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!