Saturday, May 7, 2016

Homily: Ascension of the Lord 2016 - Mummies, Hardheads, and Vagabonds



Way back at the beginning of Lent, we heard the Gospel story of Jesus going out into the desert, where he fasted and prayed for 40 days. There, too, he was tempted by the devil, but showed himself obedient to the Father. During those 40 days Jesus prepared for his public ministry of preaching and teaching—a ministry which would culminate with Jesus being lifted up on the cross—a sacrifice for our salvation. Today we celebrate how 40 days after his resurrection Jesus was lifted up once again, only, not to the altar of the cross, but to the throne of heaven.

As Jesus prepared 40 days for his own ministry, during the 40 days after Easter, Jesus prepared his disciples for their ministry—to preach Christ’s Gospel to the ends of the earth—before ascending to His Father in Heaven.

St. Luke described to us this scene in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles today. There was Jesus, gathered with his disciples on mount Olivet, the same mountain on which he gathered with them on Palm Sunday before entering into the gates of Jerusalem. There on Mount Olivet, them before entering into the gates of the new and heavenly Jerusalem, Jesus commissioned his disciples, giving them the mission of witnessing, and there he promised that the Holy Spirit would give them power and strength and courage for this mission.

Luke tells us then that when Jesus was done speaking, “he was lifted up” into heaven. And then Luke describes a very interesting detail.  Jesus had just commissioned his disciples, he ascended into heaven, and so did they get right work? No. In fact, God had to send angels to get them moving. “Men, of Galilee, why are you just standing there looking at the sky? Go get to work.”

Okay. Let’s give the disciples the benefit of the doubt. No one had ever seen anything like this. So maybe they were a little dumb founded.  But really guys, the Lord just gave you a command to go and witness, and you are just standing there with a dumb look on your face!

Well, aren’t we all, a lot of the time, just like that? Hasn’t Jesus given all that very same mission, and we are just standing there looking at the sky awaiting further instructions?

Pope Francis, this week, spoke of how Christians are all too often standing still in our Christian journey instead of moving forward to spread the Gospel. He actually had some pretty strong words about it. He said, “Christians who stay still, who don’t go forward, are non-Christian Christians...They are slightly ‘paganized’ Christians: (they) who stay still and don’t go forward in their Christian lives, who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives, who don’t do Works of mercy… they are motionless. Excuse me for saying it,” the Pope said, “but they are like an (embalmed) mummy, a spiritual mummy. There are Christians who are ‘spiritual mummies,’ motionless.  They don’t do evil but they aren’t doing good.” I like this image of spiritual mummies, and not just because it is mother’s day weekend, as we are thanking God for our own “mummies”.”
A mummy is a former human who has become dried up, become devoid of life and stuffed into a casket, mostly forgotten. We are called to be so much more than mummies.  Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.  Our Christian faith exists to make us fully alive, to fill us with life and joy and spiritual gifts for the building up of the kingdom, but so often, we just stand there, and become dried up.
Well, not all of us.  Up and down the centuries the saints show us the vibrancy of the Christian faith, the miracles that can occur when we allow the life of Christ to permeate every cell of our being.  I remember seeing Pope Saint John Paul II when I was in Rome 12 years ago.  The man had already begun to be crippled from Parkinson’s, and yet, he was bursting with life, the light of Christ radiated from his eyes, the joy of the Gospel and the love he had for the Church bristled in every word. If the life of Christ isn’t manifestly evident, do we really have it? Pope Francis thinks not.

The Pope, this week spoke of two other types of Christians, hard headed Christians, he called them…testadura, capatost, as my own mother called me.  The hard headed Christian, the pope said, is like someone who makes a wrong turn on a journey, but refuses to turn around. The Church is a church of sinners, all of us having made a wrong turn at some point, but the authentic Christian acknowledges the sin which has led them away from the Lord, repents of the sin, and turns around to walk the road holiness again. Lord, deliver us from the stubbornness of unrepentance!

A third type of Christian, the Pope called vagabond Christians, those who become enamored with the good and beautiful things in the world, but fail to draw close to Jesus.  There are many good and beautiful things in the world: nature, motherhood, which we celebrate this weekend, family, home and hearth, good food, good conversation. God created the world this way. However, if we do not seek first the kingdom of God, we can become seduced by these earthly goods things and forget that the most important thing in life is to draw close to Christ. Jesus is meant to be our compass in life, and without prayer, without weekly attendance at Mass, without regular reading of Scripture, and regular charity to the poor, we can become lost in what the Pope called a labyrinth, going through life turning from one thing to the next, neglecting the one thing that matters most, our eternal soul.
I think this is why there are so many people out there who describe themselves as good people, but who never come to Church. Even though they are trying very hard, trying to raise their children well, in a sense they are lost.

After looking at these different types of Christians, Pope Francis said we do well to examine our own lives and ask whether we too have lost our way or become stationary. “How am I doing on this Christian journey?” the Pope asks. “Am I standing still, making mistakes, turning here and there, stopping in front of the things that I like, or (am I following) Jesus who said: “I am the Way’?” Have we let worldliness or vanity or stubbornness keep us from following Jesus as closely as we should?  Are we journeying forward and “putting into practice the beatitudes and works of mercy” in our daily lives? Or are we turning into a mummy, slowly becoming devoid of the life Christ died to give us?

We do well to examine our lives in light of the Pope’s reflections, and as we journey towards Pentacost next week, to identify those mummified parts of us that need to be revified, those stubborn parts of us that need to repent, and those wayward parts of us that need to be disciplined, that we may be open to all of the Spirit's gifts, that we may be faithful in witnessing to the Lord, and arrive safely at our eternal home in heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.


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