Homilies

Paschal Vigil 2007

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Genesis 22:1-18
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Ezekiel 36:16-28
Romans 6:3-11
Luke 24:1-12

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember what he said to you….”

After six and a half weeks of our Lenten journey from its beginning on Ash Wednesday, after many efforts at reading and fasting and prayer – some successful and some miserable failures – after major liturgies for the Sundays of Lent, after all the powerful events of this past week, especially these last three days, we are led to the empty tomb and the words of the angel: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember….”

My brothers and sisters, believe the women when they tell you the tomb can not hold him, believe even me, the least of the servants of our God, who proclaims to you: “Christ has risen. He has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.” Believe what you have experienced and remember. Remember all you have seen and heard these forty plus days. Remember all you have seen and heard this Night of Nights.

Remember the darkness of the empty parking lot. Remember the quiet and the electrified air, filled with hope and expectation. Remember the darkness pregnant with a fullness about to be revealed. And then the spark was struck and burst into a mighty conflagration. And from that New Fire a single light was lit and a clear voice cried out: Christ our Light! Christ is risen indeed and is here among us. Remember. Remember how we followed that light as a pillar of fire to this darkened church. How from that single light our own lights were lit and this church became ablaze with the brilliance of many candles. Remember. Remember how we heard those glorious words:

“Darkness vanishes forever…the risen Savior shines upon you”

Remember how we were commanded: “Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people.” Remember. Remember how we listened to the story of our first creation, how God’s Spirit hovered over the darkness and that original voice was heard: “Let there be light.” Remember how everything that God had made was pronounced “Very good.” Remember how we shared in the unwavering faith of Abraham, called to sacrifice what was most dear. Remember how we were there when Moses parted the waters at God’s command and we went dry-shod through the sea. Remember the promise of the Prophet Ezekiel that we would be sprinkled with clean water and be given a new heart – a heart of flesh in exchange for our heart of stone. Remember. Remember the words of the apostle Paul that we have been buried with Christ and raised to newness of life.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” “Why do doubts arise in your minds?” Remember. Remember the words you have heard. Remember the experiences you have had. Remember the commitments you have made.

Christ lives there in your hearts. Turn to him.

Christ is alive, alleluia! We live again in his joy!

And Christ lives in the heart of the brother or sister next to you. Turn to him there and seek the living one among the living and not among the dead. Seek him in living people, not in dead works or in inert buildings.

Christ is alive, alleluia! We live again in his joy!

There is still so much more to experience this night: renewal of baptismal promises, sharing in the Paschal sacrifice, receiving once again the living Christ in bread and wine. Remember. Remember. Remember. Keep that mystery alive in your hearts and share it with one another.

Blessed Easter.

Amen.

Good Friday 2007

Isaiah 52:13-53:12;

Hebrews 4:14-16 + 5:7-9;

John 18:-19:42

“When Jesus had received the wine, he said: ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and handed over his spirit.”

Yesterday we experienced in the liturgy two ways in which Jesus gives himself to us – washing our feet and giving us the Eucharist. But it is a long-standing custom within the Christian community to do all things in threes. Perhaps in honor of the Trinity. Whatever.

Today we have the third. Today Jesus gives himself to us in death. But Jesus’ death is unlike any other death. Jesus’ death is not an end, but a beginning. Jesus is not conquered in death, but conquers.

In a few minutes, as a direct response to the readings we have just heard, we will sing out:

Behold the Cross from which springs all life!

Jesus’ death gives life, just like the death of a seed gives life a hundredfold. In the Christian dispensation, all life springs from the death of Jesus on the cross. “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all things to myself.”

The paradox of the Christian dispensation is that Jesus is glorified precisely in his being lifted up on the cross. Precisely in his death. But not his death as an ending – but as a beginning. Death and resurrection for St John is one single act. It is only we who divide it up into time periods. It is extremely important that we see it as a whole – even while we concentrate on one aspect or the other.

Another way to put it:

Do we not often think of Jesus’ resurrection as a reward for his faithful submission in accepting death on the cross? But that is not the theological truth of the mystery we are celebrating. Jesus’ death IS his glorification. Why? How? Because in it he has given himself entirely to us. To the end, to the utmost, till there is nothing more left. And that is glory. That is the heart of reality. From that gift springs all life. This active gift of Jesus lives on for all eternity. Human nature at the Father’s throne is the lamb once slain, the marks of slaughter still on him. He constantly presents before the Father and before the whole assembly of angels and saints the wounds he suffered on Calvary. Just as he showed the apostles the marks on his hands and his side after the resurrection, so he lives forever with these same marks. As we read in the Book of Revelation:

“Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” “For you were slain and by your blood you have ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God.”

Behold the Cross from which springs all life!

This is the reason we are barefoot today. Not primarily as a sign of penitence, but as a sign that we are standing on holy ground, as a sign that we are participating in the mystery that is at the heart of reality, at the heart of each one of our individual lives. The mystery of life through death, the mystery of losing to gain, the mystery that there is no greater love than to give our life for others.

Behold the Cross from which springs all life!

And if this is so, than just like yesterday, what is asked of us is to go and do likewise. “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

As we will soon approach to venerate the Cross, as we will soon approach to receive the Body broken for us, let us in turn give our lives for one another – for by being united to Jesus in his sacrifice, we also are the Body of Christ to be given for others.

Amen.

Holy Thursday 2007

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

I Corinthians 11:23-26

John 13:1-15

“I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

What has Jesus done to us? What example has he set for us? In the context of today’s liturgy it seems to me that it is twofold.

Jesus has 1) washed our feet and 2) given us his body and blood as our food and drink. And these two are really one. They can be expressed in one pithy phrase – and if there is only one thing you remember from my words today, I would hope it would be this one phrase:

JESUS GIVES HIMSELF TO US.

It can sound trite. It can be turned into a saccharine phrase devoid of any significant meaning. But it holds a deep mystery; it is a well of inexhaustible fruitfulness, a treasure that can be mined for a lifetime.

JESUS GIVES HIMSELF TO US.

Let us look at each of the words that make up this phrase.

JESUS. Who is this Jesus who gives himself to us? What have we just heard? “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am.” And a little earlier the evangelist had noted: “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God….” As we proclaim in the Creed: Jesus is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. Begotten not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.

My brothers and sisters, this is the mystery with which we are dealing. This is the reality that we cannot grasp all at once, but must continually meditate on, be in communion with. Jesus is Son of God in Power.

And this Jesus, very God, GIVES HIMSELF. He hands over himself. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” He gives himself to us in so many ways. Today he washes our feet. He performs the menial task of a lowly servant. He proclaims: I am one of you. I am here for you. He gives himself to us as food and drink, to be our nourishment, our sustenance. He gives his life for our life – unto the end. This is a special phrase in St John . It doesn’t just mean to the end of his life in a mere chronological sense. It means to the utmost, till there was nothing more to give, till his life was completely poured out, till there remained nothing for himself, but was totally given to others.

And finally, Jesus gives himself TO US. It is to you and to me that he gives himself. It is for each one of us – the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the fat and the thin, the talented and the handicapped, the old and the young, the honored and the dishonored. Jesus makes no distinction of persons. Do you notice when Jesus washes the feet? Even the feet of Judas, the one who was to betray him, are washed. Perhaps a last attempt to save him, to bring about a change. It is for you and for me that Jesus gives himself.

My brothers and sisters, ought not we to do the same? The more we allow this reality that Jesus gives himself to us to sink into our minds and hearts, the more we are brought to the realization that we are called to do likewise. We are recipients of the gifts of God to pass them on. Do you remember St Bonaventure’s definition of God? Goodness diffusive of itself. That is what is at the heart of reality. That is what is at the heart of every one of us. Life is never to be held in a tight fist – but always with an open hand. And it seems to me that this is the grace that is offered to us in these special days.

Look at Jesus.

Look at Jesus giving himself.

Look at Jesus giving himself to us.

Go and do likewise.

“For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

May the renewal of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery which we are about to celebrate, may the eating and drinking of his very body and blood, bring us to give our lives for one another.

Amen.

Palm Sunday 2007

Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56

Lose your life, that you may welcome Christ, give up all to Christ, that you may see the Father; then you will find your true self as a gift of God.

How many times have we sung this troparion, my brothers and sisters, and is it not ever new? Does not a slightly different meaning come forth, a nuance we have not heard before, a deeper awareness of the truth of it all?

Especially now, as we have just heard the Good News of our Redemption, THE great story of our salvation. Jesus has “offered his back to those who struck him, his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard.” And why? Because “the Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”

What a paradox our life is! What a paradox upon which our Christian faith is based!

Lose to gain.

Take a beating to be able to teach.

Life sprung from death.

It happens no other way. And so Jesus himself, Son of God though he was, “did not think equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself and learned obedience through what he suffered.”

My brothers and sisters, let this reality sink into your minds and hearts. Let it become the warp and woof of your life.

Let me conclude here with a couple phrases from a poem from the middle of the last century. They are powerful words and poignant images. I offer them as another way of saying what our troparion does so eloquently. They come at the end of a dialogue of the crucifixion – a dialogue between Jesus and the Father. These are the Father’s last words, but they are really the words of each one of us as we come to understand just what is happening in these days – in this week we call Holy, and which our forebears called “The Great Week.”

“And I, always,

must absorb his agony into myself as mine,

to raise me to larger memory

and mercy and farther seeing.

I must hold his darkness in my heart,

sleepless and weeping,

until I am illumined and revealed to myself

as richer than I could have known.”

Let us enter this Great Week knowing that this is our master plan: “to hold his darkness in my heart, sleepless and weeping; to absorb his agony into myself as mine.” This is the only way to allow the events we celebrate to form us and shape us, that we, too, “may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”

Amen.

Ash Wednesday 2007

Joel 2:12-18
II Cor 5:20-6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

“’Rend your hearts and not your clothing,’ says the Lord.” And the prophet responds, ‘Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”

My brothers and sisters, what is Lent all about? What is foremost in our minds and hearts as we sit here with bare feet and prepare to receive ashes on our heads and to be reminded that we are dust and into dust we shall return?

Do you remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam are climbing the very last leg of the journey to Mount Doom ? How Gollum springs upon them and tries to wrestle the Ring by force from Frodo and fails? Left alone with an angry, sword-wielding Sam, Gollum pleads: ‘”Let us live, yes, live just a little longer. Lost lost! We’re lost. And when Precious goes we’ll die, yes, die into the dust.’ He clawed up the ashes of the path with his long fleshless fingers. ‘Dusst!’ he hissed.”

Is not this our secret fear: that when the Precious goes, we’ll die? And so we try to turn Lent, this great season of repentance, this season of springtime and new life, into one more celebration of power, of machismo. If you give up hard candy, I’ll give up chocolate. If you give up the movies, I’ll give up the Internet. I’ll give up this; I’ll give up that. Just don’t ask me to give up the Precious. I’ll rend every bit of clothing I’ve got, I’ll give up every little thing that gives me pleasure. I’ll show the Lord God I am serious.

And yet, what does the Lord ask?

“Rend your hearts.” Lose your life that you may welcome Christ. Give up all to Christ that you may see the Father. “Be reconciled to God.” Yes, I shall arise, and return to my Father.

G. K. Chesterton had a way with words and it seems to me he captures the spirit of today’s liturgy very succinctly. “The person who will not have a softening of the heart will eventually have a softening of the brain!”

Lent is a time for a softening of the heart. Lent is a time to become tender, to become vulnerable. Then you will find your true self as a gift of God.

My brothers and sisters, this can only happen if we do let certain things go. If we fast more, if we pray more, if we give more of our things away. But this is all done not to prove ourselves worthy of God, but to put us into the frame of mind where we realize that all is Gift, that all that we have is a gift of God.

Our true Precious is not something we grasp and hold and possess or wrest from others, but something we receive when we let all else go – even our very self.

So then, let us do those things this Lent that lead to a softening of our hearts. Let us search out the things that show our interconnectedness with each other: moments of intimacy, moments of friendship, moments of shared joy or shared pain. Those times when we look at a sunset and just say, “Wow!” When we glance at the starry sky on a brisk, cold early, early morning and whisper: “God, you are great.” When we look into the eyes of a young person and see there all the vitality and joie d’vivre that we have known and rejoice that it still exists and is present for another generation. Or look into the eyes of an older brother and see there the pain and suffering he bears and know in our heart of hearts that it is redemptive – even for us.

My brothers and sisters, Lent is a time for such softening. May we attend closely to the Scriptures we will be hearing in these days. May we keep our eyes fixed on the one who has given up all for us that we might share the very life of God. May we look to others and know that we are all in this together and that the good of one is the good of all and the pain of one is the pain of all and in compassion to be able to cry out: How long, my son? I’ll wait for you. I’ll stay.