Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 5th
Joy and happiness of the Easter season continues with the Church’s liturgy and each Sunday that joy is reflected in the three scriptural excerpts that are placed before us. If we mediate on this reality, we should have a great sense of unity with our fellow Christians because these texts are being read simultaneously all over the world. Not only are we united East and West but we are dramatically united in terms of today and yesterday. I am referring to the fact that each week we get a scene from Acts of Apostles and if we look carefully at the texts, we will see something that is very important and something that is very much with us today.
And on this Sunday we view from 2,000 years later a dramatic and important new insight that the apostles gain after being guided by the Holy Spirit. Up until this point, every member of this tiny community of faith has been Jewish and comes straight out of the rich Jewish tradition. In today’s reading, we see the leaders of the Church realizing that faith in Jesus Christ is for all people. Peter is the leader in grasping this all important reality. When he meets Cornelius, a Roman military officer, he instructs him in the message of Jesus and while that was happening the Holy Spirit descended upon all those who were listening.
They were all GENTILES and Peter asks and implicitly answers an awesome question. What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit from being baptized with water? And so they were. A new missionary thrust of the Church was underway.

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April 7th, Second Sunday of Easter

Who could not like spring? Every season of the year has its advantages but I think that most of us recognize that summer has too much heat, in the fall the leaves do just that, and wintertime can be bitterly cold, but, oh, dear spring! The temperature is perfect. We see little explosions of life in every direction. School children know that vacation is not too far away.
Of course, for Christians it gets even better because we will be continuing to celebrate the great feast of the Resurrection for several more weeks. In his resurrection, Jesus, our Lord, overcomes death. An explosion of fresh greenery all around us is a reminder of that and down the road will be our own triumph over death because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, happy, happy season.
Let’s try hard to hold on to the exuberant joy that naturally comes with this time in the year. If you are short on money in early April, you may still be short on money on the first of June but don’t be depressed by it. If you are trying to delay seeing the dentist, make the appointment, get it behind you and thank God that we have such great medical resources. Let’s be happy with our family and friends, let’s be happy with nature, let’s be happy with the Church and let’s even be happy ourselves.
Happy Easter continues on.
I guess I got carried away. The scripture texts for today are extraordinarily meaningful but the power of spring overcame me!
 

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The joy of Christmas is behind us and a new year is at our front door. There is something delightful about both days. Christmas reminds us in a very vivid way of the fact that God loves each one of us individually, personally, completely, infinitely and New Year’s Day naturally provides us for an opportunity to both look back and to look ahead. We can’t handle our future successfully unless we at least occasionally evaluate the strengths and weaknesses that we have displayed in our own recent past.
We all know that New Year’s resolutions tend to be a joke. Many of us lists all the little inconsistencies and foibles in our own lives about which we are conscious and we decide that we are going to do a little bit better – less complaining, less chocolate candy, more thoughtfulness with our spouse, etc., etc. Many have the good will and the discipline to actually make a measurable improvement in this or that weakness, but many of them are completely forgotten by February 1st.
I am of the opinion that instead of making a list of self-improvements that have to run in the face of firmly established bad habits, that we should use the great gift of our minds to stop and think about the good things in our lives, the blessings that we experience, the gifts that God has given us. We are all conscious of the fact that we have blessings and strengths but we tend to be a little bit more conscious of negative things. I regret that this is a fact but it is. Maybe we can alter it a little bit.
Today, I want to think about a special gift that God has given nearly every one of us and that is the gift of the human voice. Do you ever think about it? Our minds explore the universe, carry us back for thousands of years and open up the future. These are all exciting things but if you don’t have the opportunity to share them with someone else, the joy is lessened considerably. The gift that God has given us in order to enable us to share them is the human voice. Yes, there are other means of communication – writing, hand signals, waving flags, etc., etc. – but the human voice is the prime method of communication for the great majority of us and what a gift it is.
God spreads his gifts out. Not everybody is Luciano Pavarotti. Not all of us have the melodious, beautiful voices such as that of Richard Burton. It is a gift to be used and to be used in consideration of other people.
I have often said that our individual voices are like a bag of golf balls. There is a putter, there is a driver and there are three, five and seven irons to help us get up on the green and into that little hole. Great golfers know exactly which club to use and that makes the difference between winning and losing. Some people, however, may not be all that good in selecting the proper voice. Have you ever been in a nice restaurant when that man two tables over wants you to know about his failed estate deal? Do you know people who have a tendency to whisper everything forgetting that you are wearing a hearing aid for a reason? Let’s stop and think about our voice. When we want to display anger, when we want to calm a child who has just fallen and hurt his knee, when we want to console someone who has just lost a spouse and when you want to tell a business associate that this is your final offer – each one of these requires different tones and a different exercise of the gift of the voice. The main thing, however, is to appreciate it. It is a gift from God. Most of us have it. Let’s thank him for it and use it thoughtfully.
 

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It’s here! It’s finally here! Literalists think that the Jews waited about 6000 years. Scientists don’t know how long this planet has been zipping through space, but it has certainly been around a very long while. WE have only been waiting just four weeks since we first turned our minds towards the approaching redemption which will follow the birth of Jesus. Ideally, tonight we will slip into church before mass, with things quiet other than the shuffling of a few feet. Nothing is going on… and then suddenly, there is an explosion of joyous, happy music and song! “Joy to the world” is not just a title of an old Christmas hymn, it’s the announcement that evil which is always with us will ultimately be overthrown, and people of faith will put sin and pain behind them, living eternally with the God who created them because He so loved them.
Joy to the World!

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I’m 82 years old, or as a rather insensitive friend said to me last week, “not right, John, you are actually only 8 years from 90″. That mathematical switch went through me like a knife. I thought it over and realized that while the math was identical, the emotional response varied somewhat.

I wonder if it’s because I am in the ninth decade that I am suddenly becoming aware that people I have known for so long have a tendency to move on ahead of me. It certainly is food for thought…and I’m thinking!

I have been molded and formed by the Roman Catholic faith, and although it has many rough edges, it is extraordinarily optimistic. Catholicism has always held that human nature is essentially good, but weak. Martin Luther, on the other hand (who has a moderate amount of influence in the Christian story) always taught that human nature was essentially corrupt, and only faith in Jesus Christ could overcome the evil that was innate in the human condition. These thoughts pass through my mind as I find myself journeying from funeral to funeral. Funerals are profoundly important. They bring together people who have not seen each other in years. They create an atmosphere that calls for reconciliation. Tears flow. But laughter abounds!

All of this is even more true for people who are Irish. “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy” (W.B. Yeats).

If I said that I enjoyed funerals, I would be misunderstood, because they are usually connected with sadness. But, if a person is committed to the Christian faith, that sadness should be seen as a short term, immediate reality, and beyond the pain is a vestibule opening into eternal life & eternal joy.
There is so much real tragedy, so much agonizingly unnecessary suffering in the world, that we Christians should give an example of hope, optimism and joy when someone we love escapes into eternal life.

Does that mean we are not to cry, not to shed tears when we experience the agonizing loss of a loved one? Not at all. But with the eyes of faith, look beyond that casket. See through that tombstone. See the purpose for which each one of us came into being, which is now being fulfilled.

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The Feast of the Nativity (Christmas Day) is in many ways the happiest day in the Church year while the Feast of the Resurrection (Easter) is the most important day in our religious calendar. However, in my opinion, today, Holy Thursday in Holy Week, does not suffer by comparison with these two other great feasts.

On Holy Thursday, we celebrate the establishment of the ordained priesthood and, of course, we celebrate the center of our faith, the Eucharist, the gift by which Jesus gives us his continued presence as the supreme source of our spiritual life and growth. Holy Thursday is also one of the most interesting in our liturgies in which we participate. It begins with explosive joy with the Church being decked with flowers, candles, golden vestments – every material thing that an individual parish can produce in order to reflect beauty, joy and a desire to use the best that we have in our service of worshiping. The same liturgy will end with an extinguishing the candles, the removal of the flowers the elimination of music and the transfer of the church from an explosive place of joy into a very large tomb as we move into the next day, this sacred Friday, a day we rightly call Good, in which we concentrate on the fact that God loves us so much that he gave us his only begotten Son.

I would hope that you will be able to attend the services on either of these two days but if that is impossible, please make every effort at some serious thoughtfulness, deep and committed prayer and an openness to God’s Spirit, which in a special way envelopes us during these special days of Holy Week.

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Today is the day that most of the world has been looking back to for 2,000 years. Today is the day to which the ancient world looked towards, not with clear knowledge but with undying hope. Today is the day that makes up for everything else that is sad and disappointing in the human story.

Today is the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth.

The fact that medieval historians were about four years off regarding the date of the birth of our Lord is of no consequence. What does matter is that HE CAME; that God stepped into the human story and joined us in our lives, in our travails, in our journey and, ultimately, in our triumph.

I would like to say something very profound about Christmas but I can’t. The day speaks for itself. All that I can say is that HE CAME and by that fact, we are all eternally blessed.

Have a happy Christmas.

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Father James Martin, S.J. is the culture editor of that wonderful Jesuit weekly, America, and he has another job as well. He is the unofficial chaplain to Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert. Father Martin has just produced a new book “Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life.”

I thoroughly agree with Father Martin but I think he is a little too negative on the issue of how much Roman Catholics laugh. He points out that many of us are dour and serious and use laughter rather sparingly. That has not been my personal experience. I have always gotten a big kick out of the fact that there is so much laughter in the Church about the Church. Cartoons, jokes and lightheartedness flourish in the Church but I do agree that we could always use more of it. It is true that there is a certain segment in the Church today, overwhelmingly on the conservative side, who don’t find much to laugh about. It does have problems, serious problems, but an institution that is awesomely important in God’s plan, inspired by Jesus Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit, should be confident and explosively joyous. Yes, there is pain and disappointment but ultimately everything will be all right.

My hope is that we will all have an eternity of joyous laughter.

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Yesterday I mentioned that people who find themselves embarrassed in discussions following a death should NOT be. Everything that needs to be conveyed can be handled by a hug, a kiss, or a simple expression of sorrow. But, time marches on. When we see our friends following a recent death, there is no need to be fearful of engaging in a simple, relaxed conversation about the lost friend or relative.

That person is dead. That is the simple reality, and the person in mourning already finds him or herself in the process of moving on. To discuss the good qualities of the deceased, to verbally celebrate that much-loved life is relaxing and encouraging for everyone involved.

Two things mix well in dealing with death: laughter and tears, and they are not contradictory. If you work at this, you will see that your friend may very well be laughing and crying simultaneously, and both reflect an element of reality. Neither is to be shunned.

It is regrettable, that while we are all joyful with the birth of a healthy child, we find it difficult to celebrate or discuss a friend’s journey into eternal life, which we hold as unending joy. Birth and death: the bookends of our life on this planet, live together and should not be feared.

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There is something strange about the Christmas season. Everyone is happy, maintaining a joyful disposition. The strange thing for me is that is has been my experience that deaths occur more frequently at Christmas than at any other time. There are many reasons for it, and you can figure them out yourself, but how do you confront death in the midst of a season that people expect to be joyful?

The sad thing is that many of us have a hard time discussing death, and it is made more difficult by the conflict between the reality of death and our culture’s demand for joy and enthusiasm this time of year. Admittedly, my life’s work always involved death, and I have developed a certain amount of comfort discussing it with my own family, friends, or the people that I have been sent to serve.

“I don’t know what to say; I am at a loss for words; I feel somewhat embarrassed about my utter inarticulateness.”

It is not really a problem. Only the Italians have made speaking with the body a major work of art. Still, all of us, inadvertently can use our bodies to convey truth, emotions and felt needs even when we lack the words. When confronted with death, an arm across the back- a firm grip on the person’s shoulder- a strong hug, and the simple words, “I’m sorry” covers everything.

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