3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
James 5:7-10
Matthew 11:2-11
December 15, 2013

“Are you the one?”

John the Baptist is in jail for preparing the Way of the Lord and has heard of Jesus.  He wants to know if Jesus is the Messiah.  So, he sends disciples to inquire, “Are you the one?”

Of course Jesus is the one but he doesn’t answer with a “yes” but by directing them to look at the signs he has done.

John made his life all about “preparing the way of the Lord”.  He has been waiting for Jesus the Messiah but he isn’t the only one who has been waiting.

The Israelites had been waiting for centuries.  Ever since the time of King David there had been prophecies about a coming Messiah.  During Advent, we hear of messianic prophecies found in the writings of Isaiah.

They had been waiting a long time.  At times, they won’t always a patient people.  Now, Jesus has been born, an occasion for rejoicing.

Today is Gaudete Sunday.  Gaudete means “rejoice”.  During the first half of Advent our readings focus on the Second Coming but now we turn our attention more towards the first coming that we will celebrate at Christmas.  Without a doubt, Christmas is a time to rejoice.

Yet, Christmas is still a week and a half away.  We aren’t there yet.  We may not like waiting but we must.

Waiting may not be easy but it is a natural part of life.  James speaks of the farmer waiting for the fruit to grow.  It takes time for the trees to be fruit.  There are times there is nothing for the farmer to do but wait.

Waiting can try our patience but waiting isn’t the only thing that can try our patience.

People can try our patience.  Sometimes by what they do.  Maybe they don’t do something the way we want it.  Maybe they are ahead of us in the store and moving too slowly.  Sometimes they try our patience by standing in the way of the way we want to do things.

Maybe the Christmas crowds at the stores try your patience.

Maybe all the extra people at our Christmas Masses try your patience.  Normally, our 4 p.m. Mass on Christmas Eve is packed.  Do the crowds try your patience?  Can’t find a seat in church?  Maybe you will have to park a few blocks away because of all the cars.

Will this try your patience?

Maybe but looking at things as Jesus would, the problem isn’t that so many people come to church at Christmas.  No, the problem is they don’t come the rest of the year.

They will have different reasons for not coming the rest of the year.  Of course, some are visitors, just in town for the holidays.  Others may not feel connected or worthy.

We don’t know all the reasons people don’t come every Sunday.  What we can do at Christmas is make them feel welcome.  We need to give them an experience that they want to come back for.

We will decorate the church to make it beautiful for all who come.  Our musicians are practicing for the Christmas music to be ready.  The pastor will prepare a wonderful homily.  We are working on booklets to hand out at the end of the Christmas Masses like we did last year that will invite everyone to be a regular part of our parish.

Will you do your part?

What is your part to encourage the people to come back?

I think a lot of what you as the congregation can do to help our “visitors” come back each Sunday is a simple matter of attitude and kind gestures.

First, come with a smile on your face!  It’s Jesus’ birthday.

Don’t come in grumpy because you had to park a few blocks away.  Smile because there are so many people here!

Don’t have a sour face when you find someone sitting in your pew.  Be glad they are here.

Maybe you’ll get here early to get a seat and someone will come later and ask you to squeeze over to make room.  Don’t give them a dirty look.  Move over and tell them how wonderful it is to see so many people here.  Maybe even say “I wish all these people were here every week.”

And perhaps the simplest of all is to simply say “Merry Christmas” to all who come.  But don’t say it with a gloomy face.  Say it with a smile that says we’re glad you’re here.

Welcoming people here can start now.  When you see people you know, invite them to come here for Christmas.  Maybe it will be just the nudge they need.

Whether they know it or not, everyone is searching for something and that something is God.  Pray that we always offer an encounter with God’s love for all who come here.

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-9
Matthew 3:1-12
December 8, 2013

Every time we celebrate Mass we listen to words from the Bible.  Why?

Paul offers us an explanation when he writes to the Romans, “Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

When we read scripture, we are reading stories of events in the past but not to simply as nice stories of history.  The stories found in the Bible give us instruction about what it means to believe in God.  The scriptures also tell us how God has always kept his promises to the people so that we can have hope in God’s promises for the future.

One of the promises we read about in scripture is told by Isaiah in our first reading today.  Isaiah tells what the coming Messiah would be like with the spirit of the Lord upon him with gifts of knowledge, courage, and strength to name a few.  Jesus clearly is the fulfillment of this.

But when we talk about God fulfilling his promises, there is a second part to this reading that doesn’t seem to have been fulfilled in Jesus.  Isaiah speaks of how the wolf will lie with the lamb and the baby shall play by the cobra’s den

This would seem impossible and history would say it hasn’t happened.  Has God let us down?

No.  Jesus came to offer all this to us but not all have accepted it.  Jesus came to transform the world but not all have accepted the transformation.

Have we?  Have we become Christian?

It begins with Baptism.  For John baptism was for the forgiveness of sins.  John tells us that Jesus’ baptism will be so much powerful than his.  Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

With the baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, courage, counsel, and fear of the Lord.  What do we do with these gifts?  Do we allow ourselves to be transformed by them?

As we think about the Second Coming of Jesus, we must ask ourselves are we ready?

Soon we will celebrate the first coming of Jesus at Christmas.  People will spend a lot of time preparing ranging from shopping to cooking to cleaning and decorating at home.

How much time will you spend getting your house ready for the guests you will have?

There is one guest who must never be forgotten, Jesus!  However, Jesus isn’t interested in how clean our homes are or how they are decorated.  Jesus wants to come into our lives spiritually.

You work to get your house ready for others.  What are you doing to get your heart ready for Jesus to come as your guest?

1st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
December 1, 2013

Even before Thanksgiving Christmas items were appearing in the stores.  I saw a Santa in a mall two weeks before Thanksgiving.  Radio stations are beginning to play Christmas music.  The Christmas lights are going up.

But it isn’t Christmas yet!

In fact we have a whole season to celebrate in our Church before we get to Christmas.  It’s called Advent.

There can be no doubt that Christmas is important.  It is the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Indeed it is second only to Easter on our church calendar.

In fact we have a season just to help us get ourselves spiritually ready for Christmas.  We call this season Advent and we begin it today.

Advent means “coming”.  It is the coming of our Lord that we celebrate during this season.  During Advent, we are called to think about Jesus’ coming in two ways, his first coming at the first Christmas and his second coming at the end of the ages.

Thus Advent is both a season of joyful anticipation of our Christmas celebration of Jesus’ first coming.  It is also a penitential season as we think about our readiness for the second coming of Jesus.  Our liturgical color for Advent is violet (known as purple to many) symbolizing our need to reflect upon our sinfulness and our need to change.

Christmas is a time of joy and hope so it really shouldn’t be surprising we tend to want to jump ahead to Christmas.  Why think about our sins when we could think happy thoughts about Christmas?

It is precisely our thoughts of Christmas that should lead us to reflect on our readiness and to make changes in our lives.  Jesus coming into the world is a wonderful thing.  But Jesus doesn’t want to just be in our lives at Christmas.  Jesus wants to be part of our lives each and every day.

Of course, we should want Jesus in our lives each and every day.  What is it we pray in the Our Father?  Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.

So we have Advent as a special season to reflect upon lives and to discern what changes we need to make in our lives.

This can be a radical change as Isaiah speaks of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.  Won’t it be wonderful if everyone changed their lives so there would be no need to for war and violence?

To help us make the necessary changes, God instructs us in his ways in the scriptures we hear at Mass that we may walk in his paths.

Why do this now?  Can’t it wait?

That’s your call.  Jesus tells us that the coming of the Lord will happen just like the flood, nobody knew it was coming (except Noah).

What does Paul say to us?  You know the time; it is hour now for you to awake from sleep.

When we hear Paul say “you know the time”, one might think it refers to the time of the second coming (which we don’t know) but that isn’t what Paul is pointing to.

Paul is telling the Romans it is time to change.  They have heard of Jesus and his teachings.  Now is the time to begin to live what Jesus teaches us.

It is time for us to make changes in our lives, to recommit ourselves to the Lord.  We don’t know when the end will come but, as Paul says, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

So, we begin Advent today by thinking about our failings.  This should lead us all the more to realize the great gift Jesus is to us for he brings us forgiveness made possible by his love.

What greater gift is there than Jesus’ love and forgiveness?

Christ the King, Year C
2 Samuel 5:1-3
Colossians 1:12-20
Luke 23:35-43
November 24, 2013

The Israelites realize it is time to make David their king.  God had already anointed David as king but the Israelites are just coming to realize the leadership that David has shown.

They realize that even when Saul was still alive and ruled as their king, it was David who lead them against their adversaries.  David became known as a great king.  Through him God builds the kingdom of Israel.

After David, God promised that He would raise up a new king like David.  There were many kings after David but none proved be the expected messiah.

Here comes Jesus.  Could He be the Messiah?  Could He be the king they were waiting for?  Many placed great hope in Jesus.  If he could just be the one they have been waiting for, then the Romans could be defeated and the kingdom of Israel restored.

Instead, Jesus ends up on the Cross.  For those waiting for a messiah king this must mean that Jesus wasn’t the one.  This could not happen to the messiah.

Yet it did.

On the Cross Jesus was mocked as the king of the Jews.  Everyone, while everyone but one, felt he could not be the messiah king.

There was one who believed Jesus was king.  It was the second criminal who recognized Jesus’ kingship.  This criminal admitted his wrong doing.  He could have figured he would not be saved because of his crimes.

He does not.  He says “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  He stands up for Jesus and is the one to recognize Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world.  His only words to Jesus are an outreach for the mercy of Jesus.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King.  We call Jesus our king but what does it mean to call Jesus our king?

What does “king” mean to us?

We don’t use the term “king” in our country but we have leaders and we study kings in history.  A king rules over a land.  The king is the one in control of the people.  A king controls the army to get rid of the enemy.  Kings live in rich palaces.

This is the type of king the Israelites were expecting.  Jesus wasn’t any of these.  Jesus never ruled over a land in this world.  Jesus doesn’t control us.  Jesus did not lead an army, at least not an earthly of soldiers.  Jesus did not live in a palace.

Yet Jesus does rule.  Where?  In heaven.

Jesus doesn’t control us as He gives us free will.  But he teaches us what to do with our free will.

Jesus does not lead an army of soldiers into war but He does lead us in combat against evil.

Jesus didn’t live in a palace.  He was born in a manger.

Jesus is indeed our king, just not the way we expect as humans.

Jesus invites us to be part of His kingdom.

How do we join?

Through Baptism.

In baptism we receive the gift of the kingdom.  We don’t know the kingdom fully until we pass from this world the to the next but we are called to make the kingdom known to others as Jesus makes the kingdom known to us.

Jesus didn’t come to be a king for Himself.  He came not to rule but to serve.  We make the kingdom known to others as we are anointed priest, prophet, and king according to the example of Jesus.

We all share in a common priesthood in being willing to make sacrifices for others.

We are all prophets in that we are called to share God’s word with others.

We are all called to be kings not by ruling others but rather by serving their needs as Jesus served our needs as our king.  True kingship is not about what’s in it for me.  True kingship is rooted in serving others.  Jesus is our king, serving us by saving us.

33^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
Malachi 3:19-20a
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Luke 21:5-19
November 17, 2013

Next week we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and then the weekend after that we will begin Advent.  Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year in the church.

Before we can begin a new liturgical year, we must first end the current year.  As we do so, our readings focus on the “end times.”

Jesus tells people about the destruction of the temple.  They ask “when will this happen” and “what sign will there be.”  We can ask these same questions about the Second Coming, the end of the ages.

They would seem like reasonable questions.  Many people have tried to answer these questions from scriptures to predict a day.

Jesus tells us first there will be wars and insurrection, earthquakes, famines, and plagues.  People try to match these up to actual historical events to predict when the “end” will come.

There have been earthquakes throughout history.  There have been (and continue to be) famines.  There have been plaques.  There have been many wars and insurrections.  There is too much of all of this.

Giving this, how anyone expects to predict when the “end” will come is beyond me.  Why do we care what signs there will be?  What are you going to do differently?

If I could guarantee for you that the “end” will come, say, on November 1, 2014, how would you change your life?  Would you get ready now or would you put it on your calendar to start doing good a week before, doing whatever you wanted until then?

That would be wrong.

It doesn’t matter when the “end” is coming.  The time to be Christian begins now.  When I see “be Christian” I’m not just talking about baptism.  I mean we must be Christian by the way we live our lives.

As a society, we are not doing well at this.  We are in a downward spiral of values.

Why?

Because we are following the wrong examples!  We talk about freedom and that the gift it is.  We take it to mean we can do whatever we want so we do what brings us pleasure.

We live in a society that wants instant gratification.  So, we look for what gives immediate pleasure.  The problem is that sometimes the immediate pleasure doesn’t last and can be sin.  God can give us an eternal pleasure in heaven.

What do we need to do to have “eternal pleasure?”

We need to seek to do God’s will.  This means giving up the instant pleasures that are sinful to seek a greater good.

Does this mean giving up our freedom to just do what God wants?  It is not about “giving up” our freedom.  The point is to make good choices with the “freedom” we have.

How do we know what it is that God wants us to do?

We can read the Bible.  We can attend faith formation sessions.  We can read spiritual material.  We can also follow good Christian examples.

What does Paul say?  “Imitate us.”

Paul is not bragging.  Ultimately, Jesus is the example we must follow but we look to the examples of people around us.

As we look to people around us for examples, we need to ask ourselves, are these people making good choices.  If not, DON’T IMITATE THEM.

I hope none of us wants to imitate another because of bad things they do but we might fall into the same pattern as them if we are not careful.

We must also think of the example we are ourselves to other people.  Here I think of a parent and a child.  I sometimes see a parent that tells us a child not to do something that is bad and then goes and does it themselves.  What kind of example is that?

So as you think about what it means to be Catholic, do you see yourself as a leader or a follower?  Maybe we need a little bit of both.  We need to be a follower of Jesus and a leader of people to faith.

32^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
November 10, 2013

The Resurrection is a central mystery of our faith.  The Resurrection is essential to who we are as Christians.  At Easter we proclaim “Jesus Christ is Risen today.”

But what does the Resurrection really mean for us?

The Sadducees do not believe in the Resurrection.  They said they couldn’t find it in the five books of Moses that form the Torah.  At the end of today’s gospel Jesus does point out that it is in the Torah.  At the burning bush, God is identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Our God is a god of the living, not the dead.  So this implies a resurrection.

Yes, they come to Jesus with a question of what the Resurrection will be like.  We should ask why, if they don’t believe in the Resurrection, they would ask what it will be like.

Two thoughts here.  First they might be trying to trap Jesus or they might be trying to show how there can’t be a Resurrection.  They figure if there were a resurrection, life would just continue as is, and the woman would have seven husbands.  And having children as heirs won’t be important because we would live on.  So, to them the idea of a resurrection would seem absurd.

There lies the problem.  What is the Resurrection like?  We believe in it.  We know we will be with God in Heaven.  That is what we know for sure.  The Book of Revelation tells us about John’s visions of Heaven but they can be difficult to interpret.

Sometimes we talk about what Heaven will be like.  Such conversations generally center on having our favorite things.  Would that mean we would all have our own Heaven because each of us has different favorite things?

No, there is one Heaven and it isn’t set up the way we would make it be.  It isn’t “have it your way” in Heaven.  Heaven is what God calls it to be.

When I took a class in seminary about death, Heaven, hell, and Purgatory, we read a book written in the late 1970’s by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (who became Bishop Ratzinger à Cardinal Ratzinger à Pope Benedict XVI).  There was an extensive section on Heaven where he discussed different thoughts about Heaven.  Yes, we try to put Heaven in earthly terms.  To have a conversation about Heaven, we have to talk about in by comparing it to what we experienced in this world.  In his book, he says the one thing we know about Heaven is that we will be with God.  What more can we ask for?

It’s called faith.

Our faith in the Resurrection should change the way we look at things.  If there is no resurrection, then won’t this world be all that matters.  Shouldn’t we do everything we can to stay alive?

That’s not what we heard in Maccabees.  The people are facing a severe persecution.  They are told that they must give up their god to worship the way the emperor dictates.

They refuse.  So they are tortured.  To stop the torture, they could have just renounced their faith.  They did not.

Why?

Because their faith was important to them.  They knew they faced an eternity with God.  They knew the miserable torture was nothing compared to what God had to offer.  So, they kept their faith over earthly ways.

How would we respond to torture and persecution?  Of course, it might seem we don’t have to worry about such things but there are places in the world where even today, people are persecuted and martyred for our faith.

In the United States we do not face extreme persecution.  But we are challenged in trying to live out our faith.  Right now our bishops are challenging the President’s health care requirements that are in conflict with our faith.

Some people say it isn’t that important.  Why bother fighting?  The answer is because Jesus stood up for us on the Cross.  We must be willing to stand up for Jesus.

We come here today because we believe in the Resurrection.  What does it mean to you?  What does it motivate you to do differently?