The Manger

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In today’s gospel (Tuesday between Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord), we hear of Jesus feeding the 5,000 as told in Mark 6:34-44. Jesus feeds so many with so little. It is a powerful image. The feeding of the multitude is so powerful and important, it is found in all four gospels. In John’s Gospel, it is one of the seven great signs that points to Jesus as the Son of God, God’s power is at work in Jesus.

Yet, as we hear this gospel, we are still in our Christmas season. Our Christmas season does not end until we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord this Sunday. So, why do we read the feeding of the multitude this week?

Visualize our nativity scene depicting Jesus’ birth. Where was he laid? It was not a crib meant for a baby. He was laid in a manger.

A manger is not designed for a human baby to sleep in. It is not even designed for a baby animal to sleep in. A “manger” is a food trough for animals, a place where their food is placed for them to eat.

So why is Jesus laid in a manger? Because He is the food we need for eternal life. Certainly, the feeding of the multitude in today’s gospel points to Jesus feeding us with the Bread of Life.

To fully appreciate the ways (note the plural) in which Jesus feeds us, look at the first line in today’s gospel, “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Jesus saw their need to be fed. His first response was to teach them. He first fed them with his Word and then with the bread.

This is the Mass. We are first fed with God’s Word from Scripture and then with the Bread of Life. It began with Jesus lying in the manger.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

The Epiphany of the Lord – Homily

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The Epiphany of the Lord
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13 (11)
Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6
Matthew 2:1-12
January 6, 2019

For our Masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, we heard the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke’s gospel.  Our gospel reading for the Feast of the Holy Family was the story of the “Finding in the Temple,” also from Luke’s Gospel.  Likewise, on the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, we read from Luke’s Gospel.

Today, that changes.  Today we hear part of the Christmas story as told in Matthew’s Gospel. 

Why?  Because it tells us a different part of the story of Jesus’ birth.  When we think of the Christmas story, we think of everything we know as one story.  That’s the way it happened.   It’s the way we depict in our nativity scene.

However, if you look at the gospels, you will not find all of the Christmas story in any one gospel.  In fact, if you look at the Gospels of Mark and John, you will find none of the Christmas story there.  Only Matthew and Luke tell us about the birth of Jesus.

Does that mean that Mark and John didn’t think the birth story was important?  I doubt that.  They may not have ever heard it. 

How about Luke and Matthew?  How come they don’t tell the whole story?  First, remember they won’t have been there for Jesus’ birth.  So, they had no first-hand knowledge of his birth.  Secondly, we all tell stories from our own perspective.  One classic example of this is when a number of people witness the same event but don’t tell identical stories.  It might be because something was blocking our view.  The angle of the sun might change what we see.  Have you ever had a car that when it was cloudy looked one color but on a sunny day looked a different color?

The same is true in the gospels.  Luke tells us about the shepherds at Jesus’ birth to show us that Jesus comes to save everything, including those of “lowly” status.  Matthew also wants to show that salvation is for everyone but it is the Gentiles he emphasizes with the visit of the Magi.

The Magi, often referred to as kings, were not Jewish.  They weren’t even local people.  They came from another country.  Yet, their hearts were opened such that when they saw the star, they knew it to be a sign that a new king had been born for the Jews.  They knew this to be a great event and so they travelled to give Jesus homage.

What must not be lost in the story is that it is Gentiles, non-believers, who come to give Jesus homage, while the people of Jerusalem, hence Jews, were troubled by the news that a new king had been born.  They should have been rejoicing at hearing that the Messiah had come but they didn’t.  It wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

The visit of the Magi fulfills parts of what we hear in our first and second readings today.  Isaiah writes about how people from foreign lands will come to offer praise and bearing gifts of “gold and frankincense.”  The psalm says “all kings shall pay him homage.” 

I want to turn now and focus on what it means to pay Jesus “homage.” 

There are two definitions of “homage.”  The first one listed is a person obliging his or herself to serve the “master” they are giving homage to.  The second definition is to express “high regard”.

The Magi show “high regard” in prostrating themselves before Jesus, prostrating being an act of admitting the other’s greatness.  They also show “high regard” for Jesus in the gifts they bring.

Do we give homage to God?  How might we give homage?

The Magi did by prostrating before Jesus.  We do it in church by at times bowing and other times genuflecting.  We kneel for the Eucharistic Prayer understanding the profound sacrifice of Jesus giving his life for us and the sacred action of the consecration as the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Even our standing can serve as a form of homage.  We stand for the procession at the beginning of Mass as a sign of welcoming God into our lives with a royal welcome.  We stand as we receive Communion as a sign that Jesus has lifted us up from our sins.

The Magi gave Jesus gifts.  What do we give to Jesus?  Money in the collection?  Our time and our talents?  Jesus sacrifices his life for us.  What do we sacrifice for Jesus?

Going back to the “homage” I spoke about in kneeling during the Eucharistic Prayer, I want to refer to the word “adore” in our responsorial verse.  When we come to the words of consecration, I, as the priest, hold up first the consecrated host and then the consecrated wine.  As I hold them each up, the altar server rings the bells.  This is to draw our attention to the moment when Jesus is held up high for us to “adore.”

Let me now step away from what goes on at Mass to another ritual we offer in our parish, a holy hour with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.  Jesus in the consecrated host (the Blessed Sacrament) is placed in the monstrance for us to see (Exposition).  Looking at Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we adore Jesus (hence the practice of coming to Exposition is also called Adoration). 

There are different forms of doing holy hours.  There are always prayers.  When a priest or deacon is present, there is Benediction at the end.  We include scripture readings and a reflection.  For our holy hours, the rest of the time (about 25 minutes) is quiet time for us to spend adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in whatever quiet way we want.

When I first started going to holy hours before I went to seminary, I went expecting “something incredible” to happen.  I only came to enjoy holy hours when I stopped expecting “something incredible” and just opened myself to Jesus’ presence.  I found that his simple presence was the “something incredible” I was looking for all along.

Today, when you hear the bells ring, look up at Jesus.  Offer your adoration to him and bask in his presence.

Mary, the Holy Mother of God – Homily

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Mary, the Holy Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21
January 1, 2019

As we gather here today to celebrate a holy day, it is January 1st.  In our country it is New Year’s Day.  However, the fact that we are beginning a new year on the secular calendar is not what our holy day is for. 

Our holy day today is the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God.  It just happens to fall on January 1st.   There are countries in Asia that celebrate their secular new year at a different time but all Catholics celebrate this solemnity today.

 One week ago we celebrated Christmas Day.  Our Christmas season will continue till we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.

During our Christmas season we celebrate multiple feasts and solemnities.  This past weekend we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family.  Next week we will celebrate the Epiphany.  Christmas will end with our celebration of the Baptism of the Lord the following weekend.

As part of our Christmas season, we celebrate this solemnity of Mary today to honor her for her role as mother of Jesus.  It is celebrated today, eight days following his birth, in recognition that in her role as a faithful Jewish mother, in accord with Jewish custom, she saw that Jesus was circumcised on his eighth day.

We call Mary the Mother of God.  Last year, I spoke about how there was great debate in the early church whether to call her “Mother of Christ” or “Mother of God.”  We call her “Mother of God” to recognize that Jesus was both human and divine.  In his divinity, he is consubstantial with the Father. 

Today, I would like to look at Mary as mother of the human side of Jesus.

What did Mary do as Jesus’ mother?  It started in her giving birth to Jesus.  However, this alone is not all she did as his mother.  After all, families adopt children.  In those families, mom is still very much the mother even though she did not give birth to her child.  The same can also be true for some step-mothers.

A mother is one who cares for her children.  A mother is one who is there for her children in the good times but also in their struggles.  A mother is one who loves her children. 

As Jesus’ mother, Mary saw that he was raised to follow all the Jewish customs.  She was an example of what it means to be a disciple.  Here is we also see Mary as our mother, just as she was for Jesus, she is the model disciple for what it means to be Christian.

Mary would have done whatever she could for Jesus.  When there was nothing physical she could do as at the foot of the Cross, she was present there and prayed.  As our mother, Mary intercedes for us.

Mary was also an example to Jesus, and still is for us, of what it means to be a person of prayer and reflection.  We see in it our gospel today when she listens to what the shepherds say when it says, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”

We are to be people who pray and reflect.  Here, I return to what I said at the beginning.  Today is New Year’s Day on our secular calendar.  People will make new year’s resolutions.  Some might even keep their new year’s resolutions. 

New Year’s is not a religious occasion but we can use it as time to think about what it means to be a good Christian disciple.  Ask yourself what blessings you received in 2018.  Have you given thanks to God for those blessings?

What sufferings did you face in 2018?  How was God present for you in those sufferings?  If those sufferings are going to continue into 2019, how might you seek God’s help and presence in the sufferings?  What would you like to improve in 2019?

Ask God to help you reflect on this.  For example, you could simply resolve to lose weight or you could ask God with Mary’s intercession to help you take better care of the body that he has given you.

May Mary intercede for us as our mother and God bless us all as we begin 2019.

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Year C – Homily

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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
Psalm 84:2-3, 5-6, 9-10
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24
Luke 2:41-52
December 30, 2018

Today, as part of our Christmas season that will continue for two more weeks, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

It might seem easy to think of the Holy Family as the “perfect family” without any problems.  Joseph was a “righteous man” (Matthew 1:19), Mary was conceived without sin, and Jesus, well, Jesus was the Son of God.  He must have been the perfect child, right?

Our opening prayer speaks of the “shining example of the Holy Family” and asks God to “graciously grant that we may imitate them.”  If we think of the Holy Family as perfect, it might seem impossible for us to imitate their “shining example.”

They didn’t have to deal with conflicting sports and music practices along with busy work schedules.  It would be easy to think they always did the right thing.

However, we can clearly read in the Bible that the Holy Family was not without its challenges.  You see it in the Christmas story.  Where was Jesus born?  He was born in a stable and laid in a manger, hardly what anyone would call the perfect place for a birth!

Then, after the visit of the Magi, Joseph was told by angel to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to escape the wrath of Herod who wanted to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:13-15).  Imagine having to move your family to another country for safety.  Again, hardly a perfect situation.

The next thing we hear about in the life of the Holy Family comes in today’s gospel.  Of course, Mary and Joseph raised Jesus following the customs of a good Jewish family.  That included going to Jerusalem for the Passover each year. 

They did this for several years without scripture recording anything about their pilgrimages until Jesus was twelve years old. 

What happened then?  Joseph and Mary lost Jesus!

Imagine losing the Son of God!  How are they going to explain that one to God?

Of course, they found him back in Jerusalem in his “Father’s house.”  Where else would he be?

The point is that being the Holy Family was not without its challenges.  Yes, Jesus is fully divine but he is also fully human.  He experienced humanity as we experience it.  He faced struggles as we face struggles. 

Of course, his heavenly Father was always watching over him.  God is also always watching over us for we are all children of God. 

So, when we talk about imitating the “shining example of the Holy Family,” it is not an ideal that is impossible for us to follow that we are talking about. 

What might we imitate about the Holy Family?

They listened to God’s direction.  When God told Joseph through the angel in the dream to go to Egypt, Joseph did as God directed.  Do we let God direct our lives or do we do it our way?

The Holy Family went to Jerusalem “according to festival custom.”  Today’s passage specifically refers to the Passover that would be once a year.  We might all know someone who comes to church once or twice a year at Christmas and/or Easter.  However, the Holy Family did not keep just this one custom.  They kept all the customs.  They would have kept each Sabbath holy.  For us, this means going to church every week.  We do this to praise God and give him a chance to provide direction in our lives through his Word in scripture and to strengthen us with the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

How about during the week?  The Holy Family prayed.  Do you pray?  Hannah prayed for the gift of a child.  Do you pray for your children?  (Children, do you pray for your parents?)  Do you pray for yourself to fulfill your role in your family?

When Hannah was given the child she asked for, she “presented him at the temple” not just once at a ceremony but offering him in service to God throughout his life.  Do you present your children to the Lord?  Do you present yourself to the Lord?

If your life doesn’t go the way you want, ask yourselves if the way you seek is God’s way or is it your way?  Mary said yes to God.  Joseph did as the Lord directed.  Do you?

Jesus is My Hero! – Christmas Homily

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Christmas – Mass During the Night
Isaiah 9:1-6
Psalm 96:1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13 (Luke 2:11)
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
December 25, 2018

Today we celebrate something very special.  Today we celebrate a birth.  The birth of any baby can bring joy and a warm smile to many faces.  The birth we celebrate today brings “abundant joy” and “great rejoicing.”  Think of all the traditional hymns that are so familiar to us for this celebration.  Songs like “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Joy to the World”, and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” 

Like other births, this birth brings us joy. It also brings us hope, “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”

Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for a 1,000 years to sit on the throne of David.  So, when our Christmas story says, “the time came,” it first refers to the time for Mary to give birth, but it also means so much more in God’s plan.  It is the time appointed by God for the beginning of a new age in our salvation for Jesus is not just messiah, he is our SAVIOR.

We live in the “darkness” of sin but Jesus brings us “a great light.”  Knowing the bad things that go on today, we see the world as a “land of gloom” but Jesus shines his light up the world.

We try to live “temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age” but we fall short.  We need a savior to rescue us from our sins.  Jesus is our savior who delivers us “from all lawlessness” and cleanses us of our sins.

Jesus is our savior and we celebrate his saving act on Good Friday but today it’s Christmas. 

We see our Christmas scene in a nativity scene to the side of our sanctuary.  The nativity scene is set in a stable.  So, of course, there are animals present.  Mary and Joseph are there.  The shepherds are there.  At the center of the scene is our salvation, JESUS.

It is Jesus who fills our heart with joy and hope.  His birth brings us joy.  Looking at baby Jesus lying in the manger also brings us hope because we know what comes afterwards. 

He will teach us what it means to be his disciples.  In his teaching, he brings light to understanding what God’s Commandments really mean.

He will do many miracles so that we know he is the Son of God.  He will die for our sins so that we might share in entire life. 

When we look at baby Jesus lying in the manger we are filled with “abundant joy” and we rejoice.

It’s what brings us here.  Jesus is with us every day.  We have Mass every Sunday to help us see the light in a world with darkness and gloom in it. 

We need the light of Jesus throughout the year but Christmas really brings his light to the forefront.  If you go out in public, you see many signs that it is Christmas.  You see in the stores.  You see in the village decorations. 

In reflecting on the real meaning of Christmas, I will point to two specific types of decorations.  The first is a Christmas tree.  The fact that we use evergreen trees symbolizes “everlasting life” that Jesus reveals to us in his death and Resurrection.  We might also think about the shape of the tree as an arrow pointing up to the heavenly kingdom where we hope to spend everlasting life.

The second decoration are the Christmas lights.  We put them on the trees, our homes, and around town to remind us that Jesus brings light to the darkness.

In our first reading, Isaiah prophesizes about the coming messiah as the “child is born to us, a son is given to us.”  Isaiah provides a list of names for the messiah, “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. 

As I reflected this past week on this passage, one of these names/titles began to come to the forefront for me.  It is “God-hero.”

What is a “hero”?

One might think of superheroes who have “super” powers, like Wonder Woman and Superman.  Ironman has his technology and Batman has all his bat-tools. 

Does Jesus have superpowers?

He changes bread and wine into his Body and Blood.  Can you do that?

His gives his life on the Cross so that our sins can be forgiven.  I think that is very “super.”  It is through Jesus that all who believe in him are raised to eternal life.

Yes, Jesus is super.

But, again, what is a hero?  Being a hero is not defined solely by superpowers.  The dictionary defines a “hero” as a person who is greatly admired with brave acts and fine qualities.  Jesus is this and more. 

Perhaps his finest quality is “love.”  Everything he does is based on his love for us.  Jesus came down from Heaven because of love.  He taught us to understand God’s Commandments not to get us to do stuff for him.  He did this as what is best for us.

Jesus never stops loving us. 

Now, as I think about all that God has done for me, his teaching and preaching, his Crucifixion for my sins, I try to make God first in my life.  My reflection and prayer with these readings for Christmas has led me to know that Jesus is my hero. 

Jesus, I thank you for everything you have done for me.  Thank you for being my hero.  Thank you for being my Savior.

4th Sunday of Advent, Year C – Homily

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4th Sunday of Advent, Year C
Micah 5:1-4a
Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19 (4)
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45
December 23, 2018

God loves us. 

John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

Love requires us to be free to choose how we respond to God’s love.  God gives us free will.  We can choose to love God and our neighbor, or we can choose to live life in our own way.

 Yet, in our psalm response today we sang, “Lord, make us turn to you.”  How does this match with having “free will”?  That’s simple.  We use own free will to make our own choices.  When we realize that we have not made good choices we repent.  Sometimes change for the better comes easily.  Other times, we find ourselves stuck in our patterns of sin.  We can’t seem to make the needed changes on our own.  That is when we turn to the Lord for help, asking him to “make us” turn to him. 

It is not God forcing us to change against our will.  That would deny free will.  Rather, it is “faithful surrender” on our part, realizing that God’s way is a better way.

It is not easy to resist sin.  We see repeated cycles of sin and repentance throughout the Old Testament.  We can see in our own lives. 

In the Old Testament sacrifices were offered over and over for the forgiveness of sins.  Those sacrifices were often seen as making up for the sins but how can such sacrifice really make up for sin?  What God was (and is) really looking for was the act of repentance leading to the sacrifice. 

What was needed was a perfect sacrifice, made once for all.  Only one who is perfect, can offer a perfect sacrifice.  That’s why Jesus came.  God prepared a body for his Son to offer it as the one true sacrifice.  Paul reminds us that in offering this sacrifice, Jesus came to do his Father’s Will.

Long had a messiah been promised to the Jews.  The prophet Micah prophesized that the messiah will come from Bethlehem, “too small to be among the clans of Judah.”  God chooses to work through the “small” and humble. 

We are very close to celebrating the birth of our messiah, our savior.  I already mentioned that in the first part of our psalm response today we sang, “Lord, make us turn to you.”  In the second part of the response we sang “let us see your face and we shall be saved.” 

God sent his Son Jesus, conceived in the womb of his mother Mary, the Word made flesh, God incarnate, and born just like us.  Yet, Jesus is consubstantial with his Father.  So, when we see the face of Jesus, we see the face of God.  When we see the face of Jesus, we see our Savior who gives his life on the Cross so that our sins will be forgiven.

God does this because he loves us.  He gains nothing for himself.  God is not made any better himself when we are saved.  Jesus offers the sacrifice of his life on the Cross as an act of love.

Before Jesus freely gave his life for us, he celebrated the Last Supper.  There he gave us the Eucharist, his Body and Blood.  He proclaimed it saying, “this is my body, which will be given up for you…This is my blood which will be poured out for you.”  He unites the Eucharist to his sacrifice on the Cross and tells us to do this in memory of him. 

The Eucharist is the memorial of the death and Resurrection of Jesus.  The Eucharistic Prayer we use today describes the Eucharist as “this pledge of his love…the Sacrifice of perfect reconciliation” that we offer back to God as we celebrate this Mass.

We celebrate Christmas this week.  Perhaps you were expecting me to talk more about Christmas today than I have.  Until now, I haven’t used the word Christmas in this homily.  Yet, what I have talked about is the very purpose of Christmas.  Why was Jesus born?  Jesus was born to be our Savior.  As our Savior, he shows us his love in all he has done for us.

Grant Me the Patience to Wait – Holy Hour Homily

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Homily for December 2018 Holy Hour
Genesis 8:1-14
Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Romans 8:18-27
Mark 4:26-29

It is almost Christmas but not yet.  The stores started anticipating Christmas with their displays right after Halloween.  This doesn’t make Christmas come any sooner.  We still have to wait.  We began seeing Christmas decorations at Thanksgiving time but this too doesn’t make Christmas come any sooner.

So,we wait.  Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in us.  Waiting isn’t always easy.  Christmas is one example of this.  We know Christmas will not begin until December 25th (not that some won’t open their presents sooner,some for lack of patience, others for timing of get-togethers).  So, we ask the Lord to grant us the patience to wait.

Today people demand instant results.  One hundred years ago, one might have waited weeks for a letter to go across the world.  Now, emails and text messages can communicate that same message in seconds. 

We have to wait for Christmas to come in the same way the farmers have to wait for the crop to grow.  The farmer first plows.  Then, the seed is scattered.  The fields may need to be watered and fertilized (and perhaps some trimming on fruit trees, etc.) but it is largely a matter of waiting until harvest time once the seed is planted.  Nowadays science offers some explanation for how the seed is turned into a plant and bears a crop.  Yet, while the science explains what is happening, it doesn’t change the waiting.

Creation remains a work in progress.  We are a work in progress.  While we might desire to avoid suffering, our faith tells us suffering can be part of what leads us to God.  Some people are not even patient in waiting to die.  They want to hasten death with assisted suicide.

In faith, we seek to hand it over to God to lead us on our way as we “wait with endurance.”  All that is good will happen at the time appointed by God.

Now,I want to turn to the story of Noah. Imagine yourself in Noah’s place. God comes to you and tells you to build an ark because he is going to cleanse the world through a great flood.

Noah takes God’s word at face value and trusts in God to provide.  Would you accept God’s direction to build an ark?  Would you trust God to take care of you during the flood?

It would have taken Noah some time to build the ark.  It needed to be a good ark, no leaks!  Noah had to be patient to make sure it was done right or it would sink!

Up to this point, the waiting may not have been too bad.  Then, when God tells them it is time, Noah’s family boards the ark, bringing animals in accord with God’s direction.

Then, the rain begins.

There was still waiting.  God did not flood the world in an instant.  It rained for forty days and forty nights.  The water rose over time.  First, it rose enough to lift the ark from the land upon which it had been built.  It began to cover the mountains.  It came to cover the tree tops.  The water came to cover everything.  All that Noah could see was water.

So, he waited.

He waited in the ark with his family.  The ark was full of animals.  I can’t imagine spending a few days at sea cooped up on a boat on a cruise.  How do you bear it for forty days and forty nights?

Actually, it was a lot more than forty days and forty nights.  Even after the rain stopped, it took a longtime for the waters to diminish.  In fact, it took 150 days for the water to recede enough for the ark to come to rest on land but it was still surrounded by water.  It was another three months that the tops of trees became visible.  And the waiting still wasn’t over!

Of course, eventually the waters fully receded. By my counting of the time, they were “stuck” on the ark for around a year.  How would you have fared?

They made it because they had faith.  Do you have enough faith to wait?

What are you waiting for?  What have you given up on?  Did you really give up or did you come to realize you really didn’t need it?

Do you trust God to make it happen at the proper time or do you demand it on your time?

You see waiting is really is a matter of trusting in God. 

3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C – Homily

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3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C
Zephaniah 3:14-18a
Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 (6)
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:10-18
December 16, 2018

In less than two weeks we will celebrate Christmas, a time of hope and joy.  Yet, for now we remain in our season of Advent. We use this time of Advent as a time to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

As we began Advent, our readings pointed to the Second Coming.  This can lead us to think about our sins.  Our liturgical color for Advent is violent, a color that is associated with penance. 

Yet today I am wearing rose for it is Gaudete Sunday.  We also see the color rose in the third candle of our Advent wreath. Gaudete means “rejoice.”  Even in this season of penance, we find hope in Jesus’ offering us salvation through the forgiveness of our sins.  We face temptation.  We battle against evil but “rose”is a color of warmth, reminding us of God’s love. 

Most people look forward with joy to Christmas.  Yet, there are those who are sad, perhaps celebrating Christmas for the first time after the loss of a love done.  Or, while some enjoy the preparations, some might be anxious about everything that needs to be done.  For them, I refer to Paul’s words,“have no anxiety at all.” 

Why? Because “the Lord is near,” “for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel,” “the LORD, is in your midst.” 

You see, we talk about the First Coming of Jesus at Christmas and the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the ages but sometimes we forget to think about what some early church writers called the “Third Coming.”  Jesus wants to come into our hearts every day. 

We may struggle to know that the Lord is near and in our midst.  Sometimes it is the very preparations we make for Christmas that make us too busy and anxious to be aware of the Lord.  Here are some suggestions. 

You might try praying before you shop, wrap presents, or bake to take a couple of minutes to pray that as you carry out the task, God help you to be aware of the meaning behind what you are doing, the true spirit of Christmas. 

Similarly, try coming to church five minutes early and spending it in quiet prayer in the pew.  Begin by handing all your “anxieties” over to Jesus so that you can hear him during Mass. Occasionally someone tells me they don’t get much out of Mass.  Maybe that’s because we are too distracted by earthly things.  Try five minutes of quiet.

We find some other possibilities in John the Baptist’s response to the questions in today’s gospel. The crowds ask him, “What should we do?”  John’s response is a call to share.  Instead of keeping what you have been given, share your blessings.  Is this not the point of gift-giving?  Is not the love behind the gift as important, even more important than the gift itself?  Here, we thank everyone who helped with the gifts and food for our Advent Giving Tree to help share the joy of Christmas with less fortunate families.

To the tax collectors, John said “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” If you do work for someone else, you can charge a fair price but don’t take advantage of them.  Likewise, John told the soldiers, “be satisfied with your wages.”  Everyone deserves a just wage, sufficient to provide for their family.  Are there people who take an exorbitant wage based on pride and greed rather than fair compensation?  Wages that are so high drive up the prices for those who can’t afford it.

What I am trying to get at here isn’t just a matter of money.  My point is that we open ourselves to conversion that leads us to let go of earthly things, to love our neighbor, and to be honest in our dealings with others. 

I think of the people who come to our parish looking for food.  They are looking for physical food for their next meal. God has given us our earthly bodies that need to be feed.  The need for food is real.  When our bodies are feed, we come to church looking for something more, food for our souls. 

We need hope.

Christmas brings that hope.  We find hope in the birth of Jesus.  This hope comes not simply from his birth alone but from the fact the we know that his birth leads to his public ministry of preaching, teaching, miracles, and, ultimately, his Crucifixion and Resurrection, making salvation possible.

This is the hope that we really need.  This is the hope that will draw so many more people to church at Christmas.  They come hearing of the hope of Jesus’ birth. 

So what if they are in your pew.  Won’t it be wonderful to see them come regularly?  Would that not build our hope for the future?  Then we need to give them an experience of love at Christmas. That means we need to be welcoming. Use these coming days before Christmas to invite people to come.  When they come, help them to feel loved.  That will help them believe in the hope of a caring God and that our parish is a place of God’s love.

We will all be better for it.

Advent Penance Service – Homily

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Advent Penance Service 2018
Colossians 1:12-13
Psalm 51
Luke 15:1-7
December 15, 2018

We are here today to celebrate a Sacrament.  We begin with this Penance Service as a way to pray together before we celebrate the Sacrament individually.  Some call this sacrament Confession. Others call it Penance.  I like the name Sacrament of Reconciliation for that is its purpose, to reconcile us with God.

One might ask why now.  There are two separate but overlapping reasons for this.  First, we have our children who have been preparing to celebrate this sacrament for the first time.  During the Easter Season they will receive their First Eucharist.  They will begin to prepare for that sacrament after the holidays but the first part of preparing for their First Eucharist is to seek forgiveness of their sins to worthily receive the Eucharist.  That leads to this Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The second reason applies to the children but also to all of us.  We come in this Advent season, a time of preparing for the coming of Christ.  That means reflecting on what we need to work on in our lives.  That often means recognizing our sins and confessing them.

Some might be fearful of coming here today.  By some, perhaps some of the children might be nervous doing this for the first time, but I also think about the adults who might be “fearful” about admitting their sins.

We call this prayer service a “Penance Service.”  When we celebrate this sacrament individually, we will receive a “penance’ for our sins.  Some see the “penance” as “punishment.” 

We can fear punishment.  I recently read a story of a young girl named Megan.  Dad was going to pick her up from school.  She decided she was big enough that she didn’t need to wait for him and began walking home on her own.  It began to rain and lightning.  With the storm came darkness.  Megan became cold, wet, and lost.  Then she had a car horn.  It was her father.  She was sure she would be punished for not waiting for her dad.  “Instead her father swooped her up, saying, “Here’s my little girl, I thought I lost you.  Let’s go home and dry off.”  (“Homily Helps: Dec. 16, 2018” The Priest.  Our Sunday Visitor, November 2018, page 49.)

Did she do something wrong?  Yes. 

Could she have been punished?  Yes.

However, her father was not interested in punishing her.  She had gotten lost and he was just happy to find her.

When we sin, we do something wrong.  We break a rule God has given us.  For that, we can expect to be punished. 

Another way of looking at sin is to realize that when we have sinned, we have lost our way.  We may have been trying to do what God tells us but were led astray.  We got lost. 

Our gospel reading today speaks of the shepherd who loses one sheep and goes looking for it.  Jesus is our shepherd.  When we are lost, Jesus will do anything possible to rescue us “from the power of darkness.”

  Jesus does this because he loves us.  There is an important Bible passage you can read in John 3:16.  It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

God sends us Jesus.  Knowing that we sin, Jesus gave his life on the Cross so our sins will be forgiven.  Jesus takes our punishment for us.

So, rather than be afraid of confessing our sins, we can “give thanks to the Father” for sending Jesus to do this for us.  Today is not about punishment.  Yes, we do a “penance” to show we are sorry but we can rejoice that God is waiting to forgive us.

2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B – Homily

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2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C
Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6 (3)
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6
December 9, 2018

Our gospel starts with a list of names, names that I don’t really know how to pronounce.  This is not a random list of names.  Rather, it is a list of names that help provide a cultural setting and time for when Jesus’ First Coming happened.

The names are all leaders of the secular government or the high priests.  These are people in positions of prestige and notoriety, hence using their names to provide a setting.  They were also people in positions of power.  So, one could speculate that the Lord would come through them.  Government leaders could have helped spread the word.  The high priests could have authenticated Jesus as the Messiah but it was not to them that the word of God came.

It was to a simple man, John the Baptist, that the word came to “prepare the way of the Lord.”  God doesn’t not pick the rich and the strong.  God chooses the humble.  It is through the ministry of John the Baptist that the Lord began to fulfill what He had prophesized through Isaiah, that “every lofty mountain be made low,” and “that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground.”

We live in a world where there is “misery.”  We see it in people starving in third world countries.  We also see people who lack enough food in our own community who we assist through the Community Food Closet as well as our Poor Fund.

We see it in the mass shootings.  We blame some of those on people with mental illness but what do we do to help those with mental health issues.  Catholic Charities in Wayne County is providing services that we hope lead to better lives for these people to not get to the point of shootings.

We also blame some of the mass shootings on hatred that might be based on race, ethnicity, immigrate status, or religious affiliation.  Do we make sure that we always act and speak in a way that promotes love rather than hate?  It’s not that we mean to hate some group but how might our words or actions falsely feel someone else justified in their hatred.

It might seem easy to say, “I can’t fix it,” with regards to any or all misery that we see.  We feel it’s up to someone with more influence and power than us.  We feel powerless to make a difference by ourselves.

Here I go back to what I said about all those people in the gospel.  God could have chosen any of those leaders for their power and prestige.  He didn’t.  God choose to call John the Baptist to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

Just as God worked through John the Baptist, he can work through any one or all of us.  I’ve already mentioned some ways that we can help by making sure people can have food to eat or receive the mental health services they need.

Thinking of how the “lofty mountain be made low,” how much more do you have than you need?  Have you built up a big mountain for yourself?  Having some savings can be smart but do we hoard things in a way that keeps others from having enough?

On the other end, how might we be an instrument of God so “that the age-old depths be filled to level ground?”  By this I mean is there something we can do to help those with less have what they need?  This might be in simply making sure we don’t overconsume.  It can be in advocating for the less fortunate.

So far, the ways of helping I have described could lead to only helping those with less with material help, help that is important but not enough.

We need to make sure our motivation in helping the less fortunate is not to make ourselves look good.  We shouldn’t do it just to get ourselves into Heaven.  We need to do it out of love and to help the people to know that they are loved.  This means treating them with dignity.  It means treating them with respect.  It means treating them as a child of God.

It means showing the less fortunate that they are more important to us than the stuff we have.

It also means showing our faith in the way we respond to the “mourning and misery” in our own lives.  Do we respond in a way that says that this is all there is in the world and that it dictates how we feel or do we that we know God is present with us?  To put in the words of Isaiah, “take off your robe of mourning and misery, put on the splendor of glory from God forever.”  Do we look past the things of this world to see and enjoy what God offers us?

You might say you have tried doing this without success.  We think success should come in an instant.  God should just snap his fingers and everything will be fine.  It doesn’t work that way.  It comes in God’s time.

We are a work in progress.  Becoming Christian disciples is an ongoing process.  Remember Paul’s words, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

This is my prayer for you, for each and every one of you, that you let God into your life more and more each day, that you may know his love for you and that you share his love with others.  Let the Lord truly and fully into your lives.