2020

There are many touching scenes in this gospel episode. For starters, imagine yourself in Simeon’s sandals, standing there taking the child Jesus into your arms. As we heard, Simeon blessed God, saying what has become the night prayer derived from the gospel for many who say the Divine Office, “Lord, now let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” That is usually the last prayer I say before I hit the sack each night.

Yes, imagine Jesus being presented to you. Actually, he is presented to you whenever you partake of the Eucharist. After all, that is not bread and wine you are receiving. When you accept the host, you are acting like Simeon, taking the Lord Jesus into yourself responding, “Amen” as you do.

This sacrament, derived from Jesus sharing of himself at the Last Supper, is a sacrament of oneness. It makes us one with Christ and makes us one with one another in Christ. This enabled our Church to become the diverse community of faith that transcends countless cultures and languages.

Our catechism teaches us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit so imagine yourself as the temple in this gospel scene. Mary and Joseph have delivered their son to you in this precious sacrament. While we cannot yet see his Father, or touch his mother, nor the Holy Spirit, we can touch Jesus himself and we do whenever we partake of this sacrament in a state of grace.

We gaze upon the host held high at the consecration and know that we are not seeing bread. We know by an act of faith that we are gazing upon the swaddling clothes of God made man. We can taste the flavor of bread yet we know that what we partake is not bread but is indeed the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, whom his parents brought to the temple forty days after his birth. We taste the flavor of wine yet we know what we taste is the blood of our redeemer who died on the cross days after sharing the first Eucharist.

We hold the belief that the bread and wine are not changed into the body and blood of Christ. Rather their substance is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. If that notion seems far-fetched, just think of all that God has created out of nothing from the most remote star to the deer in your back yard. Who are we to limit what God can do?

The story in today’s gospel is one of the few episodes in the Bible in which Jesus, Mary and Joseph are seen together as a family. Mary and Joseph are following the prescribed religious ritual of presenting their child, Jesus, at the Temple and offering sacrifice to God for Mary’s purification. This ritual took place forty days after the birth of any firstborn male child back then. And in this context of family togetherness, Luke concludes the story with these words:

“When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”

May we also grow in wisdom, allowing the favor of God to be upon us. This sacrament enables us to be refined, purified and tested. We live in a culture that challenges our beliefs and values, yet when we allow ourselves to grow in wisdom, seeking to better understand our faith and deepen our relationship with Christ, we are less likely to dismiss the awesome truth of this sacramental encounter.

Do you ever waiver in your conviction that this encounter actually puts you in touch with Jesus? I suspect many do, otherwise every seat in this church would be filled at every Mass. By their example of being faithful to fulfilling the law of the Lord, Mary and Joseph challenge us to do likewise. However tempted you are to skip Mass or even abandon the faith, by virtue of our baptism, we are blessed at every Mass to receive Jesus into our lives. We are here, not to be entertained but to give ourselves to God, who gives himself to us in return in the Eucharist, becoming one with us.

The closer we are to God, the more aware we are of God’s presence in our everyday lives. That is what enabled Simeon and Anna to recognize Jesus apart from any other infant that was brought to the temple. They could see with the eyes of their minds and hearts what human eyes cannot see. That is how they knew who Jesus was. Do we want to see what our eyes cannot see? Do we want to have a greater awareness of God’s presence and love? Do we want to see the goodness and holiness in ourselves and in others? The better we know him, the more visible Jesus will be to us.

It is not enough for us to see and recognize that Jesus is in our midst. We must also be a light to reveal Jesus to the nations; whatever we say and do is an opportunity to reveal Jesus to others. We must be the presence of the risen Christ. Actively living the gospel once we leave the halls of this Church is what this sacrament empowers us to do.

Actively living the gospel by what we say and do is the mission entrusted to us at the end of every Mass. We have the opportunity to make a difference in making the kingdom of heaven real, but only if we carry out our responsibilities to others and to God, just as Mary and Joseph did.

As we heard, Jesus invited four fishermen to follow him. “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” So Peter, Andrew, James and John left everything behind and did just that. This was the beginning of our Church.

 

I am not much of a fisherman. However, I vividly recall the movie, The Old Man and the Sea, in which Spencer Tracy played the role of an aging fisherman who struggles in the hot sun to haul in the great marlin he had caught. Too big to pull on board, he lashes the fish to the side of his skiff. As he rows back to shore, the old man struggles to fend off sharks biting at his catch. By the time he reaches shore, all that is left of the marlin is its backbone. The old man beaches his boat, shoulders the mast and slowly walks to his shack, muttering, “Man can be destroyed, but not defeated.”

That scene describes the spirit of the four fishermen who left their nets behind to follow Jesus. Like the old man, they were good men, down to earth, and not easily discouraged. They were often challenged, but never defeated.

Jesus began his ministry in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali for good reason. These territories were the furthest from Jerusalem. Many Gentiles lived in the area and the influence of their irreligious ways had significantly impacted these once faithful Jews. Isaiah described them as people living in darkness because they had grown distant from God. The people of Zebulun and Naphtali allowed the values of their Gentile neighbors to have a greater influence on them than the teachings of their own faith. Is Isaiah describing us?

He very well could be. Values derived from biblical morals that shaped our culture in the past are not so prevalent in this time and place. Like the people of Zebulun and Naphtali, are we replacing the values of our faith with those of our irreligious secular society? When we abandon the values, practices, and teachings of our Catholic faith, we risk finding ourselves walking in darkness instead of building the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus began his public ministry in the most unchurched region of ancient Israel proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Keep in mind that God’s kingdom is neither an earthly realm nor a distant place. The kingdom of heaven is made present by our response to Jesus. It emerges with our willingness to follow Jesus, turning from the darkness of sin to walk in his light.

Our world has yet to realize the kingdom of heaven and we won’t until we follow Jesus’ advice and repent, that is, change our ways. His plea comes with an urgency that is overlooked by many yet Jesus presents a life or death situation that should prompt us to reassess our values.

We might think that we don’t need to repent but if any of the choices we make or values we hold dear are unchristian, then we are not building the kingdom of heaven. Doing whatever we can to get whatever we want at the expense of someone else results in sin, not a better world. When we sin, the light of Christ dims and if we grow nonchalant about our sinfulness, we risk finding ourselves in the dark.

Our catechism lists seven capital sins. Do you know them? They are pride, envy, anger, lust, sloth, avarice (greed), and gluttony. So long as we allow these inclinations to shape who we are, we hinder our ability to build the kingdom of heaven in our midst. Virtues, such as generosity, gentleness, purity of heart, poverty of spirit, temperance, and fortitude help us to resist or overcome those capital sins.

We all want a life of peace, kindness, compassion and love. That is the kingdom of heaven on earth. We wish harmony existed among all peoples and that trust and tolerance were universally evident but the headlines tell us otherwise. We yearn for a time when there will be no more war or injustice, when civil strife will be history. We long for the kingdom that Jesus promises but instead of repenting, we are tempted to do things that are contrary to the values of our faith.

Recently Pope Francis cautioned political world leaders, “To trample upon the dignity of another person is in fact to weaken one’s self worth. Truly integral human development can only flourish when all members of the human family are included in, and contribute to pursuing the common good.”

If we care about the common good and really want to bring about the kingdom of heaven, then we must follow the example of the four fishermen. Like them, we are called to be “fishers of men,” for what we do can very well be a lifesaver for someone who has drifted away from Christ.

Just as Paul once did, we live in the scandal of a fractured society, not only in the form of many denominations but even within our Church. Such division allows evil forces to rule the present time but they cannot rule our lives when we strive to live the gospel message, which is to love, teach, pray and serve.

Like moths drawn to a light, we are drawn to the light of Christ. As his followers, we are asked to do our share in resisting the evils that terrorize our world. Hopefully what we say and do proclaims to others that God is indeed active among us. When we strive to live our faith, the evil one will never defeat us in our effort to build the kingdom of heaven for the light of Christ will never leave us in the dark.

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” I venture to say that is perhaps one of the most widely spoken lines of scripture since the celebrant of every Mass speaks that line moments before distributing communion. Actually, he says “sins” while John the Baptist said “sin.” The singular word is used to describe the broken state the world finds itself in: poverty, injustice, war, hatred, dishonesty, killings, greed, sexual perversions, humanity’s resistance to God, while sins in the plural are our personal wrongdoings and misdeeds.

The expression, Lamb of God, appears only in John’s gospel. For him, lamb meant not only a young sheep, but also a boy, a servant, or a son. It functioned much the same way that the word kid does today. When John the Baptist called his cousin the “Lamb of God,” he is calling him something like “God’s kid.” Since Jesus often called God, “Abba, father,” that makes sense. In one brief statement, John the Baptist is telling anyone who would listen, that here is the one, the only one sent by God who can transform our broken world.

Keep in mind that God originally made the world in a state of grace, seeing that it was good, but through Adam and Eve, that world fell into sin. By dying on the cross, Jesus took away sin yet the results of sin still remain. Picture a broken crystal vase. It can be repaired but it will never look the same. God knew the world needed someone to take away the sin of the world if it was to survive, so he sent his “kid,” his beloved son, to share with us the good news and offer us the means, the antidote to take away the sins of the world.

Sadly, in his selfishness and self-centeredness, man has done a poor job ever since in taking care of God’s creation. Instead of glorifying God, man has used creation to satisfy his own selfish needs. Even we at times have been more concerned with our selfishness than seeing our world as a means of glorifying God. As long as we are selfish and self-centered, true love cannot exist. For true love to exist, sin must go. Sin and love cannot coexist. Jesus gives only one commandment in John’s gospel. “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” He illustrated that commandment in countless ways, serving others from healing the sick to washing his apostles’ feet.

Sadly, Jesus’ advice has fallen on deaf ears. A Catholic priest teaching a history course at Columbia University was recently stunned to discover that none of his students were even familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

He observed, “They have no knowledge, no practice, no anything. It’s not that they’re antagonistic to religion…often times it just has no meaning to them.” He noted that many of the younger generation, known as “Nones,” do not have a religious affiliation. They don’t actively question or reject God; rather they are apathetic. If they are asked, “Is religion an important part of your identity?” only slightly more than a third would say so.

When people become indifferent toward religion, it is no wonder that they downplay or deny the reality of sin. By doing that, they then downplay or deny their own need for Jesus Christ. After all, we assume that if we have no sins that need forgiving, we have no need for Jesus Christ.  Fr. Kilian McDonnell, one of my seminary professors, years ago wrote, “Many people do not recognize Christ because they do not recognize themselves as sinners. No man will celebrate the mystery of Christ in joy if he does not first recognize in sorrow that he is a sinner who needs a savior.”

Our focus, he notes, needs to be on Christ.

All of us are fragile human beings. All of us fall victim to temptations and sin at various stages of our lives. All of us stand in need in Christ’s forgiveness. All of us stand in need of Christ’s salvation.

Instead of downplaying our sinfulness or denying that we are sinners, we should admit it and seek out Jesus, “the Lamb of God,” who takes away the sin of the world. Not only that, Christ is counting on us to share that good news with others. Hopefully, today’s psalm speaks for you. “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.” Sadly, our culture demonstrates often that many don’t do God’s will. Silence is tacit acceptance of the sin in our midst. In its final line we heard, “Now you know that I will not be silent, I’ll always sing your praise.” Will you?

Like the Church in Corinth, we are called to be holy. That is the Lord’s will and the first step toward being holy is never forgetting that the Lamb of God is showing us the way to holiness by taking away our sins, leading us to salvation.

As possessors of the same Spirit, we need to speak as Jesus taught us. As they brought this message to the world around them, early Christians saw themselves as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.” This remains our mission today.

John the Baptist was an extraordinary man. Our lives can also be extraordinary if we dare to speak as he did, sharing the Good News that Jesus comes to takes away the sin of the world, offering us the antidote for addressing the ills of God’s creation. As we venture into ordinary time, may we have the courage, like John the Baptist, to reveal Christ to the world, proclaiming by what we say and do, “Look, there is the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin.”

Unlike most Sunday readings, which we hear only every three years, the beautiful message of Epiphany is repeated every year on this feast. The passage from Isaiah envisions the nations streaming toward a restored Jerusalem, bearing gifts and proclaiming God’s praises; the psalm heralds God’s choice of a king who will manifest justice and peace to all nations and is concerned about the poor. The gospel relates the wonderful story of wise men, sages, from the east who are led by a star to come and worship this newborn king. They were the first Gentiles to seek and recognize Jesus; in so doing, they foreshadow the way Gentiles would flock to Christian communities in the early Church, bearing their own gifts of time, treasure and talent.

We opened our liturgy with the beloved hymn, We Three Kings, but most likely these men were not kings, rather, they were stargazers. They had heard about the messiah of Israel and led by a star, they came looking for him on a journey that took years. However, the messiah they expected was not the messiah they encountered. The messiah they found was a toddler tucked away in a small house in Bethlehem, not a powerful warrior intent on politically liberating his people. Nonetheless, they saw this child as the king of Israel and did him homage, giving him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Since only three gifts were mentioned, we assume there were only three wise men.

The good news of these readings, indeed of this feast, is that Jesus, the king of glory, has now been revealed to all the nations, not just to the chosen people of Israel. This Jewish child named Jesus has significance for all the peoples of the world, not just Jews. As we heard moments ago, “All kings shall pay him homage, all nations shall serve him.” Alas, after 2000 years, most of humanity has yet to hear, much less appreciate the good news of our newborn king. Consequently, many have yet to bring their gifts to him.

All the readings for today’s feast underscore the welcome God extends to all peoples. The psalm sings of how every nation on earth will adore God’s anointed one. The letter to the Ephesians emphasizes that “the Gentiles are members of the same body and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” There are no second-class members in God’s community. All are equal.

While God’s will for universal salvation seems obvious to us, really embracing it, really integrating it into our hearts is as challenging as it gets. We may all believe that everyone is created in God’s image and loved and cherished by God. Still, we might check ourselves for any inclination to marginalize others. Who do we tend to dismiss or disregard? While we might easily say God loves everyone, is that really how we feel?

Paul’s insistence on equal status for the Gentiles reveals the struggles of the early Christian communities to make this a reality. While the challenge in welcoming Gentiles has long been overcome, others still face us today. What welcome is given to people of different races? Or to peoples from foreign countries or those with a different socio-economic status? Or to those of a different sexual orientation? This feast invites us to ponder the reality of prejudice in our lives. Facing our prejudices and working to dismantle them is a difficult task that is easier said than done. It takes a lifetime, but it is possible to do so with the help of the Spirit.

Every year, the week following Epiphany is designated by our conference of bishops as National Migration Week; our bishops invite us to reflect on the kind of welcome we provide to the many undocumented immigrants who live and work in our country, often doing service jobs that few others want to do and to the many refugees at our borders seeking a better and safer life for their families and an escape from the political turmoil in their native lands. Just as many Jewish Christians struggled to accept Gentiles into their community, many of us struggle to accept these “outsiders,” who like the magi bear gifts of immeasurable value for our communities.

Epiphany means the act of showing something. God used this moment to reveal his Son first to the Magi, then to the whole world. Are we likewise revealing Jesus to the world around us by what we say and do?

Today’s feast challenges us to be both seekers and guides, to be disciples who seek and find Christ, and then show others the way. The same child whose light brought such joy to the magi, now offers his mercy and love to every person. Through us, every day, Christ feeds multitudes; he heals, teaches and guides countless peoples. Through simple acts of kindness or international coordinated efforts, the world encounters through the Christian community the tangible presence of Christ in our midst.

To celebrate Epiphany is to celebrate the revelation of the star seen by the magi, the light of Christ, to the whole world. People of every race, culture and nation are called to follow that star. We are called to be one with each other in faith, hope and love, without suppressing our diversity or differences. We are called to rejoice that our church is Catholic, that is, universal; a composite of cultures and nations that despite their differences is led by the light of Christ. If we follow the magi, always seeking the Lord and his ways, then we will be wise women and wise men.