April 16, 2017

Easter Sunday A Acts 10; 34, 37-43; Colossians 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9 What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean to me? Do I realize how much love God has for me? Do I realize that Jesus' Resurrection is a sign and prefigurement of God's promise that each person who believes in Jesus and obeys the commandments will be in heaven forever? Now what do I have to do for this to happen? Jesus did the doing! But now what does that mean to me? Do I feel that this is an 'automatic' since I am a Christian, since I am a follower, since I am a Catholic that I can just be pulled in by 'Jesus' bootstraps? This is a coarse way to express this...but what does Jesus' life, teaching, love, death, rising and ascension to heaven mean to me? Do I see that I have been called to reform my life and living style to conform totally to Jesus' teachings? I'm close to celebrating my 50th anniversary of priesthood; how blessed I have been as I think back on my early years. When I was in 7th grade, I started my first paid job working for a wonderful man, a huckster, the fruit and vegetable man. My brother worked for him years earlier. I was nervous my first day but he gave some plain 'orders': be respectful to all the customers and be kind. He told me that many of them have been his customer for years. "I will teach you everything you need to know, but just ask if you have any questions." I worked, it was a lot harder than I had thought. I was corrected and I learned from these moments. I liked this work and felt good about myself. I also realized that it was hard work for this pre-teen. As time went on I had a number of jobs, then I went to the seminary and worked during the summers for the Department of Parks. Then I was ordained in 1967 and after two months in a parish, I began my next 'job', teaching in Catholic High Schools in the Diocese of Syracuse, New York. I enjoyed teaching but along came the hard part: papers to be corrected, grading, and all sorts of meetings, paperwork and various 'school jobs'. I say all this as an introduction to the fact that when we have a 'job to do', it requires work. The work is hard many times, often even boring, but is necessary to 'complete' the job at hand. Also the 'work' always involves people who have needs, wants, feelings and so often come to each of us in pain, trying to discover this God who loves them always. I believe they need to know that God loves them, is with them and cares about them deeply by the way way that I treat them. I do this because Jesus has already done this perfectly. I wish to share all of this even though imperfectly because I have become aware of His gifts and presence in my life. All this required a depth of study and commitment on my part. The bottom line is that Jesus came to tell us of God's total love. The bottom line is that in being a follower of Jesus, I have to get to know Jesus. The bottom line is that I have to see that Jesus came to teach me about God and how I have been called to be a person of love. That is work, every day, with every person. Today we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. During these last few weeks we have been hearing the gospels tell of the last weeks of Jesus' life on earth. We have walked along with the Pharisees, religious officials, Scribes and others who had studied and devoted their lives to the Hebrew Scriptures. They were experts. They had their own idea of the future coming Messiah and what exactly He would be. The bottom line is that for all their knowledge, they missed Jesus the Messiah. The apostles had followed Jesus, watched His miracles, heard His teaching and were first hand witnesses of His kindness, compassion and love. They expected the Messiah and felt that Jesus was 'the man' and they would have a special place in His earthly reign. Jesus said it was all about God's reign forever and heaven was the goal, not the comfortable, prestigious 'job' of being Jesus' follower on earth. Love is hard work. Loving a person we love is rewarding and often difficult and not convenient. Loving those we live with comes up with all sorts of emotions and difficulties. Loving those we come into contact with is easier, but not something we always want to extend ourselves. Loving those we don't know is more often than not avoided. And loving those we don't love is a no-no. So being a Christian, living as Jesus taught, being a person of love is work. It involves saying no to myself and my selfish tendencies. It requires a life of living as God has taught and as God needs me to be. Peter explained that in today's first reading from Acts of the Apostles summing up the 'good news' of the Gospel. "You know what has happened all over Judaea, beginning in Galilee...how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. We are witnesses of all that He did...He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that He is the one appointed by God..." Easter is the feast of our being called, being chosen to be Jesus to the world where God has placed us. Why me? That's why God created me, He needs me. Why at this time and place in history? It's all according to God's plan coupled with the unique gifts that the Holy Spirit constantly showers upon me precisely to help me be Jesus and spread His love through the uniqueness that is me. In one of her beautiful poems, Teresa of Avila stated it in this way: "Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours." The bottom line is that God has so blessed me and you, so gifted me and you, so loved me and you that He placed me here for you and you here for me. The Good News is God's love that brings each of us to heaven forever with Him through each other. It is loving, dedicated work. Praise be God. From Sacred Space 2017: "Something to think and pray about each day this week: Easter is a Verb As Author Alice Camille states so well, 'Easter is truly a verb, a dynamic event pursuing upward from the darkness into the light.' Christians are Easter people. What that means to me is that we are dynamic: always growing, changing, moving, and engaging. Even those of us who cannot be 'in motion' physically--because of necessary employment, family responsibilities, or health issues--can experience the interior 'movements' of the soul. Every day the risen Christ invites us to move, to allow the breaking open that happens in a heart that is open to God and to all that divine love brings to us. We sense the inner movement, we listen to the voice of the Spirit, we pay attention to even fleeting emotions and responses that can be, in God's hands, tools for our ongoing creation. Vinita Hampton Wright, on her blog, Days of Deepening Friendship.