Homily Third Sunday of Easter April 13, 2024 St Austin Church, TX

 Homily   Third Sunday of Easter   April 13, 2024   St Austin Church, TX

 We have another post-resurrection appearance of the Risen Lord in our Gospel today.   But I’d rather talk about the ever popular topic of GUILT.   Anyone here ever feel guilty?   Good, because I am going to preach about GUILT.   I am against it. 

          At the conclusion of today’s Gospel we heard: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

          Notice that what is being preached to all nations is “repentance”.  Repentance is different than guilt.  Nowhere in the Gospels does the Lord urge us to feel guilt.  Rather, Jesus calls us to repentance.

          At the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, in chapter 1 of the Gospel of St Mark, Jesus’ preaching is succinctly summed up as: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

          Likewise, in the first reading today we hear St Peter preach.  He culminates his sermon with “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

          The New Testament preaching is a call to REPENTANCE.

          What is the difference between feeling guilty and repentance?  They are very different.  Guilt is a feeling.  It is an emotion.  It is a hard and difficult emotion.  But that is not the worst part of guilt. 

Guilt keeps us focused on the past, on our failures, on how we screwed up.  And guilt keeps us beating ourselves up for how we made a mess of our lives and other’s lives. 

          But guilt does not help.  It does not, by itself, help us to do better.  It does not move us forward, but rather keeps us focused on the past.  Guilt looks backwards.

          Repentance, on the other hand, is very different.  Repentance is about change.  About movement in a new direction.  It is action.  It looks

forward.  Repentance is movement towards growth.  Repentance is openness to new life.  As St Peter proclaims in our first reading, “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”      Repentance is about growth and life.

          In our second reading today from the first Letter of Saint John we heard: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”

          Forgiveness is available to us.  But it requires a change of heart and it requires work.  That is what repentance is.  Repentance does include feelings of remorse, but it does not stop with the feelings.  The feelings are only the first step, or even only the prelude to repentance.  Genuine repentance involves action, involves change, and especially involves growth. 

          Growth usually does not happen instantly.  Growth takes time.  It takes effort.  It takes patience.  All these are involved in repentance.

           So, if you are burdened by guilt, recognize it, but do not dwell on it.  Rather hear the feelings of guilt as a call to repentance, to action and to growth.  Guilt looks back, but repentance looks forward, to a new and better way of thinking, of feeling, of acting, of being.  Let go of guilt to replace it with repentance, with a firm purpose of amendment, with action to repair as much as you can the damage you have done, to take the actions that will help you avoid this sin in the future, to grow in the way of life, not of death.

           The Lord is patient with us.  We need to be patient with ourselves, but also very honest, and ready to work at doing better.   We do not do this on our own, but rely on the help of the Holy Spirit.  As we heard in our second reading today: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” 

          The readings today are clear.  Do not waste your time and effort on feeling guilty.  Rather, strive to do the work of repentance instead, which leads to greater life. 

God bless!

Good Friday March 29, 2024 Cycle B

 Good Friday    March 29, 2024

The proclamation of the Passion this evening begins, of all places, in a garden.  We are told in the opening lines: “Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.”  

And our proclamation of the Passion this evening ends, of all places, in a garden. We are told: “Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.”   “there was a garden???”   Hmm.   An odd place for an execution.    

Any gardeners with us this evening?    Gardens have special significance.  The garden is not just the place where these events happened to occur.  The garden has, I believe, a deep religious significance. 

Can you think of any other gardens in the Bible?  Well. The Garden of Eden, going back to the very beginning of the human drama, to the time of Adam and Eve, and especially the breaking of the relationship between the Divine and the human, fractured by human disobedience.  …   Remember?

Now that breach of disobedience, of willfully choosing our own Will over the Will of God for us, is rectified, healed, made whole by the obedience of Jesus.  In the Letter to the Hebrews, our second reading this evening, we heard, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he because the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” 

This “obedience” is not about following the rules and doing what you are told.  Not at all.  Rather this obedience is an act of freedom, an act of will, a decision and a choice to conform your will to the Will of God the Father, out of complete and perfect trust in God’s love for you. 

TWO                    TWO                    TWO          Good Friday 03/29/2024

It is summed up in our responsorial psalm this evening: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Jesus fully, totally, completely gave Himself into the loving hands of His Father, in spite of all the indications to the contrary.   And in doing so, Jesus healed the wound of disobedience from the earliest time of humans. 

In Jesus we are now able to live in the freedom of the children of God, in harmony with God, achieving who we most deeply and truly are: God’s beloved children.  All because of His obedience, in a garden.

AMEN.  

Palm (Passion) Sunday Gospel of Mark March 24, 2024

 Palm (Passion) Sunday Gospel of Mark     March 24, 2024

Clothes.  You probably wear them every day.  Clothes are important, giving us protection, modesty in most cases, and comfort.   Clothes are important.  Indeed, an ancient saying, going back at least to Erasmus in the 1500’s, and probably much longer before that, in Latin, is “vestis virum facit”.   Or, “Clothes make the man.”

That is true.  Any stranger walking into this service can, pretty quickly, determine who is the priest and presider of this service.  The vestments I am wearing pretty clearly give it away.  Clothing is important in how we view ourselves, and others.

Clothing plays an interesting and recurring role in the Passion we just heard.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is arrested, we hear the peculiar incident of a streaker.  St Mark, and he is the only evangelist to mention this, states: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.  They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.”    I believe this young man will appear again on Easter.  But we will have to wait for that.

At Jesus’ interrogation before the Sanhedrin, where the chief priests tried to trump up charges against Jesus that would stick, Jesus, in response to the question if He was the Christ, answered, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”   At that the high priest tore his garments.   Tore his garments?  Did you ever tear your clothes out of frustration and anger?  He must have been mightily worked up.  Tearing the clothes you are wearing is a pretty extreme sign of frustration and anger. 

Later, in the praetorium, the headquarters of the Romans, the soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple cloak and put a crown of thorns on his head.  And they mocked Him in false homage, deriding Him as the King of the Jews. 

And still later, at the cross, Jesus was forcibly stripped of his clothes.   Jesus was truly naked and defenseless before everyone.  He was rendered completely vulnerable.  And the soldiers “divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.”

Finally, when Jesus is taken down from the cross, they wrapped Jesus in a linen cloth, His burial shroud.  His final outfit on earth.   ….

And now we believe that Jesus is clothed with GLORY.       //

How do we clothe ourselves?  St. Paul in the letter to the Romans tells us; (13:14) “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”  And in Galatians (3:27) tells us “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.”  And in Ephesians (4:24) tells us: “clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Do we adorn ourselves with faith and hope and love?  Have we put on repentance, and dressed in virtue?   Now is the time to adopt your Easter outfit.  Not the physical one you might wear to show off a bit next Sunday, but rather the outfit of faith and hope and love, that identifies you as a follower of Christ, as a Christian. 

Put on Christ, as St. Paul urges us, so that at the celebration of Easter, you will have no reason to be ashamed, and every reason to rejoice.   AMEN.