Fr. Rick Spicer

The teenager had her driver’s license for only a few weeks. After much pleading, her father at last allowed her to borrow the brand new family car to go to the mall. She was very careful, staying under the speed limit all the way, and taking great pains to park the car in a safe place.

But on the way home, crunch! She never saw the other car. In an instant, the front bumper, left headlight, and part of the fender were reduced to a mass of crumpled metal. Oh, how she wanted to die! “Dad will have my head! I might as well as burn my driver’s license,” she thought to herself. “I’ll be grounded until I am old enough for social security.”

So she limped home in her father’s once beautiful sedan, terrified about the punishment that was in store for her. As she pulled into the driveway, her parents ran outside. From the looks on their faces, she knew this wasn’t going to be a happy homecoming. Dad ran past the damaged front end to help his daughter get out of the car.

 “Dad, I’m sorry,” she stammered, but he wouldn’t let her finish. As he hugged her, he asked, “Are you all right? Were you hurt? Was anyone else hurt?” She began to cry, a bit surprised that her father was so understanding, and also a bit ashamed that she had expected so little from him.

I imagine that has happened to many of us. Just when we expected our parents to kill us for something we had done, they reacted with understanding, compassion, and immediate forgiveness. So it is with God, who always welcomes us back without a moment’s hesitation.

Like the famed cartoon character, Ziggy, we suffer from an inferiority complex when it comes to our relationship with God. We think that we are neither good enough nor wise enough to see ourselves as being holy. We shy away from God because we cannot imagine God loving us. But that is the beauty of God. Namely, God loves us unconditionally.

That is the valued lesson we can take to heart in today’s readings. We think of Isaiah, Paul and Peter as saints yet these passages suggest that all three men suffered from inferiority complexes as well. None of them saw themselves worthy enough to be in the sight of God.

Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips.” Paul could not forget that drunk with pride and self-righteousness, he did the work of the devil instead of God, so he said, “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the church of God, I do not even deserve the name. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Then there was Peter, who after the miraculous catch of fish, pleaded with Jesus, “Leave me, Lord. I am a sinful man.”

But their pleas fell on deaf ears. God did not leave them or punish them. To the contrary, God overlooked their claims of inadequacy, unworthiness, and sinfulness. God called them to change their lives and their world.

“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” God asked. “Here I am,” they all responded, each in their own way.  Isaiah is now remembered as one of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew Testament. Paul is remembered as one of the greatest evangelists of all times. And Peter is remembered as the first leader of the Church. However sinful they judged themselves to be, God still used them.

As the saying goes, God doesn’t make junk so a person’s worthiness is not an issue for God. What matters is our willingness to respond. Understanding that, Isaiah, Paul, and Peter ventured forth to celebrate the presence of God in their lives. With grace, humility, and trust, they helped many others ever since to realize that same divine presence in their lives as well.

Do you ever dread getting out of bed in the morning? Not because you are still tired but because there are things you must do that you don’t want to do? For whatever reason, you feel inadequate or not up to doing the task in question. So you pray, “Please, Lord, get someone else. Let me be.” Then you hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

What if Isaiah, Paul and Peter had hit their “snooze buttons,” rolled over and closed their eyes to what God was asking of them? Perhaps, we wouldn’t be here today.  Like them, we all have fears or feel unqualified. We wish the unpleasant things of life would drop out of sight. But they can be the very tools or events God uses to make saints out of us. As our parents likely told us, if we expect to grow up, then we must get out of bed when the alarm goes off and face the music. We must do the things God wants done.

So what might God have in mind for you? Most likely, God doesn’t have in mind the same thing that he asked of Isaiah, Paul or Peter, but still, in God’s plan of salvation, you are important. You may be the one person God has in mind to get the Good News of his son across to a certain person in your life. Don’t kid yourself; we are all called by God to do our part in his plan of salvation.

At any stage of life and at any age, the voice of God may come to you to pose the same question asked of Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Imagine what an impact we could have on our own community if we would all honestly respond, “Here I am; send me!”
 

Years ago, Laurence Peter wrote a book about inefficiency in the business world. He entitled it, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong. He sent his manuscript to McGraw-Hill, one of the leading publishers of business books in the country. Their editor sent a rejection notice, saying, “I can foresee no commercial possibilities for such a book and consequently can offer no encouragement.”

Dr. Peter sent his manuscript to 20 other publishers and all of them likewise sent him pink slips, also expressing their belief that the market value of his book was limited. After so rejections, you’d think that Dr. Peter would give up, but he didn’t. This time he sent his manuscript to William Morrow which published the book in 1969.

 And how did his astute study on human behavior do in bookstores? Over eight million copies of The Peter Principle have been sold. Not bad for any book, much less one that was repeatedly rejected for having limited commercial value.

Dr. Peter’s experience of rejection has been repeated over and over in history. Consider Abraham Lincoln, regarded by many historians as our country’s greatest president. He was defeated seven times in his bid for elective office before winning the presidency in 1860. Or Vincent van Gogh, one of the greatest painters of the 19th century; yet in his lifetime he only earned $85. Shortly after his death, his sister-in-law sold one of his paintings for $58. In 1990, that same painting was sold at an auction in New York for $82.5 million.

Then there is Jesus, regarded even by some non-Christian historians as one of the greatest persons who ever lived. He was rejected not only by the religious leaders of his time but also, as we just heard, by the people of his own hometown.

If Lincoln, Van Gogh and Jesus had let rejection govern their lives and keep them from doing what they thought was right, our world would be a much poorer place today.

By his example, Jesus is making an important point that we mustn’t ignore. Anyone who hopes to build a better world must be prepared to be rejected. Almost anyone in this church who endeavors to live according to the values of the gospel has experienced the kind of rejection Jesus is talking about here. I have. After all, we live in a society that doesn’t want to hear what Jesus has to say.

Ask the students in high school or college what happens when they try to remain honest in an exam while others are cheating. Ask them what happens when they try to remain chaste or sober at a party while their peers choose not to. Ask anyone what happens when they speak out against discrimination while others around them are assassinating the character of ethnic minorities. In the past that would have been African Americans, nowadays that would be people from the Middle East or Latin America.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot let rejection keep us from doing what we think is right. We cannot let the fear of rejection keep us from being honest, defending the rights of the unborn and standing up for the rights of ethnic minorities. We cannot let rejection keep us from being the people of faith we claim to be or that God has called us to be.

We cannot let the fear of rejection keep us from making God’s role in our lives evident to others. Because if we do, we will leave the world a poorer place.

I do not recall what explanation The Peter Principle gives for why things go wrong but Paul puts forth his theory in his letter to the Corinthians. Without love, we are nothing more than noisy gongs. He isn’t talking about romantic love here. For him, like many ancient writers, love is the social cement that builds up friendship and the common life of society. With examples, he provides a blueprint for addressing the wrongs of our world that takes some of us a lifetime to master.

By rephrasing his letter, we can judge for ourselves how much we have mastered in life thus far. Which statements describe you? I am patient. I am kind. I am not jealous. I do not put on airs. I am not snobbish. I am not rude. I am not self-seeking. I am not hot-tempered. I do not brood over injuries. I do not refuse to forgive. I do not rejoice in what is wrong but I rejoice in the truth. There is no limit to my forbearance, my trust, my hope, and my power to endure.

How many of those statements describe you? On some counts, I am not so sure if I could always give myself a passing grade, but this much I do know. Being a Christian is a matter of responding faithfully to God’s love with a love that compels me to live the gospel of Jesus Christ; otherwise, to quote Paul again, I am nothing. My daily prayer is that I will master these lessons of love even if it takes me a lifetime and leave this place richer in the act of doing so. I hope that is your prayer as well. We mustn’t give up trying.

You might feel that these lessons may be too difficult to master but they are not impossible to learn.  As Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said, “Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”

For those who still fail to see the urgency of Paul’s lesson and Jesus’ wisdom, Dr. Peter had this to say, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to the garage makes you a car.”
 

Best known for his radio program, Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor is a superb story teller. In one series entitled, “Leaving Home,” he writes, “I can’t stay, you know. I left so long ago. I’m just a stranger with memories of the people that I knew here.” His point is this: one can go home again, but you can’t call it home any more.

That thought crossed my mind as I reflected on how Jesus must have felt in this gospel setting. He had been away from his hometown of Nazareth for awhile, out on the road making a name for himself as a rabbi. Now he was in town for a visit. Many remembered him well. He was not just any hometown boy coming home, for he had become a minor celebrity. Many were in the synagogue to hear what he had to say.

As was the custom in those days of showing courtesy to a visiting rabbi, Jesus was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He came to these famous lines, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to announce a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he then sat down, a sign that he was about to teach something profound. He then gives the shortest homily ever. “Today, this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

What caught his listeners by surprise was the word, “today,” for they had been trained to look for the future.  Yes, a messiah is coming someday, but without warning, Jesus is telling them, “Your messiah is now here.” Notice that he doesn’t promise them that things will be different in the future.  Instead, he claims the power to transform the present. He tells those who are listening that the kingdom of God is already here.  In most of his recorded lines, Jesus speaks in the present tense, not the future: here and now, God has broken into your life. Today God’s grace abounds. Today, the kingdom of God can be realized. Today, God is revealed behind every episode in your life. Not on another day, not tomorrow, but today.

Had Jesus spoken in Latin, he might have said, “Carpe diem!” In other words, “Seize the day!” This gospel passage challenges us to live and be open to the message and life of Jesus Christ here and now. Not tomorrow, not next Easter, not next year, but today. And how might we do that?

For starters, have you ever thought to go through just one day endeavoring to accept everyone you encounter, making no judgments?  In his book, Love is Letting go of Fear, Dr. Gerald Jamplosky wrote, “Everything we think or say or do reacts on us like a boomerang. When we send out judgment in the form of criticism, fury, or other attack-thoughts, they come back to us. When we send out only love, it comes back to us.”  Make this a day of acceptance and see how this scripture passage can be fulfilled in your hearing.

Secondly, look for the opportunity in the present, even if today is not quite what you had bargained for. A graduate student once complained to his friend that he was quite frustrated with his job. “I don’t do pencil-pushing.” His friend, not a bit sympathetic, shot back, “You know the world is a better place because Michelangelo didn’t say, ‘I don’t do ceilings.’” So it is.  Look through the bible. Notice that Moses didn’t say, “I don’t do rivers.” Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks.” Paul didn’t say, “I don’t do gentiles.” Jesus didn’t say, “I don’t do crosses.”

Look for the opportunity today. In things you’d rather not do and in places you’d rather not be, today’s grace awaits you.

Finally, take time to put things in perspective.  I read about a couple who were having their share of marital difficulties. Cultural tensions, financial strain, and two headstrong personalities made for a very volatile relationship. They had separated several times, but each time they decided to give their marriage another go.

One neighbor was empathizing with the wife over her problems. “Gee, marriage can be tough,” and offered bits of advice.  As they chatted, he was hit with a fresh thought and instinctively said to her, “What a love story! You two have been through hell and high water, and here you are still committed to working at your marriage. That is an inspiring example of what love is all about!”

The wife smiled and didn’t say much, but gradually their conversation shifted. Instead of focusing on the obstacles in their marriage, the wife now talked about how she and her husband were working to resolve them. Her attitude became more hope-filled. She had put things in perspective.

Years later shortly after their 25th anniversary, the wife told her neighbor that his positive words had changed her perspective on their marriage. “When Dan and I were going through that difficult period, most of our friends were anticipating our divorce. I started believing we were heading that way, too. But you were different. When you praised us for our ‘love story,’ you gave me hope. You believed in our marriage and that made all the difference.”

To sum up the gospel, make God’s grace real, living a day of acceptance without judgment, a day of opportunity without complaint, a day of perspective without fear. These three things have the potential to make our scripture reading be fulfilled in your hearing….today.
 

I imagine this was not the only wedding reception Jesus ever attended but this one is remembered because of what happened. What could have been an ordinary reception became extraordinary because those present heeded Mary’s advice and did what Jesus asked of them.

When Jesus told the waiters to fill those six huge stone jars, they could have dismissed him and told him to get lost. “Fill those jars? Rabbi, why don’t you just mingle with the guests, get out of the kitchen and let us do our job?” Instead, they recognized the special gift which Jesus had. Fill them they did and the rest is history as they witnessed the first of seven signs in Jesus’ ministry we find in John’s gospel.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes the point that there are different gifts but the same Spirit and different forms of service but the same Lord. Everyone in the community has a unique gift to offer and no gift is more or less important than the others. The Spirit which gave Jesus the power to transform water into wine gives various gifts to everyone, including all of us, to do different works that ultimately benefit the community. What was true in Corinth back then remains true today in every
faith community.

Those who have wisdom help us map out the course of our actions. Those who express knowledge well help us to learn more about our faith. Those whose faith is strong serve as ideal mentors for others asking to be baptized or confirmed. Those with the gift of healing visit the sick and comfort the grieving. Those with the gift of prophecy remind us of how the gospel is calling on us to respond to whatever situation we find ourselves in. All these gifts have been given for our common good and growth as a faith community.

With responsibilities that are so varied, the wise pastor relies on others to get certain things done for they can better handle those tasks in which he may have little aptitude. Some of those gifts I lack and others have are quite obvious such as music. Others are less noticeable but just as important to a vibrant parish offered by those who serve on the various councils in the parish, host the coffee hour after Mass, or help to keep our campus beautifully maintained.

In making the point that everyone has a unique gift to offer, I hear Paul telling the church at Corinth that everyone’s gifts can transform any ordinary community into something extraordinary. Unfortunately, we don’t always appreciate or recognize the many gifts that the Spirit has blessed us with.

More than once, I have been disappointed when someone fails to appreciate what God is truly offering us through this faith community and its sacraments. Despite my efforts to help them understand that God’s love for us is the bottom line, sometimes whatever insight I offer, based on my study of theology, liturgy or canon law may not be enough to help them deal with certain church related issues. I don’t always succeed because that person just didn’t want to hear what “Father has to say.”

Their reluctance or refusal to broaden their understanding of their faith reminds me of a Danish movie I first saw 20 years ago, Babette’s Feast, which tells the story of a marvelous chef who escaped war-torn Paris. Babette becomes a cook for two elderly sisters who live in a somber pious Danish community. The members of this community lived quite simply. When Babette wins 10,000 francs in the lottery, she decides to put on an incredibly elegant memorable feast for these sisters and their neighbors.

At the start of the meal, the guests fail to fully appreciate what was placed before them until one of them, a general in the Swedish royal court who had been to Paris, begins to rave about the food and that this was truly a feast to be enjoyed. Before long, they are savoring this magnificent meal complete with superb wines and each other’s company. At the end of the meal, after the guests leave, the sisters are stunned to learn that Babette had spent all her winnings on this meal. She had given them all that she had.

The contrast between their ordinary meals of cod and ale-bread and Babette’s feast, as different as water and wine, comes to mind as I think of how each of us relate to the Eucharist and our faith community. Both can be seen as monotony or as a festive gathering. The startling news that we can live in an intimate relationship with God scares some people. By insisting that life be quite ordinary, thank you, they fail to taste the wine of God’s love made real by his son.

The imagery of those six jars, each holding at least 20 gallons of wine, suggests that just as there was more wine than the guests at that reception in Cana could drink, the immensity of God’s love is more than we can fully realize. We give ourselves the chance to better fathom the depth of that love when we dare to share, respect, and use the gifts and talents which the Spirit has given us for the common good of our faith community and one another.

Fr. Daniel Harrington observes that the challenge for us in these readings is to become more sensitive to the many signs of God’s power and glory around us and to open our eyes and hearts to perceive them as coming from God. I would agree. When we follow Mary’s advice and heed her son, we give God the opportunity to make our lives quite extraordinary.
 

I suppose by now you have taken down the decorations, removed the tree from your living room, and tidied up your home so that there is hardly a sign of Christmas left. Walk through any shopping mall like I did the other night and you aren’t likely to find much to remind you of Christmas other than the Christmas merchandise marked down 75 percent.  Here, however, in this worship space, most of the signs of the season are still in place. Only one small detail separates today from our celebration of Christmas.

Gone are the shepherds from the nativity scene. In their place, we fine the magi. Tradition tells us these three wise men, named Caspar, Balthazaar, and Melchior followed a star across a barren desert, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the newborn king of the Jews. Aside from their gifts, we really don’t know much else about them. Matthew doesn’t tell us their names, their occupation, how many there were or even where they came from. Because he mentions three gifts, many assume there were three visitors. Centuries later names were given to these men. However, the details of this story do not really matter. What does is that God revealed his son to these travelers from the east and how they responded.

On Christmas, Jesus was revealed to the Jews. He was born to be their Messiah, their leader, their redeemer. God could have ended the story then and there but as John tells us in the opening chapter of his Gospel, “his own people did not accept him.” Fortunately for us, God intended the gift of his son to be shared with more than the children of Abraham. The secret of salvation had to be let out and with this encounter between the magi and Jesus, God revealed the gift of his son to all peoples.

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh seem like rather odd gifts to give an infant but each one has meaning behind them. In those days, one brought a gift of gold or other valuable material when visiting a king. By giving the child a gift of gold, these dignitaries were recognizing Jesus, not Herod, as the rightful king of the Jews.

But they also saw him as more than just a king. They saw him as king of kings. Knowing that he was more than just a mere king, they gave him frankincense, used often in worship in the east, then and now, as a sign of divinity. With this gift, the magi acknowledged Jesus as God.

The last gift would probably have horrified any mother, for myrrh was used in ancient times to prepare a body for burial. While honoring his birth, the magi were also foreshadowing his death.

I first learned while living in Paraguay more than 40 years ago that epiphany was the day traditionally used in many countries for giving gifts, not Christmas, for many people follow the example of the Magi. In light of this custom, as well as it being the theme of the readings, a fitting question for us to ask ourselves should be, “What gifts would we give to Jesus had we been on this pilgrimage with the magi?”

The fact shows that you came here to pray in spite of the cold and the blackout shows God has gifted you with another day of life and good health. You made your way here, blest with the gift of freedom to do so. And when you leave here, you will have a shelter and a meal waiting you somewhere.

So, in response to how generous God has been to you, what gifts would you bring to his son?

We think of gifts as something that has to be purchased and wrapped. Not necessarily. Our gratitude for what God has done for us is best shown in being generous to others, just as God has been generous to us. Sometimes the best gifts are in a sense free. President Jimmy Carter recalls a gift he gave his wife that enhanced their marriage.

Being punctual was an obsession for the President. While Rosalynn was usually on time, that wouldn’t be good enough for Jimmy. If she was even five minutes late, the delay would prompt a bitter exchange of words between them.

For her birthday one year, the president asked himself, “What could I do that would be special for her?” He wrote out this note, “Happy Birthday! As proof of my love, I will never make an unpleasant comment about tardiness.”  Managing to keep that promise since then, he realized that it turned out to be one of the nicest birthday presents he had ever given.

In his book, 42 Gifts I’d Like to Give You, Douglas Richards mentions practical ideas as well, such as the gift of good advice, the gift of being optimistic, the gift of being patient, the gift of hanging in there and holding on, the gift of spreading smiles around. We could expand the list to include other gifts such as a kind word, the gift of our time, the gift of our silence, the assurance of our prayers, the gift of listening with undivided attention, the gift of forgiveness, to name just a few. Any of them, when given to someone out of love is an example of a fitting git we give to Jesus.

Epiphany is a time for us to celebrate the gift of God made real to us and there is no better way for us to do that then to recall another line from Matthew’s gospel, “Whatever you did for the least of my brethren, you did for me.”  This way, God can become real for them as well.