What are your reasons to be hopeful?

I had no idea what the Archbishop wanted to talk to me about, that day back in 1994.  But I had never received a call to a personal meeting with an Archbishop before.  I knew that I had been a high school campus minister, enjoyed it immensely.  I knew that after the meeting, I probably would no longer be a campus minister/teacher.  But what I would be doing next, I had NO IDEA.  In the course of that meeting, Archbishop Rigali asked if I would become the vocation director for the diocese – a job I correlated to being the Maytag repairman of the priesthood – the loneliest guy in town.  I confess, I said yes during that meeting out of obedience more than out of enthusiasm for the job.  As I drove home to Washington, Missouri, the clear sky got darker and darker, and I thought, “Hmm” and then I remembered that there was an eclipse of the sun that day.  Then I thought – there was an eclipse of the sun on the day Jesus died, too…  That was not very comforting.  What do you have in store for me, my God?  I didn’t know where my life was going, but that was not a direction I would have chosen freely.

In today’s first reading, we hear that Phillip came to Samaria.  But what you don’t hear is the why.  He came to Samaria because he had been chased out of Jerusalem.  A great persecution had broken out.  It looks like a bad thing, a calamity.  Several of the disciples lost their lives, others were arrested.  Yet, God used that.  Because of the persecution, Philip becomes one of the first missionaries in the church.  God used him in a way he would never have thought possible.  In my own life, I remember driving back thinking, “How will I get through this chapter of my life?  And how long will it go on?  The readings from Acts and Peter remind me/us all:  “Don’t be too quick to think, ‘This is a disaster for me.’  You don’t know what God is making possible for you.”  What God was making possible for me, some three years later, was a life doing college campus ministry – something that I probably never would have entertained on my own.  But I can’t imagine doing anything else.  That is my first reason for being hopeful.  There is no choice that God cannot redeem and work with, no outcome that God cannot or will not transform for his good and for our good.  That gives me great hope.

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks for a reason for your hope…”  If the first reason for my hope could be listed as the ‘consolation of history’ – that God has always worked through my choices to bring about good, then the second reason for my hope comes from the promise of Jesus himself.  In this farewell discourse, listen to those most consoling words: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”  On that day, you will realize that I am in the Father and you are in me and I AM IN YOU!”  As graduating seniors, perhaps unsure of what the next step in life’s journey might be, or as college students trying to make all those life affecting/changing choices, Jesus says very clearly – I will not leave you orphaned – forgotten, abandoned, discarded.  Rather, by the Spirit’s Power, you will be grafted into the life of Jesus ever more closely.

And that is the second reason for my hope.  (there are more, but I will stick to two this evening.)  In the seven parishes I have been a part of these 25 years of service as a priest or deacon, I have known the presence of God, not leaving me an orphan.  Though it was hard to say goodbye and still try to say hello, what I know is that God always had life for me.  In each situation, there was LIFE for me.  That gives me great hope, no matter what the future brings.

The Gospel readings for this Easter season are taken primarily from the ‘farewell discourse’ of Jesus at the last supper. Around that table, Jesus prepared his disciple’s hearts for all the changes in store for them.  Around THIS table, that same Jesus wants to prepare your hearts for whatever He will be making possible for you.  As we gather to pray for that promised Spirit, may we always be ready to give an explanation to any one who asks for a reason for our hope…