HOLY SATURDAY 

1. It is Easter Morning, Jesus is entering Heaven. There is a whole host of angels ready to greet him. They are excited. Every one wants to shake his hand... if angels have hands ! We have all been TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL haven’t we at one time or the other.

And they ask him of his work on earth. There are a lot of questions but finally Gabriel says to the Lord: “Lord, what about your work?’

Jesus says, “IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN”

Gabriel, “but who is going to take care of it.”

Jesus replies: “Oh, a bunch of fishermen, a tax collector, one who doubts, one who betrays, a ragtag bunch of men and women.”

And what is your back up plan

Jesus said, “I have no back up plan”

So, if these fail, All is lost.

Yes, said Jesus, “all will be lost. Ah, but they won’t fail. I have faith in them.”

• SONG “Soon, and very Soon, We are going to see the Lord.”

2. In heaven, there is joy. It is eternal bliss and glory.

 Meanwhile here on earth, it is quite a different story.

THE LORD OUR HOPE HAS BEEN BURIED. Is this all that is left?

•  Peter thinks: “I have left my boat and my nets, I have given up my 9-5 job. I have burnt all my bridges. Where do I go from here?”

• Matthew the Tax collector thinks: “I have given up my account books. People treated me with contempt. When they saw me coming, they crossed the road to the other side. I was an outcast in society. However, at least I had my tax collector friends. But even they have left me. Have I gambled and lost?”

• Thomas thinks, “I told you so. Did I not say, it was dangerous to be with this man. He was good while it was going. But now it has come to a dead-end. Where do I go from here?”

The Holy Spirit has not yet come down upon these men. They are like a smoldering wick. The flame has not yet gone out, but they are precariously hanging on like a CANDLE IN THE WIND.

Part two 

1. About fifteen years ago, I was preaching in a small city with eight churches. I said to them, our church is going to look quite different in 40 years time. We will not have priests to be at each of these churches. Most likely you will have two or three priests who will live in a house. When you call the rectory, you will probably hear a woman’s voice - and noise of children in the background. St. Joseph’s Parish, this is Mary, the Parish Administrator speaking. How may I help you. The priests will come from their central residence to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, visit the sick. They will give retreats and missions. But the day to day running of the parish will be done by a layperson.

The Marks of our Church will be the same as it was 2000 years ago as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2.

Those who believed were together, and had all things common; they sold their possessions and goods, and shared them with all as each person had need. They met each day with one mind in the temple. They broke bread from house to house. They ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. They praised God, and enjoyed the favour with all the people. 

The signs would be the Mass, love and care of each other, prayer and union of minds and hearts.

2. The early church had issues -

•  There was the racial issue : Treatment of Jews and Treatment of Gentiles.
• There was the issue of rituals: Should every one have to be circumcised or not.
• There was the inter-faith issue: should they share in meals with people of other faiths, especially if the food was connected with worship of pagan gods.

The issues that face our church are quite different today. We could bury our heads in the ground and pretend that these ISSUES do not exist. We could do nothing, and hope they will solve themselves. Unfortunately they do not. And so we seek for TRUTH. This means more than having an opinion, it involves searching for answers, it means uncovering what is hidden. This is a long process:

• we study the WORD OF GOD
• we pay attention to the Teaching of the Church.
• We reflect on the Traditions and Christian experience.
• We pray for enlightenment.
• we test our ideas in debate with others.

3. Our Church today has so many issues that were not present in the time of Jesus. Some of these are one, I would rather not face. I would rather think only of the good things. But these issues will not go away. What are they?

•  The issues of WIDE SOCIAL INJUSTICE. The tragedy of millions dying in India, Africa, the homeless in our own country of Canada, the wide discrepancy in health care between those who can afford it and those who cannot. The greed of multi-national Corporations.

• We have the issue of the Gay Communities. On a personal level, Everyone has a friend, a relative or knows someone who is Gay. They are there even among our priests and bishops. We know them to be good loveable and wholesome persons. They do not suffer any pathological or psychological distortion. In fact they teach us to be non-violent, kind and caring. Yet they are branded in society and treated as second class citizens both in secular and church society. According to Church law, their Acts not their orientation is against the law.

• Then there is a profound challenge to face the oppression of Women in society and in the Church. People carry placards with Ordination for Women especially as the Bishop and seminarians process into the Cathedral on the Day of the Ordination. There is no way of telling whether this advances or does more harm to the issue.
• But an equal treatment of women is rooted in the Experience of Jesus himself. If we read the Gospel according to Luke, we will find constant references to Women in the Company of Jesus as he went about preaching in Galilee. Now it was against the tradition and custom for an unmarried Rabbi to have women in his company as he travelled. And yet Jesus saw everyone: men and women, rich and poor, even the outcasts: the tax collectors, lepers, the lame blind and deaf as part of the Kingdom of God.

These are only the Issues. The way of dealing with them pastorally requires a lot of prayer, charity, discussion, patience and listening.

Part Three 

1. As I was writing this, I thought, why don’t I just leave this out - let other people deal with it. But these ISSUES are as raw and painful as the experience of Peter and Andrew, James and John, Thomas and Matthew and the other Apostles.

Now the Apostles are dealing with their own doubts, their own betrayal, their own denial, their own abandonment of the Lord. Later on they will deal with Issues that faced the Whole Church community.

2. Issues or Problems do not die out in the church. There are two things we must avoid in facing these ISSUES or problems as some would call them.

We do have teachings in our church, which have been carefully hammered out through the ages.

• We cannot just throw all these out because the recent survey says that the language is out of date. 
• We cannot just throw all these out just to accommodate people.

On the other side of the Balance, we cannot be a Fortress Church. That means we build a moat around and keep “those people” out who do not fit into the teachings and traditions.

Neither side has the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.

3. And through it all, there would be the Command of Love - there would be Jesus who would be with us through the good times and the bad. And the Church would survive.

 Mike and Barbara McManus who together with Heather and Lucy - do all the work to keep the Daily Mass and our Reflections going, tell me that about 60,000 people listen to this programme. I would dare say that from Bona Vista to Princess Charlotte Islands  20,000 of you are Seniors.   Many have not gone out of your homes during the Winter. You are the FAITHFUL, but often FORGOTTEN people in our Church. If it were not for you, - we would not have the Daily Mass televised across our Land . It is your prayers and your sacrifices that give us the determination, the courage, and the spark to us priests who celebrate for you each day.

4. And so we have only JUST BEGUN. The command given to the Apostles after the Ascension, “Go out to the whole world and preach the Good news” in Acts chapter one verse eight is a challenge as fresh today as it was 2000 years ago.

•  We still have to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, and preach the good news to the poor.
• We still have to carry our cross daily
• we still have to cast our demons and do this with prayer and fasting

• 5. We do our small bit in Building the Kingdom of God which only God can do.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our possibilities.

The Kingdom is always beyond us, because nothing we do is complete.

Nothing we say has the total truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

No prayer fully expresses the desires of our heart

No action can lead others to restful waters to revive their spirit.

No mission statement can include the whole charism of the Kingdom.

Knowing this is a Freedom.

It tells me that my work, my effort is incomplete

But at least I have begun

I have taken the first step

Now God’s grace will enter and bring it to Fulfilment

in God’s own Time, and according to God’s own Plan.

Others sow, we reap. We sow, but never see a harvest.

God is the Master Builder, we are instruments of his peace.

We are to speak God’s word,

even though we do not fully grasp it,

even though we compromise it at times,

even though we interpret it according to our limited abilities.

WE HAVE ONLY JUST BEGUN