HOMILY Thirds Sunday of Easter Cycle A April 23, 2023

 HOMILY    Thirds Sunday of Easter   Cycle A     April 23, 2023

           Today in the Gospel a pair of disciples are on the way to a village called Emmaus.  Scripture scholars debate where this Emmaus is, and nobody can figure it out.  But in any case, the disciples are on the road. 

          ‘The Road’ is an image of life, as in many Hollywood road pictures.   All of us are on a journey, from birth to death.  For some it is a short road, for others, like my Dad who lived to age 99, it is a long road.  For some it is pretty bumpy, with lots of twists and turns, several diversions and back-tracks and blind alleys.  And for others it is pretty straight and mostly smooth.  But all of us are on the journey of life. 

          All of us are on our own journey to Emmaus.  As the couple in the Gospel, Cleopas and maybe his wife, go along, who shows up but Jesus?  Of course, they don’t recognize that it is Jesus.  They are too absorbed in their own grief, their own bewilderment, their own issues, and so they don’t recognize Jesus.

          So also for us, as we go along the path of life, Jesus is often there, on the road with us.  But also for us, we often don’t recognize Him, because sometimes we too are to absorbed in our own plans, our own issues, our own worries, and so we don’t recognize Jesus.  

          In short, this pair of disciples is a lot like us.

          Jesus asks a simple question: “What are you discussing as you walk along?”   Be careful of those innocent questions Jesus asks, especially when they look simple and innocuous.   //

          “What are you discussing as you walk along your path of life?”  What preoccupies you in life?  What do you concern yourself with?  What do you spend your time and energy on?  What interests you as you go through life?  What are YOU discussing as you walk along?

          Brothers and sisters, like this pair of companions on the road to Emmaus, we too, on the journey of life, often don’t get it.  We are concerned with the wrong things: with our self-importance; our comfort; with looking good; with having it all.  What are you discussing as you walk along the pathways of life?

          Jesus gives them something of a rude awakening: “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe…” 

          Jesus observes and listens to you on the Journey of Life.  What is His reaction to you?  For me, I am afraid it would be very similar to Jesus’ reaction to Cleopas and his companion.  “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe…  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?”       //

           I believe that Jesus is on the road with us.  Jesus certainly understands suffering much more deeply than we do.  He has been there.  Not just physical pain, but bitter betrayal by his followers and friends, rejection by His own people, and worst, the sense of abandonment by God. 

           But,,, Jesus came through all that, and entered into His glory.  We celebrated that just two weeks ago on Easter.  Jesus is Risen!  Alleluia!

          Now Jesus walks along with us. To instruct us. To reassure us.  To comfort us.  To challenge us, so that we may not be foolish.

          Life is not about popularity, nor bank accounts, nor the kind of car you drive. Life is about relationship, and especially relationship with Jesus.  He walks along with us in Life.  He challenges us, but we can rely on Him.

          The two disciples came to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, an early name for the Eucharist.  Breaking.  Jesus was broken for us.  But in being broken, He was thereby opened to receive the glory that the Father yearned to give Him.  As we heard in the preaching of St Peter in the first reading today, “God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.  Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father.” 

Where are you broken?   We each and every one of us need to be broken out of our self-centeredness.  Jesus taught us that we too need to be broken open for others, and so be open wide enough to receive His Love and Life. 

Happy Easter!  Alleluia!

HOLY THURSDAY April 6, 2023 St. Austin Church

 HOMILY     HOLY THURSDAY      April 6, 2023   St. Austin Church

 Jesus, I think we can all agree, was a very good preacher.  Indeed, a great preacher.  He often attracted large crowds and would hold their attention, rapt on His words, for the better part of a day.  He gave people hope and a sense of God’s action in their lives.  He was a great preacher.

Jesus preached not only by words, but also by actions.  And that is what we see this evening.  Jesus washes the feet of His disciples.  This was a job regularly relegated to slaves and the lowliest servants.  It was a menial and indeed demeaning job; washing dirty, smelly feet.   No glamor in this job.

However, Jesus does not do this under duress, nor by compulsion.  Not forced to do it, not at all begrudgingly.  Rather Jesus does it freely, willingly, even we might surmise, gladly.  He does it out of compassion and love.  It is a sermon given, not in words, but in action. 

“Do you realize what I have done for you?”  What a question!  Jesus queries the Disciples when He had finished washing their feet.  And Jesus makes the point clearly in case the Apostles, or us, might be a little too spiritually dense to pick up on it right away.  “You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master’, and rightly so, for indeed I am.  If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

We are to understand the point of this as serving each other, not as a lesson on good foot hygiene.  We wash each other’s feet not by literally washing feet, but rather by humble and grateful service. 

Let’s say you are driving around Austin in one of the many construction zones where several lanes of traffic are squeezed down to one, and you let the car on your right, which is not in the correct lane, pull ahead of you.   You have just washed their feet.

Or you call that aunt who you never much cared for, who was always kind of prissy and a pain, but who lives alone and doesn’t much interact with people, to see how she is doing.   Does she need anything?   You listen to her aches and her gossip for a while.  You tell her to call you if she gets stuck, and tell her it was good to talk with her.  And in that way you washed her feet.

Maybe you drive a neighbor who needs a ride to the doctor.  You pick up some groceries for a neighbor who is sick or incapacitated.  You go out of your way to compliment someone who is down or lonely.  Or you even help with the collection, or greet people coming to church and offer a worship aid, or sing in the choir, or let others get into the pew giving them a place to sit, then you wash feet. 

If you help out at St. Vincent de Paul, or Thursday Outreach, or you bake a casserole for the Martha Ministry funeral receptions, or you just stop and talk to a stranger who seems kind of lost and lonely, you wash feet. 

The opportunities to wash feet are all around us.  Washing feet is not about hygiene, but about service.  Jesus tells us: “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”  He is teaching us to serve each other, in any way that service presents itself.   In Him, we learn the beauty and the freedom of humble service. 

AMEN. 

HOMLY FOR PASSION SUNDAY 2023

 Jesus started out this Mass in triumph, hailed as a conquering hero.  “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” 

It seems like a distant memory;  because Jesus ends up falsely condemned, scourged and crucified, rejected by the leaders of the people and the great majority of the people.   Can’t get much lower than that.

In our liturgy today it is all straight down-hill.  Sometimes life is like that.  The terrible war in Ukraine grinding down cities and towns to rubble and destruction.  The tragic mass shooting at the school in Nashville on Monday, yet again!  So many crimes and tragedies and accidents.  Things just go from bad to worse, and life is just straight down-hill.    (pause)

But, but we know that for Jesus the tomb is NOT the end.  Against all odds and expectations, that is not the end.  We have not yet reached the end of the Gospel, the Good News.

And Jesus promises us that the tomb is not the end for us either.  There is more.  MUCH more!  It is not over till it is over. 

And in God’s plan there is so fantastically much more to come.