Fr. Bob Homily 5th Lent Life in the NOW

I have seen people come back to life! It’s amazing!

One young man who I knew as a boy got caught up in drugs and abusive relationships. When I saw him as an adult, he did not look good; but he was ready for life. He has made changes, and today he looks so healthy. He has a job. He is connected back to family.

This is LIFE!



Once, a newly wed couple were so in love. They traveled and explored. Did new things together Yet, within a few years, she developed cancer. They went through treatments together. He nursed her the whole way. She got free of it. They returned to living life together. Then it came back. He again, put his life on hold to make sure she was cared for. She eventually passed. But the love they had for each other persisted. He revealed his true self.

This is life.


Depression, unemployment, financial strain, egos, fear...so many “Things” out there to keep us from being engaged in living; that keep us from being engaged from letting others love us, and us from loving others.  We become the walking dead.
Did you know that after 9-11, the number of zombie movies and shows skyrocketed?? It seems a subtle communal response to the fears of terrorism were manifested in our cinema.



God is LIFE; God is LOVE. Therefore Life is love.   God created us to be alive in this world. God created us to be engaged in active living, to be free to love others and let others love us.  All that God did was to free us to be engaged in living.


I always enjoyed that vision in Ezekiel. He speaks to a people who have witnessed the horror of invasion and destruction of their beloved city, Jerusalem. All that they thought they knew, gone. They had become dead. 

God, through Ezekiel says “Wait! I who breathed the spirit of life into you at the beginning of time will breathe a new spirit within you. You will be alive once again!”

What HOPE! A hope too for the NOW. It was not about something so far removed, so far in the future, but something that was happening NOW. It was in their midst!

Jesus too, the hope he brings is that new Spirit, that New Breath of life within us.  Not in some heaven, light years away. NOT in some distant future.  Jesus is HOPE now!

He walks Martha and Mary through this. They had hope, but hope for something beyond, something intangible. They hoped for that future heaven.  Jesus gives them tangible hope there in the moment.

We have that same hope AND we as church, the body of Christ are called to be that Hope for so many.

Tangible Hope, in our forgiveness and mercy. Tangible Hope in our presence and support for one another.  Tangible Hope in our generosity for those in need.  Tangible Hope in removing obstacles and wrappings from people, so that they can be more fully engaged in living!

Pope Francis gave that incredible prayer experience on Friday. His prayer to the city and the world.  He blessed the entire world. This is not a magic act.

We are to be inspired to be the peace in this world  We are to be inspired to realize that this Virus does not control us. It cannot have control over us. It cannot stop us from Love.  All our mission, our ministry, is to help people come alive in Jesus Christ.


Youth Ministry especially, our youth need to know what truly helps them to live. It is not necessarily the things of this world, nor the politics, nor the false ideals.  We show them about true connections. We show them, like Jesus, how to listen, how to discern, how to share.

But to be honest, a lot of our youth already got it or at least more open to it.   Some of us adults, we can take a lesson from them. 
Too many of us are still held back because we try to control so much.  We are so angry the world for not going our way.  We are so fearful of change. So fearful of differences.  Wrapped in our egos.


Oh, that we can be revived in Jesus.
Oh that we can See how God is the God of life.
See how God forgives all.
How God holds us up. Breathes new life into us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

19th Sunday. With just a little faith...

Image
Parents, you are amazing. Each day you wake up and walk into the chaos of life with those special little somethings. Each day you walk into life and make choices, with little preparation, with those kids that are inherently bipolar: angels in one moment, in another, even Satan would be scared of them. Again, there is little prep; there is no easy app for parenting. I will repeat again, I do not mind noisy kids in mass; noisy adults I do, you all know better, but kids…please bring them and have them here. Parents thank you for bringing them and for having the courage and faith to be parents. Recently a friend asked me about depression. He asked me to describe what it is like. I could only give my experience: it is like a fog. It is being so overwhelmed by everything and feeling everything, and lacking the ability to take a step forward, to make a choice. There is no movement, only stagnation. It takes a lot of energy to be able to make a choice, to take a step. Earlier this week I w
Read more

22nd Sunday Following the Messiah

Image
My first car was a 1977 chevy nova, v-6, two doors; under the hood there was so much space. I got it the summer before my sophomore year in college, so I was 18-19. I wanted to change the oil so my dad told me how to do it. He said when I change the filter, hand tighten first, then give a small turn with the wrench, do not overtighten it. Me, being a college man, and knowing everything, gave it a good strong turn and thought well done. Several months later, it was time to change the filter again. I could not get it off. I tried and tried. My dad noticed and came to help. He told me that I had cranked it hard the last time didn’t I. Yup, with a degree of shame. He worked to get that thing off. My Uncle who lived nearby saw the commotion, He came and helped. It took them a long time, and what they did was eventually pound through the tire jack, and twisted it off that way. I learned my lesson; I felt a lot of shame on that one. Being able to hold in tension or conflicting ideals signifie
Read more

2nd Advent - Finding our way in God's Love

Image
Many years ago a friend living in Texas came up to visit me in Fernley. This friend had been born and raised in the city. Anyway, I had asked him what he would like to do and he wanted to go geocaching. Okay, I thought it is March in Northern Nevada, fun! But we went, found a cache located near Lahontan Reservoir, and so we drove out there. I parked the car near the cache and the gps device told us the cache was about 500 feet away. I looked around and had a sense of where it would be, on this hillside. My friend became worried: worried that we would get lost. I said not a problem. What if we lose sight of the car? I looked around, it was Nevada sage, no tree for miles; and again we were only going 500 feet up a hill. I said we will be fine, we will never lose sight of the car and we won’t get lost. We didn’t. I have been lost in the wilderness once. It was scary. I was in Northern New Mexico, in a thick forest and it was an overcast day. I was by myself, and nobody knew where I was, a
Read more