2008

What do you think of when you think of Christmas Eve? Well, I think of trees with lights, stockings above the fireplace (and when I was a kid, I hoped that there would no coal therein the morning!), nativity sets, and sitting around the tree opening presents. Of course, what is Christmas without candy canes?

Some candy stores sell candy sticks in all kinds of flavors like root beer, lemon, grape, and apple. But there is something special about candy canes. They are different from other candy sticks. When we think of candy canes, we don’t think of them as being brown, yellow, purple or green, do we? No, candy canes come in red and white.

But candy canes haven’t always been that way. Years and years ago, before pacifiers were invented, moms used to give unflavored white candy sticks to their babies to suck on. One Christmas hundreds of years ago, a choir director gave out candy sticks bent to look like shepherd staffs to children attending the Midnight Mass. I don’t think Cleveland has any plain candy sticks to hand out to us, do you, Cleveland?

About a hundred years ago, I read that a candy maker created the candy cane. This candy maker decided to use the candy cane to tell the story of Christmas; so for starters, he took a plain white stick to remind us that Jesus never did anything wrong. Unlike you and me, Jesus never sinned. And when he forgives us for our sins, Jesus makes us pure as white snow.

The candy maker thought a white stick would be too plain. It needed color. Of all the many colors he could have used, he decided to use red stripes. Now, why do you suppose he added red stripes and not blue stripes or purple stripes or brown stripes? Maybe red was his favorite color.

The candy maker decided to use red to because he wanted us to remember that Jesus died on the cross for us. The small red stripes are there to remind us of the soldiers’ stripes when they whipped Jesus. Instead of just a white stick, he now had a stick with red stripes. Something wasn’t right because a red and white stick looks like the pole you find in front of any barber shop.

Ah! I know what to do! He bent the stick to look like the letter J, for Jesus. If you turn the J upside down, then it looked like a staff, which shepherds used for watching their sheep. Jesus often called himself the good shepherd, so imagine him watching you every time you eat a candy cane! Also, if you were listening to Deacon Bob, did you notice that shepherds were the first people to visit the baby Jesus?

So, now the candy maker had a candy stick with red stripes, bent to look like the letter J, but the stick had no flavor. What flavor should he give it? Some red candies taste like cherry; others taste like chili peppers. Would you eat a candy cane that tasted like that? I wouldn’t nor would the candy maker.

He decided to make the candy stick taste like peppermint to remind us of the gift of spices that the wise men gave to Jesus so long ago, so the next time you eat a candy cane, think about the special gift of Jesus that God is giving to you tonight.

Now, speaking of presents, I imagine you will get many presents tonight or tomorrow. Do you remember what you got for Christmas last year? Do you still have it? I still have the present that I got for Christmas when I was in third grade, my train set!

Sometimes we lose certain gifts or we outgrow them or we break them, but the gift of Jesus is a gift we can have forever if we want it. Jesus isn’t a present to be put away when Christmas is over. He is a gift for us to share with others everyday. We do that when we pray, when we thank God for all the other gifts we have received, when we love other people, or when we share the things we have with others. Any time we do that, we love others just as Jesus loves us. Unlike any other gift we can find under the Christmas tree, Jesus is the gift that reminds us to never be afraid, for even on the darkest night of the year, God is with us.

Some people say that the story isn’t true. Maybe it isn’t, but the lesson itself is quite true. The candy cane is a good reminder of all that Jesus did for you and me. He grew up to show us how much we are loved. He invites us to do the same, be people of love. May every candy cane you enjoy remind you to love your family and friends as much as Jesus loves you!

Walking home on a clear night can be so breath taking, especially during the winter beneath a full moon. Astronomers tell us that the three thousand stars visible to the naked eye are only a tiny fraction of those known to exist. When you consider that each star, the closest being 25 trillion miles away, is a sun in itself, I have to wonder how God could even notice this little planet in the midst of such a vast universe, much less you or me but he does.

If we can be so awed by the immensity of the universe, how much more should be that this same God would give us life in the midst of such a vast, barren setting?

This gospel passage is set, not in the star studded heavens, but in a patch of earth tucked away in a remote and distant arid land. The God of the universe, the God who created those countless stars, showered favor on a modest maiden in the tiny village of Nazareth.

Mary had an encounter that changed the course of history. She was singled out by the creator of all things for the greatest honor ever given to any woman, to be the mother of God. The angel, Gabriel, in presenting the news, began by saying, “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you!”

Telling her that she would bear a son, Gabriel then explains that her son would have no human father. Instead, he would be the son of God. Imagine that, the creator of the universe, of its countless stars and planets, would enter this young maiden to bring about the conception of his son. He would be destined to occupy the throne of David; thus her son would be the long awaited Messiah, the liberator God promised Israel long ago.

With her consent, this virgin gave flesh to the eternal Word, the second person of the Trinity to whom every atom in the universe owes its origin and present existence. One could say that Mary out-shined the stars of the sky that night!

Her consent may appear to have been impulsively given, but I would venture to say Mary gave much thought to what was being asked of her. Because she was immaculately conceived, that is, born free of sin, Mary never wavered in her faith. Since the time she reached the age of reason, Mary likely fought temptations just as we do, but unlike us, she always succeeded in resisting them. Through self-control, discipline, and her reliance on God, she always rejected temptation and avoided sin. How did she manage that? Most likely, she made the conscious effort to include God in her decision making at every step of her life.

Mary understood well the answer to her question, “How could this be?” Telling her that nothing would be impossible for God, Gabriel portrays the father of her child as one who would always be there to empower and protect her.

Her consent, “May it be done according to your word,” was a typical way of saying in biblical times, “As you wish.” Have we ever said that to God? Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “They will be done,” but is that our personal response to God? We pray to God, asking for help and guidance, from time to time, but too often we still want to be in control of our lives. Even if we had all the resources of the world at our disposal, that is not always possible. Consider the weather. It is beyond our control as are accidents and illnesses that can crop up when we least expect them.

Do you remember John Chancellor? He served for years as an anchor for NBC News. He was looking forward to a comfortable retirement when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Before he died, he said, “Cancer is a reminder of how short a leash you’re on. As I read somewhere, ‘You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans.’”

Why would the creator of the universe step into our space and time? Because he cares. God cares about you and me, along with the homeless seeking shelter on this cold night, the patient coping with a life threatening illness, the battered spouse, the lonely teenager who feels unloved, and the alcoholic struggling to regain a sense of dignity. From the cosmic to the intimate, God is very much in touch with all creation and with our lives, rather we care to believe that or not. Are we in touch with God? Dare we follow the example of Mary and turn ourselves over to God?

Mary’s example reminds me of prayer written by a French mystic, Blessed Charles de Foucauld, that is often said by priests who belong to the fraternity of Jesus Caritas; “Father, I abandon myself into your hands. Do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all. I accept all. Let only your will be done in me and all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands, I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart; for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself; to surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence.”

We have nothing to fear by allowing God to be involved in our lives; what Gabriel said of Mary is meant for us as well. Just think, amidst the many stars of the universe, you are noticed. “The Lord is with you.” Now, isn’t that an awesome present to look forward to on Christmas Day?
 

For What Do We Wait?

We celebrate today (tonight) the Third Sunday of Advent. In Church liturgies, this Sunday is also known as Gaudete Sunday. It marks the halfway point of Advent, a time when we continue our process of waiting for the Lord through greater commitment to prayer and reconciliation for the anniversary of the coming of the Lord at Christmas. The hope we feel that our wait will soon be over is symbolized by the wearing of rose vestments.

Now you have probably heard all of this before. To those of us who have been Catholics for a long time, the idea of hopeful waiting symbolized by the rose vestments is something we sort of accept without much thought. It is also kind of a nice antidote to all that purple we wear during Advent. But (tonight) today, I would like to engage you in thought by asking a rather simple question: For what are waiting?

Many of you know I have often decried the lost season of Advent. Oh, we celebrate it alright, but our secular culture has all but buried its meaning unless we work hard in our faith life to restore it. Having Christmas parties and Christmas trees in the Advent season, taking our lives into our own hands to buy Christmas presents in Advent which we then often take back during the real Christmas season have become some of the more irritating misplaced aspects of the Advent season.

Now don’t get me wrong. Low-key symbolic giving to each other is a fine thing. But there are bigger spiritual issues that should concern us. Advent is indeed a time of preparation and waiting for Christmas but we usually don’t know for what we are waiting. Because if all we are waiting for is presents on Christmas Day, it is no surprise that Advent becomes about Christmas parties and presents and the so-called Christmas spirit begins to fade away at the beginning of Christmas.

What we are celebrating in Advent is the reality of Jesus Christ in the lives of all of us yesterday, today, and forever. And we should understand that our lives both materially and spiritually are better because of the reality of Jesus in our lives.

The yesterday is Jesus’ arrival as a human being on this earth. Jesus’ arrival is foretold by the prophet Isaiah in our first reading today. Jesus was sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God. Through Jesus, Isaiah says, the Lord God will make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, Jews were pursuing a number of means to deal with the misery of their lives. For some, accommodation with Roman authority seemed to make the most sense. This is what the Jewish religious class, the Pharisees and Sadducees did. They basically took the position that if pillage and exploitation were the name of the Roman game, better to go along to get along. Causing trouble would help no one, and keeping the peace, even without justice, was the primary requirement of their role as pastors of the people. And it was a pretty good deal for them, for they could maintain their elitist lifestyle, with its physical comforts and fancy robes and titles.

At the opposite end of the spectrum were the political revolutionaries. These were people, sometimes very religious, who nonetheless believed that God’s covenant with Israel could not be carried out as long as they were occupied by the Roman Empire. They believed that the Empire must be overthrown for God’s covenant to be fulfilled. These were the so-called zealots, which included in their ranks some of Jesus’ apostles and disciples. The most notable of these was Judas Iscariot, who became so angry at Jesus’ rejection of violent revolution that he betrayed him to the very Jewish authorities Judas supposedly hated.

A third group were those who chose self-imposed exile, living in the harshest conditions way out in the desert so as to have a personal relationship with God outside the reach of secular authority. To some degree, John the Baptist came from this tradition. Jesus had great respect for the personal piety of many of these hermits, called the Essenes. But undoubtedly what they sought was escape from, not freedom or justice for their people.

Finally, there was the great silent majority of Jewish society, those who simply lived in despair and exploitation, who gave up any real hope of bettering their lives materially or spiritually, eking out an existence in a most unjust society and taking whatever excitement they could find, moral or immoral.

Jesus’ message represented none of the above responses to deliver God’s people. This was in part why his people ultimately rejected him. Jesus’ message was better than any of the above ways of coping with suffering. It was the message that John the Baptist proclaims in the Gospel today (tonight). Jesus came to free us from the failings of our human conditions and the weakness of human solutions for dealing with them. At the same time, Jesus’ conquering of sin made it possible for us to work with Him in the building of what he called the Kingdom of God.

The term “Kingdom of God” or “reign of God” appears no fewer than 142 times in the Gospels. It transcends any political system, and therefore holds the potential to overcome the weaknesses of all of them. It applies not just to Palestine two thousand years ago, but in every place in the world today, including our own country. It has, little by little, brought at least some justice and a modicum of prosperity and spirituality to millions.

The Kingdom of God begins in our hearts. When we have set ourselves right, living as Jesus did, the Kingdom of God begins to take shape in our communities and our world. The Kingdom of God calls us to insist on equality for all. It places responsibility on all, especially the wealthy and powerful, to ensure the sharing in God’s material and spiritual gifts for the benefit of all, not just a few.

The Kingdom of God places service to God and others above the achievement of political goals of this or that “ism.” It rejects the efforts of political leaders anywhere to turn themselves into self-serving ventriloquists for what the will of God is. It involves prayer, service, sacrament, and the putting of God’s justice into practice. It demands that belief in the Kingdom of God can never be divorced from concern for the fate of all of God’s people not just in heaven but on this earth.

Finally, rather than wallowing in misery and a feeling of desperation about life, living in the Kingdom of God is the seeking of ultimate freedom by serving God and others, by recognizing and advocating personal dignity for all. The Kingdom of God stresses giving in order to receive, for all give of themselves and share in the bounty of God. The joy of being a Christian is knowing that no matter how much we suffer, we can never be separated from the love of God, the Lord of love, who came into this world, to usher in the Kingdom of God. As subjects in the Kingdom of God, we share the authority of the King of the World, for we are all kings in that kingdom.

That brothers and sisters, is what the Jews received in their waiting for when Jesus appeared on the earth. And it is what we wait for in Advent season. It is what we are supposed to be working for and enjoying the rest of the year. Not MP3 players or a big screen TV. Not crowded malls and angry shoppers.

Rather, we wait and work for the Kingdom of God by letting God change our hearts and the hearts of others. Advent celebrates the joy of serving God and others, and the more equitable sharing of the abundance God has given us. It focuses on the need to preserve not just property rights but labor rights, the expectation that to whom much is given, much is expected. The growth in a loving relationship with God rather than worship of material possessions which fade away. The serving of all by public authority not just a few. The preservation and strengthening of the quality of life at all ages. This was the message of the Incarnation (Christmas past). It is the joy and challenge of the Christmas present. Whenever in the course of the last 2000 years, substantial human progress in the quality of life has been made, the principles of the Kingdom of God were at the heart of that progress, whether people realized it or not.

As for the future, St. Paul tells us in our second reading to use all that God has given us to prepare for his second coming. We build and indeed make progress in building a new earth that is the Kingdom of God. We work with God to raise up saints that will populate a new heaven now open because of Jesus Christ’s coming at Christmas. We strive for a growth in holiness in loving God and others by the way we live, the way we strive for a more just and free society. We build Christmas present, while waiting for Christmas future. As the priest says at every Mass, we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

This is what Advent means. This should be why celebrate it. Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and forever. Let this be the rosy hope of Gaudete Sunday. Let us pray that building and enjoying the Kingdom of God is the real joy of the Advent season for all of us.
 

It’s All About Cooperation

We celebrate today the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In homilies about this solemnity, there are some common themes. We can emphasize for example, that we believe that Mary was conceived without original sin because it seems only natural and right that the woman who was to give birth to a sinless Jesus Christ should herself be sinless.

We can also emphasize that Jesus and Mary represent in the history of God’s saving plan for all human beings the new Adam and Eve. We read in our first reading from Genesis today how both Adam and Eve said no to God’s saving plan. Through their no, sin came into the world. As our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians, Jesus and Mary said yes to God’s plan to restore and extend the loving covenant to all human beings by conquering sin and death.

All of this points are valid points around which to build a homily. There certainly are true. But sometimes we miss the forest for the trees when we look at this solemnity. For what we are really celebrating is Mary’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are celebrating the beginning of the process of Mary’s incredible loving act of agreeing to be the Mother of God. Look at our Gospel from Luke. The love is so clear. Mary feels she is not worthy to be the Mother of the Son of God. She is a poor peasant girl, wondering what this all means. And yet she agrees. She puts others first. She cooperates with the Holy Spirit. And with that incredible act of love, all human beings that follow will get the chance for the intimate communion that Mary had with God.

Undoubtedly, Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and her role as the Mother of God make her exceptional, the most exceptional of all human beings. And yet, we can also overemphasize her exceptionality. When we do, we ironically marginalize Mary’s meaning for own lives. We can put Mary on a pedestal, worthy of praise, but irrelevant to the challenges for today’s people. That would be very wrong.

For in God’s eyes, we are all exceptional. We are all sons and daughters of God. And if we cooperate with the Holy Spirit much like Mary did, we too can do great things.

Many years ago, a little girl lived in a destitute slum area of Philadelphia. But her parents were devout Christians even though they were very poor. They could not even afford to pay for the costs for the little girl to go to the overcrowded Sunday school. The pastor of the church one day saw her on the steps of the church sobbing because she could not go to Sunday school. He promised her that she could go, that he would pay for the costs, and somehow they would make room. The girl was so thrilled that when the pastor announced in church about plans to expand the church and Sunday school, she wanted to help.

Sadly, a flu epidemic swept through her tenement shortly thereafter. The little girl succumbed to illness and died. The parents asked the kindhearted pastor to handle the funeral service. After the funeral, as the parents began to put aside their deceased daughter’s few possessions, they came across a worn-out old red purse. Inisde the purse was 57 cents and a note, scribbled in childish handwriting which read: “This is to help build the church bigger so more children can go to Sunday school.”

The pastor was so moved by the loving generosity of the little tenement girl that he took the note and the worn out old purse into the pulpit at Sunday service. He challenged everyone and himself to get busy and raise enough money for a larger building. Eventually, the newspapers got word of the story. A wealthy realtor offered the pastor a parcel of land for a reduced price. The pastor said they could not afford it. So the realtor sold it to the pastor for 57 cents.

From that 57 cents also came $250,000 in donations from all around the city of Philadelphia and around the country and world. I recently visited Philadelphia and you can see the church that was built; the Temple Baptist Church.You can also can go to Philadelphia and visit Temple University, where thousands of students are educated each year. You can also have a look at the Good Samaritan Hospital. There is also a fine facility for Sunday school instruction, so no one can ever be denied for reasons of space or money. In the Sunday school building I am told, is a picture of the little girl, whose act of unselfish love and cooperation with the Holy Spirit accomplished so much.

Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the remarkable act of loving generosity that Mary undertook and thereby changed the world forever, let us also be mindful of what all of us can also do when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Look at what the little girl’s 57 cents did, and how much more we might do when the Holy Spirit calls us in prayer, sacrament and Scripture to also cooperate for building up the Body of Christ. Let this be the legacy of the girl with the 57 cents,and the girl at the Immaculate Conception.
 

When they first came out, commercials featured a driver, lost in the middle of the night, pressing a button on the leather padded dashboard. A very pleasant voice broke the silence, “Welcome to on-star. How can we help you?” The voice then proceeded to give the lost driver directions to his destination. A decade ago, that scene was pure fantasy; today global positioning systems, known as GPS, have made that scene quite real, providing accurate directions to anyone who is lost.

In life we can get lost, not just literally when trying to find some place for the first time, but also on our spiritual journey. When we find ourselves at any crossroad, uncertain which way to turn, we may wish that we had a moral or spiritual GPS to help us find the right way to go. These readings remind us that we have one in the person of Jesus Christ.

Whatever our age, life is a journey on which we are always making choices that can send us in any direction, sometimes bringing us closer to God, sometimes not. Advent is a time for us to check on our whereabouts and to see how we can back on track if we are spiritually lost.

While we have tons of gadgets, like GPS, which did not exist in biblical times, the human situation hasn’t changed all that much since then. Like our ancestors, we are on an odyssey from birth to death, but what are we really looking for as we traverse through life? That is the question raised in a story entitled, The Magic Castle.

Once upon a time, a weary traveler was wandering down a dark and scary road. Suddenly there appeared before him a bright castle with a welcome sign over the entrance. Knowing that he had reached a safe place, the traveler was relieved.

Approaching the open gate, he noticed that other travelers were walking past the castle as if it wasn’t there. He asked a resident of the castle about this strange behavior and was told, “This is a magic castle. Only those who admit they have lost their way can see it. The castle can’t appear to persons who pretend to know where they are going or demand their own way. Your own self-honesty made the castle appear to you. Enter, for all its riches are yours.” The traveler found what many were missing by first admitting to himself that he was lost.

Isaiah shares his vision with a people who are lost that God can be found. He speaks of valleys, mountains, hills and deserts being transformed so that all could see the glory of God. If the rugged land shall be made a plain and the rough country, a broad valley, then the glory of God would be revealed in their midst. Likewise, if we want to see God, I hear Isaiah telling us to level our mountains of pride, hatred, prejudice, jealousy, conceit and self-sufficiency that block our view of God. In our deserts free of distractions, we will find God.

Like their ancestors, many of the Jews of Jesus’ time yearned to also witness the glory of God. They heard the call of John the Baptist, bringing alive the message of Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” And so they did, by acknowledging their sins, repenting and being baptized.

The early Christian community whom Peter addressed also yearned to witness the glory of God. They anticipated the imminent return of Jesus Christ. However, Peter cautions that God’s sense of time isn’t the same as ours, but until God arrives, Peter tells them to conduct themselves in holiness and devotion, eager to be caught in the act of doing what is right in the sight of God. Two thousand years later, Peter’s advice remains timely for us as well.

Amid the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, with all that needs to be done before Christmas, we can easily discount the message and purpose of Advent so that when Christmas comes, we won’t recognize the Jesus whose birth we await. To echo John, we too must prepare the way of the Lord and that begins with repentance, which literally means “change one’s mind.”

If we want to recognize the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst, then we may need to change how we relate to him in our lives, especially if we feel that he is not as present to us as we want him to be.

In the latest issue of The Word Among Us, one article touches on a very common experience at Christmas: families reuniting at airports, welcoming others home. Well, in this Advent season, God is inviting us home. God wants us to know a joy that never fails, even in times of trial, even when human relationships distress or disappoint. God is ready to remove any barrier, big or small, to our relationship with him and he does so by inviting us to the sacrament of reconciliation. Like the airport, the reconciliation room can be a scene of a joyful meeting. (In addition to our advent service on Wednesday, the 17th, the sacrament is celebrated on Saturdays at 4 and other times by appointment.) By the way, this article also provides a good examination of conscience to prepare ourselves beforehand.

Like a GPS system, God provides a good start for new beginnings, but its destination cannot be reached without our response. Heed the message of John the Baptist, do what you can to prepare the way of the Lord, allowing Jesus to be the GPS spiritual star that guides the way for you. Undoubtedly, others who are looking for the good news that will bring them peace and security, justice and compassion, trust and hope. Help them to discover that Jesus is indeed the way, the truth and the life, the very reason for this season.