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INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Outrageously Happy.”
I picked up a book of Anthony De Mello’s mini-stories the other day entitled, More One Minute Nonsense. In it he tells the story of a religious Master or Teacher, whose wife recently gave birth to their first born son. He sat there constantly looking at his son – overwhelmed - amazed - at the beauty of this new born baby boy.
Someone asked him, “What do you want him to be when he grows up?”
And the Master said, “Outrageously happy.”
There’s a new answer to the old question, “What do you want to be when your grow up?”
Answer: “Outrageously happy.”
Isn’t that a great answer?
Question: what do we have to do to be outrageously happy?
TODAY’S READINGS: 3 SECRETS OF HAPPINESS
I was wondering what to preach about on this Second Sunday after Easter – also called “Divine Mercy Sunday” – also called “Doubting Thomas Sunday” ** – and we’re also supposed to say something about the environment and Earth Day – which comes up next Wednesday – April 22.
For some reason the theme that hit me to preach on today was happiness. Maybe it was because I picked up that book by De Mello and discovered that neat story about wanting to be “Outrageously Happy”. Or maybe it was because last Sunday we were saying “Happy Easter” Whatever! I’m not sure. A homily is supposed to flow from the readings of the day, so I’ll be working in reverse this Sunday. I'm starting with a story and using today’s readings to come up with 3 secrets of happiness.
FIRST SECRET: HAVE A CONSCIOUS AWARENESS OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN MY LIFE
A first secret would be to have a conscious awareness of the presence of God in my life. Walk with God each day. For the Christian, Jesus Christ certainly makes faith in God that much easier.
The disciples felt empty because Jesus had died.
Surprise: “Christ has died; Christ has risen…. Christ keeps coming again and again and again.”
The disciples – including Thomas – met the Risen Christ. We are called to meet him by faith. As Jesus said in today’s gospel of those who don’t have the Upper Room experience, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
In today’s gospel Jesus comes into the Upper Room. He doesn’t ask, “Is everybody happy?” Obviously, they are down in the Upper Room – filled with fear. All their plans for the future were changed with Jesus’ arrest and death on the cross. They were numb. They were dumb – not knowing what to do next.
The Risen Christ says two times, “Peace be with you!”
In today’s gospel Thomas wasn’t there when all this happened and as a result he couldn’t believe. He was out of the loop. I assume he wasn’t happy about it.
A week later Jesus comes back and this time Thomas is there and Jesus says to them once more, “Peace be with you.”
Then he has Thomas put his fingers into his cuts and wounds and says, “Stop your unbelief. Believe.”
Thomas did so and said, “My Lord and my God.”
I grew up with people whispering at Mass – right after the consecration – when the priest lifts the bread and wine up, “My Lord and my God.” It’s Thomas’ words from today’s gospel. Someone must have taught my mom and dad to say that when they went to Mass – because sitting next to my mom, I often heard her whisper after the consecration, “My Lord and my God.”
Obviously, believing Jesus is in the Bread – and in the Wine – and he wants to nourish and feed us with himself makes life that much easier.
Obviously, sensing, knowing, feeling God’s presence undergirding – underpinning – one’s life – makes life that much easier.
This doesn’t mean one doesn’t have doubts – like Thomas did – but resolving doubts can bring happiness. So we’re allowed to question, doubt, all that, but at different points we have to make a clear conscious decision to walk with God each day.
I love the old saying, “The secret of happiness is the ability to say three words 'Yes', 'No' and 'Wow.'” The secret of being unhappy is constantly saying, 2 words, “If" and 'Maybe.”
Smiley Blanton once said something like this: "After 25 years of counseling people with problems, I began to realize people who are messed up were saying out loud to me all those years two words – the same two words – over and over again. ‘If only!’" If only this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen, I’d be happy, Then he learned to try to teach people to say two new words, “Next time.”
So secret # 1 is to say “Yes there is a God! Yes I want to walk with you today!”
Doing this we will begin to see God more and more in our life – and we’ll say “Wow!” not just when seeing tiny children at church, but also seeing kidsd in a shopping cart as we come around the corner in Giant. We’ll stop to look at the night sky and the spring flowers and we’ll say, “Wow!” We’ll find ourselves talking to God while taking a shower and thank him for water and then bread and coffee and cereal while eating breakfast.
SECOND SECRET: FORGIVENESS AND MERCY
A second secret is the ability to forgive and to accept forgiveness.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Wow is that correct. It’s not just priests who have the power to forgive sins. It’s not just in confession where forgiveness needs to take place. Everyone of us has the ability to forgive or to hold onto sins or mistakes or cuts or hurts. Carrying hurts hurt us.
We have all made mistakes and we’ve all been hurt.
That same parent who gloated over us – or that same kid whom we took a thousand pictures of us – can also have hurt us – or we perceive hurt us – by something they said or did to us.
Forgiveness sometimes is letting another see our hurt – communication - and the other’s eyes are opened. They might even say, “My Lord and my God I didn’t know that hurt you so much. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”
And we can say in response, “Yes” or “No!” or “Wow! You finally see what I have been thinking or feeling all these years. Thank you!”
Human beings – friends, husbands and wives – brothers and sisters need to sit down in upper rooms and let each other into each others upper rooms - each other’s minds – each others cuts and bruises – and bloody messes - and say to each other after being in communion with another’s hurt, “Peace be with you.”
One of the names for this Sunday is "Divine Mercy Sunday". We are called to accept and receive the Divine Mercy of God and this should make us outrageously happy.
Anthony De Mello has another little story in his book More One Minute Nonsense. This story is a lot more subtle than my opening story about the Master who kept looking at his new born son. A preacher says to the Master. “Allow me to explain the Good News my religion proclaims. The Master was all attention. 'God is love. And he loves and rewards us forever if we observe His commandments.' 'IF?' said the Master. Then the news isn’t all that good, is it?”
Commandments are important as mentioned in today’s second reading, but mercy is all about forgiveness – and to hear Jesus say from the cross, “Father forgive him or her because she didn’t know what she or he was doing.”
God’s forgiveness, God’s Divine Mercy, is unconditional.
Isn’t that true? Divine Mercy – the outrageous mercy – the outrageous forgiveness of Jesus can make us outrageously happy – because Jesus taught we can be forgiven 70 x 7 times. We can come into the garden at the last hour. We can even leap into paradise from the thief’s cross. Prodigal Sons and Daughters are always welcome home and a banquet will there for us – even if older brothers and sisters are furious about returning sinners and outrageously happy fathers embracing them.
THIRD SECRET: LETTING GO! EVERYTHING IS EVERYBODY’S
In today’s first reading, we have the famous text, “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.”
Happiness is the ability to let go - and to give to others. Unhappiness is trying to have it all.
Happiness is to know the whole world is our's – stress on "our's". Stress comes when I think it’s all mine – every conversation – every truth – everything.
This whole earth is ours. Let’s share with one another. This whole earth is ours, let’s work together to make it beautiful – and not abuse it.
Want to know the secret of unhappiness? It's wanting and expecting everyone and every day to go my way. The prayer of the unhappy person is, "My will be done on earth and in heaven. Do you hear that God?" Want to know the secret of happiness. It's laughing because most of the time, life doesn't go my way. So the prayer of the happy person is, "Thy will be done!" "Thy" being God and the person who doesn't use their blinker.
Looking at today’s first reading about everything being held in common, talk about communism. Christian groups down through the centuries have tried to live this vision. They based their communal experiment on Acts 4:32-35. Rarely has it worked.
I remember talking to a young man who had joined a very strict religious community that practiced communal everything. You threw all your clothes into a common laundry and just picked out what you needed from the common pile after everything came out of the dryer. I want my own jockey shorts. Communal underwear would be a tough one.
But down deep there is a secret of happiness here somewhere. Possessions can possess us. Other’s possessions can drive us crazy. Two major sins - jealousy and envy - lurk around stuff.
People often mix up these two sins. Jealousy has to do with stuff I have and I don’t want anyone to take my stuff – or my people. Envy has to do with other people’s stuff that I want.
Knowing we die naked as we came into this world – can bring us peace and happiness.
The Guru I mentioned at the opening of this sermon sat and studied his newborn baby son and wanted him to be outrageously happy. Saints have also studied the dead. You’ve all see statues of saints with skulls at their feet. And they learned to be outrageously happy because they learned we can’t take anything with us.
CONCLUSION
Are you outrageously happy? If not my homily gave three thoughts for this week.
1) Walk with God each day. Make acts of faith in his presence in your upper room, your mind each day.
2) Forgive and be forgiven. Is there a hurt against me or something I’ve done to hurt another that’s weighing me down?
3) Let go of everything. Am I stuffed with stuff, possessed by possessions? Am I unhappy because of what I don’t have? Do I ever say “Wow” about what I have, especially this great big beautiful planet I’m living on?
O O O O O O O
* Photo on top - at one of my niece's weddings with two of my favorite nieces: Claire on my left and Jeanne on my right.
** This Sunday after Easter has also been called "Low Sunday" comparing it to the "High Sunday" the week before: "Easter Sunday." I hope in the next 100 years, someone will write a doctoral dissertation on why Divine Mercy Sunday became such a "Big Sunday" - seemingly to become for some bigger than Easter. We just finished Lent - with a stress on Penance and the Sacrament of Reconciliation - and surprise a whole group of people appear who want the Sacrament of Reconciliation again. I have questions. Is it because the so called revelations of Saint Faustina were written down before the Liturgical Renewal in the Catholic Church? I am aware that many liturgical renewal pioneers were around during the life time of St. Faustina [1905-1938] - and I assume they are turning in their graves with the placement of this feast of Divine Mercy at this time - the Sunday after Easter. [Cf. Diary of Saint Maria Fausina Kowalska, Marian Press, Stockbridge MA, 01263 - The 2008 Edition, # 49, page 24.] I also wonder at times if the Divine Mercy painting by Adolf Hyla - based on images of Jesus that Faustina said she saw - as well as his imagination - became widespread as the image of Jesus when the image of Jesus as the Sacred Heart lessened. I don't know if this is true, hence my hope for a Doctoral Dissertation as well as studies on this phenomenon. Type into Google, "St. Faustina" and/ or "Divine Mercy Painting" and see where that will take you. Her Diary was on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1959 and remained there for 20 years. It was taken off after advocates of her writings said the Vatican based their decision on a faulty Italian translation of Sister Faustina's Diary. Others say there are still serious theological questions that need to be considered. My position - not a studied position - is that if we have had many, many, many studies on our Scripture texts - and very little on this Diary, then I will not make a big deal of this diary. The Catholic Church often takes the so called "Gamaliel Principle" on these matters - that is, the principle of "Wait and see" or "Give this time" to see where truth lies. [Cf. Acts 5:34-39.] There are many "revelations" out there - and they seem to "grab" some folks. One of my wonderings is: if the last pope wasn't from Poland - would we have in our missallettes for this Sunday, the words, "Divine Mercy Sunday"? It would certainly help to have an advocate who was familar with Sister Faustina's story. And to add to the list of names for this Sunday, this Sunday was also called "Pascha clausum" the close of the Easter Octave. It was also called "Quasimodo Sunday". The Introit - the old entrance rite prayers for this Sunday began, "Quasi modo geniti infantes...." It was referring to the newly baptized at Easter - as well as our human renewal and restoration at Easter because of the Risen Christ. Those familiar with Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, would know this was the day "Quasimodo" was left abandoned at Notre Dame - hence his name. Let me end this long, long, long footnote, by saying that if I mentioned from the pulpit all these scattered comments, I would expect "uproar" or "ho hum" or "What in the world is this priest talking about?" I keep quiet when I experience people whom I think are really "off on" Divine Mercy Sunday - because I have many questions about private revelations. I don't have enough time for my regular ongoing study of the Bible which I have been studying for the last 50 plus years, so I'm not going to take that much time on so called, "private revelations". Why this title of "Divine Mercy Sunday" made it into our liturgy - I don't understand - hence my call for many studies on Saint Faustina's Diary - and this phenomenon called, "Divine Mercy Sunday."
