He Has Done All Things Well

For over 70 years, Alcoholics Anonymous has helped people from all over the world overcome addictions to alcohol, drugs and other destructive behaviors. Through a program comprised of 12 steps, the addicts learn to combat the spiritual sickness at the root of their compulsions by confessing that they are powerless to change their behavior and by giving control of their lives over to a "higher power". As they make their way through the other steps and achieve a certain level of serenity and healing, they learn that it is not enough for them to simply stop drinking or using drugs. If they are to know true and lasting healing, they cannot keep their stories to themselves. Rather, they have to reach out to others with the good news that their addictions can be overcome.  It is part of the healing process itself to help bring others to experience healing in their own lives.

The same is true with those who are healed by Jesus. They are so overcome with joy after their encounter with him that they have to tell everyone about it. It is interesting that throughout the gospel of Mark, Jesus commands people not to tell anyone who he is and what he has done for them. It seems strange to us that Jesus would want to hide his identity, but he needed it to be clear to the people that he would not be a political Messiah who would liberate them from Roman rule, but a suffering servant who would free all people from the tyranny of sin. When he tells the apostles not to tell anyone who he is, they obey him. Even the demons whom he casts out obey him when he tells them to keep quiet. But those whom Jesus heals, though they are warned sternly not to spread the word, cannot help but go around telling everyone they meet about the powerful prophet who restored them to health. For them, telling the story of Jesus' healing power is part of the healing process itself.

Today's gospel is no different. Jesus opens the ears of a deaf man and heals his speech impediment. Throughout his whole life he was unable to hear the sounds all around him. Now the first voice he hears is that of Jesus commanding his ears to be opened. During his life he probably spoke only when necessary because he was ashamed of his speech impediment. Now, with his tongue loosened by Jesus, he cannot help but tell everyone about the miracle that God performed in his life. His first clear words were praise of God for the gift of healing he received in Jesus. How could he now be expected to keep silent about the great work God performed in his life?

Jesus continues to be in our midst exercising his healing powers. Though it is rare, it still happens that people are cured of diseases or physical impairments through the power of prayer. Most often, however, the healings we experience through faith are of an emotional or spiritual nature. Because of our own prayers or those of others, we may find ourselves finally able to forgive someone who has hurt us. Or we may find the strength to let go of a burden of anger which we were carrying for many years. Or we may simply be overcome with a sense of God's infinite mercy and believe that our sins have been forgiving. No matter how we may experience it, each of us here has been touched by Jesus and healed. Now it is up to us to tell others about it so that they too may meet Jesus, the healer. If we want to hold on to the healing we have received, and if we want it to deepen in our lives, we must spread the word.

It could also be that many of us have been waiting for a healing that just has not come yet. Whether the cure we are seeking is for ourselves or someone we love, we have prayed, offered up Masses and asked others to pray for us, but God has not chosen to touch us with his healing power as yet. It could be that, for reasons only he can know, he wants us to bear that suffering so that we can grow to be more like his Son. Or it could be that he wants us first to bear witness to what he has already done for us to others. Many times when we take the opportunity to speak to others about the wonders God has worked in our lives, we look back and see that the healing has already been granted to us. We just have not noticed it. If we are seeking a healing and have tried everything from prayer to counseling to try to get it, could it be that God is asking us to try one more thing - making known to others the good things Jesus has already done for us?

Before we approach this altar to receive the Body of Christ, we will pray: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed." The Eucharist is the greatest source of healing for our body, mind and spirit. The man in today's gospel was privileged to have Jesus touch his ears and his tongue, but we have the awesome gift of receiving him into our entire body. If we approach him with faith, he will open our ears to hear his word and loosen our tongues to proclaim his praises. If we seek a healing, he knows it and most certainly will want to grant it to us in some form or another. It will then be up to us to spread the word that our God heals and saves.

The Witness Of Joy

There is no greater witness to Jesus than a heart filled with joy. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit

which ripens in our lives when Jesus is living within us. When we are radiating peace and

happiness, it tells others that there is something different about us. Others will notice that we

do not complain in the midst of difficulties or gossip about others who might rub us the wrong

way. They will wonder what is different about us. They will want the joy that we have. And all

we will have to do is tell them the truth. It all comes from Jesus, and if they give their lives to

Him, they will know the same peace and joy.

We do not tend to think of John the Baptist as a joyful person. From our reading of the gospel,

he seemed like a fiery character preaching the wrath of God. While he certainly warned those

who heard him that they must repent of their sins, he could not have drawn so many people to

the banks of the Jordan River if all he did was preach condemnation and judgment. There had

to be a joy radiating from him which made so many people want to stop and listen to him.

Where did John the Baptist’s joy come from?  It came from understanding who he was. Having

so many people follow him and getting so much attention could have easily gone to John’s head.

His popularity may have tempted him to use his power for his own gain. He may have begun to

think that because he had so many followers he deserved special treatment. But John knew all

along that it was not about him. He had to point people to someone else. As he tells the priests

and Levites in the gospel we have just heard, someone was coming after him who was greater

than he. For John the Baptist, the focus was not on him, what he was doing or how many

followers he had. The focus was always on Jesus. As he would say later in John’s gospel,

“I must decrease, and He must increase.”

The world tells us something quite different. Society tells us to put ourselves and our needs

first. However, when we put ourselves on center stage, we immediately start to feel as though

we are not getting everything we deserve. We wonder why people are not paying more

attention to us. We become jealous of others who have more than we do. When someone

offends us, we become so insulted that we can brood over it for years. Nothing is ever enough.

We always want more, and so we always feel unsatisfied. Joy cannot survive in a selfish person.

The only sentiments that can take root in such a person are bitterness and resentment.

How different life is when we give everything over to Jesus. As Christians and as human beings,

joy begins to flood our soul when we take the focus off ourselves and place it on Jesus. When

God takes center stage in our lives, we begin to see everything we have as a blessing. Even

when we face difficulties, we know that our Heavenly Father is in control. No matter how others

treat us, we have confidence in God’s love for us and that nothing can change that love for us.

We experience less anxiety because we understand that our Heavenly Father has a plan for

us and that He is at work accomplishing His will in us. When, like John the Baptist, we draw

attention to Jesus and not to ourselves, worry and anxiety flee and joy wells up within us.

How can we begin to take the focus off ourselves to experience the joy that only Jesus can

give? Saint Paul teaches us how in the second reading from the letter to the Thessalonians

by telling us that we should “render constant thanks.” When we are thankful, we admit that
everything that is good in our lives is a gift from God. Gratitude puts the focus on our

Heavenly Father, His love and His willingness to supply all our needs. Giving thanks helps

us to correct the attitude that we so often have that we deserve more, that we are entitled to
something better. Stopping throughout the day to be thankful for the people who love us, for

the good things we enjoy and for the beauty of creation which surrounds us will bring joy to full
flower in our lives.

Saint Paul also tells us that we are to rejoice always and in every circumstance. It is easy to be
happy when things are going well, when we have our health and when we have enough money.

But when we encounter problems, that type of happiness dissolves quickly. Christian joy is very
different. It stays with us both in good times and in bad times. It gives us gratitude when times

are good and holds us up when times are tough. As Christians with the joy of Jesus in our

hearts, we must rejoice even when things are not going our way, when we face tragedies and

when life becomes burdensome. We rejoice because we know that God has a plan and that He

is in control. He will be with us through it all and will see us through it. How can we do anything

else but rejoice when a God who can do all things is by our side?

Joy is a sure sign of a heart that is given over to Jesus. We gather here today to worship, to

express our joy to the God who is at the center of our lives. And so we sing, we pray, we kneel

and we lift up our hearts to our loving Father. Though we so often lose sight of Him, He never

loses sight of us. For too long now we have carried around the burden of bitterness. It is time to
dump it at the foot of the cross and put our focus on Jesus from here on out. It is time for us to

know the joy that only He can give us, a joy that can never leave us.

Going To The Well

Please take a few seconds to think about the teachers who made a difference in your life. If you're like me, I remember them not because of what they taught, but because of how they taught. Good teachers do more than lecture students and spoon-feed them raw data. Instead, they try to draw out from them an understanding of the material and an ability to relate that information to real life. By engaging them in the learning process, a good teacher not only teaches students what to learn, but teaches them how to learn.

Like a good teacher, Jesus did not get his point across with lectures or by assigning book reports. Instead he encountered people face to face and sought to draw faith from them.

In today's gospel, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. Under the hot, noontime sun, he sees an opportunity to draw faith from the well of this woman's soul. By speaking to her and asking her questions, Jesus guides her through a gradual understanding of who he is. At first, she recognizes him to be a Jew. When he offers her living water, she asks if he is greater than the patriarch,  Jacob.  Then, when Jesus tells her that she has had five husbands and that she is living with a man who is not her husband, she recognizes that he is a prophet. Finally, when Jesus tells her that true followers will worship in spirit and in truth, she asks him if he is the Messiah. Elated at her new discovery, she drops her water jug and runs off to the village to tell the people that she has found the Messiah. Like a good teacher, Jesus did not just tell her who he was, but revealed himself to her gradually in a way that she could take to heart.

But not only is there a change in the woman's understanding of who Jesus is, there is a change in the woman herself. Remember that Jesus told her that she had had five husbands and that she was living with a man who was not her husband. That's probably why she was at the well at the hottest time of the day, to avoid the disdainful stares of the other women in town. She was the town harlot, a public sinner, who lived as an outcast. But now that she had encountered the Messiah and come to believe in him, she went from being the town sinner to a herald of the good news. She leads the people from the village out to meet this man "who told her everything she ever did!"

We are now in our third week of Lenten prayer and sacrifice. Through our prayer, Bible study and works of charity we have sat at the foot of our teacher, Jesus, and learned from him. By his presence in our lives, we have come to a deeper understanding of who he is. We may know in our minds that Jesus is our Messiah, but to have it change our lives is another story. Like a good teacher, Jesus is patient with us. He knows it will take time for our understanding of him to penetrate our hearts and to make a real change. The important thing is that we keep going to the well, that we keep seeking out Jesus, that we keep learning from him. Jesus will not deny us the living water when we approach him with sincerity and humility.

Jesus thirsts. Jesus thirsts to have us know him and to live a life of intimate friendship with him. He also longs to quench our thirst for hope and truth. We are gathered here today to worship in Spirit and in Truth. Our worship is guided by the Holy Spirit who was poured into our hearts at our baptism. And, we worship in the truth revealed to us in the Gospels and taught to us by our master, Jesus. If we open our hearts this day to that truth and to that Spirit, Jesus will draw from the well of our hearts a living water which is the promise of everlasting life with him in heaven. And, we will leave this place forever changed.

The Empty Tomb

Imagine on a Sunday morning going to visit the grave of a loved one and finding the tombstone gone and a hole in the ground where the coffin once lay. At first, you would feel confused and wonder whether you had gone to the wrong grave. Then you would feel outraged. How dare anyone tamper with your loved one’s final resting place! When the anger subsided, grief would overcome you. You would feel as if you had lost your loved one all over again. Finally you would call your family and friends. They would all rush over to find out for themselves what happened.

This gives us some idea of how Mary Magdalene, Peter and John were feeling on that first Easter Sunday morning. Upon seeing his tomb empty, their first assumption was that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. They felt confused, sad and afraid. After all they had been through, what could possibly happen next?

We know what happens next. Jesus will appear to His disciples showing that He is alive. Their confusion would be transformed into wonder, their grief into joy and their fear into faith. The resurrection does not bring new life only to Jesus, but also to those who believe in Him. They are transformed into new women and men.

The same is true for us. The new life of Jesus’ resurrection is a reality in our own lives. So many of us lived with constant confusion, grief and fear. The direction of our lives was a mystery to us. We lived from day to day not knowing and often not caring about the purpose of our existence. We knew something was missing, but could not put our finger on what that something was.

As it turned out, the “something” that was missing from our lives was really “somebody”. It was Jesus. By the grace of God, at some point or over time, we became keenly aware of God’s presence in our lives and of His unconditional love for us. The faith we received at baptism and which was taught to us throughout our childhood began to make sense. The hope of everlasting life with God in Heaven gave us new meaning and purpose. We exchanged our fear and confusion for faith. The resurrection of Jesus became a reality for us.

Not only has the resurrection changed us personally, it has transformed the whole world. It would take us all week to detail how the course of history has been changed by the resurrection of Jesus.  We would have to talk about the apostles who spread the good news throughout the earth. We would have to tell the story of countless followers of Jesus who began the hospital system by caring for the sick, elderly and homeless. It would be women and men of faith who would work tirelessly to educate the young and so make the Catholic Church the largest private provider of education in the world. Inspired by the resurrection, Christians would seek out the lonely, the lost and the poor to provide for their needs making the Church the largest charitable institution in the world. Billions of people throughout history have had their lives changed for the better because of the love and care shown to them by those who call themselves followers of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus has changed the world and saved it in more ways than any one of us can begin to fathom.

But God’s work is still only just beginning. Our world is still under the dark spell of confusion, grief and fear. Though Jesus has already conquered sin and death, the truth of His victory has not reached every human heart. That is where we must step in. It is up to us to carry the message of Jesus resurrection to those in despair. It is our task now to be witnesses of His victory to those who are locked in self-destructive patterns of sin. How will others come to know if we do not tell them? Most importantly, how will they know the beauty of a life lived for Christ if we are not living that way ourselves?

Many of us do not share our faith with others because of fear. We are afraid what people will think of us. We do not want to be made fun of. Or we are afraid of offending our friends. The early followers of Jesus had those same fears and doubts. But the resurrection of Jesus changed all that. By the power of the Spirit, they were emboldened to proclaim to everyone that Jesus was alive. Of course, they were made fun of and many were even killed, but they kept on proclaiming the truth because it was just too wonderful to keep to themselves.

When Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection, His words to them are “Do not be afraid”. The Risen Jesus speaks the same words to us here today. “Do not be afraid.” God is with us. The Spirit we have received at our baptism and confirmation is a Spirit of boldness and conviction. He will give us the opportunity to witness to Jesus, He will give us words that can change minds and hearts and He will give us the patience and courage to deal with those who reject and ridicule us. Faith in the Risen Lord conquers all fear.

Jesus is truly risen from the dead. He now lives forever, and He offers us the hope of everlasting life. The resurrection becomes real in our lives when we exchange fear, grief and confusion for faith, joy and conviction. Having experienced the Risen Lord through faith, we are now sent out to be His witnesses. We do not fear because God is with us. A hurting world is longing to hear this message. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot fail.

Light for the World

During the height of the Vietnam War, Nguyen Van Thuan served as the bishop of a small diocese in South Vietnam. Along with his brother bishops, he tended to the needs of his flock during the most trying of times.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI called on him to serve as archbishop of what was then the capital of Vietnam, Saigon.

When he arrived in the capital, he was invited to a meeting at the president’s palace. There he was arrested by the Communist authorities and placed into solitary confinement. During the next thirteen years, he would be sent to several prisons without ever being tried for a crime and with no opportunity to prove his innocence.

At first, he felt bewildered by his situation. He wondered how it could all be happening to him. Feeling abandoned by God, he was tempted to become bitter and angry. But, as he was being transported to the prison in a boat along with fifteen hundred other prisoners, a thought came to him. He would make the prison his mission territory and the prisoners his parishioners. Rather than allow the experience of being imprisoned  break him, he would transform it by allowing God’s love to shine through him. As he put it in his memoirs, “I decided then and there that my captivity would not merely be a time of resignation but a turning point in my life.... I would live the present moment and fill it with love.”

During his stay in prison, he showed unfailing kindness to the guards no matter how cruelly they treated him. He would speak to them about the love of God and how it gave him freedom and peace even behind bars. Because of his gentleness, he was able to win the sympathy of his captors. They helped him smuggle in bread and wine so that he could say Mass. They also helped him smuggle out messages to the Catholic people of Vietnam in which he encouraged them to remain faithful to Christ and to have courage under Communist rule.

Whenever a guard or other prisoner asked him why he kept such a positive attitude and showed such kindness to his captors, he would reply that Jesus taught us that we should love even our enemies. If we cannot love those who treat us harshly as our Lord did,  then we do not deserve to be called Christians. Many people, both guards and fellow prisoners, were converted to Christ by his witness.

When he was finally released in 1988, he went around the world telling people about his experience and encouraging those who find themselves persecuted and despised that they do not have to give in to bitterness or despair but that they can transform their circumstances by allowing the light of God’s love to shine through them.

This brave and holy man’s life is a perfect example of the words of our Lord which we hear proclaimed in today’s gospel: “You are the light of the world.... Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” Cardinal Thuan went into one of the world’s darkest places - a Communist concentration camp - and let his light shine there. He did not allow the bitter circumstances he found himself in to extinguish the light he carried within him. And by showing love instead of hate, by responding to cruelty with kindness, he touched many hearts and changed many lives. He turned a place of torture and despair into a cathedral where the love of Christ could be experienced.

In our day-to-day life we run into people who have never experienced the love of Christ. The trials and difficulties of modern day life have made them cynical and hard. They can find no other direction or meaning in life except chasing after their own comfort and pleasure. As lost and wounded as they are, they lash out and belittle those around them. It can be easy for us to react by avoiding them or treating them as harshly as they treat us. But Jesus teaches us another way. He wants us to befriend such people and treat them kindly so that they can have an experience of God’s love. How else can they realize that the love of God is real unless we show them the love which is within us? And seeing our willingness to forgive and treat others with kindness, they will get a glimpse of God’s love for them and come to find a better way in life - the way of faith.

We live in a society which is skeptical about the ability of people to change. For that reason, we have created a vengeful culture which expects harsh prison sentences and even death penalties to be handed out leaving little room for mercy or hope that criminals can be rehabilitated. Laws, harsh punishments and crowded prisons cannot change hearts. Only God’s love can really transform people. It can break down barriers of hostility. It can thaw out cold attitudes and soothe raging hostilities. When people meet Christians who are truly living the gospel of Jesus - who show love to those who hate them and forgiveness to those who harm them - they begin to change. Each of us gathered here today can make that happen by committing ourselves to living the words of Jesus in the power of the Spirit and not allowing the difficulties of life or the meanness of the people around us to make us bitter.

We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world because we have experienced the love of a God who was willing to die on the cross for us. We carry that love within us, and it shines with a brilliance that no darkness can overcome. The world outside is counting on us to bring that light along with us to the dark places of life - to bring hope where there is despair and faith where there is doubt - so that one day all the universe may be set aglow by the love of God.

The Living Water

When we are children, we need our parents to watch over us. We haven't learned yet that we'll get burned if we touch the stove or that it's dangerous to run into the street. As we grow older, though, we start learning how to protect ourselves and how to stay out of trouble. The discipline that our parents imposed on us, often against our will, eventually comes to be an almost automatic way of thinking and living for us. We absorb from our parents values and attitudes that will be with us for the rest of our lives. We know how true this is because so often we catch ourselves saying something to our children or grandchildren that our parents used to say to us. We internalize the messages we received from our parents and act on them as we mature.

When Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as a river of living water which flows from within the person, He is describing much the same reality. When Jesus' Holy Spirit dwells in us, then we have Jesus' values and Jesus' attitudes operating within us. We see things as Jesus sees them. We begin to recognize Jesus in the people we meet. We begin to understand that it is Jesus speaking to us when we read the Bible. Just as we absorb our parents' attitudes and values by the discipline they imposed on us, so Jesus' Word begins to penetrate our hearts and minds through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we begin to change from within.

How does this all take place? When we come to believe in Jesus, when we grow in knowledge of the Scripture and receive the sacraments, the Holy Spirit begins to work on our minds and hearts so that we grow in the knowledge and love of God. And, as we grow in that knowledge and love, we come to be more like Jesus. Before we know it, we will be surprising ourselves by saying inspirational words and doing kind deeds. Just as we often catch ourselves saying something our parents used to say, we'll catch ourselves being moved by the Spirit to speak words of comfort and encouragement to those we meet.

The next thing that happens as the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us is that the rivers of living water begin to overflow in us. We can no longer keep Jesus and His Word all to ourselves. Like the apostles on Pentecost day, we can no longer contain the joy that loving God gives us, and we have to tell others about it. The Holy Spirit makes us witnesses to His power and love at work in us.

We live in a culture that tells us that religion is something private, something we should keep to ourselves. We typically don't care what our neighbors believe or what religion they belong to, as long as they don't tell us about it. But, a Christian who has really experienced the power and love of the Holy Spirit, can't keep the message to himself or to herself. We can't keep the lid on the rivers of living water bubbling up from within us. And thank goodness for that! Where would we be if the apostles had decided that Jesus' resurrection would be their little secret? Where would we be if those who witnessed Jesus' miracles and heard His words didn't pass the stories along to the next generation of believers? And, what will become of our children and grandchildren if we fail to share with them the power of God's love made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ?

Today's feast, Pentecost, is the celebration of the birthday of the Church. We are the Church because of the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit through faith now lives in the hearts of almost two billion women and men who call themselves Christians. There are women in Africa, men in Asia, children in Europe, old ladies in South America and teenagers in Australia who believe and worship just as we do. This didn't all take place over the past 2000 years because the apostles had a good business plan and marketing strategy. It happened because the Holy Spirit worked in a powerfully way giving authority to the words of those who preach and making those who hear ready to give their hearts over in faith. That same Holy Spirit is among us now strengthening me as I preach and touching your hearts as you listen.

The task now falls to us who have been given to drink of this life giving water in the Spirit of Jesus. Will we keep it to ourselves? Or, will we speak about to everyone we meet so that all creation which is groaning and in agony can be transformed by the values and the attitudes of Jesus, our Savior.