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Homily – June 9, 2019

Sunday, June 9th, 2019

Pentecost, a Jewish celebration, originated as an agricultural festival of thanksgiving for the early crop, the ingathering of the grain harvest, which had begun at Passover. Later Judaism transformed it into a feast of salvation history celebrating the giving of the Law at Sinai and the establishment of Israel as God’s people.

The apostles were probably celebrating this feast when all was changed as the Holy Spirit swept into their lives with the power of a mighty wind and the gentleness of tongues of fire resting over the apostles and Mary. This Spirit’s coming brought about great changes in the early Christian Jewish community. The old feast of the Law became the new feast of the life giving Spirit.

The violent wind of the Holy Spirit forced the frighten followers of Jesus who had hidden behind locked doors out into the crowded streets of Jerusalem to proclaim in many languages the wonderful work of God – the raising of Jesus from the dead.

As Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians the Holy Spirit enriched the church with a variety of gifts. But these gifts are given for the benefit of the whole community not the gifted individual.

We still believe the Holy Spirit guides the church today, the Holy Spirit is the source of the Church’s holiness despite the sinfulness of its members.

But how does the Holy Spirit touch our lives today? I like to think that it is not through a violent wind but through a nudge, a poke, a push. The Spirit nudges us to be more patient with others; the Spirit nudges us to keep our hurtful thoughts and words to ourselves. The spirit nudges us to visit a friend who is house bound or offer a ride to that person so they can get out of the house. The Spirit nudges us to bite our tongue and not say a caustic or hurtful answer in our conversation with someone. The Spirit pushes us to speak up for someone who has been put down by a racist or sexist remark. The Spirit pushes us to be involved in different parish activities such as being involved with the St. Vincent de Paul or the Good Shepherd Refuge. The Spirit nudges us to pray for our wounded church, wounds caused by a lack of honesty from our leadership.

We pray that the Holy Spirit broaden the horizons of our minds beyond our personal concerns and see the broader picture. We ask the Spirit to broaden the horizons of minds to appreciate the beauty and the woundedness of God’s good creation. We can ask the Spirit to help us appreciate the reality of climate change and the impact it will have on our children’s, children’s children. May the Spirit broaden the horizons of our minds to see the evils of racism and the fear of the stranger, broaden the horizons of our minds to see destructiveness of nationalism, the evils of world hunger and poverty. May our minds be broadening to the goodness in all peoples, in all faiths.

As we continue to celebrate this Spirit filled feast we pray for ourselves and for each other that we are responsive to the nudges, the poking of the Holy Spirit that we be open to the goodness and the needs of others and appreciate the goodness found within ourselves.

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Homily – June 2, 2019

Sunday, June 2nd, 2019

Today we celebrate that moment in time when Christ returned to heaven after his death on a cross of shame and his glorious resurrection from the dead. Scholars say that the resurrection and the ascension are not two successive events but the church celebrates then separately in order to appreciate the deep meaning of the two aspects of the single indivisible event.

The core message of the Ascension is expressed in our opening prayer – ‘The Ascension of your Son is our exaltation for where he has gone before in glory we hope to follow.’ Christ’s resurrection from the dead is a pledge of our resurrection and his ascension in a pledge of our ascension; in God’s way and in God’s time.

There is a hymn sung on this feast that sings

Lo! the heaven its Lord receives, alleluia!

yet he loves the earth he leaves; alleluia!

though returning to his throne, alleluia!

still he calls mankind his own. alleluia!

Still for us he intercedes, alleluia!

his prevailing death he pleads, alleluia!

near himself prepares our place, alleluia!

he, the first-fruits of our race. alleluia!

We could see this feast as Christ saying to the Father, Mission accomplished. In other words what you sent me into the world I have done; I sacrificed myself for your sons and daughters, I have made peace between You and the human family through the blood of the cross. As St. Paul would say of himself as he knew his own death was near; ‘I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ Mission accomplished!

At one time or another we’ve all had that sense of accomplishment. We’ve finished exams, we’re graduating with a hard earned degree or we’ve just got a promotion. It could be something very simple such as we’ve made a difficult phone call or sent that difficult e mail or we’ve made a long delayed visit to a friend in a retirement home of hospital. We did it.

The question for each of us is, when the hour of our death comes can we look back over our life and say, ‘mission accomplished, maybe not perfectly, but we did the best we could. We did the best we could to accept people into our lives regardless of their race or religion, regardless of their life style or politics. We saw them as men and women loved by God as we are. We did our best to work for social justice, a living wage and adequate housing. We did our best to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus and his church. We did our best. We ran the race, the kept the faith. By God’s grace,Mission accomplished.

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Homily – May 26, 2019

Sunday, May 26th, 2019

As we know the first followers of Jesus were Jewish men and women who heard him preach on God’s love and mercy. Jewish men and women who witnessed some of his miracles, Jewish men and women who were scandalized by his shameful and humiliating death as a common criminal. Jewish men and women who believed the words of his apostles, Jesus is risen from the dead. Jewish men and women who knew they were God’s own people and Jesus was the promised one of God.

Gradually this early community of believers began to expand beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem to other Jewish communities. Bit by bit Gentiles joined the communities. The Jewish members of the community were convinced that these new believers had to be circumcised if there were to be true believers – if they were to be kosher they were to follow the way other men and women joined the Jewish faith; they would take on the practices of Torah and all males would be circumcised.

Word reached the community in Jerusalem that Paul of Tarsus, once an enemy of the followers of Jesus was accepting men into the Christian community without the obligation of the ritual of circumcision. This was unacceptable. Unless you are circumcised according to the Law of Moses you cannot be saved.

This, in a nutshell, is the first major crisis of the early Church. It requires a conference of the leadership; Peter, James and John from Jerusalem with Paul and Barnabas from Antioch. We read the decision of this meeting “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from fornication. Even though it was decided at this meeting that the Gentiles did not have to be circumcised when joining the Christian community this issue bothered the community for years. Paul’s letters show how often he had to face and oppose the issue.

This meeting of Peter, James and John with Paul and Barnabas is known as the first council of Jerusalem. In the history of the church there have been 21 such councils. In our time we had the second Vatican Council from 1962 til 1965. Some 2800 bishops from 116 countries made decisions that changed to course and mentality of our church. A very important one was the change in attitude of the Church toward the Jewish people, the people of God, the first to receive the covenant and the promises. There was a strong condemnation of anti-Semitism. What affects us most is the way we celebrate Mass. It is celebrated in the language of the land. The priest faces the people as a sign that we are a community.

Someone once said that it takes about 50 years for the decisions of a Council to take root in the life of the church. Today there are men and women, bishops and priests who still resent and resist the changes of the Council, especially over the use of Latin. Some are of the opinion that Pope John Paul and Benedict tried to put the brakes on the movements of Vat, 2. They thought the Council went to far.

Pope Francis is loved by most of us. He is a breath of fresh air in the way he lives his life as Pope. No Vatican palace for him, no pomp and circumstances. He has an open heart and mind and sympathy toward men and women as they face their own issues in their lives. It’s not all black and white. He has to bear the brunt of the hostility directed at the Church as the result of the sexual abuses and their cover-ups. For some critics no matter what he does is not enough. He has been accused by some cardinals and bishops and laypersons of watering down the disciplines of the church with his words ‘who am I to judge? and his efforts to take a more humane way of being with people as they struggle with the complex issues of their lives.

The confusion and the struggles of the communities in Antioch and Jerusalem those centuries ago have always been part of the life of our church as the 21 ecumenical councils testify and they are part of our church today. How can we be faithful to the teachings of Jesus to love, to forgive, to heal and to grow.

As we continue to celebrate our Eucharist can we commit ourselves to praying for Pope Francis and all who are responsible for the well being of our church that they always have the mind and heart of Christ.

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Homily – May 19, 2019

Sunday, May 19th, 2019

I imagine that many of you watched last Sunday’s basketball game between the Raptors and the Philadelphia. You watched that basketball pounce once and twice and three times before it fell through the hoop and the Raptors won their well- deserved victory. The place went wild.

The Rogers Centre was filled with men women and children wearing Raptor hats or sweaters and T Shirts showing the Raptors emblem. Everyone wanted to be identified with their team. It’s the same with the Blue Jays and the Leafs. It’s the same in all the cities who have teams in the major sports leagues. People want to be identified with their heroes and when they turn out to be losers, well there’s always next year.

In the early church Paul was annoyed with people who identified themselves with personalities instead of with Christ. Some people said ‘I am of Paul or I am of Apollos or I am of Peter.’ Paul challenges such people with the question, ‘has Christ been divided?’ Was Paul or Apollos or Peter crucified for you? We are all of Christ.

In today’s short gospel Christ lets us know how we are shown to be on his team, identified as being in his corner. ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciple, if you love one for another.’ That love was not to be restricted to fellow Christians; it was meant to be for everyone who came into their lives, especially those who opposed them, even put them to death.

The greatest compliment they received from others was ‘see how these Christians love on another.’ People observing a Christian community are supposed to be impressed that their kind of mutual service and love can only be explained by a divine presence they came to know in the reality of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Our love for others, our respected for their beliefs, their culture their racial origin, their life style shows other people that we are on Jesus’ team, we want to be identified with him.

This isn’t easy. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. As one spiritual writer wrote; we are always both grand and petty. The world isn’t divided up between big-hearted and small-minded people. Rather our days are divided up between those moments when we are big-hearted, generous, warm, hospitable, unafraid, wanting to embrace everyone and those moments when we are petty, selfish, over-aware of the unfairness of life, frightened, and seeking only to protect ourselves and our own safety and interests. We are both tall and short at the same time and either of these can manifest itself from minute to minute.

That’s why we receive Holy Communion at the Mass. We need the grace and strength and healing power of Christ so that we may always be members of his winning team. May we try to live each day in Christ’s presence, in Christ’s love and in Christ’s

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Homily – May 12, 2019

Sunday, May 12th, 2019

On May 7th Jean Vanier died at the age of 90 in a hospital in Paris. He lived an interesting life. He served in the British and Canadian navy. He was an intellectual and for a time a professor at St. Michael’s University in Toronto. His life and career changed completely when visiting a psychiatric hospital in France one of the patients there asked him; ’will you be my friend?’ It dawned on Jean Vanier that beyond the limited psychiatric care and counselling this man was receiving the man needed a friend, a relationship with another human being. Will you accept me as I am? That request, ‘will you be my friend?’ was the beginnings of L’Arche, a world-wide network of homes for men and women with intellectual disabilities.

As our parish bulletin reminds every week our parish motto is; belonging, believing, becoming. I found out recently that the Toronto District Catholic School Board that chosen the same motto, ‘we belong, we believe, we become.’

Everyone wants to belong to someone or some group of people. Jean Vanier recognized that need in the simple question of a man most saw people as a simpleton, ‘will you be my friend’. Will you let me into your life? That’s when he opened his life and his heart to men and women with intellectual disabilities and limited social graces who are often brutalized in the institutions meant to help them where they are seen as ‘cases’ not men and women who have their own dignity, hidden though it may be.

Will you be my friend? At this time in our lives, in this time in history we are challenged by this question, will you be my friend. As Canadians, as Catholic Christians there should be no place in our lives for bigotry or racism or xenophobia, that fear of the stranger. Politicians here and abroad are playing on the fear of the stranger, the immigrant or the refugee. These good people are declared to be a threat to our way of life. They will be a burden on our country or a threat to our own job security. If they are allowed to live in our country they should take on Canadian ways and leave their own cultures behind.

Propaganda like this can destroy us, it has destroyed countries before, we think of Nazi Germany, and it can do it again. The bombing of synagogues and mosques and churches are hateful and inhuman acts done by narrow minded and ignorant people.

Will you be my friend? Will you accept me for whom I am? Will you see beyond the color of my skin, see beyond my dress code; see beyond my place of worship. Will you make your own, as followers of Jesus Christ, his welcoming words, come to me all you find life burdensome and I will refresh you. Will you recognize my human dignity as a child of God? Will you be my friend?

That simple question asked of Jean Vanier changed his life. Can that same question challenge us to admit any bigotry or racism hidden in our hearts?

One personal story. From 1968 to 1974 I was the religious superior of the Passionists in Canada. I was attending a meeting at Queen of the Apostles Retreat Centre in Mississauga. The main speaker was a priest from Spain. He clutched a Bible to his chest and spoke almost in whispers. He oozed spirituality of some sort. Hard to take.

During a break I went for a walk. On my way back to the retreat house an automobile stopped and I was asked if I wanted a ride so I got into the back seat and sat next to Jean Vanier and Mother Teresa. Couldn’t believe it. They were guest speakers at this retreat. They both spoke for about 15 minutes and had to move on. There messages were simple and to the point. They were different ways of answering the question, ‘will you be my friend?’ A refreshing break from our bible clutching soft speaking preacher. A cherished memory.

It is a simple question, a challenging question, will you be my friend?

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