There was an uneasy and embarrassing atmosphere in the room because up to this point young Billy Elliot had blown his total interview and audition.  He was a miner’s son and maybe the coal mine was going to be his destiny.  How could a child of a coal miner ever attempt to aspire to be a ballet dancer?  It seemed unreal, totally unreal.  And how could he have the audacity to interview for the London Royal School of Ballet to try and get a scholarship.
         
Aware he had blown his interview; he awkwardly stood up, head bowed, and made for the exit.  But one wise, one creative woman on the interview panel asked him a final question.  And the question was, “Billy, how do you feel when you dance?”  How do you feel when you dance?  There was a silence until Billy dropped his bag and raised his eyes.  And in a brightening glance he said:
         
“It sort of feels good.  It starts stiff but once I get going then I forget everything and I sort of disappear in the dance, like I feel a change coming over my whole body and my whole soul.  Like there is fire in my inter-being; like there is a burning in my bones.  I am just there – I am flying like a bird, like electricity – like electricity.
          I feel it move me
Like a burning deep within me. 
Something bursting that needs to be ripped open.  Impossible to hide. 
Suddenly it’s released and given freedom. 
And then I am free.”
         
My Friends, I recall these very beautiful, these very life giving words and this cathartic experience from the musical and the film of the same name Billy Elliot.  If you haven’t seen it I would really, really invite you to see it.  It’s a wonderful film and musical show celebrating the triumph of the human spirit.
         
I believe firmly that the Gospel should do for us what the dance did for Billy.  The Gospel today is shot through with the language of resurrection and, indeed, the language of Easter.  Lazarus is set free to stretch his arms, to stretch his limbs, to stretch his body.  We all know what that is like even if we want to yawn.  There is a great freedom in stretching.  And Lazarus is set free into new life.  All this is done very publicly.  It’s not a private thing.  There is a moment of shuddering terror and overwhelming joy as Lazarus is summoned by Jesus, unwrapped and set free.
         
Jesus liberates him into new light and new life.  He also liberates him from the harness and the worn out forces of the past and propels him into something new, a new creation with new possibilities.  This is what hearing the Gospel should also do for us.  It should transform us both inside and outside of ourselves.  It should move us, give us hearts of hope, disturb us now and again, unwrap us, set us free, empower us, make us uncomfortable now and again and push us to make a difference.
         
The word of the Gospel, like the dance, has the rush and it has the electricity.  If only we tap in and plug into it.  My Friends, Easter will not immediately fall in our laps.  Easter will come dropping slow as the Irish poet Yates would say.  It will come ‘dropping slow’.  And Easter will not fall into our laps borne from the immediate push of the remote control.  It will come slowly.  It needs a welcoming earthy heart and demands a patient waiting.  It also requires, like we have just begun yesterday, a spring-like faith.  The promise of Easter should spark hope in the seeds of renewal and these seeds may never find fruit in our lifetime but definitely in our childrens’ and their childrens' lifetimes.  So what we are doing is investing for our children.
         
And the parish of Christ the King has indeed caught the electrifying word of the Gospel.  And that is a fact and there is no doubt about that.  The fruits are evident in your warmth and the strength of your community, your care and concern.  It is through your confident hope and generosity the word of God is healthy and very alive.  Your 59 ministries – when I counted them in the directory I was kind of amazed and I didn’t believe you had 59 ministries.  But I checked with the parish’s reference minds, who is sitting right next to me and yet we have 59 ministries.  I don’t think any other parish has services totaling 59.  And that is proof and evidence that ‘the word’ is fully alive and active at Christ the King.  What you do in each moment, like renewal, will be transported into the future.  The work that is done now, its sprouts also will be seen and experienced in the future and, please God, by your children’s children. 
         
Just last week I had the privilege to go into the program of the ministry of ‘Winter Nights’ where I met Gwen and her team and indeed 250 volunteers who provide and create a safe environment for many homeless people, I think in excess of 30 families, and I rubbed shoulders with very fine people there.  Each had a story to tell and they were so happy to have the team and the volunteers to sit by them to listen to their story and also provide care and hospitality. 

I also am in awe of the St. Vincent De Paul.  I meet the members every week in the parish office and indeed in the parish house and I am always taken by their humor and their good fun.  They do their work with great fun and enthusiasm.  The members infect me with their humor.  And again they are selfless and they tirelessly give of their time and their energy for the people at the edges of our society; and they do it with care and compassion.  So there are just two ministries that I dipped into. 

And for a long time we didn’t know this man’s name.  He was the guy who sleeps in the car.  He had chosen a spot to park nearby, but remote from our concerns somehow.  But one day I took the initiative to speak to him and we had a very meaningful conversation and now he has a name.  His name is Dave.  And Dave told me his stories.  He had it all at one time and somehow, through the blows that life can kick at us, he lost it all too.  But, however, through the ministry of St. Vincent De Paul and Winter Nights he did dance the way back.  Dave is on the way back to new life and new lights.  And that bore evidence when he was at the door one morning at 5:30 a.m. with a card of ‘thank you and gratitude’ for the help he has received from the parish.  The parish gave him new hope and they recognized him again as a person and a person with potential to begin again.

My Friends, the beauty of Christ the King is that, like Martha and Mary, we can bring on the dance when we wish and celebrate; but also we can sit at the feet of people, the wounded and the hurt and also listen to their stories.  And like young Billy Elliot we must allow the dance of our faith to continue to stir and amaze us, like fire in our bodies as he said ‘like electricity, like electricity, like electricity’.  And he did get the interview and he also got that scholarship to pursue his electric dream.  He said doing this is what creates love; movement is what creates life.  To be still, yet still moving that is everything.
Amen.

rjs