Pentecost Sunday
May 23, 2010
Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit that overshadowed the Virgin Mary at Jesus’ conception, the same Holy Spirit who consoled Jesus in his passion and death on the Cross, the same Holy Spirit who was present in the resurrected Lord, is how poured out into our hearts. Jesus, who once physically walked the earth, is now physically present on earth in us who are members of his body and who are temples of the Holy Spirit. Together as the Church we are the physical presence of Christ our head. The physical presence of Christ through the Church means that Christ is present in the world both physically and spiritually.
On the way to anoint someone this week, I was listening to a program on spirituality and religion on KUOW where they said that many people in the Northwest are spiritual, they just aren’t religious. One person on the program said “Church is like the clothing that you put over the body of your faith.” And the other commentator congratulated the wisdom of that so called insight. Apparently, both people had either forgotten or had never read the reading from First Corinthians that we just heard today. Faith is not physical, rather WE, the Church make up the body of Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out in abundance into the hearts of individuals, and these rich gifts of the Spirit come to the individual through the body of Christ the Church. For Christians in general and for Catholics in particular, religion and spirituality are a whole, they are not two different entities that can be pulled apart where we choose one if the other doesn’t somehow suit us. We need Christ and the way for us to stay united to Christ is to stay united to his body on earth, the Church, If we decide on our own to choose our individual spirituality that is not rooted in Christ then we come up with our own understanding, and can drift away from the teaching of Christ and his Church. When someone can says that Church is like a piece of clothing that we can put on or off they are saying that Church doesn’t make that much difference. Gallup who does all kinds of surveys and studies on what people think and believe, says that their data shows that those who are engaged in their Church community actually have stronger faith than those who do not. Their data shows that 39% engaged church members are fully spiritually committed, while those who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged drop to 12% and 3% respectfully. In other words, belonging leads to strongly belief.
If we really get the message of Easter, that Jesus took on our humanity in his body, and that he saved humanity through his body by his death and resurrection, that his body has ascended into heaven, and where he is, we have the certain hope that we will be in our bodies, and that he sent the Holy Spirit into our bodies so that we could form his body on the earth the Church, then we will begin to see that the fullness of the Easter mystery means to be a member of the body of Christ, the Church. Sometimes the Church is glorious, because Christ our head is glorious, and sometimes it is messy and even painful because we who make up the body of Christ have messy, painful lives. The Church never ceases being the body of Christ the head. The Holy Spirit sends as members of his body for service, because as the reading from First Corinthians says, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” No individual can do the work of St. Vincent de Paul, no one person can do the work of Catholic Community Services or Catholic Relief Services, no one person preaches or teaches, no person by themselves can bring the Eucharist to the sick. The work of Christ can be only done as members of his body. That means that we are members of this wonderful, beautiful, clumsy and frustrating at times, and yet always blessed body that we call the Church. The Church is the both the gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit that was given to the disciples on that first Pentecost.
Feast of the Ascension 2010
May 16, 2010
Today is a great day of celebration. We celebrate the glorious Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. This feast today is yet one more piece of the mystery that makes up what we call the paschal mystery. The core of the paschal mystery is the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord. Yet the fullness of this mystery includes the Ascension and even more.
Another way to understand the paschal mystery is the word “Passover”. This word of course, comes from the night the angel of death “passed over” the doors of the houses that were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb that had been sacrificed. Every year the Jews remembered Passover night which is what Jesus celebrated with his disciples the night before he died.
There at least four “Passovers” that are a part of the paschal mystery. The first Passover was when Jesus passed from heaven to earth through his birth. We sinned in our bodies, so we needed to be saved in our bodies. He had to have a body to suffer and die and he took on our human nature in every way except sin. Without his birth there is no death, without his death there is no resurrection, without his resurrection there is no salvation. Everything that he took on in our human nature is saved, which is to say everything that is truly human, is saved.
The second Passover is when Jesus passed from death to new life. The resurrection is what makes our salvation real. His resurrection shows that he truly was victorious over even death itself.
The third Passover is what we celebrate today. Jesus Passes from earth to heaven. This part of the Paschal Mystery is important for at least two reasons. The first is that it shows us that Jesus’ resurrection was much more than resuscitation. He was more than someone who came back from the dead, yes he still was in bodily form, he ate, he drank, and he asked his disciples to touch him to verify that it truly was him. So yes, he did rise in his humanity, and the ascension confirms that he also rose to fully reveal his divinity. His real place is not here on earth; rather his real place is at his Father’s right hand in heaven. Who else but the Son of God could claim such a thing? So the Ascension first confirms our faith that Jesus is truly divine. Second, in the Ascension, Jesus takes our humanity with him. Jesus presents our humanity to the throne of God and God the Father accepts this gift from the Son. This is a great message of hope. Our humanity is already with the right hand of God. This is possible because through our baptism we are members of the body of Christ, and the head cannot be separate from the body. The Ascension is yet another part of Easter victory of sin and death. Yes, we still have our struggles on our journey, and we also know the end of the story. The letter to the Hebrews confirms this message: “Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf”. With the Ascension we can keep ourselves from becoming discouraged about whatever might pull us down, or keep us weighed down. The message of the Ascension lifts us up with the Lord.
The fourth Passover is what we will celebrate next week with Pentecost, the Spirit of the Risen Lord Passing from heaven to earth to give birth to the Church. But that is for next week’s homily!
The message of Ascension hope is important. The more we can hold on to the hope that our humanity, even now is transformed, the more we can live lives of real hope even in the times of great challenge the more we can be witnesses of hope to others. The more we can see that Jesus lifts our humanity up to the Father, the more we will be able to focus on other people’s strengths and forgive their weaknesses. In the Acts of the Apostles people noticed the way Christians lived and said “Look at how Christians love one another.” What at great witness it would be if people could also say “look at how Christians live lives of hope.”
St.Anthony Parish, 314 S 4th St. Renton, WA 98057; 425-255-3132