Friday April 8, 2005 Homily by Fr. Robert Altier Second Week of Easter
Reading (Acts 5:34-42) Gospel (St. John 6:1-15)
In the readings today, we see the humility of Our
Lord and also of the apostles. Our Lord, after multiplying the loaves and
fishes, and giving them to the people to eat, realizes that the people are
going to try to make Him king. He did not come for that purpose. He is the King, but He is not merely a bread king,
He is not merely an earthly king – He is the King of the Universe. But that is
seen and recognized only upon the Cross. It was in the working of these signs
that the people understood on one level, but completely misunderstood Who He
truly is. So He withdraws to the mountain because He does not want them to come
and give Him any kind of earthly accolades; rather He wants them to be able to
look beyond what is on the material level to look at what is truly the
spiritual part, what it was that He was trying to do. In order to do this, the
people had to be able to simply look at the sign that He had performed rather
than looking at the One who had performed the sign.
Now when we see what comes from this and how this
can apply to our own lives, we now see what happens with the apostles. They are
brought before the Sanhedrin, they are told that they are not to speak in the
Name of the Lord anymore, and then they are flogged. The apostles rejoiced that
they were found worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord. That is the kind of
humility that comes from recognizing the sign that Jesus performed, the sign
which, of course, indicates for us the Eucharist and the Lord’s presence among
us and Who He truly is, the sign that points to the reality of the Person of
Christ, that He truly is God. He is the prophet that Moses promised would come,
but He is more than a prophet – He is the Christ. That is exactly what the
apostles went out and preached, and because they firmly believed in Who He was,
they were willing to suffer and they were willing to rejoice in their suffering
for His sake.
That, then,
is something each one of us can look at. How much we like to have the earthly
accolades, how much we like to have the attention of the people, how much we
would like to be the one who could work some sign for some selfish reason so
that people would notice us. Jesus withdrew because they were looking at Him
rather than at what He had done. If we truly believe in the Lord, then what is
required of us is humility. What is required of us is to keep our focus on Him,
to be willing to accept whatever it is that He sends to us, and to be able to
rejoice in the suffering for the sake of His holy Name. Are we willing to do
that?
Right now,
as we sit here, the man who has done precisely that is being buried: Pope John
Paul II. He did not look for earthly accolades. He accepted what God gave him,
which was immense suffering. If you look at his life, from the very beginning
it was suffering. The first place that the man goes when he is elevated to Pope
is a room that they call the “chamber of tears.” It is not some victorious
thing where the Pope says, “Look how great I am! Notice me!” Rather it is to
recognize what it is that he is called to do. He lived it, and he lived it in
the most extraordinary way. He did not look for anything for himself. He
pointed to Jesus and he suffered with Jesus.
We have had
the incredible privilege of having such an example for 26 years placed right in
front of us. Now it is for us to continue on, to live the faith that we
profess, and to live it by uniting ourselves with Christ. Not seeking anything
for ourselves, but seeking humility, uniting ourselves with His suffering,
following His example, following the example of the apostles, following the
example of Pope John Paul II. All of us have this opportunity. Are we willing
to be humble? Are we willing to serve? Most importantly, are we willing to
suffer with the Lord? Not just to suffer with grumbling and complaining, but to
rejoice when we have been found worthy to suffer for the sake of His holy Name.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.