Fr. Rick Spicer

If you were to write down in ten words or less what is the heart, the core of Jesus’ preaching, what you put down? Would you say, “Do good and avoid evil?”  What about, “Follow the ten commandments?” Or, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you?” Oops! That is eleven words, one too many since our sentence is to be ten words or less. How about, “Love one another as I have loved you?”

These are all good answers but the best answer is the one which Jesus himself gives in today’s gospel. In nine words, he summarizes the theme of his teaching when he tells us, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

What exactly is Jesus telling us to do? We hear the message so often that for some people, it sounds like a broken record yet Jesus is raising a serious issue for us to consider if we truly want the best for our world.

Jesus isn’t merely presenting a set of rules for us to follow. He isn’t suggesting that we retreat from the world nor that we live like monks. He is not requiring a specific devotional life of prayer, or sacrifices, or special practices either. Instead he is calling each person to a change of heart, to take on a new way of thinking and of living.

He is telling us to repent “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What he has to say is not original for John the Baptist delivered the same message. In fact, I even read that the words have been part of Jewish prayers for centuries, but now Jesus was delivering this message with enough urgency to prompt some men to follow him.

The arrival of the kingdom of heaven has always been a subject of much speculation. Many think that we won’t experience the kingdom of heaven until we have crossed the threshold of death, but Jesus is actually talking about the present. Scriptural scholars explain that the kingdom of heaven is not a place or program, but that situation where God has his way in our midst.

What makes Jesus stand apart from anyone else who has proclaimed that same message is the authority of his own being as the Son of God. Remember, he taught us a simple prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, in which we say, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” Jesus is challenging us to put God at the center of our lives and when we do, our world will be transformed from one of darkness to one of light.

While we are called to be a people of light, many choose to be people of darkness instead. Why, you ask, would people make such a foolish choice? Speaking from experience, we all know the pervasive pull of temptation and sin, which is why acknowledging our sins is the first step toward reforming our lives and dispelling the darkness of our world.

By virtue of our baptism, we are people of light for Christ has enlightened us.  To dispel the darkness of our world, we must base our decisions on the Light of Christ.  He comes into our lives and changes our lives in such a fundamental way that we have no choice but to bring His light to others if we are to experience the kingdom of heaven.

You might be thinking, “But I don’t know what to do.”  Sure you do.  Do that which adds light to the world, not that which is part of its darkness.  That may mean breaking a relationship which is going bad or pulls you away from God. But no matter how much any decision might cost us, we will always be happy with ourselves when our choices are determined by the Light of Christ.

No doubt you would agree that I am responsible for myself, but am I in any way responsible for anyone else? When someone is going on a wrong course, what responsibility do I have? We might have a family member or friend who is doing things destructive to himself – and who could do harm to others. We often run into people who seem to be traveling down a bad path. So what can we do to help them?

St. Francis sheds light on this question: One day a friar approached him and asked, “Brother Francis, a verse from the Bible is troubling me. Ezekiel says that if someone is sinning and I do not rebuke him that his sin will fall on my head. I will be to blame. But I see people sinning all the time. I don’t feel right going around correcting other people. St. Francis remained silent for awhile. Then he said, “Dear brother, try to live God’s will every day. If you do, you will not need to say anything. Your life will rebuke the sinner.”

His point is not to judge other people. If we are to bring about the kingdom of heaven in our midst, ask yourself, “how do I need to change – to live my life differently? Where do I need to repent?” Keep in mind, sin separates us not only from God, but also from each other. Repentance, on the other hand, brings us together.

If I give myself more completely to the Lord, I could ultimately have a positive effect on others. While I am not personally responsible for the bad decisions of others, my life – for better or worse – does affect others.

The English poet, John Donne wrote, “No man is an island,”a poem many of us learned in school. He affirms what Jesus has been saying all along. Every action of each of us affects the entire community. We can destroy the community with our sins,  sustaining a world of darkness, or we can build the community as one of light with our virtue.

Today we hear good news: the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. That promise of light pervades our worship. We are children of that light, open to all and enemies of none.

Lord Jesus, you are our refuge against fear….

Christ Jesus, you are our light and our salvation….

Lord Jesus, you call us to follow you with total abandon…

The God of light will sine upon those who find themselves in the darkness of poverty, doubt, sickness, or sin. We need only ask in prayer for God to bestow on them light, kindness, and truth 

God of light, hear these prayers spoken aloud and the prayers of our hearts. Heal the hurts of our world for which we have no words. Fill with your love the empty places in all human hearts. We ask this through Christ your son, our lord who reigns with you, one God forever and ever…

We just heard words that are repeated in every celebration of the Mass. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John calls his cousin a lamb, but why?

Lambs are often associated with sacrifice. At the first Passover, the Jews sprinkled the blood of lambs on their doorposts to be protected from the angel of death. In the temple lambs were sacrificed twice each day in atonement for the sins of Israel. We know that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for the sake of our sins.

John the Baptist may have intended another meaning beside lamb. He could be saying, “Behold the servant of God.” A scholar named Joachim Jeremias noted that the original word for “lamb” in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) was “talyã’,” which meant not only “lamb” but also “slave” or “servant.” Thus, John is telling us that Jesus has come as God’s servant to carry out the mission of taking away the sin of the world. This provides a link with our first reading.

When we look at the condition of our world today, we could wonder, “Did Jesus fail in that mission?” In the line omitted from our first reading, the servant feels that he has fallen short, but God thinks otherwise. “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” By his death on the cross, Jesus has taken away the sin of the world. He has bridged the chasm that separated humanity from the fullness of God’s love.

The words, “Here am I, Lord. I come to do your will,” which we sung moments ago, sum up Christ’s life-long openness and obedience to his Father’s will. This would take Him ultimately to Gethsemane and the cross.

The mission to take away the sin of the world that had been entrusted to Jesus has been passed onto us by virtue of our baptism. By heeding John the Baptist’s call to repentance, which we heard weeks ago during Advent, we are carrying out that mission. When we become less tolerant of sin, the world comes one step closer to being freed of sin.

This week we are mindful of the glaring sin in our society ofboth racism and abortion. Our nation tolerated the sin of racism and prejudice for decades following the civil war but it took the prophetic voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. to stem the tide. Today, one could say that his dream has been realized that his children are being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. But the dream that no fetus will be killed  will not be realized until we better know who Jesus Christ is.

Twice John the Baptist asserts, “I did not know him.” How odd, since they were cousins.  True, but they grew up miles apart and for all we know, maybe they never actually met until Jesus came to him to be baptized. Even if they had met in childhood, one could conclude that John didn’t know his cousin well and the baptism allowed him to see Jesus in a new light and thus proclaim to us, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

John had to learn the true identity of his cousin, and the true nature of his cousin’s mission. Neither was immediately evident to him. Sure, John knew from the beginning that his cousin was great, but there are many “great” people in the world. The exact nature of Jesus’ greatness was revealed to John over time, and in today’s Gospel we hear the decisive moment when it all came together for him: “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. . . . The one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”

This event radically altered his assessment of Jesus. John was open-minded to the truth and when the truth was revealed to him by God, he accepted it without question or hesitation. How open are we to better knowing who Jesus is and what he is asking of us? That is a fitting question for us to ponder here and now.

Seeing things in a new light can make a difference. A boy and his father took a telescope to a field far away from the lights of the city.  After he positioned the lens, his dad had him look down into the eye piece. What he saw filled him with awe.  He could see the rings of Saturn, the red craters of Mars, the Sea of Tranquility on the moon.  His dad pointed out Polaris, the stars of the Big Dipper, Orion and Andromeda.  That night they could also see the lights of the International Space Station. So began one boy’s love of astronomy and fascination with the reaches of outer space. He never looked at the stars the same way again.

Today John the Baptist invites us to “behold” Jesus, the lamb of God, the Word of God made flesh, in a new light.  Once we truly meet the Jesus of the Gospels, we will never see the world the same way again. After hearing his Gospel, peace, justice and forgiveness become possible in ways we hadn’t imagine before.  After seeing the world through his eyes, our perspectives and attitudes are transformed in his light. 

Keep in mind that Christ is forever in our midst, always seeking to befriend us. To behold his presence changes everything. In this New Year, may we continue to “behold” the Lamb of God, transforming our vision, our perspective,and our expectations for this life and the life to come.

Her name was Della. Her husband’s name was Jim. They were a poor couple, very much in love with each other. As Christmas nears, Della wonders what to get for Jim. For months she had been saving her money, but all she had to show for her efforts was $1.87.  She wanted to give him a chain for his pocket watch but she doesn’t have enough money to afford one. Then she gets an idea. She decides to cut off her long hair and sell it to buy the chain for Jim.

On Christmas Eve, Della excitedly returns home with a simple platinum fob chain. She begins to worry, wondering if Jim will be disappointed that she had cut her long hair, which reached below her knees, that he so much admired.

Della climbs the final flight of steps to their tiny apartment, excited yet apprehensive. Within forty minutes, her head is covered with tiny curls that make her look like a schoolboy.

“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! What could I do with a dollar and eighty seven cents?”

Della had the habit of saying silent little prayers about the simplest everyday things. As she hears Jim climb the stairs, she whispers, “Please, God, make him think I am still pretty.”

When Jim sees Della’s short hair, he is speechless. When she opens her Christmas present, her joy quickly turns to hysterical tears. There in the box is the set of beautiful tortoise shell combs for her long hair that Della had eyed for the longest time. And when she hands him his gift, he too can hardly believe his eyes. There in the palm of her hand is a beautiful platinum fob chain for the pocket watch his father had given him that he had just sold.

Della and Jim had given away what they valued most so that they could give to each other a gift for Christmas. In his best known short story, The Gift of the Magi, written in 1905, O. Henry observes, “Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two are the wisest.They are the magi.”

We associate the Magi, known also as the wise men, with the feast of Epiphany, which we celebrate today. Its name comes from the Greek word for manifestation or disclosure. In this passage, Matthew shares the moment when God reveals his son, Jesus, to the wise men from the east. By doing so, God is revealing his love to all peoples, not just the Israelites, and giving them the opportunity to accept the gift of his son, Jesus.

In return, The Magi gave Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Giving gifts is common to every culture as a part of its etiquette, economy, and expression of friendship.  On Christmas day, many of us were engaged in the ritual of exchanging gifts, especially with people close to us. In many other countries, Epiphany is the day when family and friends share gifts with one another.

What is God saying to us here? This feast provides an occasion to reflect on the art of giving gifts to one another.Gift giving is not just a gimmick, even in this season of atrocious ties and unthinkable unmentionables that we may have already exchanged. This season invites us to realize that there are far more important things in life than one’s most treasured possession. As Della and Jim demonstrate,there is something profoundly religious about the act of giving a gift to those we care about. They know that the perfect gift is one that carries one person into another.

When we realize that everything we get our hands on doesn’t belong to us, we are led to give others their due. That is justice. When we give to someone in need, that is alms. When we give out of our need, that is sacrifice. When we give regardless of need but because we are compelled to give, that is love, which brings us face to face with God.

Unfortunately, gift giving can run into ingrained attitudes that work against its potential to express love. We do not receive gifts, we tend to rate them. Every gift can be located on a continual scale from excellent to poor in taste and from expensive to cheap. The object often becomes valued or disvalued in terms of its quality and expense. Depending on how we judge the object, we then infer how the giver feels about us. When that happens, the gift is more a love substitute than a symbol of a loving relationship.

I recall talking with a non-Christian one Christmas years ago who expressed dismay over the business of exchanging gifts as we do during this season. She felt so many gifts were given for the wrong reason and maybe they are. Della and Jim made sacrifices to get gifts that reveal and strengthen the depth of their love for one another. No wonder O. Henry called them the wisest.

God has given us the ultimate gift of salvation, manifested in his Son, Jesus. In turn, what do we offer God? Some spare change? Or a gift that is honestly a sacrifice on our part? When we can really say, “I am poor, nothing do I have. Therefore, I give you my heart,” we will see for ourselves that we are not far from the true presence of God.

Today we celebrate more than the start of a new year. We also celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of God, for without her, we could not have celebrated Christmas. Sometimes, we lose sight of that reality. We see the nativity as Jesus lying on the hay. With such an image, it is hard to think of the infant as fully God and yet he is. The title, “Mother of God” says more about Jesus than it does about Mary.

Misunderstanding this title has caused tragic divisions among Christians. First of all, the title, Mother of God, doesn’t suggest that Mary existed before God did or that she is equal to God. Because of her role in salvation history, some call her co-redeemer but like us, Mary is fully human. She had two parents just as we do. Secondly, we do not worship Mary. We worship God alone. We honor Mary, who was first honored by God.

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One Christmas night, a family went to church but they left grandma at home with her youngest grandson, so she shared with him a story that I think every child of every age would like to hear that she called The Holy Night.

There was a man who went out in the dark night to borrow live coals to kindle a fire. He went from hut to hut and knocked. “Dear friends, help me!” said he. “My wife has just given birth to a child, and I must make a fire to warm her and the little one.

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