April 9, 2018
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Year C) on April 7, 2013, at then-Blessed John XXIII Parish in Knoxville, TN. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118; Revelation 1:9-19; John 20:19-31.
One of our parishioners treated me to pizza and beer on Monday. We had a great time, and he paid me a very high compliment: he recalled a homily I gave last year, and he even quoted portions of it!
Unfortunately, it was exactly the wrong week for me to hear him quote that particular homily. Today is the first Sunday that I am preaching on a set of readings that many of you heard me preach on a year ago. And you guessed it, Michael remembers exactly what I preached last year on this very weekend.
So, if you weren’t here last year, or you don’t have the memory of Michael, here’s a quick summary of what I said:
- Thomas the apostle gets a bad ‘rap’ by many Christians.
- He’s called “doubting” Thomas, although everyone in the gospel resurrection stories does exactly what he does: they don’t believe it until they see it.
- Doubt is not the opposite of of faith. Doubt is part of having faith.
- The opposite of faith is certainty. And faith isn’t science!
So, let’s chew on that as we receive the Word of God once again. Hopefully, we’ll tease out some additional nuances in today’s homily!
But let us first take a moment to realize how blessed are we who have not seen, to still have received the gift of faith.
Every summer, the Paulist seminarians spend 2-3 weeks at the Paulist summer vacation home at Lake George, NY. For the last 140 years, practically every Paulist has spent time up there enjoying the scenery and recharging his spiritual batteries.
Four summers ago, I was sitting in the student common room at Lake George, when Fr. Paul Huesing burst into the room and said to me, “You’ve GOT to listen to this CD!” Since there was no CD player available, we hopped in his car and drove part way around the lake, listening to an album by the contemporary folk singer Susan Werner. Well, Susan Werner is actually more than a folk singer. Since 2004, she’s recorded 5 albums that have taken significant departures from her folk-style origins.
And the CD we were listening to was one of those. It’s called The Gospel Truth. Yes, there is some gospel-style music on the CD, but what’s especially marvelous is the content of the lyrics. She takes a critical look at issues of religion and spirituality in our day and age. Both Paul and I felt that the CD spoke to issues at the heart of the Paulist mission of evangelization, reconciliation, and ecumenical dialogue.
The first track challenges Christians who are quick to condemn others:
If God is great and God is good,
Why is your heaven so small?– Susan Werner, “(Why Is Your) Heaven So Small”
Another track speaks of her own sins of omission:
When I let things stand that should not be,
My Lord did trouble me.– Susan Werner, “Did Trouble Me”
On yet another track, she speaks of the bewildering nature of prayer:
I closed my eyes and tried to pray,
but a voice spoke loud and clear:
“You ask too many questions, dear.”
And I said, “You ask too few.”
That’s why I still don’t know quite what to do.”– Susan Werner, “Sunday Mornings”
Now those three songs are ballads, but her upbeat songs are even catchier. This next song speaks about what we are to do with the blessings and gifts we’ve received from God. Whenever I listen to this song, I can’t help but hear a connection between social justice and the Eucharist:
‘Cause I got it to give; I got it to give.
And when you got enough to give away,
Well, it’s the only way to live.– Susan Werner, “Help Somebody”
And here’s her humorous revision of the Our Father, taking aim at preachers, the role of women in the Church, and certain kinds of government officials. She asks God to deliver us from our contemporary evils:
Lord, deliver us from politicians
Who drop Your name in every speech
As if they’re Your best friend from high school
As if they practice what they preach.– Susan Werner, “Our Father (The New, Revised Version)”
And here’s one that speaks to our gospel passage today, about the virtue of doubt:
Think of that Easter Day
When they rolled the stone away
And the apostles said they’d seen Jesus by the city wall
Well, Saint Thomas’ heart pure
When he said, “Oh, right. Yeah, sure.”
That’s why Saint Tom was the grooviest apostle of all.– Susan Werner, “Probably Not”
I think you can tell how much Fr. Paul and I love this CD. Here’s the thing that may surprise you: Susan Werner calls herself “an evangelical agnostic.” She questions the existence of God, but she’s willing to proclaim her doubt far and wide.
Maybe that makes us uncomfortable. Should we mix with those people who question our faith? In the past few months, I’ve had a number of students in my office – sometimes on the verge of tears – who are panicked by their classmates questioning their Catholic beliefs. And I tell these students that it’s high time they start asking questions about their faith themselves. By the time we’re in college, it’s time to appropriate the faith for ourselves. We can’t just believe what our parents told us to believe! As long as other people are asking questions about our beliefs in a caring, curious way, not with the idea of proving themselves right and us wrong, it’s an opportunity for growth. It’s one of the best opportunities about going to college! And it’s perfectly OK to say to someone asking us questions, “I don’t know. Can I get back to you on that?”
Our faith can grow only by exploring what we believe. The scary part, of course, is that if we ask questions, we have to be open to the possibility of what we’ve believed previously was too simplistic or it was plain-out wrong.
So, if you have doubts about your beliefs, that’s OK. We here are Blessed John XXIII Parish are here to help people live “in the questions” just as much as we’re here to help people find the answers. In that way, we’re like the disciples during the first week of Easter: we welcome people like Thomas who have doubts about Christianity.
Some people would say that our goal in life as Christians is to get to heaven. I think that’s an overly individualistic perspective: Christ calls us to share our faith with others. And we can only share if we’re willing to sit with the doubts and “in the questions” that other people may have. I think our friend Susan Werner puts it well:
I’m going to heaven; what do I do?
I’m going to heaven; what do I do?I’m going to heaven; what do I do now?
Go out and help somebody –
– Go out and help somebody –
– Go out and help somebody get to heaven, too!– Susan Werner, “Help Somebody”
“Help Somebody” by Susan Werner, from The Gospel Truth: