Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for May 4, 2008
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
7th Sunday Of Easter
By Fr. John Carney
 Topic: Live in a worthy manner
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Reading I
Acts 1:12-14
After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.

When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.  All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Gospel
John 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come.  Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.  Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.  I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.  Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.  They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.  I pray for them.  I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.

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The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel are very closely connected today.  We heard from the end of the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus commissions his disciples to go to all nations to preach the Gospel and to baptize.  The first reading actually occurred later in time when Jesus ascended into heaven.  In that context, we can better understand the words of the two men dressed in white, angels, when they say, “Men of Galilee, what are doing standing here looking up into the heavens?”  You can almost hear the impatience in the question.  “This Jesus who has left you will return again.”  I think what he was saying is, “Just don’t stand there.  Do something.  Do what he told you to do, go and preach the Gospel to all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  They did that, of course, and I think they did a good job, those handful of disciples, those few initial apostles and disciples of Christ. 
 
Today, two millennia later, there are two billion of us and every one of us has learned about Christ from them, from that handful.  Where did you learn about Christ?  Who taught you that Jesus is Lord?  Who introduced you to Him and to His mercy?  Take a moment some time today to thank God for that person.  If they are no longer with us, you can still thank God for them.  We’ve been successful but I’m convinced that if all the disciples, and that’s us, we’re all disciples, when you read about the disciples, think about yourself.  If we really live the gospel mandate to the fullest, there would not be two billion of us but six and a half billion of us because the message of Christ would be irresistible if people could look at us and see Christ.  They too, would want what we have, what we have been given.
 
How are you to spread the Gospel?  There are preachers, evangelists, writers, authors and apologists but that’s not for most of us.  Most of us have a specific vocation and the answer to how you, in your vocation can spread the Gospel is given to us in Ephesians, not today’s lecture in Ephesians but later on in the fourth Chapter.  Paul tells us, “I, Paul urge you to live a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.”  That’s how you and me can spread this Gospel and be true disciples by living in a manner worthy of your call and of my call, whatever your chosen vocation.  You do that by simply loving those who need you when needed.  People need us and we need to be generous in response to their needs.  Some people have done that heroically, the apostles were martyred for their testimony.  Who will ever forget the 344 New York firefighters killed in an instant on 9/11?
 
There were 344 of them killed when those buildings went down and they knew. They knew the danger and not one of them backed away from it.  They gave their lives and most of them were Christians.  In fact, most of them were Catholic.  If you go on-line and look up their names, there are many citations.  It looks like the roster of St. Anne’s parish in Flushing, NY, where I grew up.  Italians, Irish, Polish, all those ethnic names, they’re still there and many of New York’s finest and New York’s firefighters are Catholic.  They live their vocation in a very worthy manner and they inspire us by their charity and their goodness.  They did that, and I hope, I think, for Christ.
 
Closer to home, a man named Michael Rutkowski from Los Alamos died trying to help another in need.  He was driving down towards Espanola and there was a woman being pursued by this crazed man.  Rutkowski got out of his car and tried to help this woman.  The other man intentionally ran over Rutkowski and killed him.  That’s living his life; that’s living his life in a worthy manner.  He was a hero, wasn’t he?  I do not know if he was a Christian. 
 
In little ways, live in a worthy manner.  You know, I’m 62 years old and I have never changed a diaper and I never will.  I admire the charity you have.  Years ago, I baby-sat for one of my nephews when my sister went out for the day.  The kid needed a diaper change.  I put him in the bathtub and hosed him down.  Then I wrapped him in a big towel.  My sister came home and I said, “Here he is, take him.”   You know the little things you do for each other are wonderful and that’s what you’re called to do.  That’s living your vocation in a worthy manner.  Be patient when people annoy you; that’s a challenge.  Years ago, I remember I was getting some bread in a bakery in Albuquerque and there was a guy in front of me who was obviously from New York.  I’m from New York so I can talk “smack” about that.  The bakery sales clerk was a young girl and she had a beautiful cross on.  She was a Christian.  The man was a very difficult human being.  First, he wanted rye bread.  She gave him the rye bread and he said, “Slice it.  I want it sliced.  You people don’t know how to slice.”  So, she sliced it and he said, “No, no, I want with the seeds.  You people don’t know anything.”  New Yorkers think everyone else is “you people”.  Who is a New Yorker here?  Rye bread’s got to have seeds, right?  Hello.  These people don’t know nothin’.  Then he got some Kaiser rolls and he wanted the seeds on them.  She brought him Kaiser rolls with sesame seeds and he said, “No, poppy seeds.”  These are very important things to New Yorkers.  Anyway, he got his stuff and left.  I looked at the woman and she was so patient with him, you know?  I said, “What a jerk”.  She said, “Oh, no.  He’s a sweet old man.  He and his wife used to come in here every morning for coffee and a roll for years.  We just loved them.  Two years ago his wife died and so he still comes in.  He’s kind of grumpy sometimes but he’s wonderful.”  Fortunately for me,  I didn’t have my collar on.
 
She was living, that young Christian woman, she was living in a very worthy manner.  She wore a cross and it’s important to wear a cross.  I think it’s really important.  She was patient with annoying people.  I think it’s really important.  Forgive those who wrong you.  I guarantee you in the next 24 hours someone will annoy you, especially if you are married.  In the next week, you’ll need to forgive someone.  That will happen and do it.  It’s a good thing to forgive.  It is a gift.  That is where that word forgive comes from – to give.

Finally, persevere when you feel like quitting.  Even if you live the noble life and you get up every morning and answered the bell and you’ve worked hard to be a disciple, you have probably felt like quitting at times and you can’t do that if you follow Christ.  Let me tell you a little story on that regard.  It’s another New Yorker story.  Today is New York day.  There was an author; he is Jewish, named Norman Lobsenz.  He’s from Brooklyn.  He tells this story. 
Some years ago when my young wife became desperately ill, I wondered how I would be able to cope with the physical and emotional burdens of caring for her.  One night when I was drained of strength and endurance, a long forgotten incident came to mind.  I was about 10 years old at the time and my mother was seriously ill.  I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.  As I passed my parents bedroom, I saw a light.  I looked inside.  My father was sitting in a chair in his bathrobe next to mother’s bed doing nothing, looking at my mother.  She was asleep.  I rushed into the room.  “What’s wrong?”  I cried, “Why aren’t you asleep?”  Dad soothed me, “Nothing’s wrong.  I’m just watching over her in case she wakes up and needs something.”  I cannot say exactly how, but the memory of that long ago incident gave me the strength to take care of my own burden. 
 
You know, little things are important.  They make a difference.  They make us who we are.  Live a noble life worthy of the calling you have received.  One last scripture from Micah.  You know this one. 
“What does God ask of you?  Only to do what is right.  To love goodness and to walk humbly with your God.”