Holy Spirit Catholic Church
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SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
May 13, 2007
In 1974, several of President Nixon's White House advisors were sentenced to prison for their role in the Watergate scandal. One of these advisors was Charles Colson. Shortly before he was convicted and sentenced to prison, Colson underwent a remarkable religious conversion. He turned his life over to Jesus completely.
One Monday morning, while in prison, Colson was sitting in his cell wondering why God had let him be buried in prison, especially in the light of his subsequent repentance and conversion. He couldn't imagine any good coming from being locked up behind bars. He felt abandoned by God. He opened his bible and read a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews which recalled how Jesus came into our world and lived among us as a brother. Suddenly a thought crossed Colson's mind.
Was not his prison situation similar to Jesus' situation in our world? God had sent Jesus into the world to live among us as a brother and to lead us to salvation. Colson wondered if it could be possible that God had a similar plan for him. Could it be that God had permitted him to be sentenced to prison so that he might live among the prisoners as a brother and lead them to salvation?
"Out of these startling thoughts," Colson said later, "came the beginning of a revelation that God was calling him to prison ministry". After his release from prison, Colson founded a program called Prison Fellowship. It is now nationwide and involves Bible-study seminars that are attended by over 30,000 prisoners in over 500 of our nations prisons.
It also provides material and spiritual assistance to the families of prisoners. Finally, it provides counseling for prisoners and families of prisoners during the difficult days that often occur after a prisoner returns home.
The story of Charles Colson and his prison ministry illustrates an important point that Jesus makes with his disciples in today's Gospel reading. His disciples were "troubled" and "afraid" when they heard that Jesus was going to leave them for a while. They found it impossible to imagine life without Jesus at their side. They found it impossible to imagine how any good could come from Jesus’ departure from their midst. Why was Jesus letting this tragedy happen to them, especially just after they had committed their lives to him? Jesus was saying that he would not leave them without help, but would send the Holy Spirit to guide them.
And that's what happened. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and helped them to do new and exciting things that they never dreamed of doing without Jesus walking at their side.
There’s an important lesson to be learned from the story of Colson’s imprisonment and from the story of Jesus' departure from his disciples. It is this: There comes a time in all of our lives when Jesus seems to abandon us. There comes a time in our lives when God seems to leave us to struggle alone.
Take prayer for example. Perhaps there was a time in our lives when we derived peace and joy from prayer. But now we seem to derive little peace or joy from it. Or take our faith. Perhaps there was a time when our faith was strong enough to move mountains. But now it can hardly move a molehill. Or take our religious involvement. Perhaps there was a time when we derived great joy and satisfaction from doing what is right: working for the poor, working for the Church, volunteering for service projects. Now we derive little joy or satisfaction from doing these things. It's as though God has abandoned us.
We wonder why God has done this to us. We can't imagine any good coming from the tragic situation that we now find ourselves in. The truth is that God has not abandoned us, but has merely withdrawn temporarily. God knows that it is time for us to move to a new level of spiritual growth.
God is working in our lives in a new way; just as God did in Colson’s life and in the lives of the disciples. For example, God wants to teach us that real prayer can take place even when we don’t feel that anything is happening as we pray. Actually our best prayer often takes place when our hearts turn to stone and we feel nothing at all. For it is then that we pray with true faith.
God also wants to teach us that faith is not a feeling. Rather it is a commitment. It is a surrendering of ourselves to God. It is saying yes to God, simply because God is God!
Finally, God wants to teach us that the motive for religious involvement, for helping our brothers and sisters, is not the satisfaction and joy it gives us. Rather, the motive for our involvement is Jesus himself! We get involved because Jesus asks us to. We get involved because Jesus taught us to. We get involved because Jesus got involved.
And so if, like Charles Colson, we find ourselves wondering why Jesus has abandoned us, or if, like the disciples, we find ourselves wondering why Jesus has departed from us, it is simply because Jesus wants to lead us to a new level of spiritual growth.
He wants us to begin growing in ways that we never suspected to be possible. He wants to give us a new and more profound appreciation of prayer, of our faith, and our motive for becoming involved in helping others. And it is my vision and hope that through our prayers, our faith, and our motivation we will reach our goal of improving our church for many generations to come!