5th Sunday of Easter 2008

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

5th Sunday of Easter 2008
Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
April 20, 2008

Amen, Amen I say to you, “Whoever believes in Me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these because I am going to the Father.

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

Amen

Yesterday was the 3rd Anniversary if the pope’s election; he is in this country as the Vicar of Christ, and two important anniversaries and events in the life of the Church concerning the Holy Father have occurred this week, which are the 81st birthday of the pope and his 3rd anniversary as pope. He has brought many graces and blessings with him to our country. Everybody considers this to be true…no, they don’t.

Some of the Hollywood personalities have said some very terrible things about the Holy Father in the past few days, and in particular, have gone so far as to use that crudest of words in reference to the pope and the Church, as well as our faith. They have gone so far as to call the Holy Father a Nazi. This is reprehensible but when you see how many people welcomed the Holy Father then you see what an effect they (Hollywood and others) had on dissuading people from going out to see the Holy Father. Why would so many people bother with such great crowds, to go out and see the pope? It is because he is the Vicar of Christ. He is not a rock star, as some would like to promote him, and the people, who predicted what he would say, failed to be successful in their predictions. They missed it by a mile.

When the Holy Father arrived at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, on the bell tower was a very large banner, which read, “Christ Our Hope” This reminds me that in December the Holy Father published his second encyclical, “Spe Salvi”, which translates to “Saved By Hope.” The year before, his first encyclical was “Deus Caritas Est”, which means “God Is Love.” So, with love and hope one could predict that his next encyclical will deal with faith.

Faith is the theme of this reading, the second reading and the first, the faith of the early Church in Jesus Christ, Christ our hope. When the Holy Father went to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, he first descended to the basement, the crypt, and there he prayed evening prayer with the bishops. The Altar was arranged in this fashion there and the following day at National stadium for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Picture of the Altar

They had taken those very distinctive candlesticks and the Altar Crucifix and placed them on the Altar in the stadium. If you notice here on this Altar, the Altar Crucifix is not facing you; it is facing the priest. In his book the “Spirit of the Liturgy”, the pope makes reference to the priest and the direction the priest offers Mass. If the priest offers Mass facing God and the people along with him, then the large crucifix is sufficient for everyone. But if the priest is facing the people then there should be a prominent Crucifix on the Altar facing the priest so that the people understand that Christ is the focus of the Mass. Not everyone understands this. In fact, a prominent so-called “catholic” woman in Congress defined the Mass last week as a place where we all come together. Well, don’t we come together at Wal-Mart, the gas station, or Albertson’s? No, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not defined as a place where we all come together, though that is how it has erroneously been redefined. People may begin to think that the priest is the focus of the Mass… kind of like the Church’s version of American Idle and the priest if the one behind the microphone introducing the different parts in the program. This is absolutely wrong but the temptation has been there. In fact, many Churches that were built in the round give the impression that the Church is merely a social occasion and that this is something “we” do. It is wrong. Christ Our Hope is the center of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and should be the center of our every day.

When the Holy Father came to the United States he spoke at the United Nations and I was amazed how basic he had to be with people who are supposedly beyond normal intelligence levels. He said something, which for some of them was news. He said that the dignity of the person was not granted to the person by any government or nations that are united in a group such as the United Nations, but the dignity of persons comes from the Creator and is bestowed upon each of us at the moment of our conception. He said this to the United Nations and for some people there, it was news. In other words, the dignity of persons does not come from some social union that is then conferred upon the individual but from the moment of conception forward God gives the person dignity.

In the same way, we understand that the dignity of the Mass comes from Christ and not from your being here or my being here. The dignity of the Mass comes from the source of all grace and that is Our Lord Himself. It is like what we sang just moments ago in the opening hymn… that 5th verse.

But Christ did in their midst appear, “My peace” he sayeth, “be on all here.”

There are people today that campaign and say that they will give me peace, they will give me hope, or they will give me…just fill in the blank. They cannot give me peace or hope and this is a modern error, thinking that some state government, federal government or some individual is going to give me hope or peace and finally I will be calm and will not fear. This is a peace and hope subtracted from Christ because they do not point to Christ as they should.

If you look at the picture on the front of the bulletin, you see a picture of St. George, whose feast is Wednesday. St. George had the courage to go into battle for the protection of that woman because of his faith in Christ. This is obvious to Christians but it is not obvious to everyone, even Catholic Christians, who are in Congress as I just noted. The Holy Father’s visit to our country is not a social visit, though there are social aspects to his visit. He has come to declare to us, as the Vicar of Christ, that Christ is our hope. If his visit, which ends today, bears no fruit then it was pointless and it is fruitless. But, I have already seen fruit from his visit and I continue to be amazed at these things. People, who were struggling in one way or another with a sin or temptation somehow have found the strength in Christ to once again confront that temptation or sin and leave it in their rear view mirror.

I mention the rear view mirror because on Thursday I was in the worst storm I have ever been in, in my life. I was driving back to St. William’s from Dallas and it rained buckets…no, it rained lakes around me. The interstate was a wash and I was tempted at times to pull over but I knew the sisters were praying the Rosary and I was praying the Rosary because I knew that I should be praying the Rosary for the other drivers. As I was driving along I didn’t see one accident and I have never seen as many cars out in the worst storm I have ever seen. There were many times I thought of giving up or just drive and not pray but I knew that my hope would be supported and my strength would come from God to make it through. But there were times I felt cowardice all around me. While I was praying I thought of the theme of the Holy Father’s visit. His visit has to produce spiritual fruit otherwise his visit is pointless.

At the Easter Vigil there was a family present and two of the teenage daughters had voluntarily given up meat during the entire time of Lent. After the Easter Vigil they went to Whataburger and picked up hamburgers for everyone. They were on their way home when a drunk driver ran into their van. The two teenage daughters were injured and hospitalized. One was released almost immediately but the other spent weeks in the hospital. Yesterday she came to Church for the first time since the accident. Now, if you are in a wheelchair or if you are sick, you don’t have to come to Church. No one was forcing her to go to Church; she desired to come to Church. I connect this with the Holy Father’s visit. She is very grateful to God that she is alive and over the next few months she will be in constant therapy so she can walk. The doctors say that there is no reason why she shouldn’t be able to walk again. Her coming here yesterday on the 3rd Anniversary of Pope Benedict’s election makes her faith obvious to me and is part of the spiritual fruit of his visit.

There was an earthquake a few days ago, and in a place you don’t normally find earthquakes. It wasn’t on the west coast it was around the area of Missouri and Illinois. In fact it shook buildings in Chicago and I was told that it went as far as Alabama. The New Madrid fault the experts say will start kicking up like it did last week. I take some liberty in saying this, but I believe it is parallel to the spiritual seismic activity brought to this country by the Vicar of Christ. There have to be spiritual fruits of his visit otherwise it has been pointless. God does not come into the world and the Holy Father does not point to Christ without real fruit and without spiritual progress, if you will.

The Holy Father’s visit is to say some things that we might consider very basic but that the world doesn’t understand, and that is that the dignity of the human person comes from God and not from a committee or government. The dignity of the Mass depends on Christ and not on those who are in attendance. I mean personally I wouldn’t walk across the street to talk to me, so why should I expect for you to come to Mass for me; you would be crazy. We come to the Mass because Christ is our hope and we know that with this hope comes a peace, which the world cannot grant. People are always telling us that this or that will harm us. Last week I heard that taking vitamins would kill you, shorten your life. Well, for forty years I have heard that you have to take vitamins otherwise you are reckless. They say that if you stay outside that the ultraviolet rays can be harmful to you but if you stay inside the inside air can be bad for you. So what do you do…. stand in the door? [Laughter]

We are told how this or that can harm us. How easily paralysis can afflict us. The same kind of spiritual paralysis can harm us as well if Christ is not our hope. He has given us Christ to show us the way; Christ is the way, the Truth and the Life and yet, when we listen to the world on a daily basis we drink deeply from the world because it surrounds us and tells us many lies on a daily basis and apologizes for none of them when they are exposed. Christ is our hope; He is the source of all love and in Him we must have faith, but that faith must produce fruit and we must show that fruit to others, animate the faith that is latent in them. Children, friends, as well as strangers need to be encouraged by our faith.

Amen, Amen I say to you, “Whoever believes in Me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these because I am going to the Father.

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

Amen