Homily for Pentecost, May 31, 2009

I want to begin today with a trip down Nostalgia Lane. How many of you went to Catholic grade school? Okay. Now, this may apply to those who are close to my age range more than younger ones, but anyway I'm going to explore a little bit.
When I was in grade school here at Holy Cross, we wrote at the top of every page the letters "JMJ." How many remember that? What did it mean?
[voice] Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Anybody remember any other things that you wrote at the top of your pages?
A cross, okay. That was in Illinois. Okay. Anything else?
Your name, of course.
Some people used to write  and I can't remember the Latin phrase, so I can't give you  yes, AMDG. Thank you, and what does that stand for? “Ad majorem Dei gloriam,” and that's translated "for the greater glory of God." So we had those things. We did it religiously and very carefully.
I also remember, I think about every half hour the bell would ring. No matter what we were doing, we all stood up and got out of our desk on the left hand side and we said something. Maureen?
"All for thee, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." Anybody remember that? I do.
Are there any other things you remember? Yes? The morning prayer, the morning offering, lunch prayer, and the end of the day prayer. So we had prayer three times a day, including Mass.
The angelus at noon. By the way, our students still come over at noon and ring the bells. The women at the women's prison tell me that they hear those bells three or four blocks away.
We had many devotions, and I mean that with a small "d" and a plural. What they served overall was a deep sense of devotion that permeated our life. And what I mean by “devotion” is a sense that I serve something or someone with my time, my talent, and my energies; my life is devoted to something. Does that make sense?
I started thinking about my homily today with a question: How do you know when you're doing the will of God? And then I thought, that presumes something. That presumes that we're devoted to doing the will of God.
I also remembered a conversation I had with somebody recently about a young person who wasn't very interested in religion yet, and I remember input from one of our classes with deacons. Oftentimes you hear people say, "What can religion do for me?" or, "What can going to church do for me?" or, "What can God do for me?" Familiar questions?
What do those questions all have in common? Me. They're all centered around me; what will this do for me? I think the beginning of religion or of faith is when we begin sensing and asking, "What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here? What greater meaning or purpose do I serve with my life?"
Now, I was sharing this with somebody who said, "I've been asking this question all my life," and I think we do. One of my favorite quotes is from Parker Palmer who talks about a minister who says  and I'll say this about myself "I always knew I was here to save all of you, but what are you here for?"
Do you know what I mean by beginning to ask that question, "What am I here for?" And when we begin to ask that question, then faith begins to be at work in our life. Maybe we begin to be devoted to something.
And I want to ask you today the real life test. I'm not going to ask you what are you devoted to. We'd probably  if you're like me, you'd give the answer that made you sound good. What I want to ask is, if someone followed you around and observed  and I know no one can be totally objective in their observation, because we always interact with what we observe  but if somebody followed you around and at the end of a period of time was asked, “What is soand so devoted to?” what would they answer? And don't think about the answer that should be there, but just what answer would be there. And I think for most of us it would be a mixed answer.
I know a few people of whom I would say that when they do good there is no ego in it. They just do good for the sake of doing good, because they're devoted to the good. I'm not one of them. I'd like to get there. In AA people have a slogan, "Progress, not perfection," and so I hope I'm making progress.
But I think the readings today suggest to us the possibility of life in God's Spirit. They also suggest the possibility of life that is not in God's Spirit.
I memorized the fruits of the Spirit. I did not memorize the fruits of the flesh. I don't want to dwell on them, but I remember some of them  rivalry, faction, envy, dispute, outbursts of anger. Has anybody here ever been there, when you set out on a course of action and it produces those fruits in your life? Have you been there? I mean, we all have, haven't we?
And the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and selfcontrol. Now, I'd like to emphasize those as a package deal. I know a lot of things that bring me the illusion of love and joy, but they don't bring me peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and selfcontrol. You know what I mean?
And I know a lot of things that bring selfcontrol, but they're white knuckle and they don't bring peace generosity, gentleness and kindness, and so forth and so on.
By the way, if I were to add to the list of Paul, I would add also social responsibility, responsibility for the earth and the community, and I would add also building communities of faith.
By the way, one of the criticisms we get from time to time for the way we do prayers of the faithful here  there are two. The first is that you can't hear them, and believe me, we've discussed that at length, and we've discussed options. One would be to pass this around [holding microphone,] or the other would be to invite people to a microphone, but we were afraid that would intimidate people. And we thought, well, God hears, and the important thing is that they're free to speak it.
The other criticism I hear is that so often they are lacking in concern for the larger world, or for issues of justice and peace, and the bigger issues, and I think that's valid. And when we pray we could be mindful of those things.
St. Ignatius of Loyola  he's the one who is the classic in answering the question, "How do I know God's will?" By the way, one of the statements attributed to him is, "When everything else fails, use logic," which means logic is the least of the ways we discover God's will. What he discovered is that sometimes when he did things he felt very good while he was doing them. And afterwards he felt emptiness. And other times he felt very good when he was doing things, and afterwards he continued to feel good.
People I know who struggle with addiction know very well what I mean, and I think we've all experienced this. There are some things that give us a sense of happiness and excitement and wellbeing when we do them but afterwards leave us feeling emptiness and shame and desolation. There are other things that we do that, after we do them, we feel a real abiding sense of peace.
There are things I do  well, there's a category of things that I do  that I never want to do. I never look forward to them. I always put them off, and I even dread doing them. Do you know what I mean? How many of you have things like that? But after I do them, I feel really good. You know what I mean?
Well, I think that's what Paul is saying to us today. There is a possibility of life in God's Spirit. I know many people in recovery, and I know many people both young and old who are a real source of inspiration, because the abiding question in their life is, "How do I know that I am doing what God's wants me to do?" And they are devoted to that question and to finding an answer to it.
And the readings today suggest that we can find that answer. More often than not we find it by paying attention to what's going on inside of ourselves.
And as we pray, just be with that question. Maybe, if you remember, we can recite it together. Join in with me. What are the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, generosity, gentleness, and self control. Seek the things that bring that fruit into your life, and let's pray together that we receive that gift of God's Spirit.