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May 31, 2005
LEAVING WALL STREET BEHIND Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I must admit that when it comes to the business of business, I am pretty much of a “clutz.” I have no investments, stocks or bonds. So, when the people on National Public Radio start talking about the NYSE, NASDAQ, Merrill Lynch or the Fortune 500, I am lost. Actually they don’t really interest me that much because I have nothing to gain or lose.
But it often occurs to me that those thousands, millions of people who work in numbers every day, worrying about the rise and fall of stocks, the people whose lives are sometimes wiped out because of a wrong decision….I wonder whether they really like their jobs. I don’t think I would. There doesn’t seem to be anything very creative or exciting about it, unless you are making a lot of money day after day. Not many of them are.
I’m happy that I enrolled in the liberal arts college at Notre Dame back in 1950 rather than in the business school. Of course, if I had gone into business, I obviously would not be writing this. God’s ways are mysterious.
On the other hand, I imagine working with money can be exciting, attractive, even seductive. Lots of the Wall Street people have gotten trapped in the process. Think of Martha Stewart, the Enron people, the Arthur Andersen and the MCI people who got caught up in the lure of making big bucks and lost it. It can’t be a very peaceful, blissful sort of life.
There are some big business folks, however not many, who occasionally give it all up and say “it’s not worth the sweat, life is too short.” They give it up, buy a beach house out in the Hamptons or up in Vermont and write books or something.
I suppose that would be a tough decision: Think, for instance, how a spouse would feel if the husband or wife came home from the office one evening and simply said: “I’m chucking it in. Let’s take a trip around the world and forget about it.” I’m sure there might need to be some conversation before all that happened. So, I suspect there are probably not many instances of that happening.
But it happened once in history, at least as far as we know. The man’s name was Matthew (no family name given). He had a nick name which carried a bad image. He was known as a “Publican”, a public man who collected taxes from the poor and, supposedly, skimmed off some for himself in the process. He was not a popular man, but it did not seem to bother him a lot. What he was doing might even have been “slightly” legal at the time.
At any rate, here is this Jewish IRS official going to work one morning, imagining that he would do what he always done, collect taxes, collect a few insults from his “friends” and neighbors. Half way through the day, an itinerant preacher walks by, gives him a negative stare and says to him: “Matthew, come follow me.” The gospel simply says: “Matthew left his post and followed Jesus.”
Now, I submit to you, that is a rather extraordinary happening: A man who has a good job with a good future, suddenly meets a preacher who invites him to come along and he closes shop and moves on. My hunch is that most financiers today would think twice before arbitrarily following a preacher of any persuasion, Protestant or Catholic
It may be true, of course, that the whole story is not told in the Gospel, but even if it is only partly true, it was still a rather momentous move on Matthew’s part.
Now, of course, all of us can read the history of it. We know how it all turned out in the end. Matthew becomes a follower of Jesus of Nazareth whom he eventually discovers to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed of God. Of course, that is all history. He did not know that in the beginning. He just took a chance to see what this Preacher had “going for him,” and off he went.
But there are situations of people even today that might be similar to Matthew’s choice, perhaps not as radical, but pretty dicey nonetheless.
When one thinks about it, even the “minor” career that most of us have followed in life was once a pretty risky decision. We had no idea where this career was going to take us. We just “jumped in” and did the best we could.
The same could be said for most marriages: The initial meeting was almost purely by chance. Some succeed, others fail. There is nothing sure about any human decision we ever make.
Of course, we could also say that unless we take a risk in any human venture, we will never know where it will take us. Everything is history.
Perhaps, what makes all the difference in life’s decisions is faith, belief in one’s self, belief in the possibility that we can make reasonable decisions, belief that if we try to do the right thing, God will be on our side guiding us.
I think this might be particularly true of people who are trying to escape some human habit that has entrapped them: Alcohol, drugs, gambling, et cetera. People who struggle with this tell of the moment that someone told them about AA or NA or some other community help program; they followed and at that moment their life changed forever. It just took faith in their human powers to do it.
Many other folks among us (perhaps ourselves) have become trapped on some morally sinful way of life, until someone comes along and says: “Hey, I can show you a better way, follow me.” If we followed, our lives still turned out to be worth living.
I suspect, finally, that if we all were to look back on our lives there has probably been someone in our life who has done that very thing for us sometime, held out a hand and said, “follow me:” A wife or a husband, a priest or a sister, a friend, a minister.
If truth be known, most (even all) of us need someone to keep us from getting trapped in our own chosen, personal prisons. It’s always nice to know that there is someone out there who cares enough about us to save us from ourselves. If it could work for Matthew the tax man, it could surely work for the likes of us as well.
The Scriptures: Hosea 6: 3-6; Romans 4: 18-25; Matthew 9: 9-13
Posted by Julie Galligan at 09:05 AM.
May 24, 2005
Feast of the Body & Blood of Christ: These Thy Gifts the Holy Act of Eating
Note: For the following, I am indebted to my friend Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine. No preacher could have done better. First published in US Catholic, January 2005.
The sharing of food is the holiest of human arts, far older than history, and the finding and gathering and cooking and presenting of food, and giving thanks for it, and sighing with pleasure over it, and singing the praises of the cook---these acts of prayer are offered by the billions every day in every corner remote or riotous on the planet---an amazing thing to contemplate.
How many hands rolling dough, dipping rice, opening fruit, tending the fire! How many mouths savoring the miracles of water and wine, milk and meat, loaves and fishes. How many babbling rivers of table talk, swirling and whirling, the chaos and the hubbub, the laughter and arguments, the new children swimming in new scents, the old men remembering foods of the past. Meals are such memory machines.
Food brings back the dead, food is a teacher, food gathers the clan, food binds the tribe, food stitches the family, food forges friends, food is a savory, spicy, redolent, necessary, nutritious, sweet, wild, holy prayer.
But how very many people eat alone today, seated at their silent tables, standing in the yard, sitting on the riverbank, curled in bed, eating alone. What shouts “Alone! Alone!” more than eating alone? And how very many people do not eat at all tonight or do not eat enough? How many have air for dinner or a mere shard of a meal? How many?
I will tell you how many: In my state, 100,000 children hungry tonight. In our country, 20 million children hungry tonight. On this poor, wild, lovely, green, rich, pained, bruised, genius miracle gift of a planet, 20 million children hungry tonight.
And here comes tomorrow, quick as a starving cat its ribs showing through its skin like desperate fingers.
The moments and gestures and poems and chants of a meal: the hands cupped around bowls, the skein of stories, the passing of the pepper, the cutting of food into pieces for children, the telephone books on chairs so that they are lifted up into the sea of stories, the chapels of hands clasped in prayer, the passing of plates one to another, the wisps of rising circling swirling steam, the creaks and whispers of chairs, the clatter-rattle of plates stacked for the sink, the humming of the dishwasher be it machine or mother, father or daughter, clan or neighbor, priest or poet.
Consider the Mass as meal: bread and wine, stories and prayers, comment and counsel, songs and silences, meditation and murmuring, arrivals and departures, children and elders, sitting and standing---and the guest of honor arriving suddenly in the midst of us in the middle of the meal, there in the bread and the wine, the miracle of the moment.
And the shocking miracle of food, the rich salty seas of soups, the brawny burly honesty of bread, the cheer of beer, the startling greenness of beans and peas, the hilarious fluorescent orange of carrots, the steaming ears of corn in the shape of summer, the meats that muscle us, the sweet holy perfect water we sip. And that is the most basic, ancient, wonderful necessary food of all, water that has run in rivers and swum in the sea and been drawn magically into the air and cast down again gentle from the sky. We drink it and give our gardens to drink and give our animals to drink and every once in awhile, on misty morning, maybe, we stop for a moment and are amazed as infants at the genius of it all; such agape amazement being purest prayer.
Meals bring us together. Ever it has been so, ever it will be, by God’s grace. From the corners of the house or street or town or nation we gather for the meal, which commences with prayer, in thanks that we are here together, that we have food to eat, that we are not under attack this day, that we are not huddled and alone. We offer grace for the grace we have been offered, which is everywhere evident and endless, as free-flowing as water, as necessary, as refreshing
Consider a monk’s day: vigils, lauds, Mass, breakfast! lectio divina, terce, work, sext, lunch! None, work, vespers, prayers, supper! study, compline, and then to bed as light flees your half of the planet. Do you think maybe his meals are moments of particular joy and wonder, his honest food earned honestly by an honest man? Think maybe a monk really savors the pearness of the pear?
The first foods of a child are moist, and the last foods of the dying are moist. In the beginning and at the end our food approaches the water our species came from and is mostly made of.
We are here so briefly, brothers and sisters, and our daily task is this: See clear, bring your best self to bear, be the sweet sharp sword of the Lord, fan the heat of the holy, carry mercy in your mouth, pray with your ears and eyes, sing the sacrament of what is, do not tire, do not despair, do not sell your one wild life, lift the children, puncture the lie, face the bully, wash clean the foul, be relentless, be merry, shape your pain into sacrament, pry the pain from others, call the powerful to account, be alert, be attentive, for there is holiness all around us like and ocean, holiness in pain as much as in joy, holiness in every moment for no moment is mundane, every moment is a miracle, every moment a meal.
The scriptures: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58
Posted by Julie Galligan at 09:00 AM.
May 16, 2005
Holy Trinity: What's In A Name
I’m sure most of us would agree that there are some personal matters that we consider rather important: Not our Social Security number or our PIN number on our bank card or even the number on our driver’s license. Those are important, obviously, but my hunch is that they are not as important as our name! Next to our very personality (our “is-ness”) we hold our name as a sacred trust. It was given to us for the rest of our life.
Aren’t we embarrassed, for instance, if someone introduces us with the wrong name or if we forget someone’s name who we should know? Oddly enough, our name is identified with us. We use our name to identify ourselves. What other way is there?
Most of us are proud of our names, or at least, we get long with them as best we can. They set us off from practically everyone else in the world.
For Christians and especially for Catholics, there are two names which we hold sacred: One is God and the other is Jesus. They are so sacred to us that if we have used them “in vain” (an odd word) we accuse ourselves in confession.
There are lots of stories in the Bible of God or God’s messengers giving names and changing people’s names: Jacob will be named Israel, Sarai will be Sarah, Saul will be Paul. The child of Elizabeth and Zechariah will be named John. The child of Mary will be named Jesus, Peter will be named “Rock.” All of these have symbolic meanings, of course. They designate a change of character: Once you were this, now you are something else!
For those of us who are Christian and Catholic, there are two names we hold sacred: the name of God and the name of Jesus. But Jews, Christians and Muslims have also given other names to God: Father, Allah, Protector, Rock, Shepherd, Savior, “I Am.” God, obviously does not need a name, but we need a name for God if we want to communicate. We can hardly begin a prayer, for instance, without addressing the one on whom we depend.
So, we can begin to see from all this that names have been important from the time that human beings first began to search for meaning about themselves.
For those of us who are Christian, of course, we have a special name given us at our baptism: We are named for the Trinity, God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Notice what the priest says at baptism: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” “In the name of God” we are baptized.
We have other names too, of course, usually names of saints whom we should try to imitate in our lives.
But there is also another name we do not think about very often: It’s a communal name, church. When we gather for Mass each Sunday, we gather under one name, church.
So, what are some practical implications of being named after the Trinity? I think, basically, it is a matter of attention, paying attention. We, obviously, use the name of the Trinity so often, we hardly reflect on what we are doing. But the implications are tremendously important: We rise in the morning and dedicate our day to the Trinity by making the sign of the cross. We (at least I) get into our car, make the sign of the cross, asking God to give us the good sense not to drive “crazy.” We bless the food at our table in the name of the Trinity. It is God, after all, who gave it to us. We bless ourselves once again at the end of day, thanking the Trinity for safe-keeping.
Mothers and fathers send their children off to school with the blessing of the Trinity. People who love one another ask God’s blessing on one another as they leave on a trip. We are blessed in the name of the Trinity as we receive the waters of baptism each Sunday during Easter season. At funerals, our loved ones who lie in death are sprinkled with holy water in the name of the Trinity. In short, everything we do is done in the name of God the Trinity.
Finally, I would like to think that each of us, at the moment of our conception, was given a name which we will never know, but which only God knows because each of us is unique and precious in God’s sight. If that is the case, that each of us is unique in God’s eyes, it is pretty obvious that we should need a name, whether we will ever know it or not. Some day we may find out.
The scriptures: Exodus 34: 4-6. 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13; John 3:16-18
Posted by Julie Galligan at 03:12 PM.
May 11, 2005
Pentecost: It's All About Communication
I’m sure that there are not many people in the world, unless they are professional writers or speakers, who need to come up with a fresh piece of writing or a speech every week. It’s done, of course, and we seem to expect that it will happen in whatever media we are talking about.
My hunch is that many Catholics (or non Catholics for that matter) do not realize how tough it is to come up with a fresh homily every week. We have hardly finished last Sunday’s and already we have to start thinking about next Sunday’s. And, of course, the folks in the pews expect something fresh and exciting, original, even humorous every week.
Andrew Greeley, the Chicago priest and sociologist, says that more people leave the Catholic Church because of poor homilies than for any other reason. No one has ever told me that, but it could be true for all I know.
But homilies are important: For many Catholics, this is the only exposure they will have to scripture, to Catholic teaching or even spiritual encouragement for the coming week. So, it’s important, even though it may be tough to come up with something original each week.
Why is this important? It’s important because it’s all about communication, about evangelization, spreading the good news about Jesus Christ and the Church. Preaching covers about 90 percent of what we would call Christian adult education. Lots of folks have so little time to read Catholic newspapers or magazines. So, the Sunday homily is critically important for Catholic, spiritual health.
The scriptures for some Sundays are obviously easier to preach on than others and feast days as well. But there are several feasts during this time of the liturgical year that seem particularly difficult to work from. I’m thinking of two: Today’s feast of Pentecost is one. The feast of the Holy Trinity is another.
What’s so tough about preaching on Pentecost? Well, Pentecost is all about the Holy Spirit, obviously, and what can one say about spirit (Spirit)? Oddly enough, we once used the word Ghost (Holy Ghost) and, at least, ghost brings up images of creatures draped in sheets! But, of course, that did not help much in crafting a homily.
So, what has to happen when one talks about Spirit, about God’s Holy Spirit, is that we have to appeal to metaphors, to analogies to help us understand, all the while knowing that we have not actually addressed the Holy Spirit as Spirit exists. But we have to start somewhere and where do we start?
We hear the word spirit being tossed around all the time: We instinctively know when our “spirits” are low or high; we know that the moment we get out of bed in the morning. We know too when a particular sports organization has the right spirit. When an underdog team beats the best team in the league, we say it was all due to their spirit. Notice, we haven’t said anything here about a definition. We just assume that everybody knows what Spirit is when we use the word. Perhaps it has something to do with an interior disposition, a hidden desire, and a drive for excellence. Schools often use the word in that way: Notre Dame, they say, has a great football spirit. (At least when they are winning!) High schools live on spirit. Their cheerleaders go through all sorts of gyrations to bring up the spirit of the team.
So, what can we say about the Holy Spirit? Well, Jesus did not give any definition. The apostles and the early Church did not have a definition. But when you read the scriptures you immediately know that something was going on, something was happening on that momentous day. The scriptures from the Acts of the Apostles says that the spirit of the disciples of Jesus was pretty low. They were “hanging” out behind closed doors not knowing what they should do next. They had no clue about founding the Church or about preaching or anything else.
Suddenly, the text says that there was tremendous wind that blew through the house. (Wind and spirit are synonymous words.) A fire came down on them and they became “fired up,” to use a modern word. Whether this was real wind or real fire, we do not know. But what we do know is that they suddenly felt a new sense of direction, a call, a sense of courage; they were “inspirited,” if you will.
It was only after that experience that things began to happen. And what happened? Well, they began to go out and preach Christ, to spread the good news. Nothing could stop them; they could not even begin to stop themselves. They were just full of the Spirit.
When I think about preachers who are full of the Spirit, I often think about Robert Duval, the actor who once directed and acted in a film called “The Apostle.” It was a story about a pastor from a “big time” Texas church who got in trouble, lost his job and had to go out to find a new church. He ended up going to Louisiana and fixing up a little run down backwater building. People began to come, but he had to learn a new way of preaching, like the Pentecostal preachers in that area. Well, he learned it alright and he gradually got a little group of folks together who waited each week for this man who was full of wind and fire to come and preach God’s word. I thought of that film as an example of a new Pentecost.
We Catholics are not much used to such Pentecostal preaching, except for the occasional “man of fire,” Bishop Fulton Sheen (of happy memory) Catholic preachers are more doctrinal in their presentation rather than emotional. I imagine we feel that an emotional message does not last very long once you have left the church. We would rather teach than “excite” people.
But let us also say this about the coming of the Holy Spirit: It came down on certain individuals, obviously, but it came upon them for the sake of the Church. We say today that the Church, the people of God, are filled with the Holy Spirit, not only on Pentecost, but all the time. The gift is always there, just waiting to be used.
So, the point is, if you can see something happening in the Church, it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit: Whenever the Church, the local community, pays attention to whatever needs to be done around them, the Holy Spirit is at work. When the poor are fed, the downtrodden lifted up, the lost given direction, the young given attention, when all these things happen we can say for sure that the Holy Spirit is at work.
If we were to ask for a recent piece of evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the Church, I would point to the events of Pope John Paul’s death, burial and the election of Pope Benedict’s election. You could just get a sense that something was happening in the Church, whether in Rome or throughout the world. There was a kind of fresh wind blowing when the new Pope was elected and we suddenly knew that there was a future for our church. We were not left without a shepherd.
So, the point I am making is that we have sure evidence of the Holy Spirit’s continued presence in the Church when there is progress, when the Church pays attention to the signs of times and does something about it.
Finally, if Pentecost is the “birthday of the church” as we say it is, then like all our birthdays, we should begin thinking about the year ahead and imagine what our Church could become if only we let the wind blow through us and the fire come down upon us.
There is still so much work to be done in this world. If we decide we want to get at it, we can be sure the Holy Spirit will not let us down. We are never orphans, never have been, never will be. It’s the Spirit’s promise.
The Scriptures: Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13; John 20: 19-23
Posted by Deacon Eric Stoltz at 02:45 PM.
May 08, 2005
Ascension: View from the Top
As an outdoors person, it has often occurred to me that mountains play a big part in our lives: For some who do not particularly like mountains, they are simply a hunk of land that we have to get through to reach our destination. For others, they are a challenge to climb and the steeper they are the better. For others still, they (at least the tops) are a place in the world few people reach and where fewer people will be able to reach you! They are also places of reflection, contemplation, meditation. Nonetheless, the top is not a place where you want to stay very long, particularly, if a storm is brewing.
For yet other people throughout history, mountaintops have been places or metaphors for communication with God. Perhaps that is because a mountain top is at least somewhat lifted above the plain, a place where there is no interruption from the world. But ultimately, mountaintops are considered places where God communicates with us and vice versa. Perhaps it’s the rarefied atmosphere.
I often think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who spoke so eloquently of going to the mountain top. Remember the famous speech he gave at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968, the very day before he was assassinated? Here is what he said on that evening: “I’ve been to the mountaintop, and I just want to do God’s will. God allowed me to go up the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised-land…and I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything…Mine eyes have see the coming of the glory of the Lord.” Such great lines from a holy man and a world-class orator!
We also have another example of a mountaintop experience in the Old Testament, the story of Moses who traveled to the mountain called Horeb with his people, and from the bottom he was called to come up to receive the Commandments. Notice, once again, that holy errands are accomplished on high places because that is where God meets us. Mountaintops are the places where the Law is given.
Lastly, we have an example of an experience on a mountain between Jesus and his apostles. No name is given to the mountain. It could later have been named the mount of the Transfiguration. At any rate, Jesus called the disciples there, ostensibly because it would be a quiet place where an experience of the holy could take place.
Nonetheless, even given all those mountaintop experiences which have a special meaning and significance, we know that people do not remain on mountains for very long. They ultimately come back down to the flat land, to the place where the rest of humanity gets on with its daily activities, secular and sacred.
Take the example of Dr. King again as an example: Although he said he had been to the mountaintop, he came back down where there was still so much work to be done, whether in Selma or Atlanta or Birmingham or Washington, D.C. Nothing could have been accomplished by staying on top and hoping that things would change down below. There was work to be done, obviously.
It turned out that Jesus and his apostles also knew that they could stay on the mountain for only a short time. Life even might have become a little boring, sitting around with nothing to do. We humans are creatures of action. Indeed, we sometimes have guilt feelings if we are not accomplishing something “worthwhile.”
But this much we do know from reading the rest of the gospel accounts: Jesus did expect his apostles to get on with the work he had started. Indeed, the angel in white in the story asks the apostles why they are standing around looking up in the sky. “This Jesus, they say, who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” We might get the sense from this that Jesus planned to return to check and see what progress the apostles and even the church of our times was making, fulfilling Jesus’ vision for all humanity.
So, the question the Ascension experience leaves with us is this: What are we doing with Jesus’ kingdom in these in-between-times? Can people still recognize Jesus’ presence and work in the world today?
Part of the answer to that question became clear to me at the death of Pope John Paul II and all the commentaries about him that appeared in the public press. When one gathers them all together, it just seems such an astonishing thing to see all that he had accomplished in those 26 years. Even his travel miles added up to several trips to the moon! It is no wonder so many people went to Rome for the funeral or watched it all on television. He just touched so many people in those few short years of his papacy.
All this tells me that here was a man who took Jesus’ command seriously to go out to the ends of the earth to build the kingdom. He surely did not simply stand around looking up into the sky, waiting for a word, a clue as to what should be done next in the world.
Not only that, John Paul did not think that work or activity was the only priority. Several of the commentators made the point that he would spend at least one hour before Mass every morning on his knees or even prostrate on the floor praying for the people of the entire world. He had a giant map on his wall and would look up at the various nations or countries he was praying for that day. He was convinced that prayer preceded action and that both were needed to bring Christ to the world.
All that, of course, leaves us with a persistent question: Are we standing around, looking up in the sky waiting for some word from Jesus about what we should do next? The fact is, we don’t need messengers in white to tell us what to do, and it will be clear enough to us.
Finally, one last word about Pope John Paul: It seemed clear enough from his life and work that he was convinced that this world is the place where Christ will return and where Christ expects us to make an impact. John Paul did not spend the entire day in prayer. He spent himself in the service of anyone who came to visit, whether kings, presidents or commoners. This was the world for John Paul. Most of our work will probably not be meeting and conversing with notable people, but rather with the little people who will turn to us for a kind word, a bit of advice or a listening ear to hear their problems. Most problems and human tasks are earthly realities, things going on around us. If we know where to look, they will soon become evident. Once seen, there is no way we can avoid getting to work on them. It’s all part of the process of coming down off the mountain.
The scriptures:
Acts of the Apostles 1: 12-14; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17: 1-11
Posted by Deacon Eric Stoltz at 02:58 PM.
May 01, 2005
Sixth Sunday of Easter: When We Need Help
On March 19 of this year Johnnie Cochran died of a brain tumor at is home in Los Angeles. Johnnie Cochran was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the great grandson of slaves and the grandson of sharecroppers and the son of an insurance salesman.
Johnnie Cochran was a debater by nature from his high school days and eventually attended U.C.L.A. and became a famous attorney.
Not a lot of people had ever heard of Johnnie Cochran until he defended O.J. (whom we all know!) and managed to get an acquittal in a murder case. From that time on Johnnie Cochran’s name became famous.
What many people do not know, however, is that Johnnie Cochran not only defended the rich and the famous. For many years after law school he was well known as the one to whom ordinary folks, especially, the poor, could go if they needed someone to defend them in court. And defend them he did. He was known all over L.A. particularly in East L.A. as the advocate or legal counselor for the poor and disadvantaged.
Many legal professional people, of course, like Johnnie Cochran are ordinarily known as lawyers or attorneys. But their true vocation could be better described as advocate or counselor because that, indeed, is what they do, they “go to bat” for people, they counsel people who have legal problems and have no one else to give them help and advice.
I have not always been a great devotee of lawyers (and I have taken my part in not a few “lawyer jokes.”) but I must say that that the calling deserves respect. We need such people in the world where violence and law-breaking is often the norm rather than the exception. So, let us raise our voices in praise for advocates and counselors.
I imagine the word counselor or advocate must be a very ancient title given to such folks: I’m sure, for instance, that there were advocates in ancient Athens, Rome or Constantinople in those days.
It is not unlikely then that we should find such a word in the gospels, particularly, because the gospels were translated out of the Hebrew into Greek in those early days.
So, in the gospel for today’s liturgy we hear Jesus telling his disciples that he will not leave them orphans, that he will send them (after his death and resurrection) another advocate, someone else, the Spirit of Truth, who would be with them always.
All this tells me that Jesus must have considered himself their first or original advocate because he tells them that he will send them another, someone like himself.
When one reads the gospels, we somehow get the sense that without Jesus, the disciples really felt themselves as “lost souls.” They never really could figure out exactly what he was talking about or how he could do the marvelous things he did. But they also knew that without his presence and support, they might as well go back to fishing or whatever else they might have been doing before they met him. So, Jesus truly was their advocate or counselor.
But Jesus also knew (after all, he was human, like all of us) that he would not be with them forever. He knew what was about to befall him at the hands of the Romans, and I’m sure the disciples also had a sense that some serious stuff was about to come down soon.
So, given all that, Jesus wanted to reassure them that it wasn’t over when it seemed to be over. He would continue to be with them all days, even until the end of the world. I’m sure that must have been a great comfort to these men who had so little idea of what would happen if Jesus was suddenly taken from them.
What is so important in all this is that, seemingly, Jesus wanted to make sure that all he had preached and done would not simply disappear after his death. What would have been the whole point of his coming into the world in the first place?
So, Jesus tells them that he will continue to be with them in the Spirit that he will send them. He did not say what life would be like when the Spirit came, or what the Spirit would do. He just said “don’t be afraid, the Spirit will be here to be an advocate for you.”
Now, fortunately, I would have to say that we Christians today, and for many ages in the past, have had a special insight into what Jesus meant when he said he would send the Spirit. The apostles and disciples did not know, but we know that the Spirit has always been part of the entire rise and growth of our Christian, Catholic Church of which we are an intimate part by baptism. The fact that our Church has been healthy and thriving all these years tells us that we have not been orphans or that we have been floating around free all these centuries. Only because the Holy Spirit has been with us can we say that Jesus himself has continued to be with us also, giving us hope and direction.
True, the church has indeed fallen on some pretty hard times over the years: We’ve had inept popes and bishops, we as Church have done some pretty terrible things to other groups of people over the centuries. (Think, for instance, of the Inquisition and the Crusades.) But nonetheless, we are still a Church which continues to be a beacon of truth in the world today. Jesus never said he would do miracles to help the church continue. He just said that his Spirit would be with us.
The question, however, is this: For whom does the Holy Spirit advocate, for whom does the Holy Spirit counsel and intercede? My answer would be not just for the pope (although somewhat for him), not just for bishops (but also somewhat for them), not just for ordained deacons or priests, not just for dedicated lay folks in the church, but rather for the entire Church as a body, all of us together.
But, you may ask, how does all this happen? How do we know that the Holy Spirit is still with the Church? Several ways: First, when we accept the good leadership of the pope and bishops. But also when we enter into the life of the Church in our own “little churches”, when we try to bring the Spirit’s power to bear for the good of the Christian community by doing the ordinary good things that keep a Church alive, whether it be assisting at communion, proclaiming the word, teaching little children their catechism, or even the church for a weekend liturgy. Those may sound like ordinary secular tasks, but no work is too small for the good of God’s Church.
So, if we are to believe that Jesus’ words are true, that he will be with his church for ever, then we need to believe that this will happen when the Spirit inspires all of us to bring our gifts to the Church in every age.
The Holy Spirit works with us and through us but not without us. So, that means that all of us are important if we want the Holy Spirit to continue advocating and counseling in the Christian community.
That leaves us with a final question: Where do you fit in, where do I fit in the Spirit’s plans for the Church? I don’t think the Spirit or Jesus expected miracles, just good old human sweat and effort. One would almost have to say that Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot get along without us. We are an intricate part of the Spirit’s work and an intimate part of Jesus’ continued work in the world as our Savior. If the Church’s life is vibrant and active, it is because we have listened to the Spirit’s voice and done “our thing.”
Now that I think of it, perhaps even Johnnie Cochran was doing the Spirit’s bidding when he defended the poor in East L.A. The poor are also part of God’s kingdom, an intimate part. How O.J. Simpson and his acquittal fit into all this, I don’t know. Maybe someday history will make that more clear to us. Anyway, Jesus and the Holy Spirit continue to work down through the ages and, whether we are lawyers or not we are still advocates for one another in this Church we call the Body of Christ.
The scriptures:
Acts of the Apostles 8: 5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21
Posted by Deacon Eric Stoltz at 02:56 PM.
