Will I come back from the dead?

Homily

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

30 June 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

Will I come back from the dead?

Now don't worry, this ultimate pivotal question from me is not a threat to come back and haunt the St. Lawrence Center like a ghost. When I am gone as Director, I'm gone, as it should be.  Most of you expect to see me at KU games going forward, and I do think there's a good chance of that for sure.  But I'm not going to haunt the Center after I'm gone.  I promise.

But will I come back from the dead?

It's actually a pivotal question for every Christian.  There is no love story that is not a come back from the dead story, for true love is strong as death, and shows itself in the face of death.  The Resurrection of Christ from the dead is the cornerstone of our faith. St. Paul says unless there is a love stronger than death, our faith is in vain, and we are absolutely wasting our time, and I need to get a real job.  

Will I come back from the dead?   That is an essential and live question for every Christian.  A woman afflicted for 12 years and a little girl 12 years old are both brought back to life by the healing touch of Jesus.  Our Gospel today, of course is good news precisely because it's a come back from the dead story. For God hates death, and does not desire the death of his beloved, but that they be touched by His mercy and grace, and brought back to life.

I wanted to serve at KU at my alma mater for 12 years.  I got 8, which is also a holy number, so I"ll take it, gratefully.   I'm a spoiled brat, so not too many people think I have ever had to come back from the dead.  But I have.  I was spiritually dead and morally bankrupt when I came to St. Lawrence in 2016.  I wasn't sure I wanted to move forward in faith, or be a good shepherd at my alma mater.  Yet the Lord in his great mercy rescued me from the pit, sending me holy people who believed I could come back. Through these people, and a thirty day silent retreat, my faith was saved, and I was healed and brought back from the dead.  I shudder to think how dead I would be now if I had quit.  But because He touched me, I can now pray and live from the heart, and I'm so grateful for everyone who has prayed for me and believed in me, and never gave up on me.  I leave this assignment the most alive I have ever been in my life, and I praise God for that, for He was the one who couldn't bear to see me die.

It's been an amazing 8 years at KU.  I've seen new life come from the death of my dear friend's wife, and from the death of Msgr. Krische last year.  I've seen the Jayhawks come back from the dead many times, most notably in the largest comeback from the dead story in NCAA Basketball history when we won the Natty in 2022.  Rock freaking Chalk!  

But most of all, I've seen many Jayhawks come back from the dead in the confessional and at Mass, and I could not be more grateful to have ministered in this way on this holy hill and in this sacred space.  Each of us has been brought back to life by the healing touch of Jesus, just like and even moreso than the faithful woman and girl we hear about in today's Gospel.  That is my story, and yours, a love story stronger than death.  Whenever we trust our Lord in faith to heal us and restore us in the sacraments, He uses faith to deliver a new and different kind of life that can no longer be touched by death.  This is our faith. This is our participation in the paschal mystery by which everything passes over from death to life.  This is life, to be touched by the source of life that is Jesus Himself, whose touch is alone stronger than death.  

We got this wrong during COVID, when we forgot that social distancing is the very definition of death, and that touching our Lord is the only sure and safe path to real life.  I hope to never get this wrong again.

Hold on to this truth, that to touch Jesus in the sacraments is to come back from the dead. Be tenacious Jayhawks, and meaner than hell in laying hold of this truth.  Know that I love you all, and will miss you very much!  Amen.

+mj