2018

We interrupt the cycle of ordinary time this weekend with a feast that celebrates the birth of John the Baptist, one of only three births commemorated by the Church; the other two being the births of Jesus and his mother, Mary. The Church does so for good reason for John’s birth marks the dawning of a new era, God’s salvation. Even before he was born, John leaped for joy knowing that he was in the presence of Jesus, whom he would herald as the savior of Israel.

We think of John the Baptist as the last of many biblical prophets before Jesus arrived on the scene. We tend to think of prophets as people who predict the future, but the prophets, like John, whom we encounter in scripture, were sent to proclaim God’s truth often times to reluctant listeners.

As a prophet, John heralded a baptism of repentance, challenging the moral laxity of his times. The people then knew that they needed to repent: to change their hearts, to change their lives, to change their attitudes. They knew that they had fallen short of living up to God’s expectations of them. Many came from near and far to be baptized by John. But not everyone chose to repent. Recall that John ended up being imprisoned and eventually beheaded for publicly confronting King Herod for his sexual misdeeds.

Truth is not necessarily something that we want to hear either and yet if we truly want to experience the salvation that Jesus comes to offer, God’s truth cannot be ignored.

By virtue of our baptism, we are also called to be prophets. We are called to be a voice proclaiming the presence of the Lord and his truth in our midst, just as John did in his day. Do our values, conduct, and principles reflect that? Alas, we live in a world where few see little need to be saved. We live in a materialistic society that is convinced that happiness can be purchased. We live in a society that feels if an act is legal than it isn’t wrong. We live in a society where many try to find happiness through a myriad of addictions, ranging from alcohol to opioids, from marijuana to pornography, from masturbation to gambling.

God sends prophets to convince people that happiness cannot be purchased nor found in the midst of addictions. Happiness is God’s gift to those who heed his truth, which includes recognizing our need to repent. While we often ask for the Lord’s mercy, do you honestly feel the need to be forgiven for what you have done or failed to do? When was the last time you repented by going to confession?

Many people are duped into thinking that what they do isn’t sinful. They don’t realize that Satan has brainwashed us into thinking that our misdeeds aren’t sinful. At Priest Days last week, we listened to several speakers address the issue of restoring relationships. They woke us up to the inherent dangers of addictions like pornography and masturbation, which are usually ignored or downplayed.

Pornography and its cousin, masturbation, can affect the mind, like alcohol or drugs, releasing chemicals that weaken or overpower the will. These things not only destroy the addict but also damage relationships and the people in their lives. The devil uses these addictions to take control of people’s lives, fooling them into seeing them as sources of happiness when in fact they are sources of misery and pain. Before a person falls into immoral behavior, the devil says, “It’s no big deal. After all, everyone does it.” I know because I have heard that tune more than once myself and regret that I was duped into sin. When that temptation arises, your best response is to tell the devil, “Go to hell.”

Then remind yourself that by virtue of your baptism, you belong to God, who unconditionally loves you, and created you, and redeemed you at a great price, the blood of his son, Jesus. The battle to resist the devil is not yours to fight alone for God offers you assistance to do so. John the Baptist always pointed to Jesus and so should we.

As prophets, we should challenge those who dismiss God’s divine truth as being irrelevant. Immoral choices, long considered acceptable by our culture, can lead to deep problems, not just spiritually, but also emotionally and physically. Our world can be saved when it begins to accept the divine truth and let go of the many ways the devil has brainwashed us into seeking happiness elsewhere at the expense of our health, our well being, and our relationships.

Today we honor a man who was a son of the desert, a devotee of silence, solitude and serious communication with God. In our modern noise-filled environment where the tools of instant communication fill our lives with no respite, John calls us to stop, pause and devote serious time daily to silence, prayer, and communion with God.

In a culture of materialism and indulgence, John is calling us to sobriety and simplicity of lifestyle. He is telling us not to smother the longing for God in a flurry of immediate pleasures. In a time when relativism is often seen as the only truth, John calls us to be bold prophets of God’s truth. Just as he confronted Herod because of his immoral deeds, he calls us to allow our faith and God’s will to direct our decisions and attitudes, warning us against the tendency to “go along to get along” and not be duped by the evil one.

Twenty centuries later, this prophet still says to us, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

 

How many people does it take to make a difference? One. One song can spark a moment. One tree can start a forest. One bird can herald spring. One smile can bring a friendship. One star can guide a ship at sea. One vote can change a nation. One candle wipes out darkness. One step begins each journey. One touch shows that you care. One voice can speak with wisdom. One life can make a difference.

Just as the greatest trees in any forest begin as a seed, the greatest movements in history have often grown out of small beginnings and often those who began such movements did not live to see the outcome of their work. Louis Braille, for example, did not live to see his “alphabet” become widely used by the blind; Vincent Van Gogh did not live to see his art impact the beauty of our world. Susan B. Anthony died when her movement for women’s rights was still a tiny and insignificant seed. Martin Luther King died before the civil rights movement had taken root in our country. Oscar Romero died when his movement for justice in El Salvador was still a tiny seed waiting to take root.

No seed is so tiny that God cannot make a tree out of it. So if we think anything we can do is too insignificant to change people’s attitudes, then we have not understood the practical message of today’s scripture readings.

If we think that anything we can do is too insignificant to save the life of an unborn child or someone contemplating suicide, we have yet to understand the true meaning of the kingdom of God.

If we think that anything we can do is too insignificant to bring someone closer to God, then we have not understood the practical message of today’s readings.

If we think that anything we can do is too insignificant to spread God’s kingdom on earth, we have not grasped what being a disciple of Jesus is all about.

If we think that anything we can do is too insignificant to make a difference in someone’s life, we are ignoring our mission, which is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

I doubt that I would be standing here today if some people in my past, including my father, had not impressed me with their example and their conviction. Nor would I be here if I did not believe that I could do the same for others.

Paul raises the point that the lives of all of us are to be revealed before the tribunal of Christ so that each of us may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. What we do largely depends on the degree of our self-love. Unless we love ourselves, just as God does, we cannot love others. However do not confuse self-love with self-centeredness or self-esteem.

Self-centeredness is the sin of selfishness. Self-esteem is the preoccupation of feeling good about one’s self before being able to love others. Self-love, on the other hand, is regarding ourselves as being important and valued by God.

And we are important. Everyone in this gathering is important in God’s plan for making his kingdom evident. “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God?” Jesus asked. The kingdom he speaks of is not rooted in geographical or political reality, but rather in human hearts. Using the parable of the Mustard Seed, he makes the point that the kingdom of God will flourish and grow even though its beginnings seem very small and insignificant. From small acts of kindness arise the great success of the kingdom of God.
While the gospel today has nothing to do with Father’s Day, in a way there is a link. Jesus speaks of the sower as a man of great patience, who had great faith in growth. The harvest would take place if you waited long enough and believed strongly enough. Most dads, like the sower, learn to trust, not just in human efforts but also in God’s good providence. And some, like Thomas More, went on to become saints.

The kingdom of God is our endeavor to bring about the presence of God in the world around us. As the image of any plant suggests, that happens quietly, gradually, and gracefully. As Jesus observes, from the seed emerges the ripe produce in due time.

So think of something small and relevant, like yielding to a car trying to merge onto the freeway, passing a bottle of water to a panhandler on a hot summer day, making a donation to our 3 P’s program to help Good Cheer feed the hungry in our midst, welcoming a visitor or new comer and inviting them to stay for a visit, or writing that long overdue letter to a relative or friend. Your small gesture could certainly make a difference in that person’s day.

Consider the many tall cedar trees here on Whidbey Island. I was told that their seeds are smaller than the proverbial mustard seed. Yet God’s power enables those seeds to become majestic trees. Likewise, God’s power did the same for many ordinary people in the past whose ideas left a big impression on our world. God can empower us to the same, each in our own way to build his kingdom in our midst.

One poet summarized today’s message with four brief lines: Where will tomorrow’s trees come from? / From the shoots we plant today. / Where will tomorrow’s justice and peace get their start? / From the seeds we sow with our hearts.

What tree did Adam eat from? Certainly not an apple tree! God gave Adam permission to eat from any tree in the garden but one. “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” God cautioned, “for when you do, you shall die.” The serpent tricked Eve into eating from that tree, telling her, “God knows your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Indeed her eyes and Adam’s eyes were opened and they became aware of conscience, that awareness or knowledge we humans have, unlike other animals, of right and wrong; the faculty to decide on the morality of our actions, ideally with a compulsion to do what is right.

To form our conscience, we have to first learn to distinguish the good from the bad and develop sensitivity to human values, which we gain from the world around us, including family, peers, church, culture, and society. Ideally, this results in an informed conscience, which varies from person to person, depending on one’s sensitivity to certain values.

Alas, not every conscience is well informed. If I grow up in a bigoted family and a bigoted culture, it would be difficult for me to see beyond these bigotries and realize that my conscience is not fully informed. The formation of one’s conscience is a life long undertaking that can prompt us to continually reevaluate certain moral values.

A person may be convinced that his or her actions are good when in fact they are not. In a world of moral ambiguity, this will not be uncommon. Consider what happened in Germany during the 1930’s. An erroneous conscience, however, is not to be confused with a lax conscience, which exerts no effort in striving to know the truth of what is right and what is wrong. The lax conscience allows a person to become complacent. A healthy conscience that enables us to discern right and wrong is based not on hunch, opinion or cultural conditioning but on transcendent values such as love, justice, integrity, human dignity and compassion.

Now that their eyes were opened, they were filled with guilt, so Adam and Eve hid from God to escape responsibility for what they had done. Along with conscience, they became aware of shame, the emotion we experience when we have done something wrong. To this day, the devil continues to dupe us with luring temptations to sin and become ashamed for what we did or failed to do.

Feeling guilty doesn’t always mean that we have done something wrong or evil. A common example would be feeling guilty for missing Sunday Mass even though one was sick in bed. On the other hand, some people don’t feel guilty about holding certain racial or sexual views even though the values they are adhering to are morally wrong.

Despite the scribes’ ludicrous claim, Satan cannot drive out Satan. To drive out Satan, we need a well-informed conscience, which enables us to see the wisdom behind the moral teachings of our church that our culture often ignores.

The devil works overtime, persuading us to downplay the harm or the consequences of passing over certain moral values such as abortion, capital punishment, racism, consensual sex outside of marriage, and a host of other social issues. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “What’s in a name? That which we call sin by any other name would still be sin!” As we all know, sin is an offense against the will of God. Even if we put the blame on someone else like Adam did, committing a sin is still our doing.

When we sin, a healthy conscience prompts us to feel guilty and like Adam, we want to hide from God but there is no reason to do so. As we sung moments ago, “With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” God loves us unconditionally and is willing to forgive but first we have to seek God’s forgiveness. The unforgiveable sin that Jesus speaks of occurs when we refuse to seek forgiveness.

Guilt makes us mindful that we have hurt someone; this prompts us to run back to the merciful arms of our forgiving God and seek to be reconciled with God and those whom we have hurt. Guilt can also motivate us to work at not sinning. A great deal of the sinfulness of our society has to do with the fact that we do not first consider the damage and harm we do whenever we sin.

Don’t limit conscience to how you feel after committing a certain act. Consider conscience as a tool that God has given you for reflection before you act. It is the quintessence of human morality that we should do what we believe to be right and avoid what we believe to be wrong.

To have a well-informed conscience, we can and we must grow in the knowledge and understanding of the Ten Commandments, our faith traditions, doctrines, beliefs, practices, and moral principles. Even the Church knows that, changing its views in certain areas, such as slavery and capital punishment, over time.

To decide between what is good and evil is perhaps the oldest struggle in human history yet making an honest effort to do so with a well-informed conscience is to do the will of God. And whoever does the will of God is recognized by Jesus as his brother and sister.

“This is my body. This is my blood.” We hear this at every mass whether you are here at St. Hubert in Langley or you are in Nigeria. It is the same body same blood offered to us by God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

The Eucharistic feast is one that most Catholics struggle with because our words come short in explaining this gift of Jesus’s body and blood, this human yet divine gift offered to us by God. It is what we need to be in union with, to have a relationship with Jesus Christ who by God’s love for us, suffered on a wooden cross, crucified for us and died for us.

Yet we still struggle with this doctrine of our faith, this Eucharist which is the reason we are here or at least it should be the main reason we are here at mass! Jesus said, “This is my Body, This is my Blood.”

If God can become man, If Jesus can be truly God and truly man, then surely Jesus can give us Himself as a present reality in the Holy Mass. Always we are brought to this point: Do I believe that God has taken on our humanity and become one of us in the person of Jesus Christ, becoming flesh and blood?

The first reading today from Exodus speaks about blood and the pouring and sprinkling of the altar and the people. Our ancestors saw blood as a sign of life, as a way of commitment as a way of bonding.

The second reading today from the Letter to the Hebrews points out the obvious: human blood or blood of animals is only temporary. The blood of Christ, however is forever. Jesus is God and man and His sacrifice of His own life for us carries eternal and complete consequences for all of us.

The gospel today from Mark gives the account of the Last Supper and the words of Jesus; “This is my Body! This is my Blood.” And as I said at the beginning is said during every mass around the world.

So, I Have always wanted to see the upper room. I have always wanted to see the places where Jesus was present. That brings to mind a short story I read while I was discerning what to say in this homily.

An American priest named Fr. Frank Ramsberger was touring the Holy Land. He especially wanted to study the places where Jesus lived, worked, suffered, died and rose from the dead. He became good friends with a young boy Named Josef, the brown faced son of an Arab shepherd. The boy served at Fr. Frank’s masses and taught Fr. Frank some of the difficult Arabic words.

As the priest was about to leave for other parts of the Holy Land, he told Josef: “Not many boys and girls have the privilege of living in the land where Jesus lived. You know that God’s Son, as a boy and as a man, walked these roads and breathed this air. Doesn’t that help you to love him more?”

Josef gave this very thoughtful answer; “You don’t have to live here to love the Lord, because now He lives in every part of the world. Every land now is the Holy Land. Wherever we are, we are in the land of Jesus.”

Have you ever thought of this; that Langley or where you live is part of the Holy Land? Jesus lives right here, right now and He presents Himself to us here in the Eucharist, through His body and blood.

This is what we think of on this feast of His Body and Blood, formally called Corpus Christi, when we recall that Holy Thursday when Jesus first spoke the words, “This is my Body! This is my Blood.”

This right here is the Holy Land. Langley is the Holy Land. This is Bethlehem; Jesus is born right here in every Holy Mass. This is Nazareth; Jesus grows up right here in our lives. Jesus works miracles right here; spiritual miracles.

He heals us of the leprosy of sin. He heals spiritual cripples so they can walk in His ways. He gives sight to those who cannot see the things of the Spirit. Christ forgives sins right here in that confessional.

This is Cana. Jesus is present in every marriage in our church. He attended funerals in His homeland. He is right here when we bury our beloved dead. This is the temple at Jerusalem. Christ teaches right here through his priests, deacons, through his religious Ed teachers and coordinators, and through the parents of His children.

Jesus was present in the villages, churches, streets, fields, lakes and hills and in homes in the Holy Land. He is present in our homes as well and wherever we go.

However, the most important place where He lives in the present, once received at mass, is in us.

During my formation to become a deacon in 2006, we received an assignment that I feel fits this most Holy celebration. We were tasked with imagining ourselves in that upper room when Jesus appeared to his

Apostles. How would we feel, what would we realize? This is what I came up with.

“I am in the upper room. I am dressed in a burlap garment. Beads of sweat slowly cascade down my face only to meet my sandaled and dusty feet. Every step I take dust from the floor of bamboo woven reeds fog them. I am pacing, wondering what to do next. The room is dark with only gray and black images. The darkened images represent uncertainty, loneliness, fear, abandonment.

Suddenly Jesus appears! The once darkened images become bright and full of color. I see Jesus’ hands and feet, the nail holes that are the remnant of His suffering for my sins. I feel ashamed and a tear traverses down my cheek only to be caught by Him. The uncertainty is now belief, the loneliness now joy, the fear is now hope, and the abandonment is now forgiveness, mercy and love.”

Today, most of you will receive the body and blood of Jesus come down from heaven for us. Let us choose to become what we consume. When we come to receive Him, let Him hear you proclaim it by saying a resounding Amen! By some responses, one has to wonder if there might be a thought of “am I going to miss the start of the game”, or what am I going to prepare for dinner tonight, or where am I going to play today or am I going to play on my electronic games?

Don’t be complacent. What would have happened if Jesus was complacent? Think about t.

This Feast is not just a ritual on our church calendar, This Feast is an invitation to encounter the real presence of Jesus Christ not just on the altar but also in our hearts, minds and souls. Then we will have accepted this most holy gift in us, Jesus’ divine presence to give strength to offer Him to a world waiting to be born anew.

On this Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, let us ask the Lord to come and take up residence within us. Let us receive, adore, and become Eucharist for others!

Today, we honor God for who God is for without God, we simply would not be. The feast of the Trinity celebrates the mystery that this God whom we believe in has three persons, whom Jesus identifies in this Gospel passage as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since the Trinity cannot be fully understood, we use symbols, such as shamrocks and triangles, to describe this mystery of who God is. While symbols may help us to see how three can be one, they fall short of conveying the real lesson here. One sensible way to understand the Trinity would be to use human comparisons.

A classic icon painted by Andrei Rublev, a 15thcentury Russian monk, presents the Trinity as three angels sitting at a table. Here we find the three persons of the Trinity in a harmonious and interdependent relationship with one another. This image suggests that we think of the Trinity as a committee!

Perhaps such a metaphor sounds shocking yet picture these three persons sitting at the table, discussing the feasibility of creation, the time and place for redemptive intervention, and the best way to keep in touch with the human community. That could be a sensible way of imagining the ongoing relationship amongst the three persons of the Trinity.

Moses asked, “Did anything so great ever happen before?” As wonderful as God’s great deeds are, we can never forget that our God is a very personal one who, as the gospel notes, is with us always. God is not solitary and aloof like the pagan gods. Nor is God capricious or immoral like the Greek gods. No, the Trinity tells us that God is the epitome of a loving relationship. The Father is the lover, the Son is the beloved, and the Spirit is the love that unites them. Since we are made in the image of God, it is no wonder then, that we are most divine, most happy, most fulfilled, when we too are in a loving relationship.

Consciously or unconsciously, we rely on role models, such as our parents and peers, to become who we are. With the Trinity, God provides another crucial role model to show us the value and importance of relationships in our lives. God is who God is because the three persons of the Trinity are in an intimate relationship with one another.

The mystery of the Trinity communicates that God is a family so closely united that although they are three persons, they are one God. But this God does not act alone, otherwise, he would cease to exist. There is nothing Christian about the individualist who needs nobody else and is concerned about nobody else, just as there can be no family if its members don’t care about one another. In much the same way, the three persons of the Trinity cannot be separated from one another. They complement each other. The father cannot be one unless he has a son and the two, father and son, are drawn together by the Spirit.

Just as God cannot exist alone, we cannot survive alone. To be whole, we need relationships in our lives. Think of the most satisfying moments in your life. I am certain that these moments were savored with someone else. When you were held, when you were hugged, when you were affirmed, when you were loved, when you were in the silent presence of someone who cared about you. Our hearts are made for one another and for God.

Now think of the worst moments in your life. When you felt rejected, when you were abandoned, when your marriage or a close friendship ended, when you ached for a hug but none was forthcoming, or when you were betrayed. Rejection is such an intolerable hurt because we desperately need to be connected.

When I was a teenager, I never once thought that a gun would ever be found in a classmate’s locker. Now you wonder if a gun is as a common on campus as yesterday’s uneaten lunch. I wager that the common motive behind many recent school shootings has been that shooters isolate themselves from family and potential friends.

Do you get the point? If God can’t survive alone, neither can we. Every reaching out to others, every urge to embrace, every act of love gives witness to the Trinity. We imitate God most when we are in love, give love, and receive love. As St. Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.”

No wonder then that Jesus gives the command for his followers to go and baptize others in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, inviting them to feel God’s presence. Since love is the message of the Good News, love is also the model for us to use. The Trinity is an expression of who we are called to be, people of love, followers of Christ, interacting with one another, and always mindful that, like the Trinity, all creation is linked together and interdependent on one another.

This means being alert to the common good rather than the solo pursuit of private gain; cooperating with one another rather than competing, mindful as Paul tells us that we are children of God, blessed with an awesome Father whose love for all creation is unconditional and forever, redeemed by his son who opened the way for us to live forever and empowered by his advocate, the Holy Spirit, to keep his commandments as our response to God’s love.