Sunday, May 24, 2009

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.

Monday, May 11, 2009

There are 73 books in the Bible, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.  Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters will argue that there are only 66 books but that's a subject for another time.  The point I want to make today is that if someone were to tell me that I could only have one small piece of the Bible to take with me to a desert island, I would have to pick today's Gospel and the few verses that follow it.  If you ask me what I believe, this part of John's gospel says it all.

In last week's Gospel, also from John, Jesus uses the analogy of the shepherd and the sheep.  It's one we're all familiar with.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd watching over us, His sheep.  You and I may not know as much about sheep and shepherds as Jesus 1st century audience, but we get the picture.  Today's Gospel not only defines our relationship with Jesus, but also our relationship with God the Father and with one another.  He tells us what will happen if we break that relationship, and if we read just five more verses, He tells us exactly what we must do to stay in the relationship.

This is a vine.  It's in a pot.  How did it get there?  It was planted.  God is the vine grower.  Jesus is the vine.  Each one of the branches represents you and me.  If you or I don't bear fruit, God takes us away.  He cuts us off from the vine and we all know what happens to a branch when it's cut off the vine.   It withers and dies.

If we do bear fruit, God prunes us so that we bear more.  How does He do that?  Through the words Jesus has spoken to us.  He says, "Remain in me as I remain in you."   "Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, becauise without me you can do nothing."  If we decide not to remain in Him, we'll be thrown out, thrown into the fire and burned. 

It seems pretty simple to me, stay with Jesus, remain in Him, and we'll bear much fruit.  If we don't, we'll be thrown into the fire.  And that's where today's Gospel ends. 

But if we read on, here's what Jesus says next, "As the Father loves me, so I also love you.  Remain in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in His love."  There's the rub.  This isn't about lip service.  We have to do our share.  We have to keep Jesus' commandments.  Notice He doesn't say keep THE commandments.  He's not talking about the TEN commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain. though that's part of it..  He says "MY commandments."

What are HIS commandments?  Keep reading.  "This is my commandment:  Love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."  Remember, Jesus speaks these words just hours before He's turned over to the Roman soldiers.  When He says "Lay down one's life for one's friends", He's not kidding around.  That's what He's about to do. 

To sum it up, Jesus is telling us we'd better stay connected to Him if we don't want to be thrown into the fire.  And the way to do that is to keep His commandment to love one another.  And the greatest love of all is to lay down our life for a friend. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here's the part where the preacher (that's me) tells the congregation (that's you) how to use this lesson in your daily life.  And, if you've been paying attention the last couple of weeks, you probably know where I'm headed with this.  Long story short, fill out your ACA card and make as generous a donation as you can.  There are lots of branches on the vine that need your help.  We don't get to pick just the strong branches, or the healthy branches, or the pretty branches.  We're connected to all of the branches.  We help ourselves stay alive by helping those less fortunate than ourselves.  This is the last weekend of the ACA drive and if you haven't filled out your card, today is the day.  It just takes a minute.  If you don't do it our ACA chairman will have to spend hours on the phone getting the information.  Even if you can't make a pledge, please fill out your card.

Like Forest Gump, that's all I have to say about that because I really want to talk about Mothers' Day.  God may be the vine grower and Jesus may be the vine, but when it comes to adding new leaves and branches and helping them to grow and prosper, you just can't beat Mom.  Every one of our moms lays down her life, not for her friends, but for her children.  From the moment of our conception when we are completely helpless and can't survive on our own until the day she dies, when she may be helpless and not able to survive on her own, our mothers are constantly laying down their lives for us.  They nourish us and care for us, they love us and defend us with every ounce of their strength. 

It doesn't matter if you're the Pope, or a prisoner on death row, your mother is the one person who will always take Jesus' message today to heart.  She loves you no matter what.  Maybe we should forget about sheep and shepherds, and vines and branches and just say that there is nothing on this earth that's stronger than a mother's love for her child, and Jesus loves us more than that.

Hopefully you'll get to spend time with your mom this weekend, or if you're a mom, hopefully you'll get to have a special day with your kids.  But maybe not.  Maybe your mom lives in another city, or maybe, like me, your mom's not around anymore.  If you're a mom yourself, maybe you have rich kids who'll shower you with gifts, or maybe you'll consider yourself lucky to get a card from the dollar store. 

But if Jesus' words to us today are true, and we know that they are, there's a special place in heaven for mothers.  "This is my commandment.  Love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's (kids)."