Ascension of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ 2005

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor
St. William Roman Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
5 / 8 / 2005 Ascension

Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always until the end of the age.”

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

As Pope John Paul II was completing his doctoral studies in Rome, he was a newly ordained priest. He traveled throughout Europe one summer and he went to the South of France to Ars and visited the parish of St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of Diocesan priests. I am a Diocesan priest. Pope John Paul II went to visit there because he was a Diocesan priest before being made bishop and eventually pope of the Universal Church.

George Weigel points this out beautifully in his biography, “Witness to Hope”. He describes St. John Vianney who died one hundred years before I was born. To place St. John Vianney historically, he died in 1859. St. John Vianney made himself the prisoner of the confessional and would sometimes spend up to eighteen hours a day hearing Confessions. People would come from all over France and beyond to go to Confession to him.

Weigel points out that Karol Wojtyla, who would later become Pope John Paul II, from the time of his visit to Ars taught how the continual reception of the Sacrament of Confession is indispensable in the mission of every Christian. In other words, it is not something you can take or leave and this is the opinion of one who heard many Confessions himself and has written so widely on this subject.

The same saint, John Vianney, the Pastor of Ars once wrote about mothers saying, “A child learns much about God at his mother’s knee.” This is a truth; not to displace fathers but it is a fact that a child learns much about God early on from his mother and of course, today is Mother’s Day.

Mothers are very much misunderstood by their children. This reminds me of a movie that sounds very much like the Cure of Ars; it is the Wizard of Oz. Many children think that breakfast appears miraculously on the table because a nice family of munchkins lives in the basement and they come out and prepare breakfast; the children never see them. While the children are gone between breakfast and lunch, the munchkins come out and clean plates, load the dishwasher and prepare lunch. This is no doubt, how children misunderstand mothers. Then there is the phase where you think the mother is the maid; forget the munchkins, she is the maid. Mothers really appreciate that as well! Lets go back to the munchkins; I liked it better than the maid. So, mothers are very misunderstood by their children and this is how it always has been and how it always will be.

St. John Vianney had a great appreciation for mothers because; mothers in their own way are participating in the mission of the Church. When you consider that Jesus Himself lived thirty-three years, the last three years of his life on earth He devoted to His public work where He forgave sins, fed great crowds and healed the sick. This sounds very much like what mothers do; feeding great crowds, forgiving sins…they just can’t give absolution…and also taking care of the sick. This is no small feat, day in and day out for mothers. This is part of the mission of the Church, which is to continue the work that Christ began but Christ did not complete the mission of the Church. In a very real sense there is a lot of work left to be done and the munchkins have gotten very old and many have died so it is up to you and to me to complete this work. The maid can’t possibly do it all either so you and I have to complete the mission of the Church. Christ did so much but He did it on only a small part of the world and He expects us to go out and finish His mission.

With all that we have to do in our daily lives, most people can’t commit the bible to memory; I can only commit a verse here and there to memory so I concentrate on pivotal moments in the Life of Christ. Think of the last forty days of the Life of Christ on earth. If you concentrate on that, it is easier to memorize those quotes than the previous thirty-three years. Automatically you are favorably disposed to listening to me because it is easier to think about forty days than thirty-three years. The very first words out of Christ’s mouth to his Bride the Church, assembled in the upper room, which was probably the same upper room in which Christ had the Last Supper, and on the day He rose from the dead, after the Passion, Crucifixion, being buried for three days and resurrecting were, Peace be with you. He repeated this and then breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; the sins you hold bound, they are held bound.

We call this the Power of the Keys. If you look at the third stained glass windows there, you see two large keys like are seen on the Vatican Flag. As I mentioned last week, the stole draped around the keys refers to the “office of a priest” to hear Confessions; The Power of the Keys. Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; the sins you hold bound, they are held bound; the ability of the Church to open the treasury of the Merits of Christ and confer pardon and peace through the Sacrament of Confession, or to withhold that pardon and peace if the penitent is not truly contrite. The Power of the Keys is obvious in those first words of Christ. If you do not see those words of Christ as giving to His Church the power to continue what He Himself did those three years, I would love to hear it.

If I got up here today and said Jesus was merely speaking symbolically and was out of His mind when He said Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; the sins you hold bound, they are held bound, you would begin throwing rocks or Adoremus Hymnals at me, and you would be right. Jesus said it and He said it with authority. These are the very first words after His death and resurrection. His cherished Church is there before Him and it shows us how much He loves Her in giving Her this Sacrament, which He expects the Church to use. As Pope John Paul II would write two thousand years later, the Sacrament of Confession is indispensable to the Christian in his mission in the world. But of course, what did he know about Confession, right? We are not professionals and haven’t made it to the doctorial level in the study of theology and yet, we know better. Did I miss something there?

The very last words of Christ are easy to memorize as well as Matthew 28 in today’s Gospel. Jesus says, All power, full authority, has been given to Me both in Heaven and on earth; therefore make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teach them to observe everything that I have commanded you and know that I am with you always until the end of time. Then He ascended into Heaven.

Contrary to the DaVinci Code, there was no other word of Christ given to the Church; that was it! No fifth gospel fell out of his pocket; that’s it! Those were our Lord’s last words. What if I were to stand up here today and say, “You know, I love Jesus and I am a priest of the Catholic Church but I don’t pay attention to the last words of Jesus after His Resurrection and I pay NO attention to the last words of Jesus before His Ascension.” You wouldn’t allow that and you just wouldn’t show up again next Sunday. It would be difficult to make it through the rest of Mass. How can any Christian turn his back on the first words of Christ spoken on Easter Sunday morning and the last words of Christ forty days later on Ascension Thursday? Christians do it all the time and it just has to stop; it HAS to stop!

Because Christians have turned their backs on the first words of Christ after the Resurrection and the last word of Christ before He ascended into Heaven, so much work has been put on the back of that “old man” who just died on Divine Mercy Sunday vigil; Pope John Paul II. Yes, because other people are not sharing in the mission of the work, this made it much more work for the Pope. We want him to do all the work; park the cars, clean the toilets and visit every country on the face of the earth, and he’d better be smiling every minute just as you and I smile every minute of every day no matter what happens to us, right? [Laughter] Yea! You should see ME in traffic, “COME ON, ARE YOU PARKED HERE?” Right? Oh, but you and I are always wearing a smile on our face and the Holy Father better have a smile on his face wherever he goes, right? Of course not! But, we expect so much of our Pope that it gives you and I a chance to ‘nap” while on the job. Not a bad deal. Mothers don’t take being called ‘maids’ and popes don’t like it either! He is not the butler; he is the Holy Father!

I remember seeing the Holy Father in 1998 when he went to that big prison in the Caribbean; what is the name of it? Oh. Cuba! Contrary to what the mainstream media says about Cuba, the people there love it so much that they are willing to face sharks and drowning to get away. Of course we know that the mainstream media knows better; they know all. Anyway, when the Pope went to visit Castro, I thought the Holy Father would never get down those stairs. He died at the age of eighty-four so he was almost in his eighties when he visited Castro in Cuba. It was as if Tim Conway was descending the stairs of that airplane; only the Holy Father wasn’t acting. He was old but he was there. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teach them to observe everything I have commanded you. So, there is the Pope holding his paper; we know he is sick. The Vatican has a long history of not admitting the illness of Popes. Someone said correctly, “The way you know the Pope is sick is after he has died.” Yes! Of course the Holy Father was ill at that time.

Pope John Paul II went over the heads of many Vatican Bureaucrats and there are mountains of bureaucrats in the Vatican. “Oh, no, no! You can’t tell the people he is ill!” Well, I mean the Holy Father’s hand was shaking and the camera came right up in his face as he was reading his initial speech in front of Castro. The camera shows the Holy Father with saliva leaving his mouth and dripping onto the page. He had Parkinson’s disease; one of the characteristics and marks of Parkinson’s disease. You parents know about having cameras in your faces. Your children are always there saying, “What are you doing? Who are you talking to? Are we there yet?” Of course you always respond, “No, no, we are not there yet but we are almost there yet. Just be patient Johnny.” Father says this in an “oh so sweet” and gentle voice. Right? “NO, WE ARE NOT THERE YET!!!” Right?

So this camera is right up in the Holy Father’s face and the whole world can see that he is ill. How embarrassing! “Don’t they have places for people like the pope? Can’t we put him somewhere away from the cameras and the eyes of so many?” I was so proud to see the Holy Father, even in his illness, complying with the mandate that Christ had given to him and to the Church. The Pope had a host of people caring for him. He passed away when he was eighty-four.

Last week in our parish, Msgr. McCallum passed away and he was a little older that the Holy Father; he was eighty-nine. Msgr. grew up in that town just north of Canton Texas; uh, Philadelphia. Yea, just north of New Boston. We all knew that Msgr. McCallum wasn’t from around here because he talked funny. East Texas of course is known for it’s perfect diction and annunciation. [Laughter] Msgr. wasn’t from here. He left his friends and family and came to Texas and served here over sixty years as a priest; the majority of his life in the parish that had captivated his heart; St. William's. He died on Monday.

I want to tell you something about Msgr. McCallum. Yes, he could be gruff at times and as I pointed out so can you and I. You may have disagreed with some decisions but don’t we all disagree with decisions our elderly make from time to time? No one can say that Msgr. McCallum didn’t love you and this parish specifically. Last year about this time in April, I mentioned a gift that Msgr. McCallum had given to St. William's; he pledged to give the money to build a brand new office across the street from the Church where that old house sit. Of course they built the offices but they disguised it to look just like that old building. [Laughter] It is amazing! No, it is obvious that they haven’t build new offices; the old building is still over there and the parking lot that was supposed to go right next to it, it isn’t there either. It was in the bulletin though so it must be true! Right? Well, it was true and the pledge was made.

I remember we were meeting with the architect, the one Msgr. wanted. He’d worked with Msgr. and remembered him; he couldn’t forget him. Msgr. was proud of that! We finally got some rough drawings up. Do you remember last year in June, the day that it rained about three or four hours and got about six or seven inches of rain? I was driving; I was the goof ball driving from here all the way into Dallas in that rain to drop off the drawings to the architect at the Galleria. The architect just happened to have his office there in the Galleria, couldn’t he pick an architect in Oak Cliff, Fair Park or Mesquite? Anyway, I dropped the plans off and the architect was going to begin his work the following day. I told Msgr. I was dropping off the plans that day and so with his blessing I went into Dallas at risk of my life.

The next morning Msgr. called and left this message on my answering machine, “Father Paul, this is Father McCallum. I am withdrawing my offer to build the new office building at the Church.” It was like one of those old movies, “This is so sudden!” I didn’t call him back; instead I called the architect and said, “DON’T start the work on those plans!” What is it, two hundred fifty dollars a minute? We are all in the wrong business. Any, the man didn’t start.

The next morning about the same time, Msgr. called again. Now we didn’t speak often on the phone but I can remember these two conversations because they were separated by only twenty-four hours. He left this message on my answering machine; “Father Paul, this is Father McCallum. I am returning my gift to the parish to build a new office building across the street from the church.” You notice it has been one month shy of a year since this happened. I didn’t announce this or bring it up by publishing it in the bulletin. I didn’t want to show any disrespect for a priest who has done so much for St. William’s Parish and I figured God would provide. This example actually helps me to inform you that the last fifteen months or long of Msgr.’s life, he wasn’t all there. He would have a good day and a bad day. I am half his age and I am doing that right now; having my good days and my bad days. I would liked to have been there a few years ago when the doctor told Msgr. that he couldn’t drive anymore. Well, I would like to be behind bulletproof glass. [Laughter] Well, Msgr. continued to drive and it is amazing to think about that. He was eighty-nine when he passed away last Monday but Msgr. was not well. You see, he’d worn himself out literally in service to this parish.

Remember the October before I came here in January and the priest that had done most of the fill in at that time? It was that spring chicken of eighty-eight years old, volunteering. What was he going to do, save it up for later and use it for a rainy day? He spent himself in the service of his family and it took it’s toll on him, just like it took it’s toll on the pope.

Before I entered the seminary I worked nights for a year or so at a Safeway grocery store. There was one guy who would come in to work with our stocking team and he would clock in and go over and take a two or three hour nap. Every week he would receive a paycheck and cash it. It seemed like it was possible to “nap on the job” and still get paid for it. Try doing that in light of these last words of Christ. Don’t participate in the mission of the Church and then go and try to get your check from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and with a straight face say, “I am here!” The prayers of the Mass say, “Where Christ has gone we hope to follow.” You notice it in the Preface today, “Where Christ our Head has gone, we as members hope to follow.”

If you are a member of His Church then you have a role in His mission. “Well gee, I don’t know a whole lot about theology, isn’t that for someone else?” Let me see; what did Jesus say? Go therefore and make disciples of all 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. If you don’t participate in the mission of the Church why would you expect Jesus to have you join him at His right hand in heaven? If you appreciate what Jesus says about the resurrection of the dead, you also have to appreciate what He says about the mission of the Church.

People like Pope John Paul II and Msgr. McCallum wore themselves out in the service of others. Mothers and fathers recognize this kind of sacrifice. Each one of us, deacons, priests, bishops, men and women religious, ands lay people…if we call ourselves members of the Church then we must do everything we can to heed those first words of Christ’s after the resurrection and His last words before He ascended into Heaven and then study as we can, the rest of the New Testament.

Where Christ our Head has gone, we hope to follow.