April 17, 2007 -- Tove Jansson, a Swedish writer who invented the world of Moomin Valley, once wrote a story about a child who had become invisible, due to the withering scorn of the aunt who was rearing her and the indifference of those around her.  This Invisible Child was brought to the Moomin family to be made visible again.  At one point she is visible except for her head, and a rugged individual of a girl named Little My goes up to her and says, "Do you want a biff in the mouth?"  The child (Ninnie) answers meekly and Little My tells her, "You will never have a face of your own until you learn to fight."  And in fact, when Ninnie believes Moomin Mama is in danger, she streaks to her aid -- and her face appears.  She did in fact become a whole person -- get a face of her own -- when she learned to reach outside herself and fight.

Today's universities and indeed preschools, primary schools and high schools, teach Its All About The Herd.  There is nothing at all about the Individual.  It's all about Fitting In, Marching Together, chanting only those things pre-approved and waving those pre-printed signs.  It's about dressing like everyone else, even if you look like a clown, a criminal and a tramp  Above all else it's about never thinking of thinking for yourself at all.  Just stay in the crowd, be part of the Herd, and everything will be fine.

Well, yesterday at Virginia Tech it wasn't all about the Herd.  When a man is pointing a gun in YOUR face, it's too late to call your lawyer, your Mommy, your Herd or anybody.  This, as Christ reminded you over Easter, is all about YOU.  (Gilles Villeneuve, in a prophetic interview the week before he was killed, said that when a driver crashed at speed, there was only time to "cross yourself and call for Mother" and then you would be dead. It happens that fast in daily life sometimes too.) 

And the one thing that is clear among all the noise is that (1) not a member of the Herd seems to believe that there was or could have been anything they could do (No United 93 Action here, kids!) and (2) the answer is a lawsuit.

When a gun is in your face, you aren't going to solve that problem with chanting, flower petals, therapy or an impassioned speech about Anna Nicole Smith or Don Imus.  This is YOU and Death, face to face.  That's where you get a face of your own...or you don't.

Sunday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Everyone on Town Hall continued to scream about Anna Nicole, Imus and Feminists.  The Duke Rape Case got passing glances, but hey, leave that to the lawyers, write it off and move ON!  Well, move back to trivia....blabber on on on about ground you have already plowed. 

Easter has passed and none of you took the time to speak to strangers, stand up to injustice face to face, do anything differently from what you did Saturday or Monday.

Monday you went back to endless blabber about Imus and Anna Nicole.

God sent another message.  What will YOU do about it?  Will you the student get a face of your own because now you will learn to fight?  Or will you join the herd and shrug and say "What EVER!" and prepare again for the Herd March Against Iraq, and find some way to blame it all on George Bush?  Will you go back to making fun of Hillary's chin wattles?

Or will you look in the mirror and say to yourself, "There is a Gun Pointed At Me -- What Am I Going To Do?"

In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Indy is going to shoot one of the gang pursuing him without finding out why he's there.  The guy says to him 'My soul is prepared.  How's Yours?"  Indy does not shoot.  He realizes he's got work to do before he's ready to die and in fact he asks "Why are you trying to kill me?" and he does not die.

Who is it that gains his face and soul by fighting back?  An as-yet unnamed Holocaust Survivor at Virginia Tech died in the massacre -- he was a teacher who threw furniture against the door and held it against the hail of bullets to lay down his life for his students -- his friends.  Queen Esther was afraid to approach the King to save her people, and Mordacai said to her, "Who knows if you have been spared and placed here, at this time, for this reason alone?"  And Esther squares her shoulders and says, "I will go to the King.  And if I die, I die."

The valiant men and women aboard United 93 were perhaps placed there that they might act in that time and place.  They picked up the challenge and said "If we die, we die."  They gained faces of their own forever, because they learned to fight.

Who in the herd of 25,000 at Virginia Tech will develop a face of his or her own because s/he has learned to fight?  Who will drop back into the middle of the Herd and scream for a lawsuit against the school in the blind belief that somebody's got to be punished and if they can get some cash out of it, good too -- and all that matters is Anna Nicole and Imus?

• Who will shap out of it, realize that it's all about what YOU will do?  Jesus did not say that in the day when YOU stand before him, He will say that It's Not Your Fault, You were led astray by the Herd.  He will say "I was hungry and YOU gave me no food; I was thirsty and YOU gave me no drink; I was naked and YOU did not clothe me..." and who can doubt after yesterday's massacre, that He will add, "I was facing a gun and YOU blamed George Bush...and YOU ran away...and YOU went back the next day to join the lawsuit and blame the Man and blabber about American Idol..." to become yet again a member of the Herd and die without a face?

Who knows if YOU have not been placed here, at this time and in this place, for no other reason than this?  What will YOU do?  My soul is prepared.  How's Yours?

Get a face.  Learn to fight.  Rise out of the Herd.  But above all else, decide this day that you will get a face of your own -- that you will learn to fight.

The world may depend on what YOU decide today.  Decide.

Easter Sunday 2007 -- Today all of us who are Christians, even those who attend only on festival days, will crowd into our churches and places of worship to celebrate our Risen Lord.  Today I'd like to remind you that Christ often reveals Himself in the guise of a stranger.

Remember that Mary Magdalene stood distraught in front of the Tomb, alarmed that the body of her Lord was not there, and when she saw someone standing in the Garden she assumed he must be the gardener and spoke to him without even taking a good look first?  It was only when He was able to interrupt her flow of queries and alarums by speaking her name that she realized it was not a stranger, but her Risen Lord.

An old hymn reminds us that Christ often comes to us just this way, in the guise of a stranger.  So today when you enter your church, take a minute to look at the people around you.  Notice in particular the strangers.  And don't "notice" them the way you usually do.  Don't simply speak them to say "Excuse me, would you mind getting out of Our Pew so we can sit as a Family?" or even worse, simply elbow them aside and shove your way into the Joyful Procession ahead of them.  If the person who is sitting next to you in the pew is not known to you, don't turn to your husband, wife, child or grandma and present the stranger only the back of your good Republican cloth coat; and when required by the Mass to greet the stranger with "peace be unto you" don't do it as if the stranger has cooties.

That may be your one chance to greet the Risen Christ Who is sitting or standing or entering that Church beside you -- and because you greet Him with an elbow in the side, the back of your hand, or by ever so politely asking Him to vacate Your Pew, He may leave your Church and your life and shake the dust from His feet.

You don't know if that person sitting beside you is simply somebody your Mother and Grandmother never met at the Yacht Club, or a person far from home on a holy day who has come to this Church to praise God in the company of all believers -- or if that stranger is in fact the Risen Christ.  Can you afford to take that chance?

Do you really want to stand before the Heavenly Bar and hear the Lord Jesus say, "I visited your Church and you elbowed Me aside; I sat beside you in the pew and you ignored me; I offered you My peace and you refused to look at me or touch My hand; in fact, I attended that church for six months and when I departed and shook the dust from My sandals, you never even knew I had been there before."

And when you protest, "Lord, when did I ever treat you in such a shameful way?" you already know what He will say.  "Inasmuch as you did it to anybody who attended your church, you did it unto Me."

Of course, those of us who visit and attend your big city church, however small that church may be, would really prefer that you speak to us as brothers and sisters, not elbow us aside to get at the cookies, never ask us to vacate Your Pew, and miss us when we shake the dust of your parish from our feet, every Sunday of the year.

But we're willing to start small.  As Christ started small in the Garden when He gently opened the eyes of Mary Magdalene to the fact that He was not the Gardener, perhaps today when you see a stranger among us you'll smile and speak and say "Aleluia! Christ is Risen!" as if you spoke in fact to the Risen Lord.

Because that, in fact, may be exactly who it is.

Have a blessed Easter and may you rejoice exceedingly now and forevermore in the glory of the Risen Christ.