It's our turn

At our parish, the wives of deacons preach on Mother's Day weekend.  Here is what my wife Therese preached earlier today.

In March of this year, a dreadful thing happened:  my boss gave her 2 weeks’ notice.  The allure of working only 40 hours a week and a bigger paycheck became too much for her, and she decided to leave us.  This was really bad news for my team, because we really loved our boss.  She knew EVERYTHING.  In my job, we work with data and a very complex system of computer software, and she always knew whether if you wiggled a piece of data over here, whether you would get a big fat mess coming out over there.  She was very assertive, and if you were in a meeting with her, you knew who would be doing most of the talking.  She was also very protective of our team, and she would fight for our promotions, for our raises, for our reputations, for whatever we needed.  How in the world were we supposed to continue, with Phuong gone?

It would be great to say that the transition has been a piece of cake, that we never missed a beat, that we’re going strong, but that’s not completely true.  Trying to serve our clients, to meet our deliverables, to keep our systems functioning smoothly has been hard work.  There have been long hours, mistakes, tears, and at least one ulcer.  But the team is doing it, and every challenge is an opportunity for us to learn and to grow and become stronger than we were before.  The work goes on.

We all have moments in our life when it’s time for us to do something under our own power, when it’s our turn.  The moment when our parent lets go of the bike, and we keep ourselves balanced, pedaling under our own power.  The time we are dropped off at our dorm, and we get to figure out our college life on our own.  The time we bring our first child home, and we get to learn how to care for and nurture a precious human being.  These are all hard, and there can be long hours, mistakes, and tears.  But all these moments are challenges and opportunities, and we all learn and grow and become stronger than we were before.

Today is the feast of the Ascension.  That was a big moment for the Apostles.  Jesus left them and let go, and it was their turn to go out and proclaim the Gospel to every creature, and they did it.  I’m sure there were long hours, mistakes, and maybe even tears, but the fact that we are here in this church today is evidence that they faced their challenges and opportunities and they were successful.

Of course, the apostles are gone now too, and a succession of countless other disciples have faced their moment and passed on the good news for almost 2000 years.  The work goes on.  We here today are the current future of the church.  This is our moment.  If people 2000 years from now are going to know the Gospel, we must proclaim it today.  God, who is infinitely wise, all-knowing, all-powerful has entrusted this extremely important mission to each of us here.

Now if you think about that for a minute, you might think maybe God is not so wise after all.  What can I do?  I’m too young, too old, too poor, too busy, etc., etc., etc.  You can think of a lot of reasons why you can’t do this mission.  However, God doesn’t look at you and see what you ARE NOT, He sees what you ARE.  You are funny, you are cute, you are handy, you can sew, you can run a meeting, you have a dollar in your pocket.  You are gifted.  God knows, because he gave you those gifts.  In today’s second reading, Paul reminds us that God gave us what we need “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ”.  If you are feeling that calling to do more, don’t look at what you don’t have, look at the many gifts that you do have, and figure out how to use those to continue the mission.

There are a couple important gifts that we all have as we take up our mission to continue the work to spread the Gospel.  One is God, who is right there with us, every step of the way.  In the gospel, Mark writes “They went forth and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.”  Whenever you are working for God, He is right there working right beside you.  You are not alone.  You have a very powerful ally who is there to help you.  Think of all the crazy things Jesus said in the gospel.  Driving out demons!  Picking up serpents!  Drinking deadly things!  First of all, don’t try this at home.  However, when we are working for God, working on spreading His good news, we have the power of God backing us up.  How can we lack anything, if we had God?

The other important gift we have is each other.  Each of us here can help one another as they struggle through the challenges they meet and they work to fulfill their part in the mission.  Each of us here has been given people in our lives to support us, to love us, to help us.  And each of us here is a gift given to someone else, to support them, to love them, to help them. 

I want to close by paraphrasing the Paul’s words to the Ephesians, which give us direction in how to start.  Please live with humility, with gentleness, with patience.  Please treat each other with love.  Finally, please share all the many gifts you have to help our poor world know the Good News.  The mission that has been entrusted to us is a big one and an important one, and God in His great Wisdom has given us what we need to do it.