Can you show people the way?
As I prepared for this homily, what came to me from the Lord were the words, “Tell them to drink deeply.” Tell them not to sip and not to guzzle, but to very attentively, day in and day out, drink very, very deeply for the next 50 days, because this is what happened in the early Church.
During this time, the Lord has much to teach and show us if we are to be these credible witnesses that are talked about in the first reading and that he needs, in this day and age.
Right from day one, Eastertide was a very active and holy time in the Church. The apostles and disciples were getting the first breath of the Holy Spirit.
We may think the Holy Spirit only came at Pentecost. The fullness of the Holy Spirit did come at Pentecost with all the charismatic gifts and outpourings, but right from day one, the very first day of the Resurrection, Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples.
Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained. Peace be with you (Jn 20:23). And then, later on in John’s Gospel, after Thomas, too, receives the Holy Spirit, it says, they witnessed many things that Jesus did which are not recorded in this book (cf. Jn 20:30).
You and I don’t see all the various things that Christ was doing with the disciples up to the moment of his ascension. We need to be aware of that fact because it’s the same for us now.
Over the next 40, 50 days Christ is going to reveal himself to us in a very profound way. He wants us to be attentive and to drink deeply of all he is going to reveal to us during this Easter season.
St Paul tells us that we are now to look to the things above, not the things that are on earth. Often we get weighed down, because our vision gets so focused on what’s going on down here that we lose our perspective on the things that are above. We forget to look up.
We can get so bogged down in what’s wrong with us that we forget about what is right with us. We can become so preoccupied with our wounds and our festering sores of psychological, mental, and spiritual turmoil, that we can forget to serve; we can forget about the gospel.
We can get lost in looking for healing. We’re on the road to healing, but we lose the road of faith.
We must keep our destiny before us. We must have our compass set on our final destination: where we are going and to whom we are going.
We are called to be witnesses. The word “witness” appears many times in Easter scriptures, and Peter himself says, Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did (Acts 10:39).
Can you witness to everything the Lord has done for you? Are you a credible witness of how Christ has moved in your life up to this time? Are you prepared to proclaim this, simply, directly, and honestly to those who need to hear about it?
Many of us have attended World Youth Days where we are called to be witnesses. And there’s a lot of ferment and excitement; it feels like part rave, part rock concert, part prayer meeting, and it’s all wonderful. It’s a good thing.
But this is not the essence of what we are called to. We are not called to be cheerleaders. We are not called to come to a pep rally and get all hyped up and go “rah, rah, rah” and then go home like it’s business as usual.
One of the most powerful things at the World Youth Day in Toronto was when two or three young people got up and they witnessed. They talked about what God had done in their lives during the last few years and you could hear a pin drop.
They were struggling, and they were stammering and it was kind of coming out in bits and pieces, and they didn’t really want to be up there — but wow! People listened!
When they talked about their struggle to be faithful in their daily lives as young people, in school and at home — that was powerful. That was very powerful.
This is what changes hearts and minds. People listen to witnesses much more than they listen to teachers. What you and I are called to do in the days ahead is to very simply, clearly, and faithfully witness to Christ, with confidence and conviction.
When somebody asks you the reason for your faith and hope, do you have the answer? And is it the real thing or will you water it down? Will you try to make it emotionally, intellectually, and mentally satisfying and maybe sell the message short in the process?
Or will you risk looking like a fool as you proclaim the truth about the work of God in your life? Can you show people the way? Can you help them really see the things that are above?
That’s the magnificence of our life, the holiness of our Christian vocation, and what we are called to do.
We must drink very deeply of the things of God. We must come to the banquet table every day with an open heart and an open mind and drink very deeply of what God wants to give us this Easter season.
Fr. Burchat gave this homily several years ago.
image: Mary Magdalen by ©Patrick Stewart, Madonna House
