In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dostoevsky, in his last novels, Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Paramahansa, he had one theme. This is the last novel he wrote. He had one thing.
He was that It's a syllogist, a very simple syllogist. He wanted to prove that if there's no God and no immortality, then everything is right and good and allowable. Everything. Everything. Now, we have more than a generation of Americans who do not believe in God or immortality or much less.
Example, what happened up in Central Park, New York, few weeks ago, about two weeks ago. A young white lady in her thirties, a banker, was jogging, you know the story, and a pack of black and Hispanic youths who were not from the ghetto, who came from fairly good families, who were supposedly well adjusted, attacked the woman, raped her, and then just beat her. Beat her till they thought she was dead probably. She has since regained consciousness, came she was in a coma for over a week. Now, and their pictures were taken after this where they were laughing and joking with one another about what they had done.
Somebody There was a letter in the New York Times which said, well, after all, they all we are all guilty. You know that garbage. That we were all societies of fault. These poor kids. After all, were were not adjusted to their environment or education or whatever.
The point is, maybe they were all too well adjusted. If there's no God, if there's no immortality, everything is lawful. And it is. It is. It is.
I don't know how this is going to turn out, but it's a very serious commentary. These were not kids from the ghetto. And all you hear today is education. It's a magic word. But, you know, words are just signs.
When you have a sign saying directing you to New York, you've got to be pretty far gone on your way to Saint Elizabeth to think that that sign is New York City. But we talk about education exactly that way. As if it was something we have, something we hold. The point is this, education is an empty word. What goes into education?
What should be the purpose of education? I'm not the first one who says that today in The United States Of America, our higher so called education institutions are not schools of education at all. They are schools of information and of getting a job. And that comes not from some moralist or priest from a pulpit. What I'm bringing home is our Lord's mercies.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. And in me, you will have peace. Never forget, never forget that what Christ is talking about is his peace. It's not the peace of a pacifist. Nobody has claimed Jesus Christ as a pacifist with any validity.
It's the peace of Christ which can mean struggle, which can mean fighting, which can mean standing up, which can mean going to jail. This is Christ's peace. Look where it put Christ. You want that? Well, you said you did when you were baptized, or somebody said it for you.
Think about that. What we are committed to, we don't think at all about what it is to be a Christian today. And yet, this is what we are bound to. You wouldn't be here this morning unless you were profoundly convinced that God is a God and Christ is his son, and that he came to redeem you, and that he lives in his church. You wouldn't be here today unless you believe those four simple things.
You're here because you believe Christ is in the Eucharist. Why do you believe that? You certainly don't have any experiential knowledge of it. You don't have any scientific vindication for it. You have it on faith in the living, whatever it is, this church of Jesus Christ.
And let us not be afraid to look at these things because, folks, day is coming if it is not already here. When we do have to stand up and be counted. And it's going to cost. Put Christ on the cross. And you see, this is not This sounds terribly grim.
But remember, following Jesus Christ is not a grim journey. It's not a journey of confusion. It's not a journey of searching. It's a journey of following the Son of God. I forget who it may have been Frank or one of these psychiatrists who said, if in any situation we can see purpose and meaning, we can endure it.
And every Christian does in everything of life see purpose and meaning. Not because they can tell you right off what it is, but because they know they are possessed with the love of Jesus in both subjective and object. In other words, he loves them, they love him, and they are following him. That's a concrete conception. And so, in these days, when we are Remember, after the resurrection, after the ascension, the apostles were very confused.
They still did not have a clear vision of who Jesus Christ was and that what he intended to do. They even after the resurrection, even after the ascension, Some of them still thought that he was going to restore the kingdom of Israel. Throw the Romans out. Take over. It was only after Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit, that they knew what it was all about.
And then they flung open the doors. They even Well, you can just see them rushing out and going into the very temple of the Lord on Mount Zion and speaking out fearlessly. Fearlessly. That's the story of Pentecost. It's the story of our lives.
We have received the holy spirit, the comforter. So, us rely on it. Let us not be afraid. Let us be without fear. Let us rush to the temple of the Lord to proclaim the good news.
The way we can proclaim it and above all the way you people in the pews can proclaim it is with your daily lives. And there's no one can dispute that. It's our holy father's almost his constant theme these days. That is the mission of the laity. Carry the good news into the world.
Because for the most part, the world which knows not Christ and his good news is closed to a priest of God. Closed. So, as I say in these days, as we await the Pentecost, let us pray that we will be confirmed in our faith. And remember, this is not something sentimental and emotional. It's an act of my intelligence on motives of credibility.
That sounds as cold as a refrigerator, but my friends, that's what people have laid down their lives for. And they found peace. The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of Holy Spirit. Amen.