Homily

You may have read in the bulletin, my mother died this past week. The last month had been very hard for her with pain and shortness of breath. Hospice was able to finally help her, but about that time it looked as though she may not last much longer, and it was her time to depart this life. The funeral was set for Friday, so I got a flight to Cleveland for Thursday morning. Unfortunately on Thursday morning heavy fog hit San Francisco and they held back, or slowed down the number of planes that could land there for safety reasons. Because of that we weren't able to leave Eugene until two hours later. My connecting flight to Cleveland had already taken off. To make a long story short, because of the weather, the disruption of the scheduled flight and cancelled flights after some hours it became clear that there was no way I would be able to get to Ohio on Friday to make the funeral. For the same reasons I was not able to get back to Eugene on Thursday either.

I was thinking about what I was missing, the funeral, not being able to try and support my brothers and sister and not being with them and the other relatives, and I realized that was kind of a closed-in situation. By that I mean it dealt with family and friends and relatives, so it was personal, very close to home, so in that way it was closed in. But at the same time I was also thinking about how my Mom was no longer "closed-in" by time or space or the limits of physical life in this world. She had entered into eternal life and though I could not be present at that more "closed-in" event in Ohio, I could be just as present to her now even sitting in the S. F. airport and praying for the repose of her soul, and for the other members of my family.

I was thinking about the disciples and apostles of Jesus who followed Him during the three years of His public ministry and I think you could say they too made up a rather "closed-in" group. They traveled and met other people along the way, but as a "closed-in" group of the Lord's followers. The death of Jesus split up that "closed-in" relationship, but then the resurrection restores it again but in a different and extraordinary way. Jesus prepares them for the time coming soon when He will no longer be with them in a physical way but in the presence of the life-giving Holy Spirit, they will still be in contact with Him sharing His own divine life, through that same Spirit Who would dwell within them.

On that great day of Pentecost when the Most Holy Spirit entered into the apostles bestowing upon them the gift of sharing in God's own divine life we see a dramatic change. They had been relying upon each other in that more "closed-in" group of disciples and I think they were still troubled by fears and doubts as they look for support from their friends, for Jesus has gone back to the Father, and what will happen next? When the sound of the rushing wind is heard and the tongues of fire are seen, as they gather together in that upper room, a great change takes place. No longer afraid they turn not towards each other, but outward, out toward the world to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and of His gift of everlasting life, as we hear Peter's words in today's epistle.

This pattern is the pattern for Christians ever since that day. Yes, we come together here in a kind of "closed-in" situation as we worship the Lord together, and receive Him in an intimate way in the Holy Eucharist. But then, like the apostles, we are called to go out and share Him and His gospel with the world. You may not be out on the streets preaching, but there are people out there, there are times and situations where you can, in one way or another, speak about your faith. And, apart from that, there are plenty of opportunities to pray for others to help them and make others the targets for our charity and virtue in the name of Christ our Lord. We don't have to neglect in any way our own closed-in circle of family and friends to do this. We simply need to focus more on the world outside of that inner circle and be willing to bring Christ's presence more completely into the world by our own actions, our words and our prayers. So I suggest that during this great week of Pentecost we consider every day, and try to be aware every day not only how we can serve those who are close to us, but how we can also turn and reach out in one way or another to those outside, and to be ready to hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit when He prompts us to do or say something for the good of others and to pray not just for those who love us, but also for those whom Christ loves.

Starting with today, let us spend seven days of thanksgiving to the Lord for all that we have, and ask Him to show us and help us share what we can offer to be His presence in this world, to follow in the example of those original disciples. Seven days to focus on practicing virtue out in the world. Seven days to pray not just for those near and dear, but for those who are not so close to us. Seven days to speak of the good and try to leave behind complaining and negative talk. Seven days to work on bringing Christ more fully into this world as we allow Him to work through us. If we can keep up this sustained effort for seven days, I know that when we come back together again next Sunday, on that day of All Saints, we will have moved even closer to their great reward and to Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Let us be open to a week of great grace.