May 17, 2015
The Ascension - Saints
Mark 16:15-20- The readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
A little over a week ago I saw a post on Facebook… it
said “What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?” The kindness
of strangers was inspiring… some took effort, one person told a story about the
kindness of a stranger on the street that stopped in his tracks and came over
and helped them lift a couch up through four stories of fire escapes to their
new apartment, some were very simple acts like a hug in an ER waiting room, or
the sharing of an umbrella at a bus stop, others took bearing discomfort: one stranger
helped someone else shovel their car out of the snow… obviously, this didn’t happen in San Diego… many did happen
in foreign lands though, stories of strangers that were helped out with
directions, rides to hotels and airports, and even temporary lodging while they
were traveling. Still yet other people had amazing stories of shortcomings, all
overcome by God’s grace of providing our needs through the kindness of a
variety of unrelated strangers.
You may remember just last week the Gospel reading was
about God’s commandment to Love one another. A commandment, whether
acknowledged or not, is being lived out by these kind strangers. These
strangers, by living out this commandment to love one another, are conforming
themselves more perfectly to God’s will.
In this week’s readings, The Ascension, we see the
perfect example, of living out God’s will. We see Jesus’ life, after living it out
sinlessly in constant unison with His Father’s will, coming to its earthly end,
as he ascends into heaven in body and soul to join God the Father for all
eternity.
But let’s face it, it’s not in our nature to be sinless
like Christ was sinless, we have a characteristic known to the church as
concupiscence, an effect of original sin, it is our unavoidable desire to sin
that dwells within our broken spirit.
But
while we may have a desire to sin, we also have a God given desire to please
our creator, to love Him, who is love. And so it is, as we live our lives in a
constant struggle, between our desire to sin and our desire to please God, a
struggle that has been lived out by every person beginning with Adam and Eve,
and on through the ages.
Many
have failed to live out a life pleasing to God, so much so that we have seen
God in a way hit the reset switch, to start over, as he did in Noah’s day, when
all men were living evil corrupt lives except for Noah, who found favor with
God. After guiding Noah to prepare for the flood, God flooded the earth,
washing away all of his creation. It was from Noah and his family, and the
animals on the Ark that God’s creations continued.
But
the Church recognizes that there have been others, many others since Noah, that
have found favor with God. In the Old Testament we can look at the prophet Elijah,
taken up to heaven without dying, and Moses who certainly lived out his life
trying to follow God’s will. Both appeared with Jesus at the Transfiguration.
But
since the beginning of New Testament, since Jesus was incarnate of the Virgin
Mary, and became man and died for our sins, many have been recognized as holy,
or Sanctus in Latin, the root of the word Saint. Saints come in many forms:
there are Arch-Angels, like Saints Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael. There have
also been many Popes that have been recognized as Saints, even as recently as
Saint John Paul II. Other saints are Martyrs, those that have died in defense
of our faith, like eleven of the Apostles, including Saint James, Stephen,
Peter, Paul, all gave their life during the attempt to eliminate early
Christianity, all gave their life because of their undeterred belief that Jesus
was the Messiah, and there are other martyrs like the Franciscan Friar, Saint Maximillian
Kolbe, who gave his life in place of a stranger that was about to be executed
in the German death camp Auschwitz during the holocaust of WWII, all gave their
life because of their belief in Jesus, and in doing so encouraged the faith of
others, and Martyrdom continues throughout the world today with more than
100,000 giving their lives each year because of their faith in Jesus… And
governments, and militia intolerant of that faith. Another type of saint, are the Doctors of the
Church, like Saints Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Leo-the-great. These Saints
helped us understand better the Word of God, and how to live our life pleasing
God.
But
I think the most important saints, are those that we can relate to, those
saints that have similarities to our own lives, saints that lived the struggle
with concupiscence in their everyday life just like you and I, saints that we
can model ourselves after, to achieve holiness. It could be someone that lived
a holy life from a very young age like Saint Therese of Lisieux, or someone
that lived a less than holy life
until a moment of conversion, having experienced a reset, if you will, in their
adulthood, making a sudden change in their life toward God, like the Apostle
Saint Paul, or the saint that is the namesake of our current Pope: Saint
Francis of Assisi who after his conversion, established a religious order to
serve the poor after living a life in pursuit of pleasures in his youth
No
matter which Saint we look at, we can find some quality in their life that if
we incorporated that quality into our life, it would make us holier. Would make
us more pleasing to God. Would make use more saintly. I know it is hard to
imagine ourselves as saints, but when we live our lives one saintly action at a
time, when we live our lives - loving, fulfilling God’s commandment to love one
another, we are indeed behaving saintly. When we lift a strangers couch four
stories, when we share an umbrella with a stranger at the bus stop, if we,
heaven forbid, ever have to give our life for another, we take a step closer to
our own canonization.
When
we look at the kindness of Jesus, living a sinless life, deserving of no
punishment, but dying on the cross for OUR sins, ultimately, the nicest most
loving thing someone has done for us, and we look at how he has been raised up
to heaven, bridging that infinite gap between our earthly lives and God’s
divinity, once again, offering mankind an opportunity to reset our relationship
with God the father, we have the perfect example of giving of ourselves for
others.
Perhaps
if our life hasn’t been worthy of being a saintly example to others, that today
might be a day of reset, today might be a day of restarting to a right
relationship with God and each other. And my hope for you, is that when someone
is asked “What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?” they will
talk about a time that they were lovingly helped by you.
