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No
Coincidence in the Spirit
May
15, 2005 Homily
John
20:19-23
Fr.
George Smiga
I
am not sure that many people here would recognize the name
Edwin Booth. But if you were living in the United States during
the Civil War that name would be recognized in almost every
household. Edwin Booth was recognized as one of the greatest
actors that had ever lived. He was the Russell Crowe of the
American stage. He did not, however, have an easy life. His
father drank himself to death. His first wife died after two
years of marriage. His second wife went insane. But perhaps
the greatest cross that Edwin Booth had to bear was one of
shame. Edwin Booth's younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, was
the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. So despite
all the fame and success that Edwin Booth had in his life,
he always had to deal with the embarrassment that a member
of his family killed one of the greatest figures of American
history.
Then,
one day later in his life, while Edwin Booth was waiting for
a train in Jersey City, there was a disturbance on the platform.
Booth saw that a tall, young man was being shoved by the crowd
onto the train tracks just as a train was approaching. Booth
dropped his suitcase and ran immediately and pulled the man
out of the way of the approaching train, certainly saving
his life. The young man recognized who Booth was at once and
said simply, “Well that was a narrow escape, Mr. Booth.” As
the two men began to talk with one another, Booth found to
his amazement that the young man whose life he had just saved
was Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln.
Now
how would we explain such a remarkable connection of events,
that the brother of the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln
was the man who saved the life of Lincoln 's eldest son? Is
that a coincidence? Those who do not have faith in God have
no other explanation. Despite the odds being a million to
one, people without faith would have to explain an event such
as Edwin Booth saving the life of Robert Lincoln as a remarkable
convergence of random events. Those, however, who believe
in God, who believe in Christ Jesus, have a different explanation.
For we believe that there is a force, a power, that is active
in our world. That force is the Holy Spirit.
You
see, believing in Christ is more than accepting a list of
propositions that are outlined in the Creed. It is more than
believing that a certain number of events once happened to
Jesus thousands of years ago. Saying that we believe in Christ
means that we believe that the power of God's Spirit is active
and moving in our world and in our lives. We believe that
the Holy Spirit moves us towards reconciliation, towards life,
towards salvation.
Jesus
in today's Gospel breathes on the disciples, and says, “Receive
the Holy Spirit.” That is His way of saying that He will remain
with us, that God's power will remain active in our lives
and in our world. The action of God's Spirit often appears
as a coincidence. Yet for believers there is no such thing
as coincidence. For us what appears as coincidence is the
action of God in our lives.
Think
about it. Was it coincidence that Saturday night when you
finally gave in to the demands of your friends and went out
to a party even though you rather would have stayed at home
and met that night the person you were going to marry? Was
it coincidence that you were in an automobile accident and
you walked away and then realized you would have to take steps
to deal with your drinking problem? Was it coincidence that
you met someone you had hurt in the produce aisle at Heinen's
and found the courage of saying, “I'm sorry,” and took a step
towards healing and reconciliation? Any one of us can recall
events in our life that look like coincidence. How we interpret
them is up to us. All I can say is that on the deepest level,
Christians don't believe in coincidence because we know that
the spirit of God is active, shaping and directing our lives.
But
if we accept that truth of God's active presence in our life
through the Spirit, it changes us. It makes us see life differently.
It makes us into different people. For people who recognize
the action of God's Spirit in their life are more humble,
more optimistic, more generous.
A
person who knows that God is active in the world tends to
be a humble person because he or she recognizes that they
are not the center of the universe, that there is another
power in the world working for good, building the kingdom.
Although our decisions are important, we recognize that our
decisions are not absolute, that God is working around us
and through us. Therefore, we watch humbly for signs of God's
presence.
The
person who sees the action of the Spirit in their life is
an optimistic person. If God is active, there is always reason
for hope. There is always reason to believe that things will
turn out better than we had planned. There is always a reason
to believe that as we get up each morning, something good
will happen today. If God is active we can be optimistic.
A
person who believes in the action of God's Spirit tends to
be a generous person. Because once we see that God is active,
we want to cooperate, we want to take part. Therefore, we
tend to give of our time, of our resources, of our talents
more freely without holding back, without counting the cost
because we believe that whatever is freely given will be used
by God for God's good purposes.
Those
who recognize the action of the Spirit in the world tend to
be a humble, optimistic, generous people. Conversely, those
who look at the world and feel that whatever happens is totally
up to them have a tendency to be proud, pessimistic and stingy.
What kind of person do you want to be? It depends on what
you believe. Therefore, choose what you believe carefully.
The
great feast of Pentecost that we celebrate today proclaims
to us that God is real and God is active in our world. Let
us then today embrace this great truth. Let us believe in
the presence of God working and directing our lives. Let that
faith make us into humble, optimistic, generous people. It
all depends on what you believe. Christians do not believe
in coincidence. We believe in the Spirit of God.
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