Slack Jawed Apostles!

Tomorrow we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord.   Jesus spent 40 days spreading his message to his disciples.  40 days in which he taught them, encouraged them, and prepared them for their mission.  Then after 40 days, he was changed.  He was lifted up before them into heaven and went on to the next leg of his mission.  I imagine from the response of the two men in white garments that the Apostles were standing there with their jaws ajar gazing into sky, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.  "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?"   Why aren't you out instead doing what he instructed you?   They were still waiting for that push, that courage that comes from receiving the Holy Spirit.

The thing is, God has left us this amazing blueprint here of what to do once we do get that courage, that joy.  He said "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Such a simple plan, with such strong meaning to me.    Start here, where you are.   Move to where you have been, the places that are familiar to you.   Then, spread out in where you are uncomfortable, where you've never been, where no one has.    To the ends of the earth... everywhere.

Jerusalem.   The city of God.   The place where one would expect the message to take root first and foremost... but so much stands in the way.   It's the root, the center of the Jewish theological mind.  The place where God resides, the home of the temple.  God tells us that the temple, the area around it is where we must evangelize first and foremost.   Paul lets us know that we are the temple of God.   In this great scheme of things, God has charged us with changing our self and our immediate environment first.   Bloom where you are planted.   We must make the Gospel a part of our immediate lives, not just a superficial thing on the surface, but truly permeating our very existence.

Samaria and Judea.  The world in which they have traveled already.   Jesus walked with them through this areas teaching them, preparing not just them but all who would listen.   To me that speaks of the Church itself, our Christian community.   One of our greatest needs is to help evangelize and re-evangelize those who are already a part of the 'flock'.   To claim to be Christian and not be a part of the community is to distance yourself from the truth of the Gospel.   We must allow our joy to overflow to all of those people who we meet in our own church homes.   Our fire will set them on fire.   Let them see the Gospel in your participation.  "You show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

To the ends of the earth.  This is the challenge to go out into the world and spread that message to everyone else.  It's not a mandate to beat people over the head, there is such a huge difference in proselytizing (what we are not to do) and evangelizing (what we are to do.)  We are not so much trying to convince people, not so much trying to argue them in, as we are introducing them.   We are inviting them into a relationship with the living God, with the person who has changed our lives.. with the man/God who we have encountered in our own Jerusalem, who we have loved, worshipped, and shared with our faith community, and now who our hearts are so enamoured with that we cannot hide him... love does not hide and bury, it shouts from the rooftops.. to anyone who will listen.

So where are you?  Each of us is at a different stage on the walk, each of us has walked a different length of time, and each of us has a different distance to go... but you gotta start somewhere... It's been 40 days... in 10 more we will celebrate that moment when the Holy Spirit descended on these men who huddled in fear in the upper room, afraid of their own crosses.   At that moment these men will burst forth, and all but 1 will go to their own martyrdom.   You received that same spirit at your Baptism.   Are you ready to rise above all that is holding you back?  The Kingdom of Heaven does not have to wait until the end of time.  We ourselves can be lifted above all those fears that make us think we can't do this.  It's time for us to grasp that sanctifying grace we have received in Baptism and Confirmation.. and which pours out through the Sacraments every time we take advantage of them... to embolden us with joy, determination, and grace of our own to spread the Gospel, even to the ends of the earth.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A Little Salt and Lime

The other day I posted on Facebook about how disappointed I was when the school had a celebration for Cinco de Mayo and didn't include everyone.    I still don't know the details of why it was all inclusive, or even offered to everyone who wanted to participate.   What I do know is that it being Cinco de Mayo I want to talk about the significance of this holiday.   Here in America we tend to use it as an excuse to 'eat tacos and drink margaritas' as Father Don waxed poetically this morning.  The thing is, it's a celebration of freedom, of overcoming adversity and enormous odds.

I think to truly understand the significance of this date, we have to understand what the world was like when these events were occurring.   Mexico had been at war with America, followed by it's own internal civil war and was nearly out of resources.  Many lives had been lost, the treasury itself was almost bankrupt and the people were prime targets for occupation.   The United States were embroiled in their own civil war and couldn't pay attention to the geopolitical maneuvering that was going on.  Many countries decided to demand payment from Mexico for it's debts to them, but only the French saw this as an opportunity to gain new lands and peoples.   So they attacked the Mexican country and even though the French military was considered strong and enormously better trained and equipped than the small Mexican force, yet, the Mexican army "crushed" the premier army of the world.

Eventually the French did take over the Mexican government but were expelled a few years later.   The US began to get involved, the Mexican people continued to revolt never giving up, and all of these situations caused Napoleon to retreat.   This is a decisive moment in history not just for the Mexican people, but for the entire continent.  In fact, many historians believe that had the French maintained their hold in Mexico from the onset of this war they would have joined the southern forces to overthrow the northern yankees and our country would have turned out much differently than it did.  Lots of repercussions there that we need to understand as a people.

What does that have to do with the readings for today?   I think the first reading shows us a good example of exactly what the Mexican people did.   They were grounded.   They planted themselves where they needed to be.   They never gave up on their cause, even when they suffered defeat.  The Apostle Paul was not always successful.  Just the other day we read about his failure at the Areopagus, where people basically said "call me some other time, not interested."  Now we see him working tirelessly at a trade to support himself while still trying to spread the Gospel.  Then a few friends come and begin to support him so he can work at preaching instead of making tents.  Even then, with 100% of his efforts concentrated he begins to lose his temper and claims he's finished with the Jews.   But God isn't!  Paul ends up moving in with a man who lives next to the synagogue and all of a sudden the leader of that synagogue and his entire family converted!  Paul kept working, even when it seemed it wasn't going his way.  His friends backed him, supported him and worked with him.  No matter what failures, no matter what successes... they still worked preaching the word of God.. just like the Mexican people on Cinco de Mayo, they fought against odds that the rest of the world would never have faced, and were triumphant.

I think that's our lesson for today.  To stand our ground, to move when God needs us to move, to fight when God needs us to fight, and to preach when God needs us to preach.  How though do we prepare for all of this?  How do we get ready for knowing where God wants us?  How do we know when it's time to preach, when it's time to make tents, or when it's time to move shake out our garments and move on to a new household?   The Gospel reminds us of that simple truth.   Jesus disciples were a bit confused when he said: “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”  We 2000 years later, in light of much theological thought and discussion have a glimpse into that truth.  Jesus was sending the Holy Spirit to not only lead us, to guide us and teach us, but also to make bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.   That's how we see him in the most substantial and present way we can on this side of Heaven.   Though he went away physically in his human, glorified body;  he comes back every time we gather to worship.  When the Priest lifts up that Host and says the words of consecration, do you realize that is the fulfillment of that promise?  "You will see me."

So when we receive him, when we gather together and proclaim to be Christian, we have to ask ourselves.. have we shaken out the dust of our cloaks?  As I was reading the office of readings this morning, these verses stuck out in my head:

Little ones,
let no one deceive you;
the man who acts in holiness is holy indeed,
even as the Son is holy.
The man who sins belongs to the devil,
because the devil is a sinner from the beginning.
It was to destroy the devil’s works
that the Son of God revealed himself.
No one begotten of God acts sinfully
because he remains of God’s stock;
he cannot sin
because he is begotten of God.

That is the way to see who are God’s children,
and who are the devil’s.
No one whose actions are unholy belongs to God,
nor anyone who fails to love his brother.

When Paul shook his cloak he was getting rid of everything he felt was wrong with that place, even the dust of the air.  How about you?  Your body is the temple of God, your spiritual covering... have you shaken out those things which are unholy? Or are you clinging to some of that dust?  What stands between you and being the kind of man/woman that God has created you to be?   It's been 40 days since Easter Sunday, have you transformed your life?   Or are you back in the same old ruts?   We have work to do Church.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."