Light-filled presence

 This is my homily for this weekend just past, the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle C.  The readings for Sunday are here.  

This homily was given in my hometown in Michigan.  My aunt and uncle celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past weekend, and arranged with the pastor of their parish for me to be present as deacon and preach at the parish's Saturday evening mass.

Thank you, Fr. Tim, for allowing me to serve as a deacon this evening.  As Fr. Tim mentioned, my name is Jim Pauwels.  I’m a deacon of the Chicago Archdiocese.  I live in Arlington Heights, IL, a suburb of Chicago.  My wife Therese is here this evening, and so is one of my four adult children.  And so are my parents, one of my brothers and his family, cousins of various degrees, and other relatives, and one very special couple whose 50th wedding anniversary is being celebrated tonight: my uncle and aunt, Joe and Judy Wolfe.

Even though I’ve lived in Illinois since my freshman year of high school, I’m a native of Jackson.  I went to grade school at St. John’s where, in 5th grade, one of my teachers was Miss Margul – Judy Margul.   The summer after 5th grade, Miss Margul married my uncle Joe, and became Mrs. Wolfe.  Mrs. Wolfe – Judy Wolfe -  was my home room teacher in sixth grade.  So that school year, my teacher was also my aunt.  Now, you might think that a teacher would give her nephew special, favorable treatment in the classroom – I know I was hoping that would be the case.  Nope.  Mrs. Wolfe didn’t have a high level of tolerance for nonsense from her students, and my nonsense wasn’t granted a family exemption.  She treated me just like any other student – which means that she held me to the same high standards and expectations to which she held all her students; and she took care to form me and all my classmates in our Catholic faith.   

I’ve spent many years in the classroom, including a few years as a teacher, and I’ve never completely understood what it is that separates the average teachers from the really good ones.  There is an art to teaching that can’t be fully explained.  But however it is done, a good teacher can make a tremendous difference in a student’s life.  A good teacher is like a light-filled vessel, like the transfigured Jesus in tonight’s Gospel reading, enlightening the students in her classroom, opening our eyes and our minds to the wondrous world which God has created.   Aunt Judy, I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for being such a great teacher, so let me do it now: thank you!  

Our Gospel reading on this 2nd Sunday of Lent is the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus.  It’s such an interesting story, isn’t it?  It’s so strange and dream-like – and in fact the apostles are asleep when things begin to change, there on the mountaintop.  When they wake up, it’s as though they’ve awakened to a different reality – a higher, better reality.  Jesus seems like a different guy than the teacher his pupils thought they knew.  The man whose appearance had been ordinary until now, suddenly was filled with light.  

Which one is the real Jesus – the man these disciples had followed as master, the man who needed to eat and sleep like the rest of us?  Or this exalted, light-filled being on the mountaintop whom God identified as his chosen son?  Which one is the real one?  Well, Jesus is both: he’s a man, and he’s God.  He’s God become man.  He’s this mystical, light-filled vision the apostles see on the mountaintop – that’s a glimpse of who Jesus really is.  But he’s also the human being who stirs up trouble for the ruthless authorities of his time and place by telling the truth, and who will therefore be arrested, beaten, tortured and then put to death.  That’s also a glimpse of who Jesus really is.  The reality of Jesus is that he’s both these things: he’s fully human, and he’s also fully divine.  In the Transfiguration both of those natures seem to be revealed on that sacred mountaintop, where earth rises up to meet heaven.  Peter, James and John are given a privileged glimpse into the fullness of the reality of Jesus.

When Uncle Joe and Aunt Judy called me to invite me to be here this evening, they mentioned that the Gospel story for this evening would be the story of the Transfiguration.  And my Uncle Joe, who has been helping me my entire life, couldn’t resist trying to help me with my homily.  He suggested I explain to you all that, when he married Judy, he transfigured her life.  He was kidding, but he wasn’t wrong.  Marriage can do that to the spouses.  The best marriages bring out goodness in the spouses – sometimes goodness that they didn’t even know they had.  A good marriage can bring some of our hidden depths and gifts into the light.  That’s how it’s been in my own marriage with Therese – she makes me a better person.  And I would say the same about Joe and Judy – they bring out the goodness in one another.

And there’s more: the best marriages do more than transform the spouses – they transform all of us.  A good and holy marriage is light-filled witness to the children, the extended family, the community and the world.  The best marriages give us a glimpse of God’s presence in our lives.  The best marriages are fountains which pour out love into the world.  They give us an idea of how much God must love us.  Joe and Judy, I think your children and grandchildren, and this community, would agree that that’s exactly how your marriage is.  

A good marriage expresses its love in service, to the family and the wider world.  That word “service” should ring a bell for anyone who knows Joe and Judy.  Their devotion to their daughters is amazing.  When the girls were living at home, the mileage Joe and Judy logged for their kids’ soccer and basketball games must have been in the hundreds of thousands.  More recently, Joe and Judy have been driving all over the state of Michigan and now Ohio, and for a few years traveling to Utah, to be a light-filled presence in the lives of their daughters, their sons-in-law and their grandchildren.  The time, talent and treasure they’ve given to the Jackson Catholic schools is similarly bountiful.  And they’ve served this local community in so many ways.  Even their professional lives, Judy as a teacher and librarian, and Joe as an insurance underwriter, have been geared toward helping and supporting the people in the community.  Your lives have been lives rooted in service, and that service flows from love.

Good and holy marriages, lived this way, are like the stained glass windows of this magnificent church – they are translucent, illuminating and improving everything around them.  

Joe and Judy, as you go beyond this 50 year milestone in your lives together, I offer you my prayer that you continue to transfigure one another, and the rest of us, by your love for, and service to, one another, our extended family, St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish, and the Jackson community.