“Welcome
Bishop Mack—Congratulations Confirmation Candidates.”
Earlier
this year, I was invited by the chief to offer the invocation at their annual
awards dinner. I could see by their faces, the men were eyeing each other and
said they’ll have to watch their language and off color jokes. Priests don’t
mind this stuff. You expect these awkward invitations.
At this
dinner, someone spotted me and asked point blank “Why the hell are you wasting
your time in that stupid church? I finally wised up and got out.”
He
goes on to spout the familiar litany of all that is wrong with religion in
general and the Catholic church in particular: the Inquisition, the Crusades,
the bad popes, sinister bishops, Vatican conspiracies, the clerical sex
scandal, the degradation of women, dull Masses, lousy sermons, money-grabbing
clerics, and so on. As I recall, the church was blamed for our six months of
winter.
Of
course, I am familiar with the litany of accusations. The church had and does
have many problems and too often it’s a dysfunctional family. So why stay, why
put up with such misery? Why? Because of Jesus’ words in the gospel. “I will
give you another Advocate to be with you always.”
On
their Confirmation, Emily, Grace, Zac and Nick received the Holy Spirit of
Pentecost and that makes all the difference. Jesus promised to be with us no
matter what we may be like on any given day, when we’re good and when we’re
were bad; when we’re heroic and when we’re cowardly; when we’re faithful and
when we’re not.
Now
you can choose to believe or not to believe in this presence of the Holy
Spirit. If you choose not to believe you can checklist the church’s problems
and walk away in disgust. But if you choose to believe then you must look not
only for signs of church failure, but also for the signs of the life giving
spirit.
I was
the unofficial photographer for our Confirmation Service, and I believe that I
captured a glimpse of the life giving Spirit as He came into the hearts of our
candidates. Take a close look at this sacred moment and ask yourself: “Where is
Jesus present in your life?”
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and
especially proud of our young people who gave us at Holy Family a glimpse of
being refreshed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
