Father Donald Sawyer Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church

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May 1, 2005 Sermon

As you know, we’re getting ready for this Thursday because it’s Ascension Thursday, and we’ll be celebrating our Lord’s Ascension. It was God’s plan that after His Resurrection that He would be on earth to make appearances for 40 days. And we hear the Gospel reading where He says, “Look at Me, if you want to use your hands to touch Me. I am not a ghost.” This is the purpose of those 40 days, to show that He really is resurrected.

We look at this, and I think of the apostles. Can you imagine their joy? After witnessing all the terrible things of Good Friday, and realizing that He had died, but yet He was right in their midst, and He was real. And He even says, “Give me something to eat.” He wanted to prove that He wasn’t just a ghost. Imagine the joy, but imagine how this would change their lives. We look at Peter, we know he was married, and he probably had children. When could he ever have dreamed that he would ever leave the Sea of Galilee, that he would stop being a fisherman? He probably had never even traveled beyond Palestine, but to think he would wind up in the great city of Antioch. Later, of course, he’d wind up in Rome where he’d be killed upside-down on a cross. Think about how the apostle Thomas went all the way to India, St. Mark to Alexandria, and they all dispersed throughout the known world.

I think about Christianity, and I think first of all, it is the joy, and I say joy of belief, believing in Christ. This is our faith, this is our hope. And He says “Do not be afraid”, but we are so afraid of death. We are called to die everyday to ourselves, to the selfishness that we are all attached to. It’s “Me”. Do you remember the commercials “It’s the Pepsi generation”? It’s the “Me” generation. And it’s even worse now. It’s like: “What do I want?” It’s the “Me”. This is what we’re called to empty ourselves of. This is contradictory to this world. But in our joy is hope - hope and security. Hope that people will come to believe and accept Christ. You can see this in the way that we walk. It’s not downcast, not gloomy. This comes out of a sense of joy. And I see people who don’t have the Faith, who don’t have religion, and are searching in their lives. They don’t have that security, that peace in knowledge. And I even see so many of these gloomy people going in and out of churches, too. I say if they really believed, they wouldn’t mope. The most profound sign of the presence of God is joy. And if we have that peace and security of accepting Christ, we have that joy.

Some people say that the people here talk too much, that they bother people because they laugh too much. I say no, we don’t talk too much, we don’t laugh too much, but I guess they want you to be all somber, all serious. For a lot of people, this is the problem – What is holiness? Does it mean that I talk softly and that you’re standing on my foot but that’s all right? I can even offer the other foot, too. Or the priest or preacher who always says “well Jesus loooves you”. Well, once you get past that persona, secretly they don’t think they’re good enough.

It’s fascinating. In clergy circles, someone will say, “Let’s pray,” and it always has to be soft and somber. But think about Mother Theresa. She was blunt, and she was outgoing. And let me tell you about cloistered nuns. There are Dominican nuns out in Lufkin, Texas, and if you want to have a fantastic time go see the cloistered nuns because they’re a riot! Full of personality, they’re all extroverts. And you sit there and bask in the sunlight of their attention, and that’s the joy of Christ – not in acting holy. Are you holy if you just make other people think you’re holy? It’s all hogwash. And in the spiritual connotation, Jesus said, “You have not chosen Me, I chose you.” Some of us forget that and act like we’re doing a favor for God – “I came to church this morning, aren’t You lucky?” When I was a deacon in Birmingham, Alabama, the organist Chuck and I always had an ongoing joke – he was always threatening to play “Smoke gets in my eyes” during the incense hymn. And he’d say to me “You know, God sure is lucky to have us on His side!”

People think they go to church for God, but you’re doing it for yourself. And out of all the aspects of spirituality, there has to be joy. If joy is lacking, then I think faith is lacking. I see some lapsed Catholics, and people ask me “Father, why don’t they come to church?” Well, maybe it’s that they just don’t believe. I compare it to a husband - a husband who says to his wife “you know I love so much”. But he never brings her flowers, never takes her out, never shows affection. Does he really love her? No. They think they can do this to God. “Oh God you know I love you” but they never attend to worshipping the Lord. And even the word “worshipping” is misused; worshipping means submitting your whole self to God. And the Psalm says “It is not your sacrifices I desire, but a humble and contrite heart”. This is what He expects. Once we have experienced Christ, we have been changed. Look at the apostles, where they not changed? Enough people go in and out of church, but are they changed? Have they experienced Christ? Have they engaged Him? This is the center of our Faith, always looking to Christ.

I think of Mother Theresa, how she managed – changing people’s diapers, cleaning their rear ends, watching them die. I look at John Paul when I think of contemporary saints. What energy that man had! Where do you think it came from? They were both partial to the Eucharist. Look at the icon of Saint Charbel. He relied upon two things - He was partial to the Eucharist and had devotion to the mother of God. These two things are what got him through his life. Think about it – 2,000 years of faith – it got your parents, your grandparents, ancestors through the faith, through the persecutions and all. That’s what this is about. St. Paul says, “For one believes with the heart and so is justified and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved … my heart’s desire and prayer to God is on their behalf for salvation. I testify with regard to them that they have zeal for God, but it is not discerning.” But it goes on and says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

My brothers and sisters, we’re on the road to salvation. We’re walking it and continue to walk constantly. But increase your devotion to the mother of God and increase your devotion to the Eucharist. John Paul said this is the year of the Eucharist. This is our life source, this is it. “I am the bread of life, he who believes in Me will have life.” In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.