Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Sixth Sunday of Easter
[Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21]Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.
If I had known more of the Bible when I began college as a freshman at Tulane in the Fall of 1960, I might have known the passage above and perhaps may have had a lot fewer arguments with my peers. My first roommate was a devout Baptist, who knew his Bible well. My first real friends in the dorm were Jewish guys from the Northeast whose knowledge of Christianity was about on a par with mine of Judaism - ignorance abounded. It was only in my sophomore year, when I began to be bothered by the thought that I might want to join a religious order, that I was really able to find a way (unintentionally, I might add) to give reason for the hope that was in me. I began to get up every morning and go to Mass at the big Jesuit parish church next door on the Loyola campus. I would be coming back from Mass about the time my peers were wandering over to the student center for breakfast. The initial question, "Where are you coming from? Were you out all night?" was replaced by puzzled looks when I said where I was coming from. Eventually some of them learned about the decision I was to make about my future and I was given an equally puzzled "good luck" wish! The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to our land had as its theme, "Christ, Our Hope." The visit has had some very positive immediate impacts - not least in giving the issue of the sex abuse scandal some much needed attention from the top. Ultimately, it will be the constant and faithful witness of good Catholics that will make the difference in our all too secular and sex-and-drug-and-consumer oriented society. This everyday practice of one's faith is a powerful statement of the hope that we have. This is not helped by a rule-oriented, sin-obsessed attitude that characterized certain Catholic circles in my time as a child and is still around. Hope is not engendered by fear of hell. It comes from a realization of God's love and mercy and a resolution to live according to what we know to be the demands of true human dignity as understood from the gospel of Jesus Christ and the tradition that has been handed down over the centuries. Actual conduct often communicates this hope far more than words (and this from a preacher!). My own hope from preaching is that these words will help others find the strength and courage to DO what they know their faith and hope require - to love God and neighbor in a visible and tangible way. AMEN
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