judgment, they choose two of their number who fulfill Peter’s requirement. Then they pray that the Lord will show them which of the two he has chosen. This is the first corporate prayer recorded in the New Testament.  Following this, they cast lots. A common Jewish practice, this was done by taking two stones, writing the name of one candidate on each, and then placing both in an open jar. The jar was then shaken until one of the stones fell out.        

Who was this Matthias, we want to know? The honest answer is: we don’t know. There are stories about him, but they are legends only. Careful as Peter had been to leave the choice to God, it seems that the Lord had another in mind, a man about whom we know a great deal: a devout Jew named Saul, zealous defender of his Jewish faith, who in baptism became Paul, the great apostle to the wider Gentile world. He is a man to whom Jesus’ words in today’s gospel reading apply, if they ever applied to anyone: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”

In all this we see, once again, what the Bible shows us repeatedly: that God is  the God of the unexpected , the master of surprises. Hence the old saying: If  you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.