Ascension of our Lord/Memorial Day
We used to call it Ascension Thursday. If you or your kids attended our parish school, you probably remember that it was always the day after our school picnic, so the kids got two days off; one to party and one to recover. But things change. The school is closed. They don't have the rides at Sylvan Springs anymore, and Ascension Thursday is now on Sunday.
Today we hear Jesus' final words to his disciples before He ascended into heaven. He tells them to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Of course He was also speaking to us. The disciples faced a lot of challenges in proclaiming the word, just as we do today. We're not likely to be killed for our beliefs as many of the disciples were, but proclaiming the Gospel in 21st century America has its challenges as well. Sadly, a lot of those challenges come from people who call themselves Catholics.
I'm not going to be political here but the controversy surrounding the president's speech and honorary degree from Notre Dame University is just one of many examples of the watering down of our faith by people who should know better. Eighty Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops spoke out in protest of the speech, but the powers that be at Notre Dame decided to go ahead with it. In spite of direct instructions from the US bishops on honoring those whose positions are contrary to our views, the president who has vowed to make abortions freely available in our country received an honorary degree from Notre Dame, OUR MOTHER, the most prominent Catholic University in the United States.
While this was going on, priests, nuns, and lay people, many of them elderly, were being arrested in South Bend for praying the rosary! Like I said, I don't want to get political here, but what are we supposed to think about all this. Jesus didn't tell the disciples to preach a Gospel, He told them to preach the Gospel. And that Gospel is definitely one of life. It's also a Gospel of obedience. What are you and I supposed to think when this major Catholic school provides a forum for oposing views?
Jesus said "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned." I assume everyone in this church believes, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But people who call themselves Catholics, especially prominent people like university presidents and politicians who ignore the Gospel don't make it any easier for us. Who do we believe? What do we believe? I think we all know the answer to those questions. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty. We believe in His Son. We believe in the Holy Spirit. And we believe in one holy, Catholic, apostolic Church. One Church. One Church and one set of beliefs.
Don't get me wrong. Notre Dame isn't the Lone Ranger here. The president took his anti-life message to Georgetown, another university that calls itself Catholic. Even our own Saint Louis University has been known to stray from Church doctrine from time-to-time. When my daughter graduated from Fontbonne, another "Catholic" school, the commencement speaker was the president of the urban league. He talked about his proudest moment, being arrested along with Al Sharpton for blocknig traffic on Highway 70! In other words, civil disobedience is good. Conformity is bad. Admitting that the world doesn't revolve around you is old-fashioned. You and I spend 18 years or so, raising our kids to be the best Catholics they can be. Then we invest thousands of dollars to send them to a Catholic University only to have them taught things that go against the very Church that sponsors them! What are they supposed to believe?
I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but Jesus' instructions to us today, to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel, aren't that easy to follow. It takes work. It takes determination. And it takes the time we need to study our faith so that we know when we're being misled by people we think we can trust. Meanwhile people who have an axe to grind against the Church, people who hate the Catholic Church for one reason or another, are using our lack of unity, our confusion, against us.
But the news isn't all bad. Remember that Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which He would build His Church, "and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!" The Church will survive in spite of its many enemies. Just today (yesterday) four young men were ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral Basilica. Young people, and some not so young, are still giving their lives to the Church, so there's plenty of reason for hope.
But why does the Church have enemies anyway? For the last two weekends we heard from John's Gospel Jesus' message of love. "Love one another" is His commandment. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend." What's not to like about that?
There are a couple of things that come to mind. We live in a society where a lot of people only care about themselves. Love thy neighbor is an old-fashioned idea. They're all about houses and cars they can't afford and easy credit. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die. It's hard for these narcisists to buy into loving their neighbor. Being a faithful Catholic is hard work so they justify their lack of faith by mocking those of us who do believe.
Of course, the other thing that drives our oponents is money, plain and simple. Abortion is a billion-dollar business. So is pornography and embryonic stem cell research. Touchy-feely stories about the good things that we do as a Church don't sell newspapers or build TV ratings. People want controversy. They want the dirt. They want TV shows and movies that glorify sin. And that doesn't fit with the Gospel Jesus taught.
Many of you are part of what Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation" and he's exactly right. My generation, generation X, was the first to oppose military service in such huge numbers. Many of our kids are carrying on that tradition. We wouldn't have the right to do that if so many brave American men and women hadn't VOLUNTEERED to fight for our country, especially in World War II. Here at St. Bernadette, we're blessed to have a daily reminder of the sacrifices so many men and women have made for our country. We see our current troops coming and going from Jefferson Barracks nearly every day. And, if we look the other way, we see the final resting places of more than 100,000 brave individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Contrast those brave souls to those who chanted "hell no, we won't go" in the '60s. We don't see the protests so much anymore since there's no draft and nobody is forced into the service. But there's still a selfishness in the world in the 21st century that we've never seen before.
There's an old saying that there are no athiests in foxholes and I suppose it's true. But I can't help thinking that there's a very close connection between faith in God and the willingness to serve your country, even if it means death. So, I think it's safe to say that most, if not all, of those men and women who have been laid to rest in our National Cemetery, and all the other National Cemeteries for that matter, are enjoying the Lord's banquet, even as we speak.
A space alien might find it odd that we talk about war and death in a religious sense, but it's hard not to. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends", or his country. (Tomorrow) Later this morning, hundreds of Boy Scouts will place flags on the graves at Jefferson Barracks. Some of them may not even know why. But we know. And we pray for our GI's souls, we pray for those who are serving now, and we pray for our country, that the current climate of selfishness and distrust, our culture of death, will somehow turn around and become, once again, the country that all those men and women have fought for.
We should pray for that.
Today we hear Jesus' final words to his disciples before He ascended into heaven. He tells them to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Of course He was also speaking to us. The disciples faced a lot of challenges in proclaiming the word, just as we do today. We're not likely to be killed for our beliefs as many of the disciples were, but proclaiming the Gospel in 21st century America has its challenges as well. Sadly, a lot of those challenges come from people who call themselves Catholics.
I'm not going to be political here but the controversy surrounding the president's speech and honorary degree from Notre Dame University is just one of many examples of the watering down of our faith by people who should know better. Eighty Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops spoke out in protest of the speech, but the powers that be at Notre Dame decided to go ahead with it. In spite of direct instructions from the US bishops on honoring those whose positions are contrary to our views, the president who has vowed to make abortions freely available in our country received an honorary degree from Notre Dame, OUR MOTHER, the most prominent Catholic University in the United States.
While this was going on, priests, nuns, and lay people, many of them elderly, were being arrested in South Bend for praying the rosary! Like I said, I don't want to get political here, but what are we supposed to think about all this. Jesus didn't tell the disciples to preach a Gospel, He told them to preach the Gospel. And that Gospel is definitely one of life. It's also a Gospel of obedience. What are you and I supposed to think when this major Catholic school provides a forum for oposing views?
Jesus said "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned." I assume everyone in this church believes, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But people who call themselves Catholics, especially prominent people like university presidents and politicians who ignore the Gospel don't make it any easier for us. Who do we believe? What do we believe? I think we all know the answer to those questions. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty. We believe in His Son. We believe in the Holy Spirit. And we believe in one holy, Catholic, apostolic Church. One Church. One Church and one set of beliefs.
Don't get me wrong. Notre Dame isn't the Lone Ranger here. The president took his anti-life message to Georgetown, another university that calls itself Catholic. Even our own Saint Louis University has been known to stray from Church doctrine from time-to-time. When my daughter graduated from Fontbonne, another "Catholic" school, the commencement speaker was the president of the urban league. He talked about his proudest moment, being arrested along with Al Sharpton for blocknig traffic on Highway 70! In other words, civil disobedience is good. Conformity is bad. Admitting that the world doesn't revolve around you is old-fashioned. You and I spend 18 years or so, raising our kids to be the best Catholics they can be. Then we invest thousands of dollars to send them to a Catholic University only to have them taught things that go against the very Church that sponsors them! What are they supposed to believe?
I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but Jesus' instructions to us today, to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel, aren't that easy to follow. It takes work. It takes determination. And it takes the time we need to study our faith so that we know when we're being misled by people we think we can trust. Meanwhile people who have an axe to grind against the Church, people who hate the Catholic Church for one reason or another, are using our lack of unity, our confusion, against us.
But the news isn't all bad. Remember that Jesus told Peter that he was the rock on which He would build His Church, "and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!" The Church will survive in spite of its many enemies. Just today (yesterday) four young men were ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral Basilica. Young people, and some not so young, are still giving their lives to the Church, so there's plenty of reason for hope.
But why does the Church have enemies anyway? For the last two weekends we heard from John's Gospel Jesus' message of love. "Love one another" is His commandment. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend." What's not to like about that?
There are a couple of things that come to mind. We live in a society where a lot of people only care about themselves. Love thy neighbor is an old-fashioned idea. They're all about houses and cars they can't afford and easy credit. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die. It's hard for these narcisists to buy into loving their neighbor. Being a faithful Catholic is hard work so they justify their lack of faith by mocking those of us who do believe.
Of course, the other thing that drives our oponents is money, plain and simple. Abortion is a billion-dollar business. So is pornography and embryonic stem cell research. Touchy-feely stories about the good things that we do as a Church don't sell newspapers or build TV ratings. People want controversy. They want the dirt. They want TV shows and movies that glorify sin. And that doesn't fit with the Gospel Jesus taught.
Many of you are part of what Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation" and he's exactly right. My generation, generation X, was the first to oppose military service in such huge numbers. Many of our kids are carrying on that tradition. We wouldn't have the right to do that if so many brave American men and women hadn't VOLUNTEERED to fight for our country, especially in World War II. Here at St. Bernadette, we're blessed to have a daily reminder of the sacrifices so many men and women have made for our country. We see our current troops coming and going from Jefferson Barracks nearly every day. And, if we look the other way, we see the final resting places of more than 100,000 brave individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Contrast those brave souls to those who chanted "hell no, we won't go" in the '60s. We don't see the protests so much anymore since there's no draft and nobody is forced into the service. But there's still a selfishness in the world in the 21st century that we've never seen before.
There's an old saying that there are no athiests in foxholes and I suppose it's true. But I can't help thinking that there's a very close connection between faith in God and the willingness to serve your country, even if it means death. So, I think it's safe to say that most, if not all, of those men and women who have been laid to rest in our National Cemetery, and all the other National Cemeteries for that matter, are enjoying the Lord's banquet, even as we speak.
A space alien might find it odd that we talk about war and death in a religious sense, but it's hard not to. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends", or his country. (Tomorrow) Later this morning, hundreds of Boy Scouts will place flags on the graves at Jefferson Barracks. Some of them may not even know why. But we know. And we pray for our GI's souls, we pray for those who are serving now, and we pray for our country, that the current climate of selfishness and distrust, our culture of death, will somehow turn around and become, once again, the country that all those men and women have fought for.
We should pray for that.
posted by Mike at 9:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home