Homily for May 23, 2004
Year C - Cycle II
7th Sunday of Easter
by Fr. John Carney
Topic:  Surrendering to Jesus:  The Way, The Truth and The Life
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Gospel Reading: 
John 17:20-26

"Lifting his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying, 'Holy Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.  And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.  Father, they are your gift to me.  I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me.  I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.'"

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  There were four ordinations at the Cathedral Church in Santa Fe, so we have four priests today that we didn’t have yesterday.  The Archbishop could use 100, but four helps.  One of them is from Santa Fe, Fr. John Canon.  He was an auto mechanic who worked for the Chrysler dealership in Santa Fe.  He had some concerns, because his background was technical and wasn’t academic, and he was the Valedictorian of his seminary class.  He just had great skill in philosophy.  He had no idea.  He will be assigned to the Cathedral Parish.  John is a convert to Catholicism, and was brought into the church through RCIA about ten years ago.  Jerry Johnson was ordained.  Jerry is from Albuquerque.  He was a Navy pilot, flew P-3’s, but had to quit the Navy and end his career because both of his parents had cancer.  So he returned home to care for them, and he got cancer.  His parents have subsequently died, and, thank God, he’s been in remission for about the last eight years.  Jim Marshall was a carpenter, and a contractor in Albuquerque, from Immaculate Conception Parish.  Finally, Dino Candelaria of Rio Rancho was an artist.  This is a very eclectic group of men who are now giving the rest of their lives in service to God’s holy people.   Please pray for them, that they might be good and holy priests.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.  I love this day, because it reminds me what life’s all about.  We come here and remember the Ascension, not so much to dwell on Jesus being raised to heaven, but to be reminded that where he went, we want to go.  A Southern preacher once said, “Anybody here who doesn’t want to get to heaven, stand up.”  This one woman stood up, and he said, “Madam, did you hear the question?”  She said, “I sure did, Reverend.  I just don’t like to see you standing there all by yourself.”  The opening prayer said, “May we follow him into the new creation, for his Ascension is our glory and our hope.”  So, that’s what the Ascension is all about.

It’s our goal in life to get to heaven.  It’s our reason for being, to get to heaven.  There’s no priority in our lives that is greater than the priority to see God face to face when this earthly journey is finished.  We all know that, or we wouldn’t be here this morning.  And yet, at times, we act like we forgot that.  You know, life is very short.  The older you get, the shorter it is.  Life goes by quickly.  But there’s always enough time in life to get in trouble!  There are enough days in life to forget our goals, to forget our priorities, and to see Christ face to face.  And so, we need this reminder.  And we need not only to be reminded of our goal, but to reset our priorities in accordance with those goals.

Yesterday, the Archbishop mentioned that the world has values – power, possessions, and pleasure – but those aren’t our values.  Look at the crucifix.  Power?  Possessions?  Pleasure?  That’s our value, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We want to go where he went.  He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you so that where I am, there you may also be.”  But still, it’s a choice we have.  We’re not saved.  If anyone asks you, “Are you saved?” say, “I’m working on it.”  You are not saved until God says you are saved, and that’s called The Judgment.  This notion that we’re saved at baptism, once and for all, is just not true.  We can still get un-saved – by sinning, by turning our backs on God.  Salvation is a choice; it is freely offered by God, God supplies all the grace, but it’s our choice to accept it.  And we accept it by doing what Christ told us to do.  He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”  And to remind us further that we are not just saved by some one-time event, without any cooperation on our part, Jesus said very clearly, “Its not those who say ‘Lord, Lord’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my heavenly Father.”  So we have to let Jesus plant his flag in our hearts.

We as Christians submit to Jesus Christ and his holy church, his body.  We don’t like that word, submission.  We Americans are independent people, self-made, and we submit to no one.  Well, yes, we do.  If we’re Christians, we submit to Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is not a guru, he’s not a philosopher, he’s not a Buddha or Confucius.  He doesn’t give us thoughts and ways.  He gives us an example to follow, he gives us himself as our model.  And, today more than ever, there’s some crazy stuff that’s entering even into the Christian belief system.  It’s been going on for some years. When I was in seminary, I don’t know what happened, but we had this dawn worship service, where we were bowing to the four directions – “We praise you, north.  We praise you, east...”  You should have heard the comments my buddies and I were making when we were bowing, because if we didn’t bow, the rector would say, “You’re out of here!”  He’s like an umpire, you know.  So, there was some major league wacky stuff going on, and there still is. 

There’s a thing called a labyrinth, which in a narrow sense could be a prayer tool, but it’s taken on a life of its own.  If you don’t know about the labyrinth, don’t inquire.  Jesus never spoke about a labyrinth.  He spoke about himself as “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  It’s a narrow way.  He’s the gatekeeper.  It’s a very narrow way – it’s through him and through him only.  “No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus Christ said.  So, be careful.  A lot of people are very quick to pick up some new age stuff.  “Oh, that’s sounds exciting!”  But they don’t even know their faith.  They haven’t read the Bible.  They don’t own a Catechism.  So, be careful with this new stuff.  Actually, it’s not new.  St. Paul says in Ephesians, “Let us be children no longer, tossed here and there, carried about by every kind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill in proposing error.” 

We have to follow Jesus Christ and his commandments, all of them.  Not just those that we like.  Like the cafeteria – I like that, I don’t like that, I think I’ll have some of that.  That Southern preacher, again, he was preaching up a storm on sin.  This woman was in the back with her husband, and they didn’t get along that well.  And the preacher said, “There’s a lot of sexual sin in the world, fornication and adultery.  A great sin against God’s commandments.”  And she looked at her husband and said, “Mmm, mmm, mmm.  You tell him, preacher!”  And he went on and said, “And drinking and carrying on.  Terrible, terrible lives.”  And she said, “Mmm, mmm.  Tell him, preacher!”  “And gambling, gambling your hard-earned money away.  It’s a great sin.”  She looked at her husband and said, “You tell him, preacher!”  “And those who don’t honor their husbands, who they promised to honor.”  She said, “Now, wait a second, preacher.  You’re meddling now!”  Cafeteria Christians.  We have to follow all his commandments, not just those that are easy to follow.  All of them.  Because he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through him.

It’s really pretty simple.  It’s difficult at times, but it’s simple.  Jesus Christ and his way is what we follow, and that’s why we are called Christians.  And it takes some work.  It takes some denial on our part.  St. Paul tells us in First Corinthians, “Run, so as to win this race you’re in.  Every athlete exercises discipline in every way.  They do it to win a perishable crown, a crown that withers and fades.  We do it to win an imperishable one.  Thus, I do not run aimlessly, I do not fight as I was shadowboxing, no, I drive my body and train it, for fear that having preached to others I might be disqualified.”  Discipleship, following Christ.  It’s not easy at times, but it’s not impossible. 

Jesus accepts the smallest acts of surrender.  That’s why we as Catholic Christians have always recognized that this faith journey of ours is not a one-time event.  It’s a series of conversions, each time, hopefully, moving closer to Christ.  Oftentimes it’s two steps forward and one back; and at other times of our lives, maybe two back and one forward.  But, hopefully, we are moving towards Christ in this series of conversions.  And he encourages us, he calls us, he forgives us, he feeds us with his Body and Blood, he forgives our sins, he guides us through Scripture and through the teaching authority of the Church. 

Well, that’s our goal.  We all agree.  We all want to get to heaven.  And we all know how, because we know the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  But to make it simpler, we need to take it just one day at a time.  That’s the only thing we have a little control over, on this day.  Let me make some suggestions.  Perhaps most of you are already doing this.  Begin your day with a morning offering, thirty seconds, “Father, I commit this day to you.  May everything I do today be done for your honor and your glory.  May I live according to your ways this day.”  You can get these morning offerings, there’s a million of them, and I suggest you Scotch tape it right in the middle of your mirror, so the first thing you see in the morning is not that face but a prayer.  And at night, kneel by your bed, if you can kneel, and look at what you did that day.  Look at what happened to you that day.  Just that day.  In what ways did you follow Christ?  In what ways did you not?  Ask his forgiveness for your mistakes, and sins, and ask for strength that you may live a holier life tomorrow.

I don’t think if we do that, all of us, a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening, that we’ll stray from Christ and his ways.  “One day at a time, Sweet Jesus.  That’s all I’m asking from You.  Just give me the strength to do every day what You have me to do.  Yesterday’s gone, Sweet Jesus, and tomorrow may never be mine.  Lord, help me today, show me the way, one day at a time.”