can Jayhawks fly?

Homily

Solemnity of the Ascension

16 May 2021

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

Graduation Weekend 2021

Can Jayhawks fly?

It seems the appropriate pivotal question on this weekend when Jayhawks leave the nest and the Church celebrates Jesus going up up and away through His Ascension.

I don't know the answer.

I've been told definitely not.  Have you ever seen a Jayhawk fly?  Certainly not the dozens of Jayhawks affixed to pedestals all over campus.  There are vulgar legends on what it would take for those Jayhawks to fly.

Then again, Jayhawks seem to fly through the air at Allen Fieldhouse. We've had some incredible dunkers in our history.

Maybe it's a pivotal question best answered by the Aerospace Engineering department.

Actually, Jayhawks are not known for flying.  They're know for being mean.  The mascot was chosen for KU in the aftermath of the Civil War, in 1865.  The Jayhawkers were those fierce fighters who wanted Kansas to come into the union as a free state.  Two ferocious birds, the sparrow hawk and blue jay, were put together to make a singularly nasty hybrid called the Jayhawk!  

To be a Jayhawk is to be fierce and tenacious.  Is that you, class of 2021?  Do you know what you're fighting for.  Is it for the fullness of life, dignity and freedom?  Is that why you came to KU, to know what you will fight for.  Is that how you're leaving?

Jesus invites his disciples to a vertical way of life.  In his paschal mystery, we have seen Jesus free fall from the heights of heaven, from the heart of His Father, all the way to the depths of hell.  Today we celebrate the law of life and love, that what goes down must come up!  Jesus takes all of history and our redeemed humanity all the way back up. From there Jesus begins to work from home!

Up down, up down!  Jesus for sure has taught his disciples how to live horizontally, embracing responsibility and the chance to choose good and build virtue.  Yet He invites His disciples to a more courageous vertical way of life.  Jesus directs now from home through His Holy Spirit the risks taken by His disciples, to throw themselves into the battle against evil, and to rise through the Spirit into the dignity and destiny that His Ascension unlocks for them.

Mysteriously, Jesus is closer to us through His Spirit and sacraments, working from home, than He ever was before.  He makes room for His disciples to go, and to extend and complete His salvific mission to defeat evils!

So I know I have to speak figuratively, but I will speak with conviction.  Catholic Jayhawks are born to fly.  It has been such a privilege to guide these graduates during their KU years to be fierce!  Look out world, here they come!  Our graduates are capable of risk, vulnerability, commitment, communion, self-gift and contagiosity!  

So fly Jayhawks, fly!  Show us the evils that you will go forth and defeat, especially by living your faith with tenacity -as vertically as you can!

who loves you unconditionally?

Homily

6th Sunday of Easter B

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

+mj

Who loves me unconditionally?

Just my mom, I think.  I miss her more than I let on. 

It's in the DNA of moms of love unconditionally.  Moms aren't perfect, yet they're setup to fulfill what Jesus says about the greatest love. It's to lay down one's life.  Moms are wired to give everything.  My mom would die for me in a second.  I know because she did in so many ways.  Again, not all moms are perfect, but it's in the definition of motherhood to give life.  I don't expect anyone to love me as unconditionally as my mom did.

This capacity of my mom is grounded in God Himself, or so the scriptures propose to us.  Being love itself, God has no need to receive our love.  He can be pure grace, pure gift to us.  St. John puts it right.  Only God can initiate unconditional love.  In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loves us, totally through the gift of only begotten.  Jesus says the same.  You don't choose me.  I choose you.  My mom needed to receive love before She could give it.  Unconditional love must start with God Himself.  We can only respond to the commandment, to love others just as He first loved us.

Still, unconditional love doesn't make a friendship.  Did you catch that?  Friendship is conditional, very much and quite so.  Jesus is friends with His Father because He keeps the rules of the relationship.  Jesus says we are His friends not through unconditional love, but only as we keep His commandemnts.

Mind you, this is not a slave/master relationship.  Jesus is clear.  Master's don't give everything first, without condition.  Still, unconditional love cannot make a friendship.  Only conditional love does that.  There is no relationship without rules.

If I have taken my mom's love for granted or hoarded it, I am not her friend.  Jesus talks about the conditions not for receiving but for remaining, abiding, and bearing fruit.  Every gift given, especially unconditional love, requires a response.  Friendship is a responsibility.

So which is better, unconditional or conditional love?  It's hard to say atually.  It's hard to see unconditional love wasted. Which is why I would like to add a second pivotal question.  It's not just about who loves you unconditionally.  It's about your response in friendship. Love only bears fruit that will last, if you remain and abide.  Only if you truly become a friend.