There are 36 men and women who have been designated as Doctors of the Church, a very select group. A person is designated by the Pope as a Doctor of the Church for having lived an exemplary holy life of faith and for their preaching, writings, and teachings that have deepened the Church’s understanding of the Catholic faith. One such Doctor of the Church is St John Chrysostom. Though he once spent six years living in a cave in the desert as a hermit in the 4th century, he eventually became the Archbishop of Constantinople, one of the main centers of Christianity in the Early Church. John lived a very austere life. Social justice was a main theme in his preaching and in the way he lived out his life of faith. When he preached against the depravities and extravagance of the Emperor Arcadius and the Empress Eudoxia, he was summoned before the Emperor, threatened with banishment and exile. John responded to the Emperor: “You cannot banish me, for the world is my Father’s house.” The Emperor angrily replied: “Then I will kill you!” “No, you cannot,” John replied back, “because my life is with Christ in God.” “Then I will confiscate your treasures,” threatened the Emperor. “Sir, you do not have the power to do that, because my treasures are in heaven, as my heart is in heaven as well,” said John. “Then I will drive you from your people and you shall have no friends left,” shouted back the Emperor. “That you cannot do either, Sir, for Christ, my friend in heaven has said to me: ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ I will never be without his friendship.” John’s dialogue with the Emperor illustrates what is communicated to us in the Gospel today: Christ is indeed the way, the truth, and the life. The life that we have in Christ cannot be taken away from us by any man, for Christ has prepared a dwelling place for us.
As we reflect upon the significance of the risen Christ in our lives of faith in our readings during the Easter season, we see how the Early Church responded to the reality that faced the growing Christian community. The Christian community tried to emulate Christ’s example of love and service when they realized that some members of their community were being discriminated against and not having their basic needs met, so the Early Church established the office of deacon as a ministry of service in order to help meet the needs of the people. Throughout our Church’s history, we have responded to the needs and the reality around us by developing different offices of service and social institutions that would provide outreach. In service, in word, and in sacrament, the Church is the Body of Christ here on earth, Christ’s presence here on earth.
Today, as we commemorate the 5th Sunday of the Easter season, as we celebrate the presence of the risen Christ in our lives, I want to point out three other things that we are celebrating this weekend as well.
First, May is the month of Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ and the beloved Mother of our Church. We have the tradition of the May crowning in our Church, in which we honor Mary as the Mother of Christ, as the first disciple, as the one who always points us to the Son and brings us closer to the Son. Mary is always there to lead us and guide us and give us advice. As I think about the children and youth of our parish, Mary is the best example of humble love and service that we can give them as we all grow together in our faith.
Secondly, we celebrate Mother’s Day today. Way back in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day to be the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in the United States to honor mothers. If we look back to how the faith is passed down in the Church, Mothers often have a very central role in the formation of our faith, just as we can say that Mary had a central role in the way Jesus was brought up in his Jewish faith. We honor all different types of Mothers today. In a special way we honor the Mothers of our families, but also those who have been mothers to us in our lives in different ways. Often those who serve in the role of mother to us in our lives have given us simple words of wisdom and encouragement, no matter where we are on our journey, no matter what challenges or problems we are facing. Today, we are giving out to our mothers a book about the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, written by Father Leo Maasburg, a priest who was a close friend and spiritual advisor to Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa not only taught us by her actions of love and charity, but also by her simple words of wisdom and advice. One of her practical sayings that is the advice the many of our mothers gives us states that you are called to “spread love everywhere you go, (to) let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”
That brings us to our high school graduates today, the third things we are commemorating on this 5th Sunday of the Easter season. Graduating from high school is one of the milestones in our lives, a move from the years of our youth into adulthood. We celebrate with our graduates with great joy today. We hope that all of you graduates take with you all of the experiences and memories that they have had at our parish of St James, that they inspire and encourage these graduates every step of the way on their journey. And we never know where that journey may take us. I thought of St John Chrysostom, whom I mentioned at the beginning of this homily. At the age that all of you are graduating high school, he was not even a baptized Christian, but eventually found himself chosen as the Archbishop of Constantinople, one of the main centers of Christianity in the Ancient World. It was the hope and promise of his faith that propelled his life of true discipleship and service to Christ and his Church. Pope Benedict, in his encyclical Spe Salvi (Saved by hope), quotes St Paul, by proclaiming, “in hope we were saved.” Indeed, the message we receive in the Easter season is a message of redemption and salvation and hope. Pope Benedict goes on to say: “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life." Graduates, we hope you take a message of hope and encouragement with you today from your home parish of St James, a hope of love and good will. Mike Piazza, a major league baseball player who was inducted into the baseball hall of fame last year, who almost was not drafted by a major league team if it were not for his family friend, baseball coach Tommy Lasorda, quoted these words of hope from Pope Benedict when he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame. He said that the Catholic faith that his mother instilled in him taught him patience, compassion, and hope, getting him through the difficult times in his life, in the struggles and discouragement he felt as a young baseball player when very few baseball professional believed in him and his abilities. With your Catholic faith, you will be able to endure the difficult and challenging moments that will confront you on your journey of faith. You will have a base foundation and a Christian family to count on when you need help. You will have the Lord and the community of saints and your life grounded in prayer as a comfort and encouragement to you. With the risen Christ, with the community of saints, with the inspiring story of those first Christian disciples, we celebrate our Mothers and our graduates today. Our faith, our hope, and our love go out to you, our graduates and our Mothers, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
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