Open Wide The Doors

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from March 09, 2008

"I will open your graves and have you rise from them." Ezekiel 37:12

"So Jesus was perturbed again."

I would like to apply today's readings to some community and personal events that are disturbing.

Two Sundays ago between the hours of 7:30pm and 8:30am, about a thousand dollars in cash was taken from the parish safe, despite the fact that two keys must have been utilized. The church is expected to be a place of faith and trust, so this apparent theft hits home. I take the stewardship of the people's trust as a sacred responsibility. Measures have already been taken to tighten up still further our security procedures. We will need to tolerate even more locked doors.

I was perturbed again last Friday when my car was taken from the parish car port between the hours of 6 and 7 while it was still day. I had made the mistake of leaving my car unlocked while I led a wedding rehearsal. So "always remember to lock your car," was a lesson I learned that I would pass on.

These losses are material losses. Their hurt pales in significance with the many personal losses suffered by many others. I think of soldiers returning from Iraq without limbs.

When we suffer loss it is possible to lose trust. Feelings of frustration, sadness and anger can deepen. One is tempted to bury oneself in a cave of one's own making.

The story of Lazarus shows Jesus, "perturbed and deeply troubled." Jesus wept. However, he does not stay there. He cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

The Lenten season is a time to prepare ourselves for the hope of Easter. As the grass grows we leave behind the darkness and death of Winter. Spiritually we shrug off despair and anger. "I will put my Spirit in you that you may live." Ezekiel 37:14

We are a risen people.

PS. By some strange irony a former parishioner wrote to me from Idaho today with an engraved version of a reflection I had written for the Jubilee Year. I'll share it with a sense of counter intuitive irony and some returning faith:

Open wide the doors to Christ
For too long have we barred the door.

Looking for self aggrandizement,
We have built up walls of competition.
Afraid of trust we have developed security
In locks and chains and bolts.

We have put peepholes on dooorways
To screen our guests with discrimination.
Double gateways secure luxuries.
We end up prisoners in our own castles.

Let us practice faith in self-surrender.
let us offer the hand to friend and stranger.
Let us trust the air with our lungs
And believe only in Christ for safety.

Open wide the doors to Christ
For too long have we barred the door.