"They Doubted" | The Ascension of the Lord (Fr. Mike's Homily) #sundayhomily

we get to this place right this is next weekend is Pentecost and so this whole what's ultimately gonna be 50 days of praying with the Lord 50 days that commemorates basically Jesus is appearing to the disciples 50 days of G or 40 days really and then the extra nine days for the for um for for Pentecost happens but here we are I don't know if you know this but Jesus appears to his disciples 13 times he shows himself alive 13 times he shows himself that that the death was not the end of him that he conquered death he rose from the grave and he reveals himself to the disciple 13 times in fact the first reading it says that he presented himself alive to them with many proofs and so when it came to the disciples and their faith Jesus had demonstrated the truth we talked about last weekend that he is who he says he is that Jesus had had made it clear that there would be no doubt in their minds okay Jesus is who he says he is there's there's no no discussion there's no there's no questions left to be answered Jesus has proven again as it says he presented himself alive to them by many proofs and the disciples believe this in fact that's why in Acts chapter one here they are Jesus walks up to Bethany and they're looking out over the city of Jerusalem and they ask him they know who he is so they ask him the question Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel they know that he's the king they know that he is the the answer he they know that he is the one they've been longing for praying for the promised Messiah they know this that's why they ask him this question Lord are you going to at this point going to establish the Kingdom on Earth essentially so they know they believe they have faith and I love this because Jesus uh Jesus's answer is basically um no I'm not you are gonna you will see Power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then you'll be my Witnesses throughout Judea Samaria at the end of the Earth and we're going to talk about that well that's that's next weekend essentially when it comes to Pentecost that that being commissioned to be sent out just like in the first in the gospel today but I think that we have the question still like as the disciples are there they know the truth they believe in Jesus they have faith well what what might have been in their hearts as Jesus is telling them go therefore Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father's Holy Spirit teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you as Jesus is called the Great Commission as Jesus is sending them out as they're there in that moment what could be in their hearts and I think Matthew 28 gives us a slight it's just a glimpse into what might have been in the disciples Hearts remember they believe in Jesus he's proven himself to them they have faith and yet Matthew 28 has this really remarkable line where it says when they saw him remember he's alive he's risen from the dead it's a proof when they saw him it says they worshiped but they doubted maybe I don't know if you've ever like meditated on this like how is it possible hear the disciples Jesus says demonstrated to them they they don't have they don't really need faith if they have proof to worship and still doubt and I just wonder what that would look like I don't know if you've ever doubted a lot of times we have those we have those doubts in our minds we have those doubts in our hearts we have those moments where we just we just don't know here's the thing is I think most of us who would say like oh yeah I I struggle with doubt I don't know if you do I'm like I don't know if you're doing it right in which case you might think like oh shoot I can't even doubt right you might be right because because I think a lot of times we look at what we're feeling what we're going through we're wrestling with what we're struggling with and we think oh that's doubting it's not because let's ask the question what's faith faith is not a feeling faith is not having this this kind of overwhelming warm fuzzy it's faith is not the feeling that's so important for us to understand also we recognize that faith is not merely an intellectual Ascent it's not merely saying okay no no I believe this a list of items like I believe the Creed that's not strictly speaking Faith so we'd realize this eighth is not a feeling and faith is not merely intellectual Ascent therefore doubt is not a Feeling for the just for all this truth that that faith is not a feeling but sometimes you're like ah but I just don't know sometimes I sometimes wonder I sometimes am uncertain that feeling of Doubt is not doubt faith is not a feeling doubt is not a feeling faith is not merely intellect intellectual ascent and doubt is not having intellectual questions it's not the same thing in fact hopefully that's consoling because you might find yourself in wondering am I doubting but you might just have questions or maybe you don't feel anything that's not doubt that's okay it's likely what the apostles were going through because this is just fascinating I was doing some research on Matthew 28 and exactly what it was that that word they worshiped but they doubted what is that word that word actually is used only one other time in the gospels and the word essentially ultimately means that they didn't necessarily doubt in the sense that they denied the Lord it means they hesitated remember faith not a feeling faith not intellectual Ascent faith is when we get to this place of okay I understand what the proposal is now I'm going to now make the act of the will I'm going to make the decision to surrender to this proposition I'm going to make the decision to surrender to submit my intellect and my Wellness decision to surrender my life to the Lord that's faith and we're making the decision to surrender my life to God doubt not a feeling not a question doubt is oh I know it's being taught I've asked all the questions and now I refuse to submit my intellect and my will I I I refuse to submit myself to the lord it's basically it's a rebellion what the disciples were going through is not bad they're not they're not refusing to submit their lives to the Lord what they're doing is they worshiped but they hesitated and to hesitate is not the same thing as doubt in fact the John Henry Cardinal Newman right he uh the guy we named the Newman Center after at one point he said this he at one point he pointed out he this out he said 10 000 difficulties do not add up to one single doubt ten thousand difficulties do not add up to one single doubt you and I we can come before the Lord in worship and prayer we come before the Lord as ever as we're just you know reading scripture and we can see no I believe this but I have questions realize this this is so important the disciples worshiped but they hesitated maybe had maybe they had questions we have to understand this the church is not afraid of your questions this is so important for us to understand the church is not afraid of your questions their church is not saying don't question no you might have had someone who questions because I talk to people all the time who say you know I went to Religious Ed classes or I went to Catholic school or whatever and my teachers my nuns my whoever they were they told me like stop asking questions now here's the reason I would say this maybe yeah you had a bad teacher who might have just said you know I don't like questions in my class whatever but let's be honest with ourselves at this point when you were in religious a class or maybe in like Faith formation or you're even at Catholic school if you went to Catholic school and you were asking questions let's be honest were you asking questions because you wanted to know the answer or are you asking questions because you want to distract the teacher now here's me I'm only saying this because I know that I've done it I can smoke we can smell our own like that sense of I know what it's like to say I wonder how far I feel I can get this professor or this teacher we didn't I did in a seminary for crying out loud I'm the worst but that sense of asking questions to the point where your teacher says stop asking questions might not be their fault it might actually be the fact that I was asking questions distract them I know you might have been asking questions like a four-year-old like what what's what's the favorite question of a four-year-old like why it's time to go to bed why because it's late why because someone down why because we're spinning around the Sun and why like the four-year-old doesn't want an answer to the question the four-year-old just doesn't want to do what they're supposed to do sometimes and this is just sometimes you and I might have been told to stop asking questions and not because the questions were bad not because questions are bad because we weren't asking the questions to know the answer or maybe here's another one I talked to some students uh over the course of the last few years have said like you know my grandma you know she's really faithful but she tells me just stop asking questions just believe because I my grandma's super faithful so I ask her questions and she says stop asking me questions just believe and I would say okay maybe that could mean that she's never struggled right it could mean that she's never asked the questions it also could mean that she wrestled and she struggled and she asked those questions so long ago that that she wrestles her way to a victory like she wrestled her way so successfully that she's like oh yeah on the other side of this I realized that's not that important of a question or maybe it's so long ago that she forgot what it's like to wrestle but chances are if you meet someone in their old age who has that place of just peace when it comes to their faith and like they don't wrestle anymore it's probably not because they never cared or never questioned it's probably because probably because they wrestled their way into a victory they didn't stop asking questions until their heart was at peace again the church is not afraid of your questions in fact some of the greatest Saints we've ever been that have ever been canonized in the church are the ones who asked the hardest questions you know you've heard of Saint Thomas Aquinas Hey Thomas Aquinas in his book The Summa theologica right in that book The Summa he asks he asks questions that make like the modern day atheists look like they're in second grade because he asks the hardest questions and he asks them in the most articulate and challenging way that he doesn't straw man the argument he he steelman's the argument he asks the hardest questions in fact it even says St Thomas Aquinas when it comes to say one of the biggest questions like how can God be good and all-powerful and there still be evil in the world Thomas Aquinas looks at that question he addresses it unblinkingly because it's super important and he takes it seriously because that's what it is to take god seriously so the disciples they get to this place and they see the Lord Jesus they know he's there they believe in them they have faith they worship but they doubt it they hesitated it might be because they needed to ask some questions so it's like you and just like me I think there's three kinds of questions that we need to ask sometimes three kind of questions that come up in the Christian's life as we're disciples as we have faith in the Lord right we're surrendering Our Lives to them but we still have these questions and for one of the first questions says what meaning okay I have a struggle I've had like a saint carnal John Harry Newman said would say I I have a struggle uh I have a difficulty I don't know what the church teaches sometimes our problem is we think we know what the church teaches but we really don't in fact there was a poll that came out maybe about 10 years ago that was asking non-christians what they thought about Christians and they first ask Christians what they think about themselves how do you think the world sees you and they use words like Mercy Grace peace reconciliation like you know just like a light in the among the Nations and some of the non-christians there were words to describe Christians or things like hypocritical elitist bigoted homophobic like all these words and so recognize that there there's a massive portion of our world that doesn't see what we believe in the same way that we understand we believe so one of the first questions we have to ask is what is it the church teaches one of the things we we realized that Fulton Sheen said this maybe 50 or 60 years ago he claimed he said there's not 100 people in America who hate the Catholic Church but there are thousands upon thousands who hate what they mistakenly think the Catholic Church is now that might be true or that might not be true but the fact is the first question we have to ask if we're wrestling whether right if we're struggling if we're worshiping but doubting worshiping but hesitating we have to ask okay so before I go any further what does the church actually teach that's impossible that's a very important question the second question was the one question that I wrestle with so much the question is why like as I went to college I majored in theology I mentioned this I think last week the week before I majored in Theology and it was one of those situations where I'm like okay I kind of know now what the church teaches but I I need to know why I need to know where this comes from I need to know what like what is the church oriented towards why in the world does the church teach this when the world teaches that why in the world does the Catholic Church teach this when other Christian churches don't teach that I need to know why and we get to ask the question what we need to add we get to ask the question why but I would say that um one of the hardest question hardest question when it comes to Faith I think it's maybe the question that the disciples had in their hearts wasn't just what wasn't just why but here's Jesus who is telling them I'm going to send you into the whole world I'm gonna send you out and you are going to be uh sheep in the midst of wolves you're going to be a sign to the world you're going to be a light of the world you're going to be assault of the earth you are going to be my disciples my Apostles in the world the imagine the question is how I wonder if as the apostles are seeing the Lord they have faith in him they worship him but they hesitated because how how in the world am I going to do this and I mentioned there's one other place in the gospels where that word is used that word to doubt or to hesitate is used and it comes from Luke's gospel where in the middle of the night the disciples are out in the in the boat in the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm and all of a sudden Jesus comes to them walking on the sea you know what Peter says Peter says Lord if it is you command me to come to you on the water and Jesus says come and so here is Peter he gets out of the boat begins walking on the water this is Luke's Matthew's gospel he's walking on the water toward Jesus he's doing something impossible then it says but when he saw how strong the wind and the waves were he became afraid and began to sink and he cried out Lord save me and Jesus immediately stretched out his arm picked him up carried him back to the boat and he said oh you of little faith why did you doubt the word there that Jesus used it was you of little faith why did you hesitate you know that I'm here yes you're doing something impossible you're doing something that is way beyond your capabilities you're wondering how am I doing this and so you hesitated this is this is for us I mean so many of us we can look at our the faith and we say like I don't know what the church teaches or I don't know why the church teaches it but sometimes we know what we know why but we look at ourselves we say how in the world can I live this up because I know my weaknesses I know my wounds I know my Brokenness I know how limited I am I don't know how in the world am I going to be able to be faithful to the Lord in the midst of this what I've got here how am I going to be faithful to the Lord in the mess of my family and the mess of my relationships and the mess of this world how am I going to do it how am I going to walk on water how am I going to bring a gospel of light and truth and peace to a world of Darkness and lies and violence I would say you start this is the last thing there's a quote that's attributed at least to Saint Francis basisi you know the call that Jesus had for him and his life he said go and rebuild my church which I'm like man if you someone were to say that to one individual just this this kid from us the small town in Italy just go rebuild my church like where in the world that's impossible imp complete it is literally is impossible just like Jesus saying to the disciples the apostles go and make disciples of all Nations that's impossible just like saying to Peter come and walk to me on the water that's impossible so apparently Saint Francis at one point he said okay how do you do that he said we'll start by doing what's necessary then do what's possible and soon you will be doing the impossible start with what's necessary then do what's possible and soon you will be doing the impossible not because of your own strength not because you become more and more courageous is because when we start doing by doing what's necessary just what's in front of me like what is Jesus calling me to do today what's necessary okay I need to get up I need to go back to work I need to get up and take need to take care of my family I need to get up I need to do that thing whatever that is you're keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus remember that when Peter was walking on water he was doing the impossible what was it that made him hesitate it's when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the wind and the waves the disciples why would they worship and yet doubt yet worship yet hesitate when they take their eyes off of Jesus and focus on here's what he's calling us to which is why I believe in both cases when Jesus Peter walked in the water and when Jesus is sending them out into the world he reminded them you're not doing this alone Jesus says behold I am with you always Until the End of the Age because of that you know what to do go out to all nations bring the gospel to them you know why you're doing it because God so loved the world that he gave his only son they're all those who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life and God wants all to be saved and how to do it how can you do it how can I do it you can do it but keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and knowing that even when we worship and hesitate when we walk and we fall when we try and we fail we can hear the voice of Jesus reminding us behold I am with you always until the very end [Music]

Channel: Sundays with Ascension

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Id: cJUEVtnSpOc

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2023