Encounter and Mission, 14th Sunday

We are a missionary Church.  Our baptism sends us forth on mission and this doesn’t mean going to some far off place, but it means to follow Jesus and witness, by our lives, the Good News he preached.

Life with Jesus is following – sending – and being, and these are the dynamics of Christian discipleship.

Today we are in the middle of the Luke’s missionary discourse - the call to follow Jesus, the sending forth on mission and what that mission might look like.

Last week we had several accounts of those who said “I will follow you” only to fall away at what is asked of them. It was hard to leave everything and have nothing to live an intenerate life on the road where rejection and hardship are part and parcel of following Jesus. Jesus is clear; hold on to nothing, carry nothing, expect nothing.

Today we have the sending forth of the 72, where again, he tells them; hold on to nothing, carry nothing, expect nothing. Next week we have the in the Good Samaritan the model of mission & discipleship.

There is only one mission, but discipleship comes in all sizes. We know there were rings of discipleship around Jesus. 

There were the 12 closet to him who shared Jesus’ itinerant life. There were the 72; farmers, landowners, craftsmen, who drop temporally their village & family duties to be sent on mission by Jesus to bring the good news and prepare the way. And there was Mary, Martha & Lazarus and countless others who stayed at home, but who kept those homes open to Jesus. They all loved Jesus and all were committed disciples.

 We heard in the first reading that God’s reign will be generous, overflowing in abundance and tenderness.

But, we are not there yet. Jesus proclaimed that Kingdom, here and now, but not yet fulfilled and we know from Jesus that discipleship and mission comes before inheritance and rest.  The harvest is abundant, but the laborers few.

St Paul understood discipleship - it was total self-surrender - he says

“I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord”

“The world has been crucified to me and I to the world”

It was - and still is - all about Jesus.But, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

We heard last week the need for complete surrender of one’s life, total commitment right now  because of the utter urgency in preparing for the coming Kingdom.  Nothing else mattered.

For the 12, that meant absolute intenerate living at the feet of the master. For the 72, it was living the Good News in their ordinary lives, but also temporarily leaving that comfort behind. For others (the majority of followers) it meant keeping their hearts inflamed by his message, to do his work in their individual villages and towns and homes.

Each vocation looks different, but inwardly, it was always the same,a personal invitation by Jesus followed by a personal choice by us. It is always; encounter - conversion and mission. This is the pattern from the first evangelists to the new evangelization. It is never enough to simply know about Jesus, in fact it is impossible to know Jesus and not claim his mission as our own. 

Jesus called and sent out the 12. Jesus called and sent out the 72, he calls and sends us, to be an extension of himself and his mission.  Where they were (and we are) Jesus is.  Their work (our work) is his work.

He sent them with nothing but their complete trust and loving obedience.  No money, no sandals, no supplies and with such urgency (remember the person who wanted to bury his Father) that he tells them do not stop along the way, do not get sidetracked. Jesus tells them wherever you find yourself do not ask for anything, do not demand anything, offer your peace (offer them my peace) and if it is accepted and you are welcome.

Stay there and share table fellowship.  Do not move from one house to another.  Do my work wherever you find yourself. Teach, heal and comfort. Share each joy and each sorrow. There is no more important work.  You will never be a better disciple somewhere else? There is no one who needs you more than the person seated across the table from you. Right here – right now – is the logistics of discipleship & mission.

There is no one blue print but there are elements that again and again show up.

Trust in the Father and his Son and the Holy Spirit and have hope in the Kingdom, both here and fulfilled.
Relationship with Jesus, that is ongoing and deepening, because only Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for every Christian.  

Mission is extending the Kingdom of God wherever you are by making Jesus present by your words and actions.  Mission is not having faith, it is doing faith.
Service is the tangible fruit of mission and it always looks to help the other (spouse, family, neighbor, stranger) while never counting the cost to ourselves.

Prayer. To follow Jesus is to pray as Jesus prayed, as Jesus taught us, everywhere and always at ease the Father. 

And Suffering. It is a part of human condition, life itself and must be accept with grace when it comes our way but it must be fought (with tooth and nail) when it accompanies injustice.

To follow Jesus is to never boast of anything but the cross.  We are of this world, but are not slaves of this world. We are free to choose the better good.  We are free to follow Jesus completely and to the end.

And when we do, we can rejoice with the 72 and all disciples before us, and with us, and who will come after us, for all those names are written in heaven. †

Restoring Life, 10th Sunday Ordinary Time

“The sufferings of the present are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed”  St Paul confidently proclaims.

But human suffering still cuts deep.  We suffer mightily and sorrow can bury us in its darkness.

We grieve loss and tragedy dims the light of human existence.

Our very humanness is bound up in the transitory nature of the world and death as its endgame is a hard and often a fearful mystery.

At its best human compassion looks upon this mystery, and its finality, and moves us to reach out;

 to embrace, comfort and strengthen one another in times of suffering.

As People of God, our innate human compassion is bound up in Christ’s own compassion, and its outpouring upon those who suffer is encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

This world can bring us to a place where we forget that God’s life affirming love for each of us is our true reality.

This true reality encompasses the transitory, natural world, and us in it, but it is also stretches beyond the world’s natural boundaries.

The final manifestation of this true reality; of God’s eternal, absolute and unconditional love for us is the “glory to be revealed”.

This Glory is ours as the children of God, co heirs with our Lord, who was the 1^st fruit of the resurrection.

 It is always Jesus, his life, death and resurrection that says to every human person

Be not afraid – see - I am Life.

But, I have gotten a little ahead of myself.

Today we have two accounts of restoring life, two accounts of human compassion and divine power.

In the first reading the Phoenician widow, in sorrow and anger, accuses Elijah of bringing her guilt before God.  Assuming Elijah’s God is a God of retribution, she is convinced (that of us are) that it was God who brought death to her son.

The widow without a husband is without secure income or protection; she is already marginalized and vulnerable. Bu,t now with the loss of her beloved son (perhaps all she had left), she despairs of her life.

Elijah in his human heart is deeply moved by the by the widow’s plight and so he embraces the child (the human touch) and turns to God, who alone holds all creative and restorative power -

“O Lord let the life breathe return to the body of this child”

God hears, and answers Elijah’s by restoring breath to the child.

Elijah in turn gives, the now living son, back to his mother who declares – in her new found joy –

That Elijah is a man who God listens to.

Elijah’s human heart, his compassion, moves him to act, and his confidence in God allows him to ask for the unimaginable, but it is God alone who restores life.  In this case 3 lives;
Natural life to the son and a reunited life between mother & son (a restored family),  and a new life of faith, for the mother who now knows and has experienced God's saving love.

 In the Gospel reading we are reminded of the tenderness and kindness that runs deep in Jesus. 

We again are shown a compassion that; heals, restores and ultimately saves.

In the town of Nain, south of Nazareth, Jesus witnesses a funeral procession. 

There is great distress in the street and Jesus sees the mother weeping for her dead son.

Jesus (perhaps remembering his own mother & her future) is moved and comes to her and says

 “Do not cry”. 

These words of comfort are also a promise of hope, of something new and unexpected. 

With all eyes watching Jesus steps to the coffin and touches its top

 talya qum . “young man, I tell you rise” 

 The boy, restored to life sits up and speaks (I wonder what words!)

Now, the excited crowd realizes that in returning the son to his mother Jesus has done what only God can do - give life. But, this was nothing new for Jesus. He always restores life.he continues to restore life. It is who he is.

Jesus’ deep compassion did not need to be awakened like Elijah.  Jesus is compassion for every person, but in this case his compassion became manifest in divine power, that broke the bonds of death.

And this extraordinary work was a sign who Jesus is and what his mission is about and it pointed (not to Jesus himself who did not deemed equality with God something to be grabbed) but to God the Father.

He said many times that his works were proof (not of his greatness) but that the kingdom of God, of God’s sovereignty and action in the world, has already begun to happened.  

 “ Go and tell what you have seen and heard” Jesus said “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised ” 

 Or even more directly

  “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing, for what he does, his son will do also. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.”

 This is our hope and our faith.  This awakens and fuels our own compassion, this strengthens our confidence in the power of God, and this is how, even in our human trembling, we can look straight into the face of death. 

In hope we do not even blink, because Jesus (by his compassion) shows us God’s concern and care for each of us and by (his great deeds) Jesus reveals God’s eternal power over every law of nature and by (His resurrection) that we are not captives to the boundaries of this world.   

We are not doomed to death and so we do not walk in the shadow of death we walk in the light of life.

We are not children who need to be afraid of the unknown, but we are children of God, inheritors of God’s eternal birthright of everlasting life.  We are compassionate children reaching out in love to our brothers and sisters who suffer and we are children who can sing in joyful confidence with the psalmist -

  “My heart rejoices and my soul is glad, even my body shell rest in safety, for you will not leave my soul among the dead”

Feast of the Ascension

To fully grasp and articulate the ascension is beyond my ability, but like you, l confess this mysterious truth in the Creed we confess at every mass

 “He suffered death and was buried, and rose again in accordance to the scripture. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”

 We confess this in the closing of most prayers

 “We ask this in the name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.”

 We know that this new sovereign kingship is foreshadowed throughout the OT.  200 years before Jesus was born we hear in the Book of Daniel about the glorification of the Son of Man.

 “Let us praise and exalt him above all forever.
Blessed are you, Lord, in the firmament of heaven.
Praiseworthy and glorious and exalted above all forever.”   Daniel 3 57-58

 These words capture the majesty of the transcendent Christ and it is in this all powerful transcendence that Jesus can accomplish what he promised us all -

 "I will be with you always, even until the end of time."

 Today we celebrate the mystery of the ascension and exaltation, when Jesus already risen from the tomb is raised again, and not only with a new and glorified body, but raised on high as the exalted Christ, to became not only our Lord, but the Sovereign Lord of all that was and is and will be. 

Paul captures the totality of Christ as

                “The fullness of one who fills all things in every way”

 In Acts we hear that the risen Jesus continues to teach the disciples about the Kingdom of God.  He instructs them to remain in Jerusalem and he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit which will come to them there. You would think that the disciples by this time would understand more, but they ask him

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

How limited their vision still is. The disciples still think in conventional ways and in the terms of earthy power. 

Princely, political, military power is a small thing, this power comes and goes, and are wiped away by the sands of time. compare this to Christ’s Lordship which includes all times and places, every empire that ever was, every culture that ever existed and every peoples that ever where or ever will be. God’s life-giving sovereignty and eternal authority is now Jesus’.  

 It is through this power that Jesus leaves them with the promise of the Holy Spirit, who will continue to teach them, remind them of all things, and drive them to witness that; Jesus was raised from the dead. He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father.  With the promise of the Holy Spirit still in their ears, the disciples surround Jesus and watch as he ascends into heaven.  While the disciples still look heavenward an angel questions them as to why they look into the sky as if it were the end – a farewell.

The angel declares

  "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as     you   have seen him going into heaven”

The angel is clear -It is not the end - it is only the “in between” time. It is the time of both Jesus’ hidden but real presence in the Church & his temporary absence until he comes again in glory. This in between time is the time of the Holy Spirit - It is the time of the Church.

   In today’s Gospel we have the same story. Jesus reminds them that the Christ would suffer (which he did) and rise from the dead (which he did)And they would witness this by preaching the forgiveness of sins in his name (which they did & we still do). Again, we hear the promise of the Spirit, but now there is also a blessing and after the blessing the disciples did him homage and in joy they praised God in the temple.

 These two short descriptions in Acts & Luke are surely the “ascension experience” condensed.

Imagine trying to capture the mindset of the disciples; anguish and sorrow at the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, three days of deep despair and fear, followed by unfathomable joy of the resurrection and the amazing encounters with, at first, the unrecognizable glorified Jesus, and now, after forty days Jesus leaves them again, but not by the hands of the authorities but by God’s own exaltation. And perhaps in those bittersweet moments of elation and sadness when their minds raced with questions - they remember (and begin to understand) Jesus’ words spoken at the last supper

“Now I am going to the one who sent me.  I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you”

And perhaps they spoke and even argued amongst themselves about Jesus and where he went.

And perhaps those words they heard Jesus speak took on a new truth that could cut through everything laid before it

“I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.  In this world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world”

These words cut through the lies of the world, and are worthy of homage and they are certainly worthy of Joy and praise. The simple, but divine truth that now colored everything the disciples and the Church ever knew about Jesus shone like bright light.

I have come from the Father
I return to the Father
I have conquered the world.

 “And you - are witness to these things”  

 And the disciples did witness, and Mother Church does and we do. We confess by our creed and prayers.  We witness by Christian lives lived out unafraid in the world. We sing in endless praise - that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 

 With the Ascension of Our Lord began a new reality, a new kingship, over the entire cosmos,

though sometimes this new kingship is; dimmed by our pride, hidden by our blindness, or clouded over by our sinfulness. In thinking only of ourselves we fail to give him homage that is his due.  Weighed down by secular society we fail to give him the joyful praise that is our duty. 

 Each Sunday we a confess His Lordship with our lips, but some turn away from this truth as fanciful.

 Others believe, but do not fully grasp it, and so do not live out its meaning in their everyday lives.

 Still others cling in faith, with open hearts, to the mystery of the ascension and they make Paul’s words their own confession of faith-

“Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father far above every principality, authority, power and dominion and over every name that is named, not only in this age, but also the one to come.”

Brothers and sisters, let us take away and remember from time to time,That the ascension of Jesus was not only the beginning of His sovereignty over all and the start of our  in between time, but his ascension guarantees his two great promises to us;One already fulfilled at Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit - the light and grace that you and I still live in.The other promise yet to be fulfilled - Jesus’s own return, which we wait for in Christian hope and joyful expectation - our voices raised as one voice - Come, Lord Jesus, come.

He Has Risen, 3rd Sunday in Easter

Would we recognize the Risen Lord?

Would we grasp what a new and glorified body, a “spiritual body” as Paul describes it, looks like?

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus didn’t.  The disciples in the boat didn’t. Mary Magdalene (the first person to see the Risen Lord, didn’t. And when she did recognize him, those close to Jesus didn’t even believe her story and Thomas refused to believe until he had touch with his own hands.

Yet, despite all this, perhaps as early as the 1^st decade of the Church, we hear surprisingly and un-dramatically -“God, has raised Jesus from the dead”

These are words of faith to be sure, but they are also words that proclaim a lived experience, that though unworldly and beyond understanding was never the less concretely experienced and to such a profound depth that those who were afraid became bold and could proclaim with real conviction what we still proclaim today - “Christ is risen”

We also have Paul’s encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus, different in substance from the other encounters, but obviously tangible, and electrifying.  Paul adds his experience to the already accepted list of Post resurrection events

“For I hand on to you what I also received: that Christ died; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day. He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all he appeared to me”

 

It is useless to try to make a chronological or geographical map of the post resurrection appearances. 

They are not a checklist, but the collective experience, collapsed and synthesized into those representative events cherished and proclaimed by the earliest oral traditions that stand behind the gospels.

Let’s do a quick roundup;

In all four Gospels Mary Magdalene, sometimes with other women, goes to the tomb and finds it empty.

In Mark’s longer ending, he simply adds “He appeared to first to Mary Magdalene.” This experience is filled out in John where Jesus calls Mary by name and only then does she recognizes him and addresses him with the intimate term for teacher - Rabboni. Mark has Jesus appear to two unnamed disciples on an unnamed road. Luke fills this in by giving the name of the road as the road to Emmaus and completes the encounter with the breaking of bread and the opening of scripture and the recognizing of Jesus in these actions. Jesus appearing to and commissioning the 11 takes pride of place in all four Gospels. John expands that appearance to two encounters one w/out Thomas one with. And today we have John’s additional encounter with the Risen Lord, not in Jerusalem, as the other encounters were, but in Galilee. 

What does it all mean? On one note it means the details are interesting but of no importance. It is the certainty, the conviction, the experienced encounter with the Risen Lord that counts for everything.

How important is certainty and conviction, Paul reminds us -

“If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.”

That is – There is no hope, no salvation and we might as well pack up and go home.

But, not today, today we are with the disciples back home in Galilee.  Where they are waiting, keeping their heads low and trying to keep their spirits high.

To lighten their sadness and ease jangled nerves they are doing what is familiar, comforting in its ordinariness, they are fishing.  But, they had a lousy night of it and by dawn were disappointed and tired. From the shore the unrecognized Risen Lord, calls out (obviously with a real living voice) and tells them to cast their nets on the other side, which they do and of course they catch a huge amount fish. Perhaps, because the beloved disciple suddenly remembers an earlier experience when Jesus first called them from their fishing boats, he takes a second look.  And now, in the remembering, his eyes are opened and he recognizes Jesus.

And so says to Peter – “it is the Lord”. Peter jumped (without hesitation or thinking) into the sea and races the hundred yards or so to the shore, while the others trail in the boat, lugging the catch of fish.

 When they arrived on the shore, there was a real charcoal fire (hot and smoking), and some real food (perhaps bread & olives) already prepared (with real hands).  Jesus (in a voice that is clearly understood) asks for some of the fish to cook up.

In this familiar, simple action among friends, Jesus; the risen, glorified and transcendent, was still the Jesus, who did not deem equality with God something to be grasped.He, who is God, simply invites them “come, eat” He invites them to a meal that surly must trigger remembrance of their last supper together. 

But, this invitation is also completely new and different, because for the first time this table fellowship was with the risen Christ.  It was Eucharistic. 

And in the braking of the bread, as it was for the two disciples at Emmaus, they begin to remember and begin to believe and were now filled with a new deep seated joy. This new belief and Joy that transformed them completely were gifts of the Spirit. When Jesus was raised from the dead the Holy Spirit became active in the world.

It is true Jesus had already breathed on them imparting the new but still hidden life of the Spirit and it would be fifty days before Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit, burst forth giving birth to a new collective boldness and new faith, which would be the boldness and faith of the Church.

But, on that day the Holy Spirit was already helping John to remember and to see and also encouraging Peter to boldly act in faith. We know the Spirit continued in their lives because Peter says so in the first reading "God raised Jesus.  We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

And this life in the Spirit leads us to the second part of the Gospel story.

This bit is important, because it reminds us that with the appearance of the risen Jesus comes the sending forth on mission. It is clearly about Peter’s three denials & their remedies in his admission of love for Jesus  three times. It is clearly about Peter being given the authority to feed (that is nourish & sustain) Jesus’ flock.

But what is important is not the authority given to Peter, but the means demanded by Jesus of carrying it out - love comes first, authority second. 

Authority from Jesus is always in the Spirit.  That means real power and authority always looks like selfless love, sacrifice and commitment to service.  Real authority is lying down one’s life.

Perhaps, here Peter remembers (and now understands) Jesus washing their feet. Finally, Jesus says to Peter “follow me”.  

And so they did and we still follow today in the light and joy of the Easter proclamation – Our Lord has risen. We are the present day witnesses to these things.

To proclaim the Risen Lord with conviction and joy is to proclaim our love for him and to proclaim our love for him is to, without reservations, take up his mission, as he asked Peter to do.

And sharing his mission makes us sharers in the life of the Spirit and collectively we are made his servant Church.  

Indeed, he is risen – alleluia alleluia.