Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, May 29, 2022 / Categories: Blog, Homilies A Community of Witnesses Homily for the Ascension of the Lord, Year C Thursday’s Wall Street Journal had it right: The emerging profile of Salvador Ramos, the eighteen-year-old who murdered nineteen children and two teachers and wounded seventeen others last week, is depressingly familiar.[1] An angry teenaged loner, bullied as a child, exhibiting anti-social behavior, and showing signs of undiagnosed mental illness, Salvador is frighteningly similar to the killers involved in the Sandy Hook, Aurora, Parkland, Tucson, Virginia Tech, and Buffalo mass shootings. Young people like Salvador live tortured lives on the margins of society until they snap. They only become the center of our attention after they leave a horrific wake of innocent victims behind them, and our children terrified. This chilling reality reflects a social and cultural breakdown caused, in part, by our failure to be the Community of Witnesses Jesus calls us to be in today’s readings. Our first reading and our Gospel tell the story of Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven, the Solemnity we celebrate today. In both passages, Jesus instructs his followers to stay together in Jerusalem where they’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift that will empower them to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. In short, Jesus tells them that they’ll become a Community of Witnesses, a Church. Through baptism and confirmation, every one of us is clothed with power from on high to be Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth.[2] Jesus Christ, God’s Word made flesh, made his dwelling among us, but from his Ascension on, “what others will know about that event depends on whether or not some witness is willing to testify.”[3] The saving Word of God reaches God’s people through encounters with credible witnesses, witnesses who make Christ present and alive to us today. To make Christ present, our testimony can’t be cloaked in flowery or hoity toity language that presents a utopia that no one can understand or relate to. It can’t be scolding or demanding. It has to be inviting and real. Credible witnesses tell of their encounters with Christ in the very real circumstances of their lives—their joys and their sorrows, their victories and their defeats, their moments of great fulfillment and their periods of profound emptiness. Credible witnesses convince us that Jesus Christ is with us until the end of the age, loving us through every aspect of our lives. God’s message to all humanity is uplifting and empowering, so much so that people who are active in a church community are happier, healthier, and more socially engaged than those who aren’t.[4] But no one will ever hear this message, no one will ever know, if we don’t bear witness to it, if we don’t share our encounters with Christ and live as he taught us to live. Today, however, the number of willing witnesses seems to be dwindling. Church attendance and the number of baptisms, church weddings, and vocations are in steady decline. Fervent religious belief is often viewed with suspicion, we’re prohibited from talking about religion at work and in our schools, and many who express their faith publicly are met with scorn, ridicule, and even violence. So we shut up. We keep our beliefs to ourselves. We live and let live. We become selfish and withdrawn. We fail to be community, we fail to be Christ’s witnesses, and we all suffer for it. Worst of all, the people who need our help the most are left to tough it out alone. Many can’t, so they turn to drugs and alcohol for illusory comfort, to unspeakable violence to release their pent-up anger, and to suicide to end their pain. This national problem is our problem, too: mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicides have increased dramatically among young people right here in Hunterdon County. We may be sitting on a powder keg. The dire complexity of today’s situation cries out for a Community of Witnesses to the love we receive and share in Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t create the Church to be locked up forever in the Upper Room, to stare slack-jawed at the sky while we wait for him to return and fix everything for us. He gave the Church a worldwide mission to announce that the days of sorrow are past and to carry God’s love to all. He gave us a mission to live as a Community of Witnesses. + We live as a Community of Witnesses when we share the stories of our encounters with Jesus Christ with our children, families, and friends, and when we invite, encourage, and maybe even nag them to come to Church and participate in faith-based activities. + We live as a Community of Witnesses when we actively seek out the lonely and the marginalized among us and welcome them with open arms into our lives. + We live as a Community of Witnesses when we identify the troubled people among us, speak up, and get them the help they desperately need. + And yes, we live as a Community of Witnesses when we engage in thoughtful, respectful, and peaceful dialogue about how to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. We’ll know that we’re a Community of Witnesses when people see the Church as an inviting, loving, faith-filled community and say, “I need to be part of that.” Allow me, then, to extend a few invitations. First, if you’re lonely, depressed, marginalized, bullied, or suffering in any way, please come talk with us. Fr. Chester, Bishop Paul, Deacon Dennis, and I are here to listen and help as best we can. Second, I encourage our ministries and Church groups to consider how Saint Catherine’s can be a more inviting, welcoming Community of Witnesses. Third, I challenge all of us, to share our encounters with Jesus unabashedly, to live openly as Jesus taught us to live, to be Christ’s Witnesses to the ends of the earth. Believe it or not, I had hoped to give a lighter homily today, but our present reality precluded it. Just a few years ago, my daughter confided in me that she didn’t want to go to Church anymore because she was afraid that she’d see me get shot during Mass. This is our sad reality: too many young people are lashing out violently in response to their pain, and our children are justifiably afraid to go to school, to the supermarket, and even to Church. Our reality has to change. Our reality cries out for God’s love to be carried to the ends of the earth. Our reality begs us to be the Community of Witnesses Jesus calls us to be. Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24:46-53 [1] “Young Men, Guns and Guardrails,” The Wall Street Journal, 279, no. 122 (May 26, 2022), A15. [2] Catechism of the Catholic Church 1304. [3] Carl Michalson, “Communicating the Gospel,” in The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present, ed. Richard Lischer (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2002), 39. [4] Pew Research Center, Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement, and Health Around the World (Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2019), 5. Divine Mercy Cien Años de Amor/One Hundred Years of Love Print 442 Please login or register to post comments.