There is a question that people use as a hippy test. The question is simple, what is the most important event that happened in the summer of 1969. If the person answers Woodstock then although he or she may or may not be a hippy they may have some hippy in them. If the persons answers Man landed on the moon, then the person assumedly does not have a large amount of hippy in them, if any at all.
Especially during this month, when many are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock we can focus on that event more than any other. I learned recently that Woodstock had an effect on the world war ii generation and of course the Baby boomers. The Generation Xers who came after the Baby Boom generation don’t get Woodstock. So let me explain it simply before I go on. The Woodstock event was key because after a very turbulent decade that virtually began with the US and USSR almost at nuclear war and had a host of violence including a protest outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968, riots and assasinations, the fact that 400,000 people could be virtually stranded in upstate New York with poor weather, lack of sanitary facilities, lack of food and a riot did not break out is key. That said, Woodstock was not the utopia it was made out to be.
In 1989 at the 20th anniversary of the event, Life magazine produced an issue about Woodstock and there you learned that many people had a great time. Yet, there were others who were introduced to drugs for the first time and never got off them, some saw their life change from one of promise to one of going in and out of jail.
Often times you see specials about Woodstock and there are certain people whom they always interview . They just tell one story after another of their time there and you realize that they essentially went to Woodstock and never left in their minds. So that is another element of Woodstock.
Yet, if we assume the legend to be accurate, which it is not, but let us assume the best of the legend, then everything that Woodstock is and was lasted three days.
In today’s gospel we see a powerful message one that we as Catholics can never forget. In fact it is this passage that I often referred people to when they sent me hate e-mail claiming they were leaving the Church during the crisis. I would remind them that Jesus said one sentence, 5000 people walked away, 12 remained and of those 12, 11 changed the world.
Peter makes that famous statement that is so essential to our faith, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life. In fact, Jesus indicates that those who walked away were not looking for what he had to offer. Peter and his apostles, at least 11 of them, were. That is eternal life.
What is it you are looking for? Especially when you come here, and do you find it. Are you looking for Woodstock or Heaven. You cannot have both because Woodstock lasted only three days and it was never duplicated. Heaven is eternal and goes beyond Woodstock.
What are you willing to sacrifice in order to find what you are looking for. For the sake of the good music and time at Woodstock, many people were willing to sacrifice their own external comfort. Jesus calls us to sacrifice everything possible.
Here is the key. If you want to find Woodstock now, drive about three hours west and go to the Woodstock museum. If you want to find Heaven, you need to humble yourself and listen to Christ. Here is the reason. Only Christ knows how we can find what we are looking for. He alone knows how to deliver. We cannot find it on our own because only Christ knows us to the level that he can give us what we need.
You cannot go to Woodstock if you are dying of cancer. You cannot go to Woodstock if you are in prison, if you do not have the power financial or otherwise to get there, if you have to work to support yourself and all the other reasons you cannot go to Woodstock. Yet, Heaven and Christ’s presence now is available to all regardless of whom or what they are.
This leaves us always with a choice– do you want to go to Woodstock or Heaven. If you want what this 
world has to offer, have a great time a Woodstock, but when it is over, it is over. If you want the fullness of what it means to be human you won’t find that it Woodstock. The people who turned away from Jesus wanted Woodstock. They wanted life on their terms, something that Jesus could not offer them. The apostles recognized that if they were to find eternal life, then they had to listen to Jesus. For Jesus alone knew not only how to give them what it is ultimately every human wants, but He knew and knows what most humans don’t know, what it is they truly need and want. You can’t find that if you accept Jesus only your terms, which is what those who abandoned them did.
I am always fascinated by the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said that one could not do ministry if he was not disillusioned with the Church. It is at that point that your concept of God in our world ends and His begins. So it is with the difference between Woodstock and Heaven. Woodstock is a great time on our terms,, Heaven is the fulfillment of all that is human on God’s. Which do you choose in your life. Before you make that choice remember Woodstock was only three days and it has never been duplicated. Jesus offers more than Woodstock for an infinite number of years more than 3 days.
Photocredits:
Woodstock
Liz Van Steenburgh
Heaven
kevin lange