Put out into the deep... (Easter 6.A)

 

Every Saturday morning a good friend and I go walking in Coal Harbour—from the foot of Denman Street to Canada Place and back.

On our way we pass two large marinas at which beautiful boats of every shape, size, and description are moored.

But we’ve noticed something. We never see a single craft leave its berth. Not one boat heading out into the sunshine, even on glorious days like today.

This morning it hit me: could we in the Church be a bit like that? We are blessed with something beautiful and powerful—our Catholic faith. And we’re in the boat, which is a word often used to describe the Church. We’re on board.

But might we be like those boat owners who just can’t get out of their comfort zone to start the engine or run up the sails—to push off from the dock?

Because you need to set sail to really experience the excitement of a sunny day on the water, the joy of riding the waves, the natural splendour all around.

So, there’s my question for everyone here today. Has life in the Church been exhilarating for you? Have you ever had an experience that compared to feeling the wind in your hair as you skimmed over the waves, with sun and blue sky overhead?

Well, those are only analogies, so let me be more direct. Do the words of today’s Gospel resonate in your hearts? Have you experienced God abiding with you and in you?

What if I asked young people why they stopped attending Mass in the years immediately after their Confirmation? I’m almost sure that many would answer “because it didn’t make any difference.”

Pope Francis has said “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” Which makes me ask: Are there Christians whose lives are like Easter without Pentecost?

But let me come back to the owners of those berthed boats. Should they ever ask me to preach on the dock, I’m ready with a Scripture text: the words of Jesus to St. Peter in the Gospel of Luke, “put out into the deep” (5:4).

That’s what Christ the Redeemer parish is inviting you to do next weekend and beyond—to put out into the deep so that you can find a richer Christian life, what you may have been missing while sitting on the dock. We’re offering you what those believers in Samaria experienced when Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now let’s take a time out for a moment of sacramental theology. “The apostles’ practice of laying hands on new believers to impart the Holy Spirit,” as we heard in today’s first reading from Acts, “is regarded by Catholic tradition as the origin of the sacrament of confirmation, which completes baptism and ‘in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church’” as the Catechism says (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Acts of the Apostles, 143).

We’re not inviting you to be confirmed—most of you already are. (Of course, if you aren’t, do let me know and we can talk about that.)

But what we are offering is the experience of what you’ve already received in Baptism and Confirmation. Call it a new Pentecost—an opportunity to realize the effects of these sacraments. Every one of us calls God our Father when we say the Lord’s Prayer; but all too often we live like orphans.

Jesus promises that the Father will send us the Spirit. He calls the Spirit “another Advocate,” because Jesus is an Advocate also, who pleads our cause and intercedes for us. He says the Spirit will not only remain with us but be in us. We will not only know the Father’s love, but also experience it.

Certainly, in Confirmation we were given the grace the Lord promises. But many Catholics never experienced that grace at an affective and effective level.

What do we do about that?

In recent years the Church has come to understand what is usually called the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as something distinct from the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher to the Papal Household explains it like this:

The Baptism in the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is related to a sacrament, to several sacraments in fact—to the sacraments of Christian initiation. The Baptism in the Spirit makes real and, in a way, renews Christian initiation.

Another Cardinal, Paul Jozef Cordes, points out that while the term “Baptism in the Holy Spirit is common in English, French and Italian speakers refer to “Outpouring of the Spirit.” Whatever it is called, he says it is “a concrete experience of the ‘Grace of Pentecost,’ in which the working of the Holy Spirit becomes an experienced reality in the life of the individual and the community.”

He says that this experience is the certain and sometimes overwhelming ‘realization’ of the loving nearness of God proclaimed in the Church’s message and encountered in the individual act of faith.

How can this be? How can a sacrament received so many years ago come back to life with explosive energy, as often happens through the Baptism in the Holy Spirit? Cardinal Cantalamessa refers to Catholic sacramental theology which teaches that the fruit of a sacrament can be “tied”—the sacraments are not magical rituals that act without the person’s knowledge or response.

They bear fruit when human freedom cooperates with the divine grace. As St. Augustine said, “The one who created you without your cooperation, will not save without your cooperation.”

I’m not trying to explain all this today. But the truth is that many of us know that our Christian lives should be much more of an adventure than they are. Deep down, we want to experience, and not just believe, the promises Jesus makes in today’s Gospel of the life-changing gift of the Spirit.

My one sentence summary is just a question: Do you want more? Because there’s more on the way—in just a week the dynamic Bishop Scott McCaig will be here to preach our Holy Spirit Mission. The Mission begins Saturday afternoon at 2:00, ending with the Saturday 5:00 Mass celebrated by the bishop.

By the time the mission is over you’ll be able to decide for yourself whether you’re ready to “put out into the deep.” The parish team will make sure the boat’s ready for you two days later. Our first-ever Life in the Spirit Seminar, which is a preparation for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, begins on Tuesday May 23 at 7:00 pm.

This dramatic moment in the history of our parish may, for some, feel like boating on a choppy sea. After all, no one ever got seasick on a boat that’s tied up. But as I’ve said, they missed out on the excitement—and there’s nothing more exciting than what God has in store for those who love him.

So join us and find out what he has for you.