Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for Pentecost

As some of you already know, since January I have been celebrating mass once a week in the Health Care center at the Hermitage on Thursday mornings. It’s one of those unusual situations where you have to be prepared for anything—like mass with the first and second graders at St. Ann’s parish in Nashville, TN or at the Tennessee State prison. At one recent mass a volunteer was proclaiming the first reading about the call of Abraham when this loud voice came from the back of the Health Care dining room, "Who was Abraham?" Another time Sr. Amelia was doing the first reading when an aide brought in a woman in a wheelchair. They had just gotten the woman in place when she said in a very loud voice, "Did mass start yet?" No one responded. She asked again in a louder voice. No response. Sr. Amelia continued to patiently read on. Finally the woman said, "That’s the trouble with this damn place! Nobody will give you any answers." But there are other moments too. There’s one woman who lies on this mobile bed, eyes closed, mouth open, motionless, seemingly inert to anything. I’ve passed her many times like that in the hallway. During one mass I happened to look over to where she was at the side of the room, and I noticed that her mouth was reciting perfectly the words of the "Holy, Holy, Holy" as we were all praying them. I thought to myself: "Wow! Surprised by the Spirit again."

The Holy Spirit is indeed full of surprises. There is nothing more frustrating, more maddening than for a systematic theologian or scripture scholar to try and figure out an orderly, neat categorizing of the works of the Holy Spirit attested to in the New Testament writings. It just can’t be done. Almost every kind of positive action gets attributed to the Spirit, but there isn’t anything that organizes them all. Even some scripture writers evidently gave up in frustration and said: "The Spirit blows wherever it will." (Jn 3:8) It’s impossible to know when, where or how the Spirit of God will act.

Yet there is one communality that runs through all these manifestations of the Spirit: that is, the sense, the feeling that the Power of God is acting in our world beyond any control of ours. Indeed, that perception allowed the early believers to say: "It is the Spirit of God." But only in hindsight can they say: "The Spirit of God did this." We can’t organize or manage God’s Spirit. When the Spirit does occur, it reminds us of the intimate presence of God all around. And perhaps that’s the biggest gift of the Spirit.

For the last seven Sundays we have been exploring the deep meanings of the Paschal Mystery: that the Resurrection of Jesus was a new saving act of God; that Jesus now gloriously lives in the divine Mystery; that the Resurrection was a complete vindication of the life, ministry and death of Jesus; that the Paschal Mystery calls us to be suspicious of our ordinary human ways of thinking and judging; that our human lives are intertwined with the mysteries of God’s grace, forgiveness and love; and finally, the gifts of the Spirit are our constant reminders of all of the above.

The Second Vatican Council gave us so many new and exciting ways to think about the Holy Spirit in our lives. In the Constitution on the Church it says: "The Holy Spirit distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. Whether these charisms be very remarkable or more simple....they are to be received with thanksgiving." (LG #12) That means from the power of raising Jesus from the dead to even the mute voicings of an old semi-conscious woman. The Spirit of God is indeed surprising.

Come, Holy Spirit!

Pentecost is in a special way the Baptism of the Church which carries out her universal mission starting from the roads of Jerusalem with the miraculous preaching in humanity's different tongues. In this Baptism of the Holy Spirit the personal and community dimension, the 'I' of the disciple and the 'we' of the Church, are inseparable. The Holy Spirit consecrates the person and at the same time makes him or her a living member of the Mystical Body of Christ, sharing in the mission of witnessing to his love. And this takes place through the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism and Confirmation. (Pope Benedict XVI)

Vocation Essay

How do priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us hear God’s call in our lives? First of all God will call us all in many different ways. It is whether we answer his call that truly matters. Some may need the help to answers God’s call. This is when a priest, deacon, or religious brother or sister steps in. They help us realize that we need God for life. We should honor God’s call and listen to what God wants us to do.

Who can be called by God to do his ministry? Well, the truth of the matter is anyone can be called by God. What matters is who answers the call. If you listen and put your full faith and trust in God anything is possible. Some people will not listen to God. Some people merely need to be talked to by another human being.

For some people this is where the priest comes in. Mainly for men this is where the priest comes in. Say you are on a stroll with a friend and he asks you to start a conversation not knowing he may be doing this out of the work and ministry of God. He asks, “How do priests help us hear God’s call in our lives.” You answer his question like this… Each priest is a person or merely a pebble in the destiny and work of God. As a priest you are in charge of making sure that each one of God’s children in your parish or even around the world receive Jesus. You must preach to them and help them understand the Bible. You must listen to their sins as if you are their close family (which you are in God’s mind) and teach them how to instead of doing wrong show them how to do right. Be an example of how God wants you to live a holier life. In the long run priest are like the leader of a line. They lead us to God and help be the example of how a follower of God lives their lives.

Deacons also play an important role in the church. They follow the corporal works of mercy by feeding the hungry…setting the example for me to do the same. Bishops help me be a faithful servant of God’s people. They help others out of the kindness of their heart.
Last, but not least, religious brothers and sisters. I am fortune enough to have a Benedictine Sister teach me religion. She teaches us to love God and serve God’s people. She helps me open doors. That other wise I would not see. For that I thank her. Meditation is just one of the ways that Sr. Nicolette helps me get closer to God.

We are all called to love God and serve God’s people. We never give them enough credit. So thank you religious brothers, sisters, deacons, and priests. God has blessed us all each day.

Jamaica H. 7th Grade

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for Ascension

We celebrate today the feast of the Ascension of Christ. Many liturgical theologians would call the Ascension one of the most underrated feasts in the Church’s Liturgical Year. Because its implications are so little understood. For most people Ascension is just a necessary step to get Jesus from this world to the next, so he can send the Spirit at Pentecost. Once Jesus is in heaven it's over. The meaning of Ascension is thus completes a step on the way. Far from it! With the human bodiliness and consciousness of Jesus now a part of the Divine Mystery, the Ascension means that heaven and earth are irreversibly intertwined. God's victory has already happened and it's for all eternity. Our human lives are now entwined with the mysteries of God's grace and forgiveness. That's what the proclamation of the Gospel is all about. And it needs to be told to the whole world.

If you look at the Appearance accounts in the four gospels in a analytic fashion, that is, to compare their structures, you will see that at the center of each narrative is an appearance to the eleven disciples gathered together. Scripture scholars like to call this the "constitutive appearance" because it's the one that pulls everything else together. In that constitutive appearance Jesus commissions the disciples to go and proclaim the message to the whole world. (Mk 16:14-15; Mt 28:16-20; Lk 24:36-48; Jn 20:19-23) It is probably clearest in Matthew's gospel, but it's in the other three as well, just as you noticed its powerful presence at the center of today's gospel passage from Mark.

Scripture scholars are all pretty much in agreement that these four Resurrection appearance narratives are very late in the New Testament literary tradition. Rather than give an exact account of how things happened, they are much more concerned to bear witness what emerged as the major beliefs in that early Christian community. And one of the earliest beliefs was the necessity to go out and proclaim to the whole world this message that Jesus has been raised by God and this is for our salvation.

It's likely impossible to figure out where this belief in "proclamation to the world" came from. It didn't come from their Jewish background. In fact, there wasn't any religion of the time that had any such similar belief. The only solution to be found is that the belief in a "proclamation to the whole world" came in the very same moment that they believed that Jesus had been raised by God. If God has done this great thing, then it must be told to everyone.

I said last week that proclaiming the gospel is a second way out of suspicion. If the Paschal Mystery warns us to be suspicious of our ordinary human ways of thinking and deciding, then when the gospel is proclaimed we are always taking a step in the right direction. Why? Because proclaiming the gospel takes us out of ourselves, out of our own concerns, out of trying to hold on to what we've got. Whenever a person, or a monastery, or a parish is first and foremost concerned with keeping what it's got, then it's in serious religious trouble. The Ascension is about proclaiming to the world that our human lives are intertwined with the mysteries of God's grace, forgiveness and love. That's more than just proclaiming that "Jesus saves." It includes the assertion that "God is" and also the intrinsic value and beauty of human life. The proclamation of the gospel includes all of those beliefs. Let's share those beliefs with the many people we meet.

A Commentary for Ascension by Sr. Kathleen Yeadon, OSB

May 24, 2009
The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ
Mark 16:15-20

Saying goodbye is never easy. Goodbyes can come from leaving a job, a friend moving, or the death of a loved one. For me, the feast of the Ascension is Jesus’ goodbye to the apostles. It is the time where Jesus says, ok, you have to put into action what I have taught you.

The Ascension says, we connect with our loved ones through living out the actions that we have learned from them. It is the great mystery of life and grace, that participation in our loved one’s actions, draws us closer to them. Thus, Jesus commands the disciples to go and preach to the entire world.

The second gift of the Ascension is the longing to be connected to our loved one energizes us for action. It is our remembering and living out the actions of Jesus that calls us to community. Thus, our desire for union with God creates the energy to live in a manner worthy of our Lord.
This all came alive for me when my dad died. I had a new desire for Heaven so I could be with him. As the years have passed, I have connected with him in the words he spoke and the actions he showed my family. I look for those words and actions in my other family members as well.
We have done this here in the monastery as well. At each wake, we have remembered the person’s words and actions. On the feast of All Souls, we remember each person’s life.
With the end of each administration, we have taken time to say what it was that we learned from the outgoing prioress and subprioress.

The Ascension gives us time to remember the center of Jesus’ teaching. Mark’s Gospel ends with the line of . . . the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs. For me the signs would include Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: . . .live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentlenesss, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. . . Ephesians 4:

8th Grade Students' Haikus...on Ascension

Go into the World,
They will speak new languages,
He went up to heaven.
(Tyler M. 8th Grade)

Go into the world,
One day I will return here,
To God I now go.
(Wyatt B. 8th Grade)

Jesus was taken,
Taken up body and soul,
Seated at the right.
(Maddie L. 8th Grade)

Glorious is He,
To live with God in heaven,
Clothed in lumen clothes.
(Josh S. 8th Grade)

Jesus rose from them,
They were filled with His spirit,
They go forth to serve.
(Brandon S. 8th Grade)

Go into the world,
Jesus rose into heaven,
They preached everywhere.

(Megan P. 8th Grade)

Jesus rose above,
Took His seat at the right hand,
Apostles then preached.
(Chris B. 8th Grade)

Go out in the world,
Proclaim the Gospel to us,
God will come again.
(Shelby C, 8th Grade)

Proclaim the Gospel,
Whoever doesn't believe,
They will now believe.
(Pete P. 8th Grade)

Go into the world,
Who is baptized will be saved,
Nothing will harm them.
(Allie M. 8th Grade)

Jesus will ascend,
into heaven at the right,
Hand of the Father.
(Tommy B. 8th Grade)

Jesus said to them,
Go into the whole world and,
Proclaim the Gospel.
(Bobby M. 8th Grade)

Proclaim the Gospel,
To every creature to hear,
And you will be saved.
(Kyle K. 8th Grade)

Proclaim the Gospel,
These signs will accompany,
Whoever believes.
(Joseph F. 8th Grade)

Vocation Essay

How do priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters help us to hear God’s call in our lives? First and above all, they devote their whole lives to spreading the word of God. You would probably get pretty good after a whole lifetime. What exactly does each individual one do?

Let’s start with a priest. A priest does a huge amount of things for the church. They say mass, which spreads the word of God. They can administer the sacraments, which brings a person’s soul closer to God. They can also do missionary work. Priests do a lot for the church.

Deacons are sort of like assistants to priests. The word “deacon” was probably derived from a Greek word meaning servant. They could help out during mass in reading or serving. They could also assist the priest in different ways during the mass.

Now for the religious brothers and sisters, they are sort of the employees of the church. They take vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty. They can’t own anything, get married, or say no to what the church tells them to do. They can be a lot of things. My religion teacher is a nun, and the principal of another school I know is a nun. The University of Notre Dame has a lot of jobs filled by religious brothers. Religious brothers and sisters spread the word of God by filling jobs and making them centered around God.

If you think about it, these three categories are sort of like a body. The priests are the head and heart. Without them, the church could not function. The deacons are the organs. They are a service to the head and heart and they do what the head and heart tell them to. The religious brothers and sisters are the arms and legs. They extend out to grab and pull more people toward Catholicism. So those three categories are sort of like a body, in a way.
In these three jobs, these people spread the word of God. The more we hear the word of God, and the closer we are to God, the easier it is to hear His call.

Frederick D. 8th Grade