*

FAITH

ON THE FIRST DAY
OF THE WEEK

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Faith On the First Day of the Week.”

Today’s gospel from John for this Easter Sunday begins this way, “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.”

Not only had Jesus died, was buried, but now the stone that closed his tomb was rolled back.

Imagine going through a family death – going through the whole process – the death bed moment when a loved one dies – getting an undertaker – the phone calls, the planning, the wake, the funeral, the graveyard, the luncheon afterwards – the saying good bye to close friends – coming back to the house with family – the difficult sleep that night – and getting up very early the next morning and driving to the cemetery. You’re all alone. You walk to the grave site. You stop. There is a big empty hole in the ground. You saw the back hoes off to the side the day before. You figured the grave was filled with dirt. No! Down below the casket is open and there is no body. You panic. There is nobody around. You drive back to the house and you grab two other members from your family and you say, “I just went to the cemetery. Something’s wrong! There’s just a hole in the ground. The casket is empty.” And the three of you quickly get in a car and head to the cemetery. Sure enough, there is a hole in the ground. The casket is open. There is no body.

What would that be like?

The Gospels have various accounts of that first Easter. It went something like that with regards the stone and the tomb and the missing body. Then the gospels present some rather powerful scenes when Jesus comes back in his resurrected body.

DEATH DEMANDS FAITH

When it comes to whether there is life after death – resurrection – faith is necessary. If you’ve hit 50 and you haven’t thought about whether there is life after this life or not, then you aren’t thinking. By 50 you should have had doubts – wonderings – questions – and felt the need for faith.

After 50: death, doubts, fears, faith, and lots more. After 60 it’s having to get up to go to the bathroom in the night – and sometimes you can’t back to sleep – and after 70 questions can keep us awake.

The title of my homily is, “Faith On The First Day of the Week.”

Notice I added to the opening words of today’s gospel, the word “faith”: “Faith on the First day of the Week” – because I want to get into the issue of faith in this homily – because that’s why we’re here today – this Sunday – this first day of the week – this first day of Jesus’ New Life after his death.

Christians believe only one person came back from the dead for sure: Jesus Christ. **
This is a primary faith issue.

In this homily I’d like to present four things about faith:
1. Faith is a Relationship
2. Faith Takes Time,
3. Faith Is A Gift
4. Faith Needs Witnesses

1) FAITH IS A RELATIONSHIP

Faith is a relationship. Faith is a relationship with God – the invisible God. For the Christian, it’s faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - all three – and all three as one.

When you pray, when you take time to be in relationship with God, do you pray, “Father” or “Jesus” or “Spirit”.

Like any lover, what’s that inner name you have for the one you love?

2) FAITH TAKES TIME

Faith takes time.

Notice in today’s gospel that the faithful disciple – many think it’s John – is the first to believe – and Peter doesn’t get it at first.

Faith takes time – as in any relationship.

John sees the cloths – and without even putting together all that the scriptures has said – he believes.

Peter is not as quick – in running or believing.

Mary of Magdala waits outside – and in the next section of the gospel of John we find out she meets Jesus – thinks he’s the gardener – and then realizes – this is Jesus – Rabbi, Teacher, Master, The One Who Loved her when various others didn’t – and labeled her as one of life’s losers.

Faith takes time.

Thomas will have doubts – as we’ll hear in next Sunday’s gospel – called for centuries, “Doubting Thomas Sunday” – and we thank Thomas for teaching Jesus’ followers, it’s okay to have doubts.

But don’t forget Thomas prayer: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

This Easter as reported in the Baltimore Sun last Sunday, this Easter the Archdiocese of Baltimore has the largest class of converts in the past decade. 984 local adults prepared this eight months in R.C.I.A. programs to become Catholics last night. This was a third more than joined the church locally in 2008. We had 39 in this parish. I looked at them last night – a wonderful mix of folks – the majority of them looked like plus 25 young middle aged adults.

Last Sunday’s article in the Baltimore Sun by Matthew Hay Brown began this way, “A police officer assigned to watch over a church nursery during Mass overhears the homily and becomes intrigued. A retail manager struggling with the loss of hours at work is inspired by the faith of his fiancée. A married mother of two looks for answers after two siblings are stricken with cancer.” **
Faith takes time. Some are born Catholic Christians. Some become Catholics in God’s good time. Not everyone enters the vineyard at the same hour. Some leave and come back from time to time.

What time period of your faith are you in now?

I discovered something very interesting in talking with couples getting married. They take a long questionnaire. One section is entitled “Religion and Philosophy”. There are some questions on church attendance. The hope is to get folks talking about the state of their faith – because it will be part of the state of their union.

I discovered that some people went to Mass because their parents made them go – and then dropped out. Then when talking about going to church, couples would say, “We see ourselves going to go to Mass when we have kids to give them good example.”

After about ten times it dawned on me to say: “Imagine going to church to please one’s parents for years and then imagine going to church to give good example to one’s kids, but never going to church because I want to go to church?”

Then sometimes I compare a relationship with God with their relationship with each other. Both take faith. Every relationship has its ups and downs – doubts and wonderings – did I make the right choice? Then sometimes I add, “Here is where covenant comes in. By getting married in church you are asking God to come into the picture – into your relationship.” Hopefully, a couple are not getting married in church just to make parents happy.

Adult faith takes time. It’s a process. I always remember reading an article by a religious brother years ago. The title and theme was: “The reasons why I entered are different from the reasons I’m staying.”

God, is that true of being a priest, being married, being a Christian!

Hopefully we grow and develop. Faith takes time. There’s a lot more for this second point – there are plenty more Sundays.

3) FAITH IS A GIFT

Having done tons of high school retreats and this and that with kids, faith as a gift is often not seen that way. Having listened to lots and lots of adults in the second half of life, let me tell you that something happens along the way that gets folks to see faith is a gift.

And gifts can be lost.

Before the horrible priest scandal in the Catholic Church, the worst thing I experienced was seeing priests who lost the gift of faith. Some left the priesthood. Some left the faith. I was ordained in the 60’s – 1965 – and a lot of things happened in the late 60s and early 70’s. I could see a priest leaving to get married and have a family, but to see a priest lose his faith. Tough stuff.

Faith is a gift and gifts can be lost.

Faith as a gift came home to me one morning – standing at my brother’s grave with his best buddy – who was Jewish. Marty believes in God, but he told me standing there that he doesn’t believe in an afterlife. Talk about a roadside bomb. Boom. I told him some Jews believe in a resurrection.

I remember asking my brother when he heard he had 18 months to live, “How are you going to deal with this?” He paused and said, “I’ll let you know.” And he let me know just before he died – when he said, “Thank God for mom and dad giving us the gift of faith.”

4) FAITH NEEDS WITNESSES
Faith needs moms and dads, brothers and sisters, who are living the Christian faith.

I remember a man named Willie Lukianski – who wanted to talk about God. He had never been baptized or gone to church. We met over a period of months. This was before the R.C.I.A. program. He couldn’t believe in God. Nothing convinced him – but eventually he made an act of faith – not in God – but in the people of God. All these people going to church every Sunday can’t be wrong. So with that he was baptized – and he died of brain cancer about three years later.

Faith needs witnesses. We give witness to each other every time we come to church – and every time we live the Christian faith.

Faith needs people at work who give a full day’s work, who don’t cheat – who give quality work.

I’m not talking about “mouthy” faith – I’m talking about action – witness – living the gospel.

Don’t you love the quote that is attributed to St. Francis, “Preach the gospel. Sometimes use words.”

In today's second reading, from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthinans, he's telling us that we are called to be yeast that leavens all the dough - the whole loaf of Bread, the whole Body of Christ, the whole Community. Yeast has no mouth - just growing action.

I became a priest because we had a fun family life – prayed and played cards and listened to the radio together. I became a priest because I grew up in a great parish. I saw good nuns and Redemptorist priests and brothers in our parish when growing up. I stayed a priest because I saw wonderful Catholics – some of whom were priests – who were real, authentic, joyful, human beings – and doing life this way made sense.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily was: Faith On the First Day of the Week.

For starters faith expressed by coming to church each Sunday with family - with a Christian community helps increases our faith – and then helps us live it during the week.

Faith on the first day of the week helps us bring Christ and his love, insights, challenges to the other 6 days of the week – helping us make each day sweeter and better for each other.

O O O O O O O O O

* Painting on top: St. Mary Magdalene at the Sepulchre, by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, c. 1530-1539, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California

** Monday morning quarterbacking .... Second thoughts .... There is an old saying for preaching, "You're allowed one heresy in every sermon." Obviously, I don't want to preach heresy - in fact, I try to avoid "bumps" in a sermon or in writing. By "bumps" I mean something that hits the listener or reader and they get out of sync at that point. While driving to my niece's for Easter Dinner yesterday, after preaching at two Easter Sunday morning Masses, I found myself a tiny bit out of sync. I was wondering about a comment in this homily, "Christians believe only one person came back from the dead for sure: Jesus Christ." What about the Catholic teaching about Mary in the Dogma of the Assumption? What about the Saints? What about the Communion of All Saints? What about everyone who dies and is lifted into God - invited into the Eternal Banquet? What about the 15th Chapter of First Corinthians? These are thoughts for another day - as well as my hope for reality in eternity in the Trinity. How's that for a way to avoid heresy and the Great Unknown - the Great Question - the Great Hope - Life after death?

*** Matthew Hay Brown, "Surge In Converts to Catholicism," Baltimore Sun, April 5, 2009, pages 1, 14

THE PERSON
ON THE OTHER CROSS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “The Person on The Other Cross.”

KEVIN O’NEIL, REDEMPTORIST

On Tuesday, last week, March 31st, 2009, Father Kevin O’Neil, a Redemptorist from Washington D.C., gave us a very reflective presentation on “The Seven Last Words of Christ.” *

We sat here at St. John Neumann Church and looked up at this powerful crucifix of Jesus – bigger than life – overhanging us here in this church. When we walked into the church that evening the lights were low and a projector flashed – power pointed - The Seven Last Words of Jesus over and over and over again – onto the wall around the crucifix - giving us a preview of the evening.

As you know the 7 Last Words of Jesus are 7 sentences – 7 statements – 7 messages of Jesus on the cross:

· “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
· “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
· “Woman, here is your son. Here is your mother.”
· “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
· “I am thirsty."
· “It is finished."
· “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Then as he gave a reflection on each of the 7 Last Words of Jesus only that statement was projected on the wall – on either side of Jesus. I was thinking this is probably the best church in the world for such a presentation. It was a powerful presentation if it got us out of ourselves and into the suffering and death of Jesus Christ – and not me thinking of technology.

THE READINGS AND THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Hearing one of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Songs, today’s first reading, hearing today’s second reading from Hebrews that we have a great high priest who cried great prayers and supplications as he was dying on the Cross, hearing the Gospel Passion story from John – like we did just now – making the Stations of the Cross – which many did today and during Lent, has the same purpose, to get us out of ourselves and into the mystery of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

GETTING OUT OF OURSELVES

What gets us out of ourselves?

Often it’s when the other is suffering.

Last night as I was sitting down there in those side seats for the Holy Thursday Evening Mass – which has the foot washing – the scripture readings of the Passover Meal, the giving of the Eucharist, I couldn’t help but notice the empty cross. Nobody was on it. It's the cross that will be used in procession this evening and we will all come up the aisle to venerate it.

Last night as I looked at the empty cross, I began to ask: “Who’s on that cross?”

Last night I began to think: “I can project images of people onto that empty cross.”

Who’s there?

Who’s hurting?

Who gets me out of myself?

It’s a basic human experience that we’ve all said many, many times, “I thought I had it bad, till I met this person who ….”

Who’s on that cross?

I see those who will be experiencing an Easter for the first time without a loved one who has died.

I see those who have a loved one in Afghanistan or Iraq.

I see those whose marriage is falling apart.

I see those who feel mistaken, misunderstood, misjudged.

I see those out of work – and the bills are piling up – and they have to tell the kids.

I see those with cancer.

I see my brother Billy - this was years ago - being told he had to take his hat off when we went into a restaurant in Baltimore – and I was furious – but he took it off – his head without hair and with cuts – the last stages of his brain cancer – but praise God his sense of taste and his appetite came back that February. He died a month later.

I see a kid on our block when I was a kid. He was very effeminate and we picked on him – having no clue about such things – and when he came out of the closet years later – he came out with a vengeance – but it gave me a life time understanding of people who are homosexual – and I was able to say on weekend retreats when people started gay bashing in Question and Answer sessions. “Does anyone realize that someone in this room might be gay or someone in this room might have a son or daughter who is gay – and it has been a long, long struggle for understanding and compassion?” And sometimes some people heard.

I see Sister Helen Prejean who in 1984 walked with a man named Patrick Sonnier to his electrocution for murdering with his brother a young man David LeBlanc – an only son. The letters, attacks, insults, she received were countless. She writes, “I reached out to victims’ families – even if they scorned me, rejected me, hurled insults at me. My suffering was nothing, piddling nothing, next to their great sorrow in the violent, tearing, irrevocable loss of their loved one.” She said what helped her was meeting with the father of David LeBlanc. She writes, “We prayed together, Lloyd and I, and soon I was seated at his kitchen table, eating with the family, they forgiving my terrible mistake, taking me in like a lost daughter." She continues, “As I write this, my heart still resonates with gratitude. Lloyd was my first teacher. Through him I got a peek into the chasm of suffering that families endure, who wake up one morning and everything is alive and humming and normal and by evening face the unalterable fact of the death of a loved one.” **

CONCLUSION

Mary lost her only son that afternoon – capital punishment. What did she go through this Friday evening?

We come to these services to get out of ourselves – so we can enter into not only Christ, but also the lives of those around us – and when we can – be there for them – willing to listen – willing to learn – willing to admit we don’t know, but we do care.

We come to these services to walk out of here – better than when we walked in here – better than how we were when Lent started this year – and year after year we grow – and hopefully, when we are on that other cross, there will be folks under us – and the words between us will be forgiveness, compassion, thirst, hope, acceptance of endings, understanding, letting go – and when that happens, it will be a Good Friday, or Good Monday or Good Thursday or whatever day it is.



* Kevin O'Neil, C.Ss.R, The Seven Last Words of Christ, Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO., 2007

**Cf. "Ride the Current," Listening to God's Call by Helen Prejean, C.S.J., America Magazine, April 13, 2009, 100th Anniversary Edition, pp. 36-37

THE LAST SUPPER*

INTRODUCTION

The title of this homiletic reflection is, “The Last Supper!”

As humans we know the meaning of supper – the importance of eating together.

The family that eats together stays together – is in communion with each other.

As Christians we know the meaning of the Mass – the importance of sharing words together – eating – breaking bread – sharing the cup – and praying together.

The family that worships and prays and talks and listens to and with each other stays together – stays in communion with each other.

With our Judeo-Christian background, we know the meaning of Holy Thursday – the day of the Last Supper – the day of the Passover Meal. We know the meaning of Covenant.

Today – Holy Thursday – is the day of the Passover – the sacred meal – the Last Supper of Jesus – when he gave himself body and blood in a New Covenant with us.

THE GOSPELS

Compared to John, Mathew, Mark and Luke are rather brief in their presentation of the story of the Last Supper – the Last Passover Meal of Jesus with his disciples. They give the key ingredients of the Last Supper: bread, wine, “This is my body…. This is my blood…”, covenant and giving, as well as the predictions of betrayal and denial…. “Surely not I Lord, surely not I Lord?”

John - chapters 13-17 - presents what the others pass over: the foot washing, the new commandment to love one another as Jesus loves us, the sayings, “I am the way the truth and the life”, the metaphor and poetry of the true vine and a woman about to give birth has great pain – but all that pain and sorrow goes away when everyone experiences a new birth. John gives us Jesus’ long farewell address – contrasting fear with trust, service of others with self serving, leaving and coming back again, joy and sorrow, being an orphan, feeling alone, and the Presence of the Father, Our Father, in our lives as well as the promise of the Spirit in our lives, in our story.

The Jewish Scriptures, Jewish tradition, as well as the gospels tell us it’s the Passover Night – when families gathered together and the question was asked, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” And the answer was always the same: “This is the night our ancestors passed over from slavery to freedom, from Egypt towards the Promised Land. This is the night the Lambs were slain – their blood sprinkled on the entrance to the Israelite homes and Death passed over that house. This is the night of the unleavened bread – the rushed bread – because time was of the essence. This was the night of the various cups of wine – red wine that looked like red blood – like the red blood sprinkled on our doorposts to save us from Death.

Holy Thursday is the day we celebrate the Eucharist – the Christian Passover Meal. Why is this night different from all other nights? Because on this night Jesus gave us the Eucharist – the Passover Meal for Christians that brings together our people – and we listen to our scriptures. We share our bread and our wine, the Body and Blood of Jesus – and we ask that Jesus blood be smeared on the doors of our being.

Tonight Catholics all over the world will gather together to celebrate the Mass, the Passover Meal, the Last Supper.

CONCLUSION

Our reading from Hebrews 2: 9-10 is from a deep Christian text from around 67 A.D. It’s title “Hebrews” is from the 2nd Century – and it implies that the Christian Community it was written to and for – knew its Hebrew roots – knew the Hebrew stories, temple, covenant, worship. Christ replaces the old priesthood. It presents how early Christians saw Jesus as the High Priest who brings us Redemption – and that’s what we celebrate this week, Holy Week, these three days, the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter – this day, Holy Thursday.




* A 2001 Painting on top by Simon Dewey, a British artist, who lives in Alberta, Canada. Check out the painting in living color by typing in his name and the painting, "Last Supper" on Google.

This was a reflection for our Morning Prayer - Holy Thursday - April 9, 2009.

THE VEIL OF THE SANCTUARY
WAS TORN IN TWO
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM!

INTRODUCTION

The title of my short homily for Palm Sunday is long, “The Veil of the Sanctuary Was Torn In Two From Top to Bottom!”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel – which we just heard – has 2,378 words. Most Sunday gospel readings will have from 200 to 300 words.

Today let’s look at 13 words – “The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Mark says near the end of his Passion Account – the one we listen to this year – the year of Mark: “Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.” We then knelt and paused. Then we stood and heard the words, “The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.’”

WHAT IS MARK TELLING US?

What is Mark telling us?

It’s a good rule when reading scripture to say, “Nothing is in here by accident. Everything has a reason.”

Here are two possible reasons why Mark is telling us what the centurion said and why the veil of the temple was ripped in two from top to bottom.

FIRST THE CENTURION

The centurion would be a Roman – an outsider.

Christianity would start in Israel, in Jerusalem, in that Upper Room and on that cross and then spread to the Roman world which used crucifixion as their method of capital punishment.

So the first person after Jesus’ death – who recognized that this person called Jesus was different – was an outsider. He saw this before Jesus’ resurrection. He said this man was the Son of God.

It would take the Early Church years and a series of heresies and councils and creeds in an effort to articulate and formulate how someone could be both God and Man – the Mystery of Christ – but here was a start.

SECOND: THE TEMPLE

The temple in Jerusalem mentioned here in Mark 15:38 was the center of Israel’s faith and religion.

It was there in Jerusalem. It was the so called “Second Temple” which was extended very dramatically by Herod – as part of his major building projects somewhere around 19 B.C. It was finished in about 10 years – but ongoing decorations and improvements kept on being made for 46 years as we hear in the Gospel of John (Cf. John 2:20) – and wasn’t completely finished till A.D. 64. [I don’t know if every Sabbath they had a second collection – for a building and maintenance fund.] Six years later the Romans burnt it down.

Going backwards in time, this Second Temple was the temple rebuilt by Zerubbabel around 537 B.C. – after the Babylonian Captivity. It was most probably built on the spot where Solomon’s great temple, The First Temple – was built way back in 9th Century B.C. The Wailing Wall in present day Jerusalem is thought to be from the First Temple: Solomon’s Temple.

Mid-east temples – Jewish, Egyptian, Mesopotamian – were God’s house – not the worshipper’s house.

We don’t or won’t get all this. It would be like all of us were not in here right now – but outside in the narthex or lobby – or Seelos Hall or the other chapel and the corridors and the rooms – and men and women would be separated – and outsiders would be outside.

In here there would be two areas. Where you are right now would be The Holy Place with an altar and other religious fixtures. Then up here a veil would cover the entrance to the sanctuary - a place, a room, called "The Holy Of Holies" – a totally dark empty space – where God is contained. One priest, the high priest, would enter into this space, only once a year – on the day of the Atonement – the At-One-Ment.

Mark is telling us in his way what Jesus was saying in the Gospel of John, “Destroy this sanctuary” – meaning himself – “and I will raise it up in three days.” [Cf. John 2:13-22]

This gospel of Mark and the other Gospels and the rest of the New Testament is telling us that God cannot be localized or contained or kept in the dark. God fills the earth in Christ, the light of the world. Paul is going to spell it out even deeper that Christ fills the universe and fills the Christian Community – the body of Christ. As we heard in today’s Letter from Paul to the Philippians, because Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, lowered himself, “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross…. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Scholars tell us this text and this letter were written before Mark – and is probably a primitive early Christian hymn.*

CONCLUSION

There’s more, but those two items are enough for a month of Sundays and a lifetime to reflect upon. We begin Holy Week today. Take time this week to enter into this holy place and leave realizing Jesus is here – and in every place. He’s on the cross and on the donkey. He’s in bread and he’s in wine, in the tabernacle after Mass and in the brother and sister especially when she or he need our love.

Yes there is a tendency for us to nail him down – lock him in – but when Jesus cries, dies, the veil in the temple is ripped as Jesus keeps moving around in our world.

Truly this man is the Son of God.

This homily was 978 words - but the only Word we need to be with this Holy Week is The Word: Jesus.

* Cf. Brendan Byrne, S.J., "The Letter to the Philippians," in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 792 for Date, and pp. 794-795 for The Christ-Hymn; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., "The Gospel According to Mark," also in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 596.

LEMA SABACHTHANI?

The lonely question,
the only question,
the unanswered question,
the most powerful question:
“Lema sabachthani?”

Lord, Lord, how many times
have you cried those words to me?*

*Cf. Matthew 27:46;

Mark 15:34;

Psalm 22:1
© Andy Costello, Prayers, 2009

PEACE IN THE VALLEY

Peace in the valley….
Lord, let there be
peace in the valley,
peace in this valley called me.

Peace in the valley….

Lord, rain down your living waters,
waters sinking deep into the ground of
my being, deep into the soil of my soul.

Peace in the valley….
Lord, lead me to accept my rocks
and hard places, my thorns and my thistles,
but work with me to cultivate the most of me.

Peace in the valley….
Lord, may my wheat fields flourish,
may my grapes be plentiful,
thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.

© Andy Costello, Prayers, 2009

WEARINESS

We all have our weariness
and needs we cannot name.

At times we’re antsy, angry, uneasy,
unsure of just what to say or do.

But if we open our ear, we might hear,
“Be still and know that I AM God!”*

Be still and know that I AM near.
Be still and know that I AM here.

*Cf. Psalm 46:10

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009