Nineteen years ago today I had the privilege of being ordained a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, I offered my first homily the following Sunday.  It appears below and it is an indication of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thank you for your prayers and support through these years, and when you have an opportunity please offer a prayer for me today.   

The Easter Season is almost over; a season that reminds us Jesus rose from the dead to give us Hope that someday we would join Him in heaven.  Pope John Paul II said many times: “Do not be afraid!  There is hope because of God.”  God’s Hope came to us in a special way through Jesus’ resurrection.

In the second reading John told us: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us…” It’s awesome to think that God loves each and every one of us.  He loves us totally.  We didn’t earn His love; we receive it as a gift. 

Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of His love for His disciples and for us.  “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.  This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

That sounds simple and straightforward, “…love one another as I love you.”  St. Francis de Sales wrote: “Our Lord did not say, ‘Love those who are virtuous,” [He] said: Love one another as I have loved you,” without excluding anyone.

“… love one another as I love you …” it sounds simple and straightforward, but loving as Jesus did is hard work.  Loving others as Jesus did takes perseverance, discipline and determination.  The Lord will give us the grace to love as He did, but only if we allow His grace to fill our lives.

But how do we love one another?  St. Paul said: “Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things … So faith, hope and love remain these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Our culture emphasizes, really idealizes, “Self,” “self-fulfillment” but our call is to put others ahead of self.  This week do not seek your own interests but put others first all week, every day; if you do, you will experience the joy of God’s love in a profound yet simple way.

The story of the RABBI’S GIFT: There is a story told about a famous monastery that has fallen on hard times. Once a great order, its many buildings had been filled with young monks, but now it was nearly deserted. Visitors no longer came there to be nourished by prayer. A handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters and praised God with heavy hearts. It was just a matter of time until their community would die out. 

On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a little hut. No one ever spoke with him, but the monks felt somehow assured by his prayerful presence.

As the leader, the Abbot of the monastery agonized over the future, it occurred to him to go visit the rabbi. Perhaps he could offer some word of advice. So one day after morning prayers, the Abbot set out to visit the rabbi.

As he approached the hut, the Abbot saw the rabbi standing in the doorway, his arms outstretched in welcome. And the rabbi motioned the Abbot to enter.

They sat there for a moment in silence, until finally the rabbi said: “You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts. You have come to ask a teaching of me. I will give you this teaching, but you can only repeat it once. After that no one must say it aloud again.”

The rabbi looked straight at the Abbot and said, “One among you is the Messiah.” For a while all was silent. Then the rabbi said, “ Now you must go.” The abbot left without a word.

The next morning, the abbot called his monks together in the chapter room. He told them he had received a teaching from “ the rabbi who walks in the woods”, and that after he told it his teaching was never again to be spoken aloud. Then he looked at each of his brothers and said, “ The rabbi said that one among us is the Messiah!”

In the days, and weeks, and months that followed, the monks pondered this riddle, and wondered what it could mean. The messiah is among US? Could he have possibly have meant one of us here at the monastery? If that is the case then which one of us is it? Do you suppose that he meant the Abbot?  If he meant anyone then he must have meant the Abbot.  He has been our leader for more than a generation.

On the other hand he might have meant brother Thomas.  Certainly brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows and respects brother Thomas’ keen spirituality and insight.

Certainly he could not have meant brother Elred.  Elred gets very crotchety at times. But, when you look back on it, Elred is almost always right, often VERY right. Maybe the rabbi did mean brother Elred.

But surely not brother Phillip, he is so passive, a real nobody.  But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. Maybe Phillip is the messiah.

As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect; on the off chance that one of them might actually be the Messiah.

As time went by there was a gentle, whole-hearted, human quality about them which was hard to describe but easy to notice.  They lived with each other as people who had finally found something.  But they prayed and read the Scriptures together as people who were always looking for something.

Now, because the forest in which it is situated is very beautiful, it so happened that people did still occasionally come to visit the monastery. They came to picnic on the lawn, to wander among the paths, even now and again to go into the dilapidated chapel to meditate.   

Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently – to picnic, to play, and to pray. As they did so, even without being conscious of it, they sensed this aura of extraordinary humility and respect that now began to surround the old monks, and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the place.

There was something strangely attractive, even compelling about it. They began to bring friends to show them this special place.  Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks.

Some of the younger men who came to visit started talking to the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them, then another, and then another. More and more young men were asking, once again, to become part of the community.  Within a few years, the monastery had once again become a striving order and, thanks to the rabbi’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in that area.

“One among you is the Lord” Treat everyone with reverence; Treat everyone like they were the Lord and you will love as Jesus asked.

May God Be Blessed!