Remaining in Christ_Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

 

Acts 9:26-31

Ps 22

1 Jn 3:18-24

Jn 15:1-8

 

The Easter season readings from Acts of the Apostles give us a window into the early Church. Because human nature hasn’t changed in the past couple of millennia we see thoughts and behaviors identical to ours. If we pay attention to the apostles and early disciples, their behaviors and arguments, when we acknowledge the defections and schisms the best summary is that it wasn’t always pretty.  Many departed. They were like the seeds that sprouted

but then quickly withered.

 

Those who remained came together when they had to and responded to what was going on around them.  They were not pious fools who assumed a fundamental goodness in all who came to them. They were men who realized the need for prudent action. This was particularly true when it came to Saul known as Paul after his conversion.

 

Today's reading recalls Frank Loesser's jazz-inflected WW II patriotic song with the hymn-like title: “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”  Loesser's underlying message is that while praising the Lord we simultaneously must act with prudence and do what needs to be done.  One of the best lines is:

 

“Praise the Lord and swing into position

Can't afford to be a politician.”

 

Perhaps it is true that those who can't do . . . campaign for office.   It is going to be an ugly time of mud-slinging, character assassination, and lying—both parties—leading up to the election come November. Histrionics to be expected. Violence will be no surprise.

 

The apostles acted prudently here. Rather than throwing stones they got the newly converted Paul out of the path of stones by sending him to Tarsus where he would be safer,  and where this former prosecutor of followers of “The Way”

this firebrand who assented to Stephen's martyrdom, could learn prudence himself.

 

And there was the advantage that he could be observed. Was he trustworthy? Was this new behavior merely a double agent type of trick?  We need more than good intentions, enthusiasm, confidence, and a pleasing personality to succeed in any mission or apostolate.  In number 20 of his Homilies on Acts St. John Chrysostom noted that when engaged in apostolic activity human resourcefulness is as important as grace and good intentions. 

He wrote:

 

"You see God does not do everything directly through his grace. He frequently compels the apostles to act in line with the rule of prudence."  While the first reading impresses the need for prudent action the second reading repeats the two great commandments:

 

"And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us."

 

Only through prayer, meditation, and self-examination can we come to understand what this command means and how we are to live it. 

 

Preaching on John's Gospel is never easy.  The Christology is dense. The images are a challenge, particularly for us who live in an industrial society rather than an agrarian one.  Most of us don't have experience with sheep, goats, or grape arbors.   Lamb comes shrink wrapped at Star Wine is poured from a jug with a Gallo label on it. The agricultural images do not resonate with us in the same way as saying, “he hit that one outta’ the park.”

 

The image of Jesus as the vine is prominent in John.  In the second book of his

three-volume study of Jesus, Pope Benedict discusses John’s images of Jesus. He writes,  "The vine is a Christological title that embodies a whole ecclesiology. 

The vine signifies Jesus' inseparable oneness with his own, who through him and with him are all "vine," and whose calling is to "remain" in the vine. . . Jesus is inseparable from his own and his own are one with him and in him." 

 

The word "remain" appears eight times. in the few verses of John that were just proclaimed.  In scripture studies word frequency highlights its importance.

 

What does it mean to remain in Jesus? 

What does it mean to be faithful? 

What does it mean to be consistent? 

What does it mean to stay? 

 

The answer is found in a mix of prudence, love, and unwavering commitment, even when it is not easy or smooth.  We are living in an society which seems unable to make a commitment.  Initial enthusiasm is easy.  There is a rush in the first bloom of a new romance or immediately after the wedding. Euphoria may characterize the first months after pronouncing religious vows.   Professional sports contracts are, at best, a joke.

 

The challenges in marriage, religious life, and sports comes when things get mundane, monotonous, routine, frustrating and difficult.  The challenges come when reality rears it head.  That is when the enthusiastic high has to be replaced by perseverance.  Only perseverance allows us to remain part of the vine

that is Christ, the Jesus who tells us,  "Remain in me, as I remain in you."  

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The photos are from the Boston College campus about five years ago.  It was a football weekend but, to be perfectly honest, after decades of Penn State football weekend, especially as an undergrad there, BC football is, well quaint. 

 

Bapst Library is magnificent.  This is the main reading room.

Gasson Hall, the first thing a family sees when they pull onto capmus. 

Autumn leaves in a fountain.

The view from St. Mary's Hall Jesuit Residence.

Liked the play of light streaming through the stained glass windows. 

 

I Come to Do Your Will: Homily for Vocation Sunday (4th Sunday of Easter)

 

Today is the 61^st annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the vowed religious life and to the priesthood.  In the preface to The Ear of the Heart former actress Dolores Hart, now Mother Dolores Hart, a cloistered nun of the Abbey of Regina Laudis since 1963, gives an insightful and realistic definition of the vocation to religious life:  "Many people don't understand the difference between a vocation and your own idea about something.  A vocation is a call--one you don't necessarily want.  The only thing I ever wanted to be was an actress.  But I was called by God."  She might have added that it is not easy.

 

She described her first night in the monastery:  "I got into bed.  Suddenly I was consumed with overwhelming loneliness . . . I lay awake for a long time. . . I could touch the opposite wall with my hand. I lay there, terrified by the enormity of the step I had taken.  I began praying . . . I cried myself to sleep that night. I would cry myself to sleep every night for the next three years."

 

Many of us can identify with that sense of isolation and the enormity of the step, a realization that only sinks in after the door of the novitiate closes behind us and we ask “What have I done?”  The question does not disappear upon pronouncing vows be they first or final.

 

Vocation comes from the Latin root:  Voco, vocare, vocatus.  To call.  To name.  To summon. To invite.  To challenge. These meanings overlap but each has unique implications that may come to the fore as we consider what a vocation is.

 

August 24 of this year will mark 27 years since I entered the Jesuit novitiate after several years of discernment.  June 9 will mark 17 years since ordination as priest. But June 8 of this year will be very special. The long story version.

 

On the Friday before Thanksgiving 1992 George Murray, SJ, MD and I were having coffee after rounds at Mass General.  At some point he cleared his throat and said, “I have to ask you a question.  You don’t have to answer but I have to ask.  Have you ever thought of becoming a Jesuit?”  I had been thinking for about a year.  We chatted a bit.  Four years later he picked me up at Logan Airport and dropped me off at the novitiate.

 

Flash forward to 2004.  At the suggestion of Jesuit Fr. Ignatius Hung Wan-liu, a long time friend, I met Kao Chia-yang, a Taiwanese grad student at Georgetown.  After knowing him for a year and having many meals together at the Jesuit residence, I took him out to lunch—a Taiwanese restaurant too.  There was an agenda.

 

On the return trip and with a very dry mouth, I did my best imitation of George’s question. Chia-yang was thinking.  No one had ever asked and no one knew. On June 8 I will be at Fordham University Chapel to vest him at his ordination as a Jesuit priest as George did for me 17 years plus one day previously.  There will definitely be photos though I will not be taking them.

 

Vocation stories, the narratives of what brought a man or woman to enter, are unique to each narrator. Some of the stories proceeded smoothly whereas others were marked by agonizing doubts, fits and starts, and almost paralyzing uncertainty. 

 

Most vocations do not attract the kind of attention that Dolores Hart’s did back in 1963. But even at the usual levels of anonymity, not all family and friends are pleased or supportive. The majority seem to support the decision or the become supportive with time, but there are exceptions.  Indeed, the sister of one monk whom I know has refused to visit him in the 25 years he has been in the monastery despite living an hour or two away.

 

A religious vocation takes time to reveal itself. It also takes a long time after entering before a man or woman is to ready to make a lifelong commitment.  Only after years of prayer, testing, self-examination, observing, and being observed can one be ready for that final lifelong commitment.  The course is not always easy.  Nor is living in community.

 

The late Mother Dorcas Roselund, OSB also a nun of Regina Laudis, entered after practicing pediatric gastroenterology.  A small woman, who had a crushing handshake,  she described the challenges of living in a monastic community as “The new martyrdom” explaining that “they used to throw Christians to the lions.  Now they make us live together."   She got that right. 

 

Despite the drawbacks, the losses and the closing of certain possibilities that accompany the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, many of us who have lived them for years can imagine no other way of life.  But it takes a while to figure that part out.

 

Two elements are crucial for vocations to the vowed religious life or priesthood.  The first is prayer, prayer for vocations, prayer for those discerning vocations, and prayer for those who are living their vocations. The second is to ask and to listen. It is important that another person ask and then listen to the response.  Discernment can be lonely.  Those who are willing to listen diminish that loneliness.

 

That other may be a parent or grandparent who sees something, a friend who detects a spark, or a member of a religious order who has a gut feeling that needs to be explored.

 

Someone needs to ask the simple question, "Are you thinking of entering religious life?"  “Are you thinking of becoming a priest?” and then listen to the answer. If the answer is yes, don’t offer the usual counter-arguments such as the ever popular “you would make a terrific parent.” Ask "what brings you to this decision?" "have you begun the process?" And then listen to the answers. But, never help make the decisionif the young man or woman asks “Should I enter or not?” That is between the individual and God, no one else dare interfere with that dialog.

 

And pray that the young—or even not so young—man or women, will say with Mary,

 

Fiat mihi secundum tuum. 

 

“May it be done to me according to your will.” 

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 Photos were taken at the University of Melbourne during the one free week we had during tertianship.   Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia, founded in 1853, two years before Penn State.  Only had one afternoon wandering there but it was great. 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

On Eating a Piece of Fish_Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

 

On Eating a Piece of Fish: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8,9

Lk 24:35-48

 

The bulk of first readings during the Easter Season come from Acts of the Apostles. Acts was written by Luke, who wrote today's Gospel as well. The two books are sometime referred to as Luke-Acts to emphasize the common authorship.

Whereas the Gospel of Luke recounts the story of Jesus

beginning with the narrative of His Annunciation to the Ascension,

Acts is the story of the first years of the community that came to be known as The Church.  Acts is an important story because it is our story. It is the story of us as Church. Over the next weeks we will hear of the growth of the Church and the challenges newly forming community faced. These included arguments, infighting, jealousies, and defections. There never was a so-called ‘golden age’ of unity during which the Church was free from strife.  It is unlikely there ever will be no matter how many bumper-sticker like pronouncements are created.

As a happy counterbalance, we will also hear of the care given to the poor and less fortunate and the coming together as a community of those who believed in Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. It is a fascinating history.

In today’s reading from Acts Peter gives a short summary of the prophecies about Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the one for whom the world waited.  He assures his hearers that they and their leaders acted out of ignorance when they crucified Jesus. 

It is important to remember that this speech was some time after the resurrection and ascension.  How long did it take Peter and the others who witnessed Jesus’ passion and death to truly understand the resurrection?  How long did it take before they were able to internalize the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead? 

How long does it take us to realize the same thing? 

In the days immediately following Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, his followers' emotions were primarily those of confusion and consternation.  While we know the full story, they were living these events in real time.  Jesus had foretold his passion and death but none of those who heard him really understood. It is likely that they didn't truly understand until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

There is one odd but important detail in the Gospel.  After greeting His astonished disciples Jesus ate a piece of fish in front of them.  He did so for a specific reason.  Jesus ate the fish to prove that He had indeed risen bodily from the dead. He ate a bit of solid food to demonstrate to their uncertain hearts and confused minds that He was not a ghost, that He was not a spirit, that He was not a phantom or an hallucination.  He said,  “Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”  And then He requested something to eat to prove it to them and assuage their doubts. 

Only corporal beings need to eat.  Only physical beings are able to eat.  By eating a piece of fish in front of them Jesus gave proof to the prophecy, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.. .”

It was not a ghost standing in front of them. It was Jesus, risen from the dead. 

We have something in common with those disciples. Whenever we gather at the altar Jesus is as truly and substantially present to us as He was to His disciples in that room.  Thus we too look can look upon the true and risen Christ and exclaim with the shocked Thomas: “My Lord and my God.”

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Spring is coming and the flowers are being planted on the BC campus.  These are some shots from last year. 

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

 

Divine Mercy Sunday (2nd Sunday of Easter)

 

Acts 2:42-47

Ps 118:2-3, 13-15, 22-24

1 Pt 1:3-9

Jn 20:19-31

 

Seven years ago I was in Slovenia for Divine Mercy Sunday.  It is a major celebration there. The church was packed for three hours during which there was adoration, rosary,

Mass with a homily by the Archbishop of LJ, ending with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament.  Had I spoken Slovenian I’d probably still be sitting in a confessional.  The lines were huge.  My job was to take photos. By the time the day was over I’d taken some 700 and walked 3 ½ miles in the huge church.

 

It is fascinating that the writings of Faustina Kowalska, a poorly educated visionary religious sister, writings which were suppressed for a number of years, became a worldwide devotion. That devotion resulted in fellow Pole St. John Paul II designating the second Sunday of Easter as  Divine Mercy Sunday at her canonization, on May 5, 2000, a mere 62 years after her death.  

 

Saint Thomas Aquinas defined mercy as "the compassion in our hearts for another person's misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him" John Paul II defined mercy in his 1981 encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy,) in which he wrote:  "Mercy is love's second name" and mercy is "the greatest attribute of God."  Divine Mercy is the form that God's eternal love takes when He reaches out to us in the midst of our need and our brokenness, always ready to pour out His merciful

and compassionate love for us

to help in time of need.

Over the next weeks we will hear of the beginnings of the Church, particularly from Acts.

And we will hear a great deal from the Gospel of John.  It is important to remember that

neither John’s Gospel nor the synoptic gospels are, or were meant to be, albums with verbal snapshots of detailed scenes from Jesus' life.   The gospels are not a log book

that trace Jesus' daily movements or a diary of Jesus’ day-to-day thoughts. They are not history in the modern sense of the word. Any attempt to read them through the lens of modern historical conventions is doomed to failure and perhaps high comedy. 

 

We can never interpret the gospels in the light of the modern concepts of history, journalism, and science without frustration and faithlessness. Nor can we interpret or rewrite them through the lenses of modern ‘isms’ and ‘ists,  especially the modern isms and ists. The less said about novels such as The da Vinci Code the better. 

 

The last sentences of today’s Gospel puts things into perspective:  “Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.  But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that through this belief you may have life in His name.”

 

The Gospel proclaims one, and only one, essential truth, that Jesus of Nazareth,

of whom it speaks, is the Lord.  Thus, the fullness of Easter joy is contained in Thomas’ faith-filled, startled, and ultimately joyous proclamation:  "My Lord and My God." 

 

It is why we too can gaze upon the True Body and Blood of Christ at the consecration in a few minutes and say with Thomas and all the Church, “My Lord and My God.”  

 

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 The photos are from Divine Mercy Sunday in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2017. 

 

 

The congregation shot from under and behind the altar.

The rosary being recited

Mass

The image of Divine Mercy with the candles placed by the congregants

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD