THOMAS MERTON QUOTE

"We should let ourselves be brought naked and defenceless into the center of dread when we stand alone before God in our nothingness without explanation, without theories, completely dependent on His providential care, in dire need of his gift of grace, his mercy, and the light of faith... True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace." from Contemplative Prayer, 1973

SERMON: ON THE ASCENSION OF JESUS

The Ascension of Jesus caps the end of a roller coaster ride for the
disciples.

They went from humble fisherman, to friends and followers of the
Messiah.

Then when He went to the cross, they too faced persecution and fear, not
knowing what was next.

And then, in the midst of their terror, Jesus does the unthinkable and
returns from the dead... only to say goodbye once again, as he
disappears into the heavens, leaving them speechless, staring at the
sky.

We too know what its like to have the rug pulled from under us, for
things to suddenly change in the blink of an eye.

A friend came to me the other day, eyes filled with tears saying she
went to the doctor just for an routine exam and they found 'a lump'...

I work with soldiers and sailors still young and strong, but who never
would have guessed that PTSD would be ravaging their careers, their
marriages, their lives....

Or that family near Montreal, who one minute are cheering for the Habs
in their living room, and the next minute they're all dead, house swept
away in a landslide...

As much as we try to fight uncertainty through insurance policies, house
alarms, healthy eating and exercise, visits to the doctor; the fact
remains we're all so vulnerable to forces outside our control. That's
just the nature of reality.

People who are critical of faith often say that religion is just a
crutch, a coping mechanism or a security blanket to protect us from the
chaos of life.

But that couldn't be more false. We don't approach God like a magic
lantern, whom we rub to receive wishes. The cross is not an amulet, a
lucky charm to protect us against misfortune.

In fact, as Christians we accept that sometimes we MUST bear our cross, and that the challenges of life can build us up spiritually.

But to make it even more confusing, sometimes we may not even know that
our blessings can come in the form of misfortune.

A story that I love that illustrates this involves a farmer who had a
fine stallion that one day escaped and ran off. The farmer's neighbours
commiserated with him. "What bad luck you have," they said sadly. But
the farmer responded, "Who really knows? It could be bad. But it could
also be good."

Sure enough, the very next day, the stallion returned followed by twelve
wild and healthy young steeds. "How fortunate you are!" exclaimed the
neighbours. "Who knows," countered the farmer to his neighbours'
surprise, "if it is good fortune or not?"

Not long after, the farmer's strapping son attempted to break one of the
wild horses when he tumbled and shattered his leg. "How unlucky you
are!" exclaimed the neighbours. The farmer shrugged his shoulders and
asked again, "Who knows if it is bad luck or good?"

Later, the king's soldiers arrived, recruiting young men for battle and
war in far-off lands, but they quickly passed over the farmer's son with
the bad leg. "How very lucky you are," said the amazed neighbors as the
old man muttered once again, "Who knows? Maybe it is good, maybe it is
bad."

Good or bad? Who can say?

So given all of this, how do we orient ourselves spiritually? How do we
approach God?

Do we pray for a perfect life, that no harm will come our way, or to our
loved ones? Or perhaps we should pray that bad stuff happens to us, but
only bad stuff that we can learn a lesson from?

To help us with this question, let's turn to Paul. In his Letter to the
Hebrews, he writes;

"...since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach
with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let
us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who
made the promise is trustworthy" (Heb 10:19-23)

Paul's underlying point is this; that no matter what life may throw our
way, be it good or bad, that we may be spiritually prepared by trusting
in God and approaching Him with a clean heart.

I'm not saying to stop praying for our daily bread and for deliverance
from evil; I'm saying to balance our intentions by also asking, Have we
been honest with God about ourselves? Do we find ways to justify things
we do when we should really be asking for forgiveness? Do we treat God
like Santa Clause, asking for all kinds of things when we should really be
asking for help to be more loving, more giving, or more patient?

And finally, though life is filled with ups and downs, do we trust the words the Angels said to the disciples? "Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking at the sky? Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will return the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

So let us pray that God may renew and strengthen our faith, that the drama of our lives--with all its joy and sorrow--unfolds within the arms of our loving Creator, who in the end will mend every wound, right every wrong, and wipe away every tear.

Quote from "HOME", by Marilynne Robinson

"For her, church was an airy white room with tall windows looking out on God's good world, with God's good sunlight pouring in through those windows and falling across the pulpit where her father stood, straight and strong, parsing the broken heart of humankind and praising the loving heart of Christ. That was church."

REFLECTIONS ON THE EUCHARIST

In the time of our parents and grandparents, Sunday was considered
special. It was that day of the week when people went to church to
connect with God. And for Catholics, the heart of this connection was
the Eucharist.

But today it's the opposite. The spirit of our age is one of
'adversarial mysticism', which challenges this traditional idea of
Sunday being special. It's like a great reversal has occurred. This
spirit is articulated whenever people say, "Who needs church... I get my
spiritual experience from yoga, or music, or hiking in nature..."

This mentality, under the pretence of expanding God, actually renders
God banal; if everything is sacred, nothing is sacred. And it ultimately
keeps people from seeing church as offering a uniquely sacred
experience.

I don't want to argue with the idea that we can't connect with God
outside of our four church walls. Obviously we can. But what I want to
say is that there's more. And that MORE is why I am a practicing
Catholic.

Let me explain by using the analogy of a marriage. Everyday of your
marriage should be special, and never be taken for granted. However,
your anniversary BETTER be that one day of the year that STANDS OUT.
It's that day when you deeply celebrate and articulate your mutual love
and thankfulness.

And this marriage metaphor is also an appropriate metaphor for faith. At
the heart of the Christian faith is a relationship with the Risen Jesus.
And how is any relationship sustained and strengthened? By spending time
together. Enjoying each other. Confiding our weaknesses. Celebrating our
love.

JP2s Encyclical on the Eucharist, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia", talks about
this intimacy and mutuality when he writes; "When the faithful approach
the sacred banquet, not only do they receive Christ, but they in turn
are received by him."

There is a relationship in the Eucharist then that is at the heart of
our faith. God may be with us throughout the week, but think of the
Eucharist as that 'one on one' time with our Risen Lord. God is not just
lurking somewhere in the background music of our lives, but in the
Eucharist we capture a real sense of 'quality time' with God, when
everything else just falls to the side.

And this refreshes our perspective of what really matters. It engenders
our gratitude and renews our commitment of faith.

When Pope Benedict was Cardinal Ratzinger he wrote a book called "A God Who Is Near" where he talked about this. He writes, "God gives himself to us so that we, in turn, can give ourselves. The initiative in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ comes from God. In the beginning, it was he himself who lowered himself."

God is reaching out to us in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. And if we
can fully grasp this mystery, we have no choice but to give our lives to
Him in gratitude. That is the 'thanksgiving' WE offer in the Eucharistic
relationship.

As nice as it is to notice God's handiwork in nature, or in our
favourite music, it is because of the gift of the Eucharist that the
ordinary becomes truly holy.

SERMON: BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

While researching the Battle of the Atlantic for the sermon at Mass, I stumbled upon an actual event from the Battle that makes a wonderful metaphor for understanding our faith.

So let me take you back to 1942, as the Nazi noose was slowly tightening
around Britain, strangling its naval supply routes through its Rudeltaktik, or 'wolf pack' strategy.

Traditionally submarines were used as lone ambushers, but Nazi Commodore Karl Donitz innovated a new strategy: while Allied warships engaged in a cat-and-mouse hunt with individual submarines, the rest of the submarines in the wolf pack would be neglected, and able to attack the merchant ships with impunity.

But what was key to Nazis being able to coordinate their attacks, was
their ability to communicate with German high command through unbreakable codes.

Enter the Enigma Machine. This was a small, portable encryption device
used by U-Boats that allowed them to receive coded messages on the
location of enemy ships. Thus prowling U-Boats were constantly on the
attack.

The genius of the Enigma Machine was in its coupling of letters: they
were constantly changed so the encrypted messages were never the same,
making the code, with its billions of possible combinations, nearly
impossible to break.

Hitler, and many of his commanders, believed Enigma was invincible. They
were wrong.

On October 30, 1942 the HMS Petard and three other British destroyers
were pursuing U-559 in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from the Egyptian
shore. U-559 was proving why U-Boats were so dangerous. She was elusive. The chase lasted 16 hours before U-559's Commander decided to scuttle his damaged ship about 70 miles north of the Nile Delta.

Demonstrating courage that to this day is hard to comprehend, three
young men swam from the HMS Petard and boarded the sinking sub. Lt. Tony Fasson,Able Seaman Colin Grazier, and Canteen Assistant Tommy Brown. These men swam out with a tiny skiff and descended into the sinking submarine in hopes of retrieving an Enigma Machine, not knowing what perils lay waiting for them; were they to be greeted by remaining Nazi crewmembers? Boobytraps perhaps?

Though they penetrated the sinking sub, they could not remove U-559's
Enigma Machine from its mount. But with Brown at the top of the ladder,
water streaming into the stricken vessel, Fasson and Grazier quickly
passed the short signal weather code and the short signal code book up
to Brown, who threw them into the skiff.

With death by drowning a near certainty if they didn't immediately leave
the ship, Fasson and Grazier continued to gather Enigma documents,
keypads and codes. Brown threw them all into the skiff. Barely a blink
of an eye after Brown had the priceless Nazi codes on the skiff, U-559
sank. Fasson and Grazier went down with her.

Tommy Brown, the Canteen Assistant, turned over one of the most
important finds of WWII. He was 16 years old. Wanting to fight for his
country, he had lied about his age. Fasson and Grazier received
Britain's second-highest honor for bravery, the George Cross. Brown
received the George Medal. Two years later Brown was also dead. He died
trying to rescue his two sisters from their burning slum tenement.

U-559's soaked Enigma documents turned out to be an even-more astounding recovery than anyone could have imagined. It contained the keys to the major German U-Boat codes Shark and Triton, which gave the allies a huge tactical advantage that without a doubt shortened the war.

Without their sacrifice, the German U-Boat codes would not have been
broken until much later, if at all. But because they were broken, the
Allies were able to establish naval supremacy in the Atlantic that much
sooner. Naval supremacy meant an earlier D-Day. An earlier Normandy
invasion meant the cost of human lives would be less terrible.

So how does all of this speak to the question of faith?

Don't we all, in prayer and in our spiritual life, descend into the
greatest Enigma Machine of all, the human heart?

Although it would be far easier to just keep sailing along, looking
forward to that next port call, our faith calls us to go beyond. It
calls us to descend into the depths of the heart and wrestle with its
mysteries. And bring them to the light.

And the heart is filled with its share of peril, with all of its pain,
resentments and selfishness. But when we confront its mystery, we do not
do so alone. Christ decodes God for us so that we may understand how to
harmonize our own heart with the intent of the Creator.

And when that happens, we discover what Christ promises, "a peace that
the world cannot give". But it is not a peace that promises serenity or
an easy life. It is a peace which allows us to hear that still small
voice that can sometimes call us to great sacrifice and courage.

When we are in tune with that voice, its fruits are literally
unfathomable. Just as this 16yr old canteen assistant couldn't have
imagined that his actions would help bring WW2 to a close, we will never
know how our commitment to Christ can impact others, and impact the
world.

Faith then, is what draws us into the story of Redemption. It is where
we play our small role on the stage of God's saving activity.
Allow me to conclude with an insight from theologian Reinhold Niebhur
that speaks to this. He writes:

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate
context of history; Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
And no virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our
friend or foe as from our own; Therefore, we are saved by the final form
of love, which is forgiveness."