Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
7th Sunday of Easter
May 20, 2007
Then He led them out as far as Bethany, raised His hands and blessed them; as He blessed them He parted from them and was taken up to Heaven.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
If you have time today, and of course we all have time today, take the Gospel of St. Matthew in the New Testament and read the very last paragraph, which contains the very last words of Jesus before He ascended into Heaven.
If you look at the cover of the bulletin you will see the statue that is placed over there; it is the statue of St. Isidore the Farmer and the Laborer. He and his wife, Santa Maria were the Patron Saints of Madrid. My father’s name was Isidore and my Confirmation name and saint was St. Isidore. We buried my father on the Feast of St. Isidore, May 15, 2003. May he rest in peace. He’d died in December and was cremated and then we interred the ashes on the 15th of May, which was his saint’s day. I was very fortunate to be with my father when he passed away. In life there is no way anyone can ever plan that because it is up to God. I was also very fortunate to hear the last words of my father before he died.
The Last Words of Christ are more important to us than any mother or father, friend, teacher, or role model that we could ever have. The Last Words of Christ are words that we should commit to memory and hang on to, revisiting them throughout the day because they are HIS last words.
I was used to hearing the last words of my dad before he would leave in the morning. For example, in the summer he would tell us that he expected this or that done and of course, with hands as big as frying pans and being able to connect them with his children, we knew that was the last word and when he got home he would go down the list. But, we heard the “last word” and there was no sense appealing it.
It is the same with the Last Words of Christ. We heard in the First Reading and in the Gospel today that He led them out but there is confusion. There is confusion because in the First Reading it says that this happened forty days after Easter. Well, that was Thursday. So today we celebrate Ascension Thursday/Sunday. That is confusing and why is it confusing? Because it is! The Feast was moved from Ascension Thursday to Sunday, and it is not because we are making progress in living the Catholic faith. What are the reasons that we are given?
“Well, if we put it there on Thursday the people won’t show up.
The Last Words of Christ are words that should captivate us. These are the Last Words of Christ that we should consider on this, the Feast of Ascension Thursday/Sunday.
Full authority has been given to me, both in Heaven and on earth; go therefore and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe everything that I have commanded and know that I am with you always until the end of time.
Then it says that Jesus raised His hands and blessed them and as He blessed them He parted from them and was taken up to Heaven. He is seated at the Right Hand of the Father.
I have provided for you in the bulletin the Preface of the Ascension and in the middle column in English, the last sentence in the big paragraph says,
Christ is the beginning, the Head of the Church. Where He has gone we HOPE to follow.
In a nutshell this sentence is the reason for the attention given to the Ascension. He is seated at the Right Hand of the Father and that is where I want to be and I want to go; that is my desired destination. But, there is so much confusion about Heaven and it is largely due to the fact that we take the easy way out and don’t study our faith. Hopefully as Catholic when we begin to read, we will begin to study our faith. The more we study over the years, the more things fit together, and in a beautiful way we see God’s plan spread out before in the Teachings of the Church. So, these Last Words of Christ, before He ascended into Heaven should have a particular attraction to us now that we are here in the time after Easter known as the Ascension.
On page seven of the bulletin you will see the title of a book that Raymond Arroyo wrote. It is called Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life’s Lessons and Everyday Spirituality. Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall and heard some of the private talks that mother Angelica gave to the sisters? You don’t have to become a fly or travel back in time to listen. These talks were taped and Raymond Arroyo, who is the commentator for EWTN News and who led us through the death and burial of Pope John Paul II as well as the election of Pope Benedict XVI.
Mother Angelica gave Raymond Arroyo permission to go through the tapes and he culled some very helpful things that Mother Angelica said to her sisters. If you will, look at some of the excerpts I have provided for you, which is probably illegal but, I am hoping to sell more books for Raymond Arroyo. So lock me up! Look at paragraph number two, which is very helpful.
Very interesting. Mother Angelica is speaking to her sisters about what different saints and holy men and women have spoken about down through the centuries, and it is serving God in the present moment. She makes the case that we can live in the past, the future and in fantasy or we can live in the present moment. In the old Catechism it asks why God made us and the answer is that He made us to know, love and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him in the next. That is about Heaven yet again. We have to know God first, love Him and serve, which involves the present moment because God can only be served in the here and now and not yesterday or going into the future. We shouldn’t hash over how someone mistreated us and then hold a grudge, or thinking about how you did this and that and it was so great because then the focus is on you. What about living in the future?You see people today doing unreasonable things and they do them because they are living in their memories and imaginations and exist on an animal level and the intellect never comes into play. Self-control is one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, which requires us to decide what enters our memory and what remains there. I must look upon every resentment, every bitterness, every hurt and conquer it or it will conquer me.
“I am letting you know that two weeks from now I am going to win the lottery.”
“That is what you said a month ago!”
What about the fantasy? To live in fantasy there is such a draw to take something good and use it in a bad way, like television and computers. Can you say X Box? What do you have with video games; lets do an experiment. Fill a glass of water and take your finger and put it in the water and remove it. Do you see the impression you left on that glass of water? None! What happens after you have played a video game from 20 minutes to an hour or more? What do you have to show for it? You have just wasted time you will never get back and, during that time garbage may have penetrated your memory, intellect, your imagination. It is the same with TV and computers, etc. There is a great temptation to live in fantasy. People do the same things with alcohol and drugs; they live a fantasy. This is not our best foot forward, so to speak.
In paragraph number six, Mother Angelica says,
If we are praying now, through the Ascension to Pentecost next Sunday, praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit, then we are begging Him to use our lives to produce fruit and to show a presence in our lives. Look at paragraph number four.You are missing a beautiful faculty and it will warp your whole personality.
For example,The endless rehashing of the past to the point where it affects your soul; it is dangerous.
“He did it! She did it!”
Very dangerous stuff because during that time, we are not serving God. We can only serve God in the present, which is cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
Do you see that figure just to the right of God the Father in Heaven? That is our focus. Christ is our Head and where He has gone we hope to follow. Everything thing we do in the present moment should begin with Christ, continue with Christ, and end with Christ; otherwise it is not serving God. If we are not serving God we are not just in neutral territory, we are serving self! We were not created to serve ourselves, but to know, love, and serve God in this life and be happy with Him in the next. Go ahead…ask me anything about God; I know everything about God. NO I DON’T, and neither do you or children in this day, so you have to teach everything that Christ has taught us.
Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you and know that I Am with you always until the end of time.
In the Office of the Readings today, St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, he writes,
I declare and solemnly attest in the Lord that you must no longer live as the pagans do; their minds empty, their understanding darkened; they are estranged from a life in God because of their ignorance and resistance. Without remorse they have abandoned themselves to lust and to every sort of lewd conduct.
They live in fantasy.
“I don’t have time to help pagans; I have to focus on what is really important…Me, Me, Me! Oh, I am sorry, what do you think about me?”
This is the way we pursue life in fantasy and to our shame, each one of us has to admit to having given into temptation to live in the past, the future, or in fantasy.
The Psalm this morning was very beautiful. Psalm 68 spoke of God as “Father of the orphan, defender of the widow.” How does God defend widows and be Father to orphans if not through us? We have a mission; we have a “commission.”
Pope Benedict was down in Brazil ten days ago. These are just some of his words from his talk to young people in Brazil and he is very direct. He spoke about the Gospel on the rich young man who approaches Jesus with a question.
What must I do to enter eternal life?
Again…how do I get to Heaven? We mistakenly listen to other Christians, and many of them are Catholic Christians, who say,
“Well, you breathe in and out and when you die you are taken to Heaven.”
That isn’t what our faith teaches. Don’t teach that; it is wrong. They don’t dump you on the elevator and then reach a hand in and hit the “heaven” button. Another hand may reach in and press another button once it gets to Heaven. What must the young man do to enter Eternal Life? Jesus said to live the Commandments.
I lived these from my youth.
Jesus looked at him with love, smiled and said,
Go, sell all you have, give it to the poor; then come and follow me.
The young man went away sad because he had many possessions. Consider…is it possible to meet Christ, to have Him smile upon us and to look at us with love and turn around and walk away from Him with sadness? Yes, you know those encounters with Christ that produce sadness and hate. How is this possible? The young man met Christ, looked into His beautiful face and Christ looked back at him and smiled with love in His Heart for this particular man, and the young man grew sad, turned around and walked away because he preferred his riches instead of following Christ.
So, the Holy Father was bringing this up to the young men and women of Brazil, by extension to all of us. In a few days I will be forty-eight, which is looking younger and younger to me the older I get. But the Pope is talking to younger people in Brazil. The Holy Father said,
Stop right there. Evangelizing…we have to admit that we have heard that word and seen it in print. We have seen the words, evangelization, evangelize, evangelizing, and so many people have no idea what the words mean. It comes from Lectio sancti Evangelii, which is the Gospel. So, when we hear “evangelize” or “evangelization” it means to spread the Gospel and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Again, the Pope says to them,I send you out therefore, on the great mission of evangelizing young men and women.
This is the time of graduations; so many men and women are graduating from college and different members of families show up at these things and ask the graduates,I send you out therefore, on the great mission of evangelizing young men and women, who have gone astray in this world like sheep without a shepherd. Be apostles of youth.
“So honey, where do you go to Church? Is it near by here?”
“Oh, I don’t go to Church!”
Don’t we expect people in college to just opt out of Church and the practice of their faith during those ten formative years of the B.A. and beyond? Right? It is not fly over territory! The Holy Father is saying that you must be apostles of youth and in order for us to do this it is something that we have to live as the Spirit encourages us. What the Holy Father is saying is the same thing that Jesus is saying at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel.
Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you and know that I Am with you always until the end of time.
Pagans are not merely in India, Africa, and China. Pagans are throughout our land; people who have never heard the Gospel. In fact, they don’t even want to be evangelized because doesn’t that mean something bad? It is like children when a parent bends down and asks if they would like spinach, which they have never had of before. The child says that they don’t recognize that word so the answer is “NO!”
“What is evangelization?”
“I don’t know but I know I don’t want it Get away from me!
The Holy Father is talking about the Great Commission, which encapsulates the Last Words of Christ. In paragraph 6, the Holy Father says,
Parents look upon their children with love and see in their youth a tremendous opportunity. Parents are continually telling their children not to miss an opportunity and that they wish they had been told …just fill in the blank. The parents are looking at the children with love and the beauty of this treasure known as youth moves their hearts. They are trying to inspire their children to use this treasure, as Jesus, Who is sitting at the right hand of the Father, would like. But sadly children are so untrusting of their parents. Yes, and that comes from Jesus, correct? A child not trusting their parents as they are growing up comes from Jesus! NO IT DOESN’T! It comes from a culture that is saturated with pagan influence.The Gospel assures us that the young man who went to meet Jesus was very rich. We may understand this wealth not only on the material level. Youth itself is a singular treasure.
In paragraph number 7 the Pope says,
I heard many times from my friends as I was growing up,My appeal to you today young people, present at this gathering is this: do not waste your youth. Do not seek to escape from it. Live it intensely. Consecrate it to the high ideals of faith and human solidarity.
“I can’t wait till I am 18; I am out of here!
Or the day after graduation,
“I am moving out!”
What are they doing? They are opting out of the entire time of those difficult years. They are seeking to escape it by living in the future. Don’t seek to escape from it, live it intensely.
“But I can’t live something intensely; I am just not capable of it.”
Oh really? Imagine being in Dallas and imagine that you have to be somewhere across town during rush hour and you have about 45 minutes to get there and it is earthshakingly crucial for you to get from point “A” to point “B”. So you get in the car and turn on the key and if you are a man, of course you… become… that… machine. Right? You grip the steering wheel and you know that the modem connection has been made, DSL right? You focus like a laser beam on getting from one point to the other and you get on the highway, you get off the highway and take the back streets and then get back on the highway. Women can recognize this as male driving of course. You finally get there and normally without being in rush hour traffic it would take 45 minutes but you make it there in forty minutes. You can use those extra five minutes to become a human being again. But, you were able to do it because you were focusing like a laser beam.
So, we can do this! We can be intense when we want to and the Pope is saying to live it intensely and don’t seek to escape from it. The Holy Father was living life intensely while in Brazil. People think that is only possible during Carnivala. Oh please! The pope was in Brazil for several days and I know where the Holy Father wanted to be; he smiled and went over to Brazil and worked intensely but he really wanted to be back home at the Vatican in his comfortable chair with Mozart playing and the window open. But no, he is in Brazil working away and is causing a lot of headaches for his security team, who really got mad at him.
“So, big deal!”
The Pope went to a Catholic retreat that specializes in working with men and women who have sought to escape the world by living a life of intense drinking or drugs and all that goes along with it. It was amazing to see; I can’t pronounce the name of the retreat, it is Portuguese and I don’t speak that language. These adults at the retreat would come up on stage to the microphone and they would read their message that they’d prepared and they were shaking because the Pope was right there. What they were saying to the Holy Father was beautiful and they were thanking him for coming. Security had planned that the Pope would be a football field away, right? He would just wave at them. Instead, after each speech the Pope embraced each on of them and looked right into their eyes. The security went crazy. It was the same way when he was going through the crowds in his Pope Mobile that has bulletproof glass; he had the side windows rolled down. Bulletproof glass doesn’t work when it is rolled down. The security was scrambling but the Holy Father was intensely working in the Vineyard of the Lord, which is the theme he used from the beginning.
Words to that effect came out of the Pope’s mouth the day he was elected Pope. He is telling us that we have to live our youth intensely and not to waste it. The Holy Father tells the youth,Pray for this humble servant, who is working in the Vineyard of the Lord
If we choose, we can live a very intense life with Christ. We have to focus on Christ, Who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Everything we say or don’t say, do or leave undone, think or leave unconsidered, if it is focused in that manner we will live intense lives and will be amazed at what can be accomplished.My dear young people, Christ is calling you to be saints. He himself is inviting you and wants to walk with you, in order to enliven with His Spirit.
St. Isidore the Farmer and his wife, after the birth of their first child, who died in infancy, voluntarily embraced a life of celibacy so they could serve God and their neighbor, to be the father of orphans and defender of widows. St. Isidore and his wife went around helping the poor and those in need, taking the time away from their own wants and desires and living the present moment in such an intense way that it appeared that angels were helping them do the work. If you ever read the story of St. Isidore, it is exactly what he was accused of and that is exactly what they found; angels were helping them do their work. Is that not possible for me or for you? It is only possible if we keep our focus on that figure that sits at the right hand of God the Father, Jesus Christ. Where He has gone we hope to follow.
It is not too late. There were two men who were crucified with Christ and both were terrible criminals. One was a good thief and he turned to Jesus hours before his own death and asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. Jesus assured Dismas that on that very day he would be with Him in Paradise. That thief stole Heaven but he had to go through the agony, doubts, and temptations of the hours ahead. Those words of Christ spoken to the good thief are also for you and me. It is not too late. Oh, you can worry about the past and focus on it to the point it is a distraction, but you are not serving God. You can focus on the future and live in fantasy but you are not serving God. Only by listening to Him and fulfilling this Great Commission with the help of the Holy Spirit will we have the hope of entering the Eternal Homeland, which is Heaven.
Then He led them out as far as Bethany, raised His hands and blessed them; as He blessed them He parted from them and was taken up to Heaven.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen