Leaving
"Someday when we meet up yonder,
We'll stroll hand in hand a- gain.
In a land that knows no parting..."
William H. Nelson, "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain"
I'm going to warn you ahead of time. My homily today is going to be kind of like a root canal. It may hurt a little bit, but hopefully it'll be good for you. At least you'll feel better when it's over.
Last weekend Jan and I helped our son, Patrick, move to Huntsville, AL. He's the third of our four kids and he's going to graduate school at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I don't like to brag about my kids, but along with grad school classes, Patrick was also chosen to be a research assistant at the National Space Science Technology Center, which is on the UAH campus. The reason I tell you that is to make the point that this is a heck of an opportunity for our son. It was an offer that was too good to pass up.
It was also incredibly hard for him, and for the rest of his family and friends. We've been blessed in that none of our kids have ever lived outside the state of Missouri. Mike went to school in Springfield for a year and the other three all went to Mizzou at one time or another. But Huntsville's 441 miles from here, about a six and a half hour drive.
Psychologists tell us that some of the most stressful events in our lives are marriage, divorce, the death of a loved one, losing our jobs, and kids going away to school. Notice that the one thing they all have in common is that they involve someone leaving. Surprisingly, marriage is one of the most stressful of all. But, as Paul says in the second reading, a man must leave his father and mother. Leaving is hard.
As we backed out of the parking lot in front of Patrick's apartment last Sunday, he was standing on the sidewalk waving goodbye and it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Each of us (Megan and Tim went along to help) was leaving one person and we were coming back to St. Louis which is familiar territory. Patrick was leaving all of his family, his girlfriend, and all of his other friends to live in a town he doesn't know, to go to an unfamiliar school where he only knows one person.
I'm sure everyone here has experienced a painful separation. Now comes the root canal part. I want each of you to close your eyes and think about a time when you were separated from someone you love. Really think about it. What was it like? How did you feel? Take a minute to reflect on those feelings. It hurts, doesn't it?
Today's Gospel is about leaving. It's a continuation of last week's story. Jesus has begun to teach that He is the Living Bread. He says "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
Today we see how the people respond. "As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him." They left.
As the Son of God, Jesus is all about love. He loves everyone, even His enemies. We know that He has strong emotions. Imagine how he must have felt when all those people, his friends and disciples, turned and walked away.
Patrick is a long way away, but it's still less than a day away by car and a few hours away by air. He'll probably be home for Thanksgiving and we know he'll be home for Christmas. Even when a loved one passes away, our faith tells us that we'll see that person again. The separation isn't permanent.
But, Jesus has just told the crowd "“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." This separation is permanent. They've turned their back on the Lord and His teaching. Imagine the grief he must have felt. It must have been almost unbearable.
He turned to the Twelve and asked “Do you also want to leave?” I wish I was good enough to read that question with anything like the emotion that Jesus must have had in His voice. Not only has He lost some of his friends....forever, but He must have felt that He let His Father down, too. He's been sent to spread the Good News and some people just aren't getting it.
Just imagine how emotional that must have been for Him.
So do we really think it's any different now? Doesn't Jesus feel just as much anguish, just as much pain, when we walk away today? Many of our brothers and sisters, some even calling themselves Catholic, have walked away just as surely as those people in the Gospel. Jesus loves every one of us equally. When He loses one of us forever, it must be agony for Him.
Of course, the agony for the ones who walk away won't come right away. We don't know much about heaven and hell, but we do know that the souls in hell are separated from Christ forever. That's what hell is. Constant pain and anguish caused by the separation from our Heavenly Father. Going back to that separation that I asked you to remember earlier, imagine having that feeling multiplied many times over, for all eternity. If that's not hell, I don't know what is.
I know you're all good people. You live good lives and do your best to follow everything that the Lord and His Church teach. But, I know you know someone, probably someone you love, who has turned his or her back on Christ and is in danger of spending eternity separated from God. We MUST do everything that we can to get that person back. It's hard. It's very hard. But we all have someone like that in our lives. Even Jesus had friends walk away. But that shouldn't keep us from praying and doing anything else that we can think of to lead that person back to Christ.
That's our challenge. It's what He wants us to do.
We'll stroll hand in hand a- gain.
In a land that knows no parting..."
William H. Nelson, "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain"
I'm going to warn you ahead of time. My homily today is going to be kind of like a root canal. It may hurt a little bit, but hopefully it'll be good for you. At least you'll feel better when it's over.
Last weekend Jan and I helped our son, Patrick, move to Huntsville, AL. He's the third of our four kids and he's going to graduate school at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I don't like to brag about my kids, but along with grad school classes, Patrick was also chosen to be a research assistant at the National Space Science Technology Center, which is on the UAH campus. The reason I tell you that is to make the point that this is a heck of an opportunity for our son. It was an offer that was too good to pass up.
It was also incredibly hard for him, and for the rest of his family and friends. We've been blessed in that none of our kids have ever lived outside the state of Missouri. Mike went to school in Springfield for a year and the other three all went to Mizzou at one time or another. But Huntsville's 441 miles from here, about a six and a half hour drive.
Psychologists tell us that some of the most stressful events in our lives are marriage, divorce, the death of a loved one, losing our jobs, and kids going away to school. Notice that the one thing they all have in common is that they involve someone leaving. Surprisingly, marriage is one of the most stressful of all. But, as Paul says in the second reading, a man must leave his father and mother. Leaving is hard.
As we backed out of the parking lot in front of Patrick's apartment last Sunday, he was standing on the sidewalk waving goodbye and it was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Each of us (Megan and Tim went along to help) was leaving one person and we were coming back to St. Louis which is familiar territory. Patrick was leaving all of his family, his girlfriend, and all of his other friends to live in a town he doesn't know, to go to an unfamiliar school where he only knows one person.
I'm sure everyone here has experienced a painful separation. Now comes the root canal part. I want each of you to close your eyes and think about a time when you were separated from someone you love. Really think about it. What was it like? How did you feel? Take a minute to reflect on those feelings. It hurts, doesn't it?
Today's Gospel is about leaving. It's a continuation of last week's story. Jesus has begun to teach that He is the Living Bread. He says "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
Today we see how the people respond. "As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him." They left.
As the Son of God, Jesus is all about love. He loves everyone, even His enemies. We know that He has strong emotions. Imagine how he must have felt when all those people, his friends and disciples, turned and walked away.
Patrick is a long way away, but it's still less than a day away by car and a few hours away by air. He'll probably be home for Thanksgiving and we know he'll be home for Christmas. Even when a loved one passes away, our faith tells us that we'll see that person again. The separation isn't permanent.
But, Jesus has just told the crowd "“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." This separation is permanent. They've turned their back on the Lord and His teaching. Imagine the grief he must have felt. It must have been almost unbearable.
He turned to the Twelve and asked “Do you also want to leave?” I wish I was good enough to read that question with anything like the emotion that Jesus must have had in His voice. Not only has He lost some of his friends....forever, but He must have felt that He let His Father down, too. He's been sent to spread the Good News and some people just aren't getting it.
Just imagine how emotional that must have been for Him.
So do we really think it's any different now? Doesn't Jesus feel just as much anguish, just as much pain, when we walk away today? Many of our brothers and sisters, some even calling themselves Catholic, have walked away just as surely as those people in the Gospel. Jesus loves every one of us equally. When He loses one of us forever, it must be agony for Him.
Of course, the agony for the ones who walk away won't come right away. We don't know much about heaven and hell, but we do know that the souls in hell are separated from Christ forever. That's what hell is. Constant pain and anguish caused by the separation from our Heavenly Father. Going back to that separation that I asked you to remember earlier, imagine having that feeling multiplied many times over, for all eternity. If that's not hell, I don't know what is.
I know you're all good people. You live good lives and do your best to follow everything that the Lord and His Church teach. But, I know you know someone, probably someone you love, who has turned his or her back on Christ and is in danger of spending eternity separated from God. We MUST do everything that we can to get that person back. It's hard. It's very hard. But we all have someone like that in our lives. Even Jesus had friends walk away. But that shouldn't keep us from praying and doing anything else that we can think of to lead that person back to Christ.
That's our challenge. It's what He wants us to do.
posted by Mike at 4:55 PM
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