Homily Third Sunday of Easter April 18, 2021 St Austin Church, TX

 Homily   Third Sunday of Easter   April 18, 2021   St Austin Church, TX

           Hope you are all fine this morning.    Anyone here ever feel guilty?   Good, because I am going to preach about GUILT, and I am against it. 

          At the conclusion of today’s Gospel we heard: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

          Notice that what is being preached to all nations is “repentance”.  Repentance is different than guilt.  No where in the Gospels does the Lord urge us to feel guilt.  Rather, Jesus calls us to repentance.

          In the first reading we hear St Peter preach.  He culminates his sermon with “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

          What is the difference between feeling guilty and repentance?  They are very different.  Guilt is a feeling.  It is an emotion.  It is a hard and difficult emotion.  But that is not the worst part of guilt.  Guilt keeps us focused on the past, on our failures, on how we screwed up.  And guilt keeps us beating ourselves up for how we made a mess of our lives and other’s lives. 

          But guilt does not help.  It does not, by itself, help us to do better.  It does not move us forward, but rather keeps us focused on the past.  Guilt looks backwards.

          Repentance, on the other hand, is very different.  Repentance is about change.  About movement in a new direction.  It is action.  It looks  forward.  Repentance is movement towards growth.  Repentance is openness to new life.  As St Peter proclaims in our first reading, “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”      Repentance is about growth and life.

          In our second reading today from the first Letter of Saint John we heard: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”

          Forgiveness is available to us.  But it requires a change of heart and work.  That is what repentance is.  Repentance does include feelings of remorse, but it does not stop with the feelings.  The feelings are only the first step, or even only the prelude to repentance.  Genuine repentance involves action, involves change, and especially involves growth. 

          Growth usually does not happen instantly.  Growth takes time.  It takes effort.  It takes patience.  All these are involved in repentance.

          So if you are burdened by guilt, recognize it, but do not dwell on it.  Rather hear the feelings of guilt as a call to repentance, to action and to growth.  Guilt looks back, but repentance looks forward, to a new and better way of thinking, of feeling, of acting, of being.  Let go of guilt to replace it with repentance, with a firm purpose of amendment, with action to repair as much as you can the damage you have done, to take the actions that will help you avoid this sin in the future, to grow in the way of life, not of death.

          The Lord is patient with us.  We need to be patient with ourselves, but very honest, and ready to work at doing better.   We do not do this on our own, but rely on the help of the Holy Spirit.  As we heard in our second reading today: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” 

          The readings today are clear.  Do not waste your time and effort on feeling guilty.  Rather, strive to do the work of repentance instead, which leads to greater life.  God bless!

Homily Second Sunday of Easter April 11, 2021

 Homily    Second Sunday of Easter   April 11, 2021

            The setting of our Gospel is Easter Sunday evening.  The disciples are together.  They are scarred, hiding behind locked doors, because of fear. 

          For the past year, many of us have been isolating, hiding in a sense, staying apart and behind locked doors, out of fear of the covid virus.  We can, therefore, identify with these disciples and we know some of their fear.

          Jesus visits them.  But Thomas is not with them.  Thomas, we are told, is called “Didymus”.   Anyone know what Didymus means?  Does it mean ‘the guy who is always missing,’ or ‘the guy who is always late?’   No.  Didymus means twin. 

          Who was his twin?  There are different theories on that, but I think the Evangelist John makes a point of telling us he is a twin to invite us to put ourselves in Thomas’s sandals.  We, with our doubts, our hesitancies to believe, our fear of taking the risk to make the leap of faith, are to see ourselves in Thomas.  We are his twin in hesitancy, in doubt, and in faith.

          Thomas wants to see and to touch.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  

          In this time of pandemic I think we can all identify with Thomas.  We want to see one another, especially family and friends whom we have been missing.  We want to touch, to shake hands, to hug, to stand, not six feet apart, but next to each other rubbing shoulders and to be physically close.   Anybody want that?     Some of you remember Fr Steven Bell, who is a great hugger.  But when this pandemic is over I certainly intend to give Fr Steve a run for the title of greatest hugger.  We all hunger to be close, and for the ability to be in physical contact again.  And that is what Thomas wants, to physically touch and be close to the Risen Lord. 

          Thomas was blessed with a vision of the Lord.  Jesus invited Thomas close, to physical contact: “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’”

Put your hand into my side.  That is pretty close, pretty physical.

          We do not have the benefit of such a physical experience of the Risen Lord.  But Jesus does assure us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”   Jesus is speaking about us.

          In just a few minutes five of our young parishioners will be making their First Holy Communion.  It is a special day for them.  It is also a special day for all of us who are making our 99^th or 432^nd or whatever Holy Communion.  It is always special, and always an invitation to open ourselves to the realization of the Lord’s presence in the Eucharist.  To experience, not physical touch like St Thomas enjoyed, but something even more important.  To experience the Lord’s consolation, the Lord’s comfort, the Lord’s challenge, the Lord’s encouragement, the Lord’s hope, the Lord’s forgiveness, the Lord’s Peace, the Lord’s Glory.  In short, the Lord’s real presence. 

          As we used to sing, “Look beyond the bread you eat, see your Savior and your Lord.”   The Gospel today invites and challenges us to look beyond the mere physical appearance of bread and wine, to not see with our physical eyes, but to believe with our hearts and souls,

and to know the Lord’s presence with us, as real and dynamic and powerful as what Thomas experience that week after Easter so very long ago. 

          We are blessed.  “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Homily Easter Sunday April 4, 2021

 Homily   Easter Sunday    April 4, 2021

 Happy Easter!   Alleluia!!   Today is a day of surprises and rejoicing!

          In the Gospel we just heard St. Peter and this mysterious “other disciple whom Jesus loved”, get the shocking news from Mary Magdalene that Jesus’ tomb is open and empty.    What!?!   

          Peter and the other disciple run to the tomb to see what is going on.  The other disciple outruns Peter and arrives first, but he waits outside.  Peter finally shows up and goes in the tomb.  There is nothing there but the burial clothes neatly rolled up.    That’s it.

          Then John tells us, “the other disciple also went in, …, and he saw and believed.”  

          WHAT DID HE SEE?   There was nothing there except the burial clothes.  No body, no Jesus, no angel, no witness to the resurrection.   Yet says St. John, “he saw and believed.”

          Obviously, what this other disciple saw was not seen with his eyes.  He was not even seeing with his mind.  He was seeing instead with his heart.  He was seeing with the eyes of faith.  He saw and believed.  He believed in the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

          It was a risk.  It was a leap.  It was, in an earthly, pragmatic calculation of things a kind of risky, even foolish thing to do. 

          Well, did not St Paul declare: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”   1 Cor 1:25   And that “We are fools on Christ’s account,” 1 Cor 4:10???    //

          This Easter we are called to be foolish like St Paul, and like that beloved disciple at the empty tomb.  

We are called to risk seeing, seeing not only with our eyes, not only with our minds, but especially with the eyes of faith.  Saint Paul in our second reading urges us, “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”    We are called to see, to think, in a new way.  Not the way of calculations of merit and earned rewards, not the way of our accomplishments and our own goodness, not the way of cost-benefit analysis, but rather in the whole new way of FAITH.   The Resurrection is God’s totally gratuitous and free gift, that we never could earn nor deserve. 

          This is the Faith that we hear St Peter preach in our first reading:  “That everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”    Forgiveness of sins is shorthand for a whole new way of life.  And it is a totally free gift!

          Alleluia!   Forgiveness of sins through his name.  No more regrets.  No more guilt.  No more shame.   Only gratitude at being set free to live a new life:  a life of integrity, of compassion, of justice.  A life worthy of a daughter or son of God. 

          That is what the Resurrection of Jesus offers us.  It begins NOW.  Not when we die, not in some distant future, not in heaven, but right here and now.  Forgiveness of our sins sets us free to live as the children of God.  Because Jesus has conquered death.  Jesus has vanquished sin.  Jesus has triumphed over all the forces of evil.  They had done their worst, and they could not even keep Him in the ground.

          Jesus is victorious!  Jesus LIVES!   He has been raised up!   ALLELUIA!!!

EASTER VIGIL April 3, 2021 St Austin Church Austin, TX

 EASTER VIGIL   April 3, 2021    St Austin Church    Austin, TX

 Happy Easter!!!  ALLELUIA!   Christ is Risen!  Death and sin are defeated.  God triumphs!  Love and Life are ETERNAL.  ALLELUIA!

          Tonight we hear the Gospel of St. Mark.  And we can sum it up in the ancient maxim, going back to Roman times, that “clothes make the man.”  (show off vestment)                      In any case, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, very early on Sunday morning go to the tomb.  When they get there, just after sunrise, they discover the stone is rolled away!  With concern and trepidation, they gingerly make their way into the tomb, and there they see something that utterly amazes them.  What did they see? 

          An Angel?   NO!  They did NOT see an angel.  In St. Matthew’s Gospel the women see an angel.  In St. Luke’s Gospel the women meet two gentlemen in dazzling apparel who could be angels.  And in St. John’s Gospel Mary Magdalene sees no one there at first, but on returning later she meets Jesus Himself, but no angel. 

          But our Gospel tonight is St. Mark, and he does not have an angel.  What the women find in the tomb that utterly amazes them is “a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe.”   Mark knew the word for angel, and if he had meant an angel he would have written an angel.  But Mark states it was a young man clothed in a white garment.

          Now ¿who is this guy?  What is he doing here?  Where did he come from?   Well, I think we have seen him before.  Think back to last Sunday, to Palm Sunday when we heard St Mark’s version of the Passion of our Lord, and the events that lead up to today’s Gospel.  Was there any young man in that story that kind of stuck out?   Well, yes there was. 

Do you remember in the Garden of Gethsemani, when Jesus was arrested, St. Mark relates: "With that, all deserted him and fled."   Then St. Mark adds an unusual detail that only he recounts: "There was a young man following him who was covered by nothing but a linen cloth.  As they seized him he left the cloth behind and ran off naked."    ¿Remember him, the streaker?  How could you forget?  What an image!   It is so Austin!

What is this all about?  St. Mark, I contend, has fashioned his story as a deeply symbolic passage.  For the Scriptures nakedness is not erotic.  Rather nakedness is a cause for shame.  In the Garden of Eden, before they sinned, Adam and Eve are presented as being perfectly comfortable with being naked.  But once they sinned, nakedness became a source of shame.  And they hid themselves from God, because they were afraid.           Nakedness becomes a source of alienation and separation from God and from each other.  Now this young man, naked, flees the Garden of Gethsemane just as our first parents fled the Garden of Eden.

In the Bible nakedness is a symbol of vulnerability, of powerlessness, of poverty, of being without identity and not belonging.  In the Bible, nakedness is not a good place to be.

This young man in Mark’s Gospel, naked, defenseless, terrified, running for his life, ashamed and scarred, is a symbol for all of us when we are without God’s grace.  We run scarred through a terrifying and indifferent universe, with no meaning, no belonging, no identity.  

Given what has been going on in the world over the past year, with the pandemic, so many deaths, economic hardship, isolation and loneliness, so much trouble and violence in so many places, it is easy to feel vulnerable.  

We too can feel naked and defenseless, filled with sadness and loneliness.

Children from a Roman parish wrote reflections on the Stations of the Cross for this Good Friday for Pope Francis to use.  One girl wrote:  “The sadness of loneliness sometimes becomes unbearable, we feel ‘abandoned’ by everyone, unable to smile again. Like Jesus, we find ourselves fallen to the ground.”   Many of us have been there during this long Covid Lent.

 But, in tonight’s Gospel things have dramatically changed!  Because the young man wearing the white robe in the tomb is the exact same guy who was running naked from the Garden of Gethsemani. 

On Thursday he was naked; on Easter he is clothed in a white garment.

On Thursday he was running for his life; on Easter he is seated calmly.

On Thursday he was terrified, frightened, scarred; on Easter he is calm, assured, and at peace.

Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, this young man flees naked from the Garden, just like Adam and Eve fled from the Garden when they discovered they were naked and hid from God.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, this same young man is now dressed in a white robe and boldly proclaims the resurrection: "He has been raised up; he is not here!"  AND THAT YOUNG MAN ROBED IN WHITE  REPRESENTS EACH OF THE BAPTIZED, EACH OF US!

Something really important has changed.  The sign of that interior change is signified by being dressed in a white robe, which is the Baptismal robe, the sign of Baptism.   In just a few minutes, Elizabeth, Ryan, John and Janice, who will be baptized right here, will put on a white robe over their clothes, as a symbol of that new identity.   The Baptismal robe is an ancient symbol of being made a new creation.  And spiritually, each one of us who are baptized is robed in white.

My friends, that young man in the Gospel, a symbolic figure, represents every one of us. Before the salvific death of Christ, before redemption was won for us, we stood fearful and ashamed before God.  We were naked sinners, and ran away from God.  But now that Christ has conquered sin and death we have been clothed in a new dignity, a new identity through Baptism.  Now we are God’s beloved children, and stand before God unashamed.

We have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the very best of all Easter outfits.  At our baptisms we wore white.  But every day we wear that baptismal dignity as a member of the Body of Christ.  Spiritually too, clothes make the man, or woman. 

By our lives, like that young man in the Gospel, we too proclaim the power of Christ’s resurrection: "He has been raised up.”  Christ is not among the dead in the tombs.  The Risen Christ is here, among us.

What a beautiful Easter outfit!   HAPPY EASTER!   ALLELUIA!!!