CARRYING ON THE MINISTRY OF JESUS

Jesus said to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

John 20

 

I began my path to priesthood 68 years ago: 12 years as a seminarian and 56 years as a priest. In fact, I celebrated my first Mass on a Pentecost Sunday like today in 1970!  During the last 60 years, I have watched the stumbling of a once arrogant and over-confident church. Like an aging old movie star in denial, she seems to find herself embarrassed on a daily basis these days!  But, do you know what? I love her more now than I did way back then. Like an alcoholic approaching recovery, she is going through that inevitable break down that leads to a breakthrough. The only mistake Vatican Council II made was not warning us that we had to go through a break down to get to a breakthrough - like our ancestors had to go through a desert before getting to the "promised land" after leaving Egypt! It’s messy, but it’s real. I don’t despise her because of her sins, I love her for her courage to keep going, in spite of her sins. I stand by her. She can count me in, during these critical days of recovery even if I don’t live long enough to see her next “golden age!”

When I say “church,” I am not talking about the Pope and the Bishops, I mean us! We are the church and I believe that we are going to get well. I see signs of hope and encouragement, even in these hard times of parish closings and priest shortages.  I see and hear more people looking for God again today – especially among our young adults!

They are tired of the chaos and uncertainty! They are looking for stability! The problem is, there are more looking for solid spiritual food than there are places that can deliver it. People are grazing across parish boundaries, denominational lines and traditional sources, looking for something spiritually satisfying. I see and hear people sick to death of second-rate preaching and obsession with religious organizational trivialities. I see and hear people looking for God in growing numbers. This gives me great hope.

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 

Where is God today?   For a few years, the early church stood around watching the heavens, anticipating the future return of Jesus, as he had promised. Expecting it any day, they were content to sit and wait for his return.  This feast marks the beginning of their realization that his return could be a long way off and the realization that they had to roll up their sleeves and get to work. They transferred their gaze from the heavens to the world around them. Instead of looking up, they began to look around! Once they had received the power of the Holy Spirit, they were ready to carry on the work of Jesus to the ends of the earth until that time when he promised to return.

Where is God today?  People may be looking for God in growing numbers again, but unfortunately some people are looking backwards and romanticizing the past. They believe that God was alive in the “good old days” and if we could only return to the “good old days” then we would all find God again. Trying to go back there, these people are playing vicious politics in every denomination from Southern Baptists to Roman Catholics.

Then there are others who look for God in the extraordinary. Since they cannot find God in ordinary life, they run from one reported apparition and miracle rumor to another.

Still others are again trying to find God again in the future. They turn to Bible passages and claim to be able to de-code secret messages, obscure prophecies and interpret natural disasters as signs that the end of the world is immanent.  Rather than trying to clean up the world that God has given us, they would rather yearn for its destruction.

This feast does not deny that God has acted in the past or that he will act again in the future, but it reminds us that God is acting right now through us!  The angels in today’s gospel tell our earliest brothers and sisters in the church to quit looking up for God, to quit looking back for God, but to look around at each other to experience God acting through his followers!  

My friends, the reason people today are out looking for God is they are not finding him in us - the people who are supposed to be his ambassadors!  That’s why they are out looking in new and exotic places. It reminds me of that old bumper sticker from the 60s. “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  Instead of focusing our attention on becoming the best ambassadors of Christ we can be, we are arguing over church structures and pious practices and looking for perfect church leaders. The purpose of today’s feast is to focus our attention on the fact that we have power to do good because we have the Holy Spirit within us. Then when people see our goodness, they can actually see and experience the goodness of God flowing through us. Jesus taught us to let our lights shine, so that people can see our goodness, and then seeing our goodness, they can experience God working through us! 

The message today? Quit gawking around! Get to work! Unleash the power that the Holy Spirit has given you! Allow God reveal himself through you! Today’s message is crystal clear!  We received power when the Holy Spirit came upon us! Just as the Father sent Jesus into our world to make God present, Jesus now sends us into the world to make him present and to carry on his ministry!

 

 

 

 

    

 

CHURCH CHAT #29

 

A PERFECT PRAYER FOR JUST ABOUT ANYBODY

 

"YES, I HAVE BEEN OUT LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU!"

The Lord takes delight in his people.

Psalm 149:4

If you were to die today and you stood before the gates of heaven and you were asked this one simple question test to see whether you got in or not, could you answer that one simple question? Here is that question. “Who does God love?” 

Well, if you are not sure, I am going to give you the correct answer. Pope Leo gave us the answer on the balcony when he was first presented to the world over a year ago. It is so simple, yet unbelievably astounding! Who does God love? ‘He loves everybody – everybody – and he loves us without condition!’ I have been preaching those words for most of my priesthood so I almost came out of my chair with delight when he said it! Yes, I was both shocked and relieved!  

One of the parables that most brings this point home to me is the parable of the vineyard workers. The parable of the “Vineyard Workers” is enough to make wine growers all over the world cringe! This parable is not an instruction on to operate a profitable vineyard. If you followed this example, you would be broke in no time! No, it’s a story about how God treats us, a story about God’s unbelievable generosity! For Jesus, the whole purpose of this parable is to shock in order to teach! This parable is insane, according to human thinking, but that’s the whole point of the parable.

Those who had “worked all day in the sun” were the religious authorities. Those “hour before quitting time” workers were the “tax collectors and sinners,” those who felt unworthy in God’s eyes, the simple people who followed Jesus!  You can imagine how both groups reacted when they heard the punch line, “Give them all a full day’s pay!”  “Give them all a full day’s pay!”

This message is very close to the message of another parable, the one we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In that story, the father loves both his sons, the one who stayed home and followed all the rules, as well as the one who strayed away and got down with the pigs! The message is simple: God loves all his children, not matter what they have done or failed to do!

The tax collectors, sinners and rejects were delirious with joy when they heard that message! The Scribes and Pharisees, who taught that God’s love depended on people’s behaviors, were outraged.

One of the worst things to happen to the church was when it started to “conditionalize” this “good news” and started teaching people that God loves you when you are good, quits loving you when you are bad and starts loving you again when you shape up!  It is not uncommon to hear some religious people tone down the “good news” because it is “too dangerous.” I was often criticized at the Cathedral by them when I welcomed home hundreds of fallen away Catholics by preaching this message. Their worst nightmare is that if people really believed the message of the parables and the church really taught it, all hell would break loose! People would start doing any damned thing they wanted! That’s the same thing that worried the Scribes and Pharisees. In reality, the opposite was true in Jesus’ day and the opposite is true in ours! People’s lives are transformed by that message! They are converted by this message! This message inspires them to love others the same way they have been loved by God – friends and enemies alike!  

What do you believe? Are you one of those people who still believes that God pays us with love depending how many hours we have loved him? Are you one of those people who still believes that God turns his love on and off depending what we do or fail to do?  If you are, really listen to the message of the parables. If it sounds too good to be true, then you have gotten the message! God’s incredible unconditional love does sound too good to be true, but the fact of the matter is, it is true! “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” He didn’t die for us as a reward for our shaping up! While we were still sinners, he died for us!

 

 

 

 

 

YES! "FAKING IT TILL YOU MAKE IT" CAN STRENGTHEN ONE'S FAITH

 

“When the eleven remaining disciples saw Jesus after his resurrection, they worshiped even as they doubted.”

Matthew 28:16-20

One of the things that happens when you read the Bible on a regular basis, like I am required to do, is that even familiar passages are always speaking to you in new ways. It happened again a couple of years ago when I read today’s text from the gospel of Matthew that I had read many times. It is the story after the resurrection and right before Jesus' ascension into heaven. That was the first time I clearly noticed the words, “When the eleven remaining disciples saw Jesus after his resurrection, they worshiped even as they doubted.”

“They worshiped Jesus even when they doubted?” That’s pretty much the opposite of what we do. When we doubt, we quit worshiping. We assume that worshiping is only for believers. People, in our experience, who doubt quit worshiping! So why would these disciples worship Jesus, if they had doubts about Him? Why would the writer even include their doubts in the story?

The first thing many people assume about faith is that doubt is the opposite of faith. Not true! Honest doubt is not the opposite of faith. There is faith even in honest doubt.  Honest doubt is actually an integral part of faith. When Matthew tells us that the disciples “worshipped even when they doubted,” he wants us to know this basic principle: honest doubt was part of the faith, even for those who were closest to Jesus.

The stories that we have been reading since Easter are a mixture of faith and doubt. The disciples are presented as very skeptical about Mary Magdalen’s report about seeing Jesus alive on that first Easter Sunday. Thomas, flat-out refused to believe until he saw Jesus with his own eyes and touched Jesus with his own hands.  On the road to Emmaus, other disciples were astounded by the report of Jesus being seen alive and did not recognize him walking right beside them on the road. Even after many reports, even after having seen him themselves, they worshipped, even as they doubted. Yes, the message is simple: faith is never black and white, all or nothing, but always mixed with a good measure of healthy doubt.  Doubt does not necessarily mean you don’t have faith. Doubt probably means that you do have faith!

“They worshiped, even as they doubted.”  The bigger question than whether doubt is part of faith, is what do you do when you doubt. Many, when they doubt, think they should absent themselves from prayer and worship until faith returns or becomes strong again. They say to themselves, “It is hypocritical for me to pretend to believe when I really don’t believe. When I start believing again, when my faith is strong again, then it will make sense for me to start praying and worshipping again.” That may sound good, even reasonable, but that’s not how it works! The story of the doubting St. Thomas has a lot to teach us. Thomas says in today's gospel, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Even in his doubt, Thomas did was pretty much the opposite of what we do when we have doubts. He kept going back to the community. When we doubt, we quit joining the community. We assume that joining the faith community is only for those who believe, for those without doubt. People, in our experience, who doubt quit joining the worshiping community! Not St. Thomas! He kept joining them, even when he doubted, until he believed!

As the doubting disciples teach us today, what really works is for us to worship even when we doubt, to worship until we believe.  Like a coal, pulled away from a heap of burning coals, that soon loses its heat, a doubter separated from the community of believers soon loses even more of his faith. A faith community strengthens faith and a doubting community strengthens doubt.

“They worshipped, even as they doubted.”  This may be yet another version of the great truth: “fake it till you make it.” Even though Alcoholics Anonymous made that idea famous, it actually goes back to the ancient Roman poet, Ovid who said, “Pretend to what is not, and then you’ll become in truth, what you are pretending to be.”  The great philosopher William James put it this way, “Act as if and the mind will produce your desire.” The idea is, if you take something that feels impossible, or at least completely unnatural, and pretend that it is the easiest, most natural things on the world for you to be doing, eventually, it will become as easy as you have been pretending it to be!

I practice this often in my own life. (1) As many of you know from me talking about my history, I grew up pretty much crippled by bashfulness. Bashful people find it painful to be in public situations. To cope, they are driven to avoid public situations as much as possible. This is a sure way to keep bashfulness going. The solution is to get out in public as much as possible, faking confidence, until one day you wake up and find out that you are no longer bashful.  The only way out of the fear of public speaking is to “fake it till you make it,” to do public speaking until you are no longer afraid to speak in front of crowds.  You cannot think your way out of bashfulness, you have to act your way out of bashfulness. (2) When I was sent against my will to southeastern Kentucky as a newly ordained priest, somehow, I was able to open my mind to “faking it till I made it.” I decided, since I did not get what I wanted, I would act as if I wanted what I got until I was able to really want what I got. It worked. Those ten years were wonderful years in many, many ways. I “acted as if” it was a great assignment until it actually became a great assignment.        

"They worshiped, even as they doubted.”  My friends, all of us have a good measure of doubt, even as we believe. The secret to making sure that the scales do not tip too far to the doubt side, is to keep joining the community like St. Thomas, to act as if we believe until we believe, to pray our way out of doubt, to worship until we “feel like worshiping.” So, when you are tempted to drop out because “I don’t get anything out of it” or “I’m not into it today,” that is when you really need to get into it! That is when you really need to act as if you are getting something out of it until you do get something out of it!  Yes, even believers sometimes have to “fake it till they make it.”   

Today, on May 17, 2070, I celebrated my "First Mass!"

I am very grateful for the last 56 years of priesthood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #28

CELEBRATING MY 56th PRIESTHOOD ANNIVERSARY  

Peter's walk on water is how I have felt most of the time, from the start until now! 

AGE 14

IN SEPTEMBER 1958, I LEFT FOR THE SEMINARY 

GETTING READY TO GO TO THE CATHEDRAL FOR ORDINATION TO PRIESTHOOD 

May 16, 1970

Age 26

ACTUAL ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD

May 16, 1970

Age 26

56 YEARS ORDAINED AND HOLDING

82 YEARS OLD

April 28, 2026