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Six years ago
on this very date—it was Holy Saturday in 1998—I watched the televised
return and homecoming celebration of the 24 crew members of the VQ1
reconnaissance flight. You might remember that their aircraft had been
attacked by the Chinese Air Force and its members had been detained by
the Chinese government officials on Hunan Island for 11 days.
Allegedly, the plane had violated China’s territorial airspace.
As I watched those
events unfold, I felt a sense of pride swelling up within as members
of their families raced across the tarmac to hug and to kiss each of the
24 crew members, as each of them were individually introduced to the
crowd’s10,000 members and, then, as each member of the flight team
spoke with various members of the media. At the time—and as we’ve seen in so
many homecomings that have been part of the War on Terrorism—these 24
members of our nation’s Armed Forces revealed themselves to be among
America’s best...solid, wholesome, healthy, and normal young adults.
They didn’t necessarily know where events would lead them, but they were
well aware of what was required of them.
Throughout that
particular homecoming ceremony, the VQ1 crew members kept invoking
concepts like “team,” “cooperation,” “family,” “training,” “duty,”
“honor,” and “chain of command” to describe their nerve wracking and somewhat harrowing
experience. Even as the media pressed the crew members by inquiring
into other, contrary concepts like “as an individual,” “your fears,” and
“your feelings,” each of the airmen looked at the questioners
somewhat incredulously, and responded with statements like: “I had a job
to do.” “All of my training prepared me to do what needed to be done.”
“That’s the price one may have to pay as a professional.” And, from the
pilot: “I wasn’t piloting the craft. God was. You can be sure of
that.”
Duty…responsibility…honor…God…
There they were, 24
of our nation’s best—21 men and 3 women—who, even though they were not
mistreated or abused as many prisoners have been during times of war,
when they put to the test and not knowing what the future would bring,
these airmen upheld their duty, fulfilled their professional responsibilities, acted
with honor, and represented us—their fellow citizens—admirably.
Now, if today were
the 4th of July—the celebration of Independence
Day—recounting this homecoming might have been a pretty good
introduction for a rousing, patriotic homily. But, today is Easter
Sunday, the Solemnity of the Resurrection. For baptized
Christians, today is the day we begin our mission anew and anticipate
our eternal homecoming—when God, the choirs of angels, and the communion
of saints will be waiting to welcome and to cheer for us when we return
safely.
Reflecting upon these
patriotic themes might serve us well.
For the past 40
days, we’ve trained ourselves through fasting, prayer, and penance so that
we might be the very best…as citizens of God’s kingdom. To varying
degrees, this “boot camp” experience has helped us to confront our faults, our
failings, and our limitations so that, when we are put to the test after we
undertake our mission, our character will reveal itself to be
like that of God’s only begotten Son whose true character was revealed
when he was put to the test. Surely, there have been times during our
period of training that many, if not most or all of us, have fallen
short in our efforts to follow through on our resolve and our Lenten
resolutions. But, even so, our training has helped us to
understand what we must do in order to fulfill our
mission.
To motivate us and
spur us onward from this day forward, we have neither a
nation nor a flag. Instead, we have a promise, namely, the promise of
God’s love.
God will never abandon us.
Even in the darkest, most gloomy of hours, God will be
present and ready to lift us up, if we but turn to
Him.
As our standard, we
have neither a code nor a creed. Instead, we have a cross, namely, the
Cross of Jesus Christ. God has transformed the wood of this Cross and
the blood it bears from one characterized by suffering, pain, and even death into the
wood of a Cross that is gloriously triumphant. As we struggle to fulfill our
mission and collapse under the weight of sin but choose to embrace this
Cross with ever greater conviction than ever, God has promised not only
that He will be present and will lift us up. In those moments of
temptation and seeming failure, God has also promised to send us His Holy Spirit
to assist us in bearing the Cross of pain, suffering, and even death.
The significance of
today’s transition from preparing for mission to being sent on mission is not our belief in the
Resurrection but what the Resurrection means for those who believe.
Like the 24 members of the VQ1 Air Force reconnaissance flight, whose
belief in their training, chain of command, and nation made it possible
for them to neutralize their fear in the face of an uncertain future, our belief in
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead means that we needn’t
fear our certain future—death—any more. On that day—the day of our eternal homecoming—we
will experience the fullness of grace and peace—as the Jews say, “Shabbat
Shalom”—when God introduces us to the choirs of angels and the
communion of saints and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant,
enter into your Father’s rest.”
Until that day
comes—as it surely will for each and every one of us—the weight of the
Cross will test us. But, it will be our faith-filled resolve to see God
present in the midst of the many evils that engulf us, our faith-filled
willingness to embrace the Cross when we think it too heavy and
burdensome, and our faith-filled determination to fulfill our mission—as
Jesus did—that will demonstrate whether our training has prepared us
sufficiently to
fulfill our duties and responsibilities with honor and dignity as
citizens of God’s kingdom.
“You believe
because you have seen,” we have been told the Risen Lord said to the
doubter when the Risen Lord appeared the second time to his disciples.
“Blessed are you who have not seen but believe,” the Risen Lord tells us.
Easter Sunday—the
Solemnity of the Resurrection—is our “Independence Day” when the long
reign of sin and death has ended. This is the day our Lenten
preparations have prepared us for so that—like Jesus—we too
shall rise one day from the tombs where otherwise sin and death would have
imprisoned us. This is the day to savor our freedom from the power
of evil as well
as the gifts of forgiveness and new life God has given us through His
unconditional love.
“This is the day
that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it and be glad.” |
HOMILY
