Joy. Gratitude. Service.
April 16, 2017

D ear  Friends ,

Today's, it's about Easter, and to have an Easter faith is to be a person fully alive.

I speak of what faith is and isn't. Under Other Links, we include links to a YouTube video by popular Bishop Robert Barron in which he addresses the topic with an interesting analogy, as well as an article version. You'll also see a link regarding my April 27 talk: Difficult Bible Passages.

As always, forward today's message to others who might appreciate it.

Gratefully,
Fr. Dave Mercer, Pastor
Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday | Homily: Church People
Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. " [Matthew 18:5-6]      
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My good friend, Sister Rosalie Pizzo, sits in her dentist’s waiting room, listening to the radio. The newscaster reports that some television evangelists are having legal troubles. A man in the waiting room snarls: “Church people, they’re all hypocrites! That’s why I no longer go to church.” He continues to complain and even says he no longer goes to Mass.

Sister Rosalie speaks up: “Well, people don’t go to church because they’re good. They go, because God is good.” The man looks at her and asks: “What are you, a nun?” She replies: “Well, yes, I am. I’m a sister of Notre Dame de Namur.” The man sits quietly.

With a tear in his eye, he finally smiles and says: “Yeah, I remember my First Communion. We were really poor, and I didn’t have any proper clothes to wear. Even my shoes were no good. Then, the sister bought me a new suit, some underwear, and new shoes and brought them to my mom so I could dress nicely for my First Communion. That was so kind of her.”

Sister Rosalie asks who she was, and he answers: “Sister Lucide. She was very nice.” Sister Rosalie responds: “Oh, I knew Sister Lucide. She was one of our sisters of Notre Dame, but she died a while ago.”

When the dental assistant calls for Sister Rosalie, she gets up, looks at the man, and says: “I’ll look for you at church, then.” He answers: “You just might see me, Sister.”

Sister Rosalie listens to him and gently shares her Catholic Christian faith with him. She shares with him her deeply held Easter faith.

Of course, the man spoke of a certain truth, that is, church people can say one thing but do another. We shouldn’t be surprised by that, because our human nature is to be incomplete and inconsistent with what we say is good and proper, beautiful and true. We can speak of love, but we know we can be selfish, too. It’s our shadow side that makes the news.

Think of it as the airplane principle. Airplanes make the news when they crash, that is, when there’s a problem. Airplanes don’t make the news for reaching their destination safely and on time.

Similarly, we church people make the news for terrible and embarrassing scandals, for mismanagement, or for a priest who seems harsh toward people who are different or simply don’t measure up. Those moments stay with folks and form their image of church people.

I don’t deny that such incidents happen, and yet, the Church I know — the Church that inspires me — doesn’t make the news. The folks with our bereavement support ministry willingly sit and listen to people who feel empty with grief. Others regularly make sandwiches in our kitchen that they take to a homeless agency. Some folks prepared seven turkeys with all the trimmings so foster kids and their families could have a proper Thanksgiving dinner. None of those folks are in the news.

The priest who’s called to the hospital and sits with a family whose child is in the Intensive Care Unit ­— he doesn’t make the news.

In each of those moments, folks with an Easter faith are touching people’s lives. As Saint Iranaeus puts it: The glory of God is a person fully alive.

Teenagers, here’s my point for you: as I often say, God gives each of you a special set of talents and gifts given to nobody else. As you move through life, those talents and gifts become more developed. With them, God gives each of you a mission and purpose in life that God gives to nobody else. When that mission and purpose comes into sharper focus, you then learn what God calls you to do with your life. You will have discovered your vocation.

Also, I ask you not to be thrown by what some might say about religious faith. While the man in the dentist’s office complains to Sister Rosalie about the behavior of some church people, others loudly complain that there’s a conflict (a war) between faith and reason, between faith and science — that to have faith is to throw away one’s brain. And yet, there’s a wealth of evidence to the contrary.

Keep in mind that we have no problem teaching science (including evolution) in Catholic schools and Catholic universities. Many of the best scientific innovators have been people of deep Christian faith — church people such as Copernicus, Newton, Steno, Picard, and even Galileo. Thirty-five craters on the moon are named for Catholic priest-scientists. The Father of Genetics was the scientist (and monk) Gregor Mendel.

The formulator of the Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe was the astronomer and professor of physics (and priest) Father Georges Lemaître. (By the way, he explained his theory to Albert Einstein, who then became convinced of it.)

And there’s also Francis Collins. Though not Catholic, he’s a devout Christian, famous for research into the human genome, and now the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Of course, church people with an Easter faith don’t need to be top-notch scientists. As I’ve said before, to understand faith, simply spell the word on the fingers of your hand: F – A – I – T – H. Then, each letter stands for a word: Feeling Alone, I Trust Him.

To have faith is not to throw away our brains. To have faith is to trust that, when we use the gift of reason, God will speak to our hearts. To have an Easter faith is to trust that, when we listen, we will hear God calling us to be hopeful by using our gifts and talents for the good of others. To have an Easter faith is to be a person fully alive.

We choose to follow the Risen Jesus.

What is Faith?
Bishop Robert Barron speaks of what faith is and what faith isn't, using an interesting analogy: click here.

For an article version of the video,  click here.

Fr. Dave's April Talk
Difficult Bible Passages
April 27, 7:00 pm
Is the God of the Old Testment warlike? Was St. Paul anti-woman? Click here to go to our home page for a notice about the talk. See the notice in the next issue of the Valley Catholic newspaper. Bring a friend.

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